Macedonia
GEOGRAPHY
- Macedonia had rough terrain and a cold climate
- The people lived mostly in mountains villages instead of the city-states like Athens had
Not seeing Eye to Eye
- Most of the Macedonian nobles referred to themselves as Greeks
- Once again the Greeks thought that they Macedonians were barbaric and not as civilized as the Greeks
Changes
- After the Peloponnesian War several Greek city-states were very weak:
- Economically
- Miltarstically
When there is weakness or a struggle there is usually a predator or someone else to take advantage of th opportunity
LEADERSHIP
- Phillip ll was the king of Macedonia around 360 BC
- Only 23 when he became 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
- Invade Persia
Phillip's Tactics
- Phillip 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 the phalanx had broke through the enemy's line, he would then send in cavalry to crush the disorganized or retreating opponents
Conquest for Greece
- An Athenian orator named Demosthenes tried to warn the Greeks of the threat of Phillip and told them to prepare an army
- However, the city-states of Greece 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
New Leader
- Next on Phillip's agenda was to invade Persia
- However, he was never able to do this
- At his daughters wedding, he was stabbed in the back by one of his guards
- His son immediately proclaimed himself the king of Macedonia. His name was Alexander later known as Alexander the Great
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 is power early and when the people of Thebes rebelled, he destroyed the city and took 6,00 0 lives
- The survivors were sold into salary, only the priests were spared from becoming slaves
Invasion of Persia
- Alexander was now ready to invade Persia now that the Greece was secure
- Alexander marched with 35,000 men to attack Persia
- Persian rushed 40,000 went to meet Alexander at Anatolia
- Alexander decided to attack first and with his cavalry, very effective and defeated the Persians
- That victory alarmed the Persian king, Darius lll
- His response was the raise a huge army ranging between 50,000-75,000
- Alexander knew he was outnumbered so he called for a surprise attack with his best troops and ordered them to go straight to the Persian King
- The Persian King fled and so did his army
Questions: Alexander should have punished the people of Thebes so harshly?
I think Alexander shouldn't have punished the people of Thebes because all Alexander was trying to do was to prove to everyone of Macedonia that he was strong and that you shouldn't mess with him. I think if he was trying to prove a point like that Alexander should have done it a different way instead of killing 6,000 people and selling the rest to be slaves. He shouldn't have done anything with priests because they didn't do anything to him. I think Alexander killing people doesn't prove a point at all that he is not going to let anyone get to him. If I was the people of Macedonia I wouldn't want him as king because who knows what he could have done to them.
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