Classical Greece Section 4

Alexander the Great and His Legacy

 Preview
• Main Idea / Reading Focus
• Alexander the Great
• Map: Alexander’s Empire
• The Hellenistic World
• Hellenistic Achievements
• Visual Study Guide / Quick Facts

Classical Greece Section 4

Alexander the Great and His Legacy

Main Idea
Alexander the Great formed a huge empire, spread Greek
culture into Egypt and many parts of Asia, and paved the way for
a new civilization to develop in those areas.

Reading Focus
•How did Alexander the Great rise to power?
•What was life like in the culture called the Hellenistic world that
developed after Alexander’s death?
•What were some significant Hellenistic achievements?
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Alexander the Great

Macedonia rose to power and took control of Greece in the years that
followed the Peloponnesian War.

The Rise of Macedonia Army Reorganization

•Most Greeks considered
Macedonians backward
–Lived in villages, not cities
–Spoke form of Greek
unintelligible to other
Greeks
•359 BC, Macedonia’s fortune
changed when Philip II took
throne
•One of Philip’s first actions as
king
•Adopted phalanx system, but
gave soldiers longer spears
•Included larger bodies of
cavalry and more archers
•Set out to conquer Greece
–Faced little opposition
–Quickly crushed armies
–Conquered all but Sparta
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Alexander Becomes King

•Philip’s conquests might have continued, but he was assassinated
•Title, plans for conquests fell to son, Alexander the Great
•Alexander only 20, but had been trained to rule almost from birth
•Learned warfare and politics from father, mother, and Aristotle

Alexander’s Conquests
•Alexander faced almost immediately with revolts in Greece
•Set out to reestablish control
•Used harsh measures to show rebellion not tolerated
•Crushed Theban army and sold people into slavery, burned city
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Empire Building
Empire Campaigns
•With Greece under control, •Within year Alexander’s army
Alexander decided to build had won victory against
empire Persians in Asia Minor
• •
•334 BC, led army into Asia to •Moved south to Phoenicia,
take on Persians Egypt; welcomed as liberator,
• named new pharaoh
•Army relatively small, but well •
trained, fiercely loyal •Next destroyed Persian army
• near Gaugamela, in what is
•Persian army huge, now Iraq; caused Emperor
disorganized Darius III to flee
•
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Expanding the Empire

With defeat of Darius, Alexander the master of

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Persian world
• Troops marched to Persepolis, a Persian capital,
burned it to ground as sign of victory
• But Alexander not satisfied with size of empire
– Led army deeper into Asia, winning more victories
– Led army to the Indus, perhaps to conquer India
– Soldiers had had enough, refused to proceed farther from
home
– Alexander forced to turn back to west
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End of the Empire

Death at Early Age Power Struggle
•Alexander’s empire largest •Generals fought each other for
world had ever seen power
• •
•Did not rule very long •In the end, the empire was
• divided among three most
•323 BC, Alexander fell ill while in powerful generals
Babylon •
• •Called themselves kings
•Died a few days later at age 33 –Antigonus became king
• of Macedonia and
•Alexander died without naming Greece
heir –Seleucus ruled Persian
Empire
–Ptolemy ruled Egypt
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Summarize

How and when did Alexander die?

Why did Alexander’s empire break apart

after his death?
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The Hellenistic World

By bringing together a number of diverse peoples in his empire,
Alexander helped create a new type of culture. It was no longer purely
Greek, or Hellenic, but Hellenistic, or Greeklike.
Blending Cultures New Cities Most Famous City
•Alexander made •Appointed officials •Alexandria, Egypt
conscious effort to from various
bring people, ideas cultures to help rule •Located at mouth of
together Nile, where it met
•Built dozens of new Mediterranean
•Married two Persian cities, encouraged
princesses Greek settlers to •Ideal location for
move into them trade
•Encouraged soldiers
to marry Persians as •Most new cities •Harbor once busiest
well named Alexandria in world
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Alexandria and Beyond

Center of Culture
•With trade money, Alexandrians built great palaces, streets lined with monuments;
city was home to centers of culture, learning
•The Museum, temple to spirit of creativity, home to many works of art

Center of Learning
•Library of Alexandria contained works on philosophy, literature, history, sciences
•Alexandria remained center of culture, learning long after Hellenistic period

Trading Centers
•Alexandria one of largest trading centers, but not only one in Hellenistic world
•Cities in Egypt, Persia, Central Asia trading centers for Africa, Arabia, India
•Traders brought back goods, new ideas like teachings of Judaism
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Life in the Hellenistic World

Drastic Changes Life for Women
•Shift from Hellenic Greece to •Lives of women also changed
Hellenistic world brought drastic significantly in Hellenistic
changes to lives Period
• •
•Most obvious change, how •Women had few rights in earlier
people were governed Greek city-states
• •
•City-state no longer main •Lives began to improve after
political unit, replaced by Alexander, though women still
kingdom not equal to men
• •
•Traditional Greek democracy •Gained rights to receive
gave way to monarchy education, own property
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Explain

How did society change in the Hellenistic

age?
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Hellenistic Achievements
•Blending of cultures brought significant changes
•Exchange of ideas from different cultures
•New advances in philosophy, literature and science

Philosophy
•New schools of philosophy
developed in Alexander’s empire
•One called Cynicism; students
rejected pleasure, wealth, social
responsibility
•People live according to nature
Epicureans
•People should seek pleasure,
considered good; try to avoid pain,
considered evil
•To find pleasure, develop close
friendships with people who share
similar ideas

The most influential new school was Stoicism, with emphasis on reason, self-
discipline, emotional control and personal morality. Stoics believed people
should find their proper role in society and fulfill it.
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Art and Literature

 Art and literature also changed during Hellenistic

Period
• Hellenistic artists learned to convey emotion,
movement in works, especially sculpture
• Women became much more common as subject of art,
literature
– Most earlier Greek statues had depicted men
– Love stories became popular form for first time
– Earlier literature dealt with actions of gods
– Hellenistic writings focused on common events in people’s
everyday lives
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Science and Technology

•Tremendous advances in science, technology during this period
•Among great Egyptian scholars, Euclid formulated many ideas about
geometry we still learn about today
•Egypt also home of Eratosthenes, who calculated size of the world
•Other Hellenistic scientists studied the movement of the stars; the
makeup and inner workings of the human body

Inventors
•Archimedes, one of world’s greatest
inventors, used knowledge of math,
physics to create devices
•Developed compound pulley to lift
heavy loads; also invented
mechanical screw to draw water out
of ship’s hold, out of deep well
Mechanics
•Other inventors not as ambitious as
Archimedes, but clever in own right
•One built tiny steam engine, used to
power mechanical toys
•Such devices representative of
Hellenistic fascination with
mechanics, technology
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Analyze

What advances did Hellenistic scholars

make in science and technology?

Answer(s): geometry; calculating the

circumference of the globe; study of the
movement of the stars; study of the human body;
new inventions
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