The Threat of Macedonia and Alexander the Great

1
The Threat of Macedonia and Alexander the Great
2

• The Greeks viewed their northern neighbors, the
  Macedonians, as barbarians because they were
  rural people who did not live in city-states.
• By the end of the 5th century B.C., Macedonia was
  a powerful kingdom.

3

• In 359 B.C., Philip II became king of Macedonia.
• He admired the Greek culture and wanted to unite
  all of Greece under Macedonian rule.
• The Macedonian army crushed an army of Greek
  city-states at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338
  B.C.
• He insisted the Greek city-states form a league
  under his control and help him conquer Persia.
• This did not happen because he was assassinated.

4
(No Transcript)
5
(No Transcript)
6

• Alexander the Great became king at age 20.
• He had been educated by the Greek philosopher
  Aristotle.
• He considered non-Greeks the equal of Greeks and
  envisioned a world in which mixed cultures would
  live together.
• He married 2 Persian princesses and encouraged
  his generals to marry Persian princesses.

7

• His father had taught him military tactics and
  leadership.
• Alexander moved quickly to fulfill his fathers
  dream of conquering Persia.
• He wanted glory, empire, and revenge for the
  Persians burning Athens in 480B.C.
• He entered Asia Minor in 334 B.C. with an army of
  37,000 Macedonians and Greeks.

8
(No Transcript)
9

• By 331 B.C. he had conquered the Persian Empire
  and established the city of Alexandria in Egypt.
• He was not content. In 326 B.C., he crossed the
  Indus River and entered India. His soldiers
  refused to continue and went home.
• Alexander died in 323 B.C.
• His military success was due to his courage and a
  mastery of military tactics. He inspired his men
  to follow him.

10
The Hellenistic Kingdom

• Alexander created a new age, called the
  Hellenistic Era.
• The word Hellenistic means to imitate Greeks.
• This era saw the expansion of the Greek language
  and ideas to the non-Greek world of Southwest
  Asia and beyond.

11
(No Transcript)
12

• After Alexanders death, his empire fell apart as
  Macedonian generals fought for power.
• There were 4 Hellenistic kingdoms Macedonia,
  Syria, Pergamum in western Asia Minor, and Egypt.
  
• All were eventually conquered by Rome.
• Unlike Alexander, these Hellenistic monarchs
  included only Greeks and Macedonians in their
  ruling class.they did not want to share the
  political and social privileges with the Persians.

13
(No Transcript)
14
Hellenistic Culture

• The Hellenistic Era saw considerable cultural
  achievements, especially in science and
  philosophy.
• The most important cultural center was
  Alexandria, home to scholars of all
  kindsphilosophers, scientists, and writers.
• Alexandrias library was the largest of its kind,
  with over 500,000 scrolls.

15
Mathematics and Astronomy

• Aristarchus developed the theory that the sun is
  the center of the universe and the earth rotates
  around it.
• Eratosthenes determined that earth is round and
  nearly calculated the correct circumference of
  the earth.
• Euclid wrote a textbook on plane geometry, the
  Elements, that was used up to modern times.
• Archimedes established the value of pi and did
  important work in the geometry of spheres and
  cylinders.

16
Athens remained a center for philosophy.

• It became the center of 2 new schools of thought,
  Epicureanism and Stoicism.
• Epicurus believed that human beings were free to
  follow their self-interest. Happiness was the
  goal of life, and happiness was achieved by
  pursuing pleasure, the only true good.
• Pleasure was not satisfying physical appetites
  but rather the freedom from anxiety that comes
  from a mind at rest.
• Achieving this peace meant removing oneself from
  public life, but not social life.
• Life could only be fulfilled when centered on
  virtuous friendship.

17
Stoicism

• Founded by a teacher named Zeno.
• Emphasized achieving happiness.
• Happiness was gained by living in harmony with
  the will of God.
• Then lifes problems could not disturb a person
• Stoics also regarded public service as noble and
  did not remove themselves from public life.