We continued talking about Macedonia.
What is your overall opinion of Alexandr the Great? Was he really special or just a barbaric person who allowed greed to get the best of him?
I think that Alexander the Great was a barbaric person. He always wanted more and he couldn't be satisfied with what he already had. He killed a lot of people and didn't respect anyone. He didn't agree with King Darius III because Alexander wanted him dead. Alexander wanted more land all the time and he didn't care what we had to do to get it. I think that Alexander did let greed get the best of him.
Macedonia-
- Geography-
- North of Athens.
- Had a rough terrain and a cold climate.
- People lived mostly in mountain villages instead of the city-states like Athens had.
- Most of the Macedonians nobles referred to themselves as Greeks.
- Once again the Geek thought that the Macedonians were barbaric and not as civilized as the Greeks.
- Greeks treated Spartans like this.
- Changes-
- After Peloponnesian War several Greek city-states were very weak- economically and militaristically.
- When there is weakness or a struggle there is usually a predator or someone else to take advantage of the opportunity. In this case it was Macedonia.
- Peloponnesian War- Delian League vs. Sparta.
- Leadership-
- Philip II was the king of Macedonia around 306 B.C.
- 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 B.C.
- Invade Persia.
- Philip’s tactics-
- Organized his army into phalanxes of 16 men across the 16 men deep.
- All 256 men had to work together for this formation to work correctly.
- After the phalanx had broken 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 Greek of the threat of Phillip and told them to prepare and army.
- However, the city-states of Greece couldn’t come up with united response.
- Finally Athens and Thebes decided to standup to Phillip but it was too late.
- Greek independence was lost to King Phillip of Macedonia.
- New leader-
- Next Phillip wanted to invade Persia.
- However, he was never able to do this.
- At his daughter’s wedding he was stabbed to death by one of his former guardsmen.
- His son immediately proclaimed himself the King of Macedonia.
- His name was Alexander later known as Alexander the Great.
- Alexander the Great-
- Taught by Aristotle.
- Spread Hellenistic.
- Very intellectual kept a copy of the Iliad under his pillow to remind him of the heroic Achilles in the Trojan War.
- Alex wanted to show his power early and when the people of Thebes rebelled he destroyed their city and took 6,000 lives.
- Invasion of Persia-
- Alex was now ready to invade Persia now that Greece was secure.
- Alex marched with 35,000 men to attack Persia.
- Persian rushed 40,000 men to meet Alex at Anatolia.
- Alex decided to attack first and with his cavalry very effective and defeated the Persians.
- That victory alarmed the Persian King, Darius III.
- His response was to raise a huge army ranging between 50,000-75,000 men.
- Alex 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.
- Peace?-
- After 2 major battles lost, Darius III was ready to give up, so land in hopes that Alex would stop his conquest.
- The Macedonian advisors to Alex told him to take the offer but Alex refused.
- Alex’s goal was to conquer all of the Persian Empire.
- Alex in Egypt-
- Alex was welcomed into Egypt as a liberator even though Egypt was a Persian territory.
- Was crowned a pharaoh.
- Alex named a city, Alexandria after himself, very common for him to do.
- Continuing the Conquest-
- Alex still wanted to kill King Darius III of Persia so he pursued him.
- This pursuit made him a great conquer but bad at governing the land he conquered.
- He eventually found King Darius III dead; one of his own men had killed him.
- Many thought that once Darius was dead Alex might stop the conquest, they were wrong.
- He invaded certain areas of India and successfully defeated them there as well.
- Only problem Alex struggled with was the low morale of his army.
- Low Morale-
- Alex’s troop had been fighting for a very long time and traveled very far.
- Fought for 11 years.
- Marched 11,000 miles.
- In bad conditions- deserts and even monsoon rains.
- Very disappointed, Alex agreed to return home.
- Governor-
- When Alex had reached Babylon, he announced that he wanted to unite his empire by building new cities, roads, and harbors, and conquer Arabia.
- He became seriously ill with a fever and died at age 32.
- Legacy-
- Married a Persian princess.
He even wore a Persian dress and presided over a mass marriage of 80 of his men to Persian women.- Very interesting cultural impact- spreading Hellenistic culture.
- At the time of his death, Alex had conquered a vast amount of land.
- Generals fought over who got the power of the empire.
- Eventually these 3 generals of Alex got control of his conquered land.
- Antigonus became 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 didn’t take the democratic approach with him the rulers had all the power not people.
Comments