Macedonia:
- Geography- rough terrain and a cold climate, people lived mostly in mountain villages instead of city-states like in Athens.
- Most of Macedonian nobles referred to themselves as Greeks
- Greeks though the Macedonians were barbaric and not as civilized as the Greeks
- What other civilization did the Greeks treat this way? Spartans
- Changes- After the Peloponnesian War several Greek city states were very weak: economically and militaristically
- Leadership- Phillip IIwas the king of Macedonia around 360 BC
- Only 23 would become king
- Brilliant general
- Was able to train peasants into warriors
- His dream was to take over Greece and avenge the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC
- Phillip II organized his army into phalanxes of 16 men across by 16 men deep, all 256 men had to work together for this formation to work correctly, after phalanx had broken the enemy’s line, he would then send in cavalry to crush the retreating or disorganized opponents.
- Demosthenes tried to warn the Greeks of the threat of Phillip and told them to prepare an army, however they couldn’t come up with united response. Finally Athens and Thebes decide to standup to Phillip but it was too late
- Greek independence was lost to King Phillip of Macedonia.
- Phillip wanted to invade Persia although he was never able to do this
- Phillip’s son, Alexander the Great immediately proclaimed himself the king of Macedonia after his father was stabbed at his daughter’s wedding.
- Alexander the Great was taught by Aristotle.
- Spread Hellenistic culture
- Very intellectual, kept a copy of the Iliad under his pillow to remind him of the heroic of Achilles in the Trojan War
- Alexander wanted to show his power early, and when the people of Thebes rebelled, he destroyed their city and took 6,000 lives.
- The survivors were sold into slavery
Invasion of Persia:
- Alexander was now ready to invade Persia now that Greece was secure
- Marched with 35,000 men to attack
- Persian rushed 40,000 men to meet Alexander at Anatolia
- Alexander attacked first and with his cavalry, effectively defeated Persians.
- Victory alarmed Persian King, Darius III. (Changed his name)
- Response was raise huge army between 50-75,000
- Alexander knew he was outnumbered to called surprise attack and ordered them to go straight to Persian king
- Persian king and army fled
Peace:
- After 2 major battles lost, Darius III was ready to give up his land in hopes that Alexander would stop conquest
- Macedonian advisers to Alexander told him to take offer, but he refused
- Alexander's goal was to conquer all of Persian empire
Alexander in Egypt
- He was welcomed into Egypt as a liberator even though Egypt was a Persian territory
- Was crowned pharaoh
- Alexander named a city, Alexandria after himself, very common for him to do.
Continuing the Conquest
- Alexander still wanted to kill King Darius III of Persia so he pursued him
- This pursuit made him a great conquerer but bad at governing the land he conquered
- He eventually found King Darius, dead, one of his own men had killed him.
- Many thought that once Darius was dead, Alexander might stop, they were wrong
- He invaded certain areas of India and successful defeat them there as well
- Only problem Alexander struggled with was the low morale of his army
Low morale
- Alexander’s troops had been fighting for a very long time and traveled very far:
- Had fought for 11 years
- Had marched 11,000 miles
- In bad conditions, deserts and even monsoon rains
- Very disappointed and agreed to return
Governor
- When Alexander had reached Babylon, he announces that he wants to unite his empire by building new cities, roads, and harbors and conquer Arabia
- He became seriously ill with a fever and died at the age of 32
Legacy:
- Married a Persian Princess
Wore Persian dress and presided over a mass marriage of 80 of his men to Persian women
- Spread Hellenistic culture
- Alexander had conquered a vast amount of land at the time of his death
Generals:
- Eventually these three generals of Alexander got control of his conquered land
- Antigonus became the king of Macedonia and took control of the Greek city states
- Ptolemy seized Egypt, took the title of Pharaoh, and began a dynasty
- Seleucid got control over the old Persian Empire. He didn’t take the democratic approach with him, the rulers had all the power not the people.
I think that Alexander the Great was simply a barbaric person who let greed get in his way. He didn't care about how many people he killed or who he conquered, as long as he got where he wanted to go. Naming 15-20 city states after himself shows how pompous and self absorbed he was. In my opinion, he didn't do much good. The things he did were for himself and himself only.
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