MACEDONIA
- Geography
- Macedonia had rough terrain and a cold climate
- The people lived mostly in mountain villages instead of the city-states like in Athens.
- Macedonia had rough terrain and a cold climate
- Macedonians thought they were considered Greeks
- Once again the Greek though that the Macedonians were barbaric and not civilized as the Greeks like the Spartans
- After the 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.
- PHILIP II was the king of Macedonia round 360 BC
- Only 23 would 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
- Invading Persia was another dream
- Phillip organized his army into phalanxes of 16x16 men
- 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 ore retreating opponents
- 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
- Next on Phillipp's agenda was to invade Persia
- However, he was never able to do this.
- At his daughter's wedding, he was stabbed in stabbed to death by one of his former guardsman
- His son immediately Proclaimed himself the king of Macedonia
- 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 Thebes rebelled, he destroyed their city ad took 6000 lives
- The survivors were sold into slavery, only the priests were spared from becoming slaves
- Alexander was now ready to invade Persia now that Greece was secure
- Alexander marched with 35,000 men to attack Persia
- Persian rushed 40,000 men 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 III
- His response was to raise a huge army ranging between 50,00-75,000 men
- 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
- After two major battles lost, Darius III was ready to give up so land in hopes that Alexander would stop his conquest.
- The Macedonian advisors to Alexander told him to take the offer, but Alexander refused
- Alexander's goal was to conquer all of the Persian Empire
Alexander in Egypt
- Alexander was welcomed into Egypt as a liberator even though Egypt was a Persian territory
- Was even crowned a pharaoh
- Alexander named a city, Alexandria after himself which was 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 conquered but bad at governing the land he conquered
- He eventually found Kind Darius, dead, on of his own men had killed him
Are we there yet?
- Many thought that once Darius was dead Alexander might stop the conquest, they were wrong
- he invaded certain areas of India and successfully defeated them there as well
- Only problem was that Alexander struggled with what was the low morale of his army
- Alexander's troops had been fighting for a very long time and traveled very far
- 11 years of fighting
- marched 11,000 miles
- In all sorts of weather conditions
- Alexander's troops had been fighting for a very long time and traveled very far
- Very disappointed Alexander returned home
Govenor
- 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 illl with a fever and died at the age of 32
Legacy
- Married a Persian Princess
- He even wore 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, Alexander had conquered a vast amount of land
- Generals fought over who got the power of the empire
- Antigonus became the King of Macedonia and took control of the Greek city-states
- Ptolemy seized Egypt, too 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
What is your overall opinion of Alexander the Great? Was he really that special or just a barbaric person who allowed greed to get the best of him?
I feel that Alexander was special and barbaric. He accomplished something that no one else had ever done, total conquest which makes him special in my opinion. However, going out murdering people, and taking control of land that he didn't necessarily need to take from the Persians, or Indians is a little barbaric. Like most of us, whether we accept it or not, would have been taken over by greed. So, I guess my opinion is that he is a special person with a very greedy personality.
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