Sept. 18: RISE OF MACEDONIA

I. PELOPONNESIAN WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH

Causes of the War:

It was pretty much certain that Athens and Sparta would eventually come in conflict

Rival leagues of allies (Peloponnesian League vs. Delian League)

Rival systems of government - and each showing inclination to encourages other city-states to adopt their own form

In 431, actual war began and would last for 25 years (until 404)

Sparta would win it..

Reasons for Athenian defeat:

Spartan superiority on land

Bad political advise from demogogues

led to refusal to take generous terms offered by Spartans

Disastrous Sicilian compaign - 40,000 Athenians died

-Aftermath of war: Impact on philosophy

Defeat made Athenians question every value they ever had

- Short-term reaction: scape-goating intellectuals for angering gods and corrupting the youth

Socrates victim of this post-war paranoia

469-399 BC:

was philosopher, a type of sophist

Socratic method (leading questions): making men question traditional values

399 - 4 years after war ended - was when he was prosecuted under charges of impiety and misleading youth; convicted by jury; sentenced to death (when wouldn't propose exile)

- Long-term impact: disillusionment with democracy

Main Greek philosophers of period after Peloponnesian War - Plato and Aristotle - both extremely antidemocratic

Central part of both of their political philosophies was that only tiny minority of population was capable of wisdom; the rest were the "mindless masses" who needed to be governed by others

Plato

Athenian aristocrat and disciple of Socrates

Good government will not exist until philosophers rule

Plato's ideal state: three classes: guardians (representing reason) who govern; auxiliaries who fight; majority who live to satisfy mateiral yearnings (and do the work)

Women will belong to each of three classes.

Top class (guardians) won't have wives - temporary couplings rotated based on mathematical calculations.

Children will be raised collectively in common nurseries; no parent will know hiw or her own child

Plato's late works toyed with idea that rule by one wise individual might be better than rule by laws

Aristotle: (from Ionian city in n. Greece)

Pupil of Plato.

His father had been a physician (of court at Macedon), and he himself would have connection with Macedon through his life (tutor of Alexander the Great)

A. founded discipline of Logic, as well as composing the fundamental works on political philosophy and science.

Valued observation more than Plato did - more focused on real observable world than ideal world

Like Plato, had contempt for ability of the ordinary citizen to govern.

He did admit that people should have power to choose officials and hold them to accountable, but only the wise could become officials themselves (which was Athenian system)

Women had no role in his political schemes (unlike Plato):

Other intellectual even more pro-monarchy

Xenophon, Cyropaedia (The education of Cyrsu) set up Cyrus as wise monarcch ruing by law ; egalitarian Persia

Isocrates: Greeks should unit under one monarch and conquer Pesia

Stage set for Greek monarchy:

Classical Greeks had invented democracy, history, scientific thinking, drama, - but they were able to find away to stop fighting one another.

After Pel. War, wars between Greek city-states continued -for another 50 years.

And many Greeks - ordinary people as well as philosophers - became disgusted with their government..

Philosophers like Plato expressed dissatisfaction with democracy - wish to have philosopher kings

Orators talked about need for Greeks unite against a foreign enemy - the Persians - as they had in glory days of Persian War

Stage set for rise of new power in Greece - which would unite the Greeks, would take over the Persian empire, and spread Greek culture to much of the world.

This power was Macedonia - under its kings Philip II and Alexander

II. Alexander and the Hellenistic Age

Fourth-century context:

Classical Greeks had invented democracy, history, scientific thinking, drama, - but they were able to find away to stop fighting one another.

After Pel. War, wars between Greek city-states continued -for another 50 years.

And many Greeks - ordinary people as well as philosophers - became disgusted with their government..

Philosophers like Plato expressed dissatisfaction with democracy - wish to have philosopher kings

Orators talked about need for Greeks unite against a foreign enemy - the Persians - as they had in glory days of Persian War

Stage set for rise of new power in Greece - which would unite the Greeks, would take over the Persian empire, and spread Greek culture to much of the world.

This power was Macedonia - under its kings Philip II and Alexander.

A. Macedonian Conquest of Greece

- What was Macedonia?

MAP

Mountainous region to north of Greece

Rich in timber and metals - and its kings controlled this wealth

Macedonians were related to the Greeks - but they hadn't adopted city-state form of government.

In fact their nobility still lived like Homeric heroes in lots of ways.

devoted to hunting and war and didn't care much about learning

drank wine unmixed with water

polygamous, instead of monogamous (Alexander's father - Philip- had several wives)

As we'll see frequently in this course - groups like this - rough living and war-obsessed - often end up conquering their more civilized neighbors.

And this is what happened to the Greeks of the south in the 4^th century under the Macedonian king Philip II.

- Philip II, king of Macedon, Alexander's father

king 359-336 BC (by usurpation)

He was the one who first united the Greek city-states - by force.

Able to do so because his military reforms

Philip adapted the hoplite infantry warfare of the Greeks

Added new weapons:

IMAGE OF PIKES IN BATTLE OF ISSUS

his hoplites carried smaller shields, short swords, and most importantly - pikes - as much as 18 feet long - which allowed soldiers to strike enemy - esp. horses - before becoming close up , and made use of back rows of phalanx.

With his new model army, Philip conquered or bullied into alliance most of mainland Greece

By 338 (the battle of Chaeronea) the Greek city-states were no longer independent.

- he had succeeded

Philip's plan was to next move against against Persia -

But in 336 he was assassinated, perhaps with the conspiracy of Alexander's mother, Olympias.

His 20 year old son became king in his place - Alexander (336)

B. ALEXANDER'S CONQUEST OF THE WORLD (336-323 BC)

-Early life of Alexander

Alexander was only 20 when his father died.

He had a complex personality.

His relations with his father Philip had been bad - Alexander had feared that Philip was going to disinherit him.

nevertheless, he owed to Philip his skill as a general

Alexander was very close to his mother, Olympias.

she had taught him some strange religious ideas

She had told him that his real father was a god - which had impregnated her in the form of a serpent

Like other Greeks, he seems to have formed romantic attachments with men -

his best friend Hephaistion was very likely his lover.

Unlike most Macedonians, Alexander was well educated.

The Greek philosopher - Aristotle - had been his teacher.

When he set out to conquer the world, he kept scholars with him - historians to record the campaign, philosophers to learn from non-Greeks wise men, engineers to help him besiege cities.

First act: destruction of Thebes

Above all, ruthless to those who opposed him.

When the Greek city-states rebelled against him early on, he wiped the ringleader - the city Thebes - off the face of the earth

response: he completely destroyed the city which had led the revolt - Thebes

He killed the men, and sold the women/children into slavery

This was the sort of man Alexander was

After this, the Greeks didn't rebel any more.

Conquest of Persia (334-331)

After regaining Greece, Alexander led the invasion of the Persian empire

Alexander had an army of around 37,000 men- about half of them Macedonian, the rest Greeks

This was first time Greek army had invaded Persia with goal of conquering it.

He first took over Asia Minor - (Granicus 334)

In this battle, he led his cavalry up a river bank - against a much larger Persian army who were drawn up on the hillside above.

By all tactical theories of the time, this was stupid thing to do.

But his horseman held ranks - much like a line of hoplite footsoldiers - and drove the Persians back.

In this and other battles, Alexander won because of his ability to inspire his men - fighting in the front ranks like one of them and taking risks.

After this battle of Granicus, he executed the thousands of Greek mercenaries who had fought on the Persian side

(Greek mercenaries didn't fight against him much after this)

In 333 BC, he defeated the Persian king = Darius ( Battle of Issus )

(BATTLE OF ISSUS)

Alexander was grossly outnumbered at this battle - but won because of innovative flanking maneuver

King Darius fled and let Alexander capture his wives and daughters.

Alexander was nice to them, wanting the Persians to regard him as their liberator, not their conqueror

After Issus, Alexander took control of the Persian empire piece by piece

-Syria and Palestine

-Egypt: Alexander learns he is son of a god

Alexander organized Egypt employing Egyptian governors, while keepingthe army under a separate Macedonian command.

He founded the city of Alexandria near the Mediterranean, protected by the island of Pharos.

From Alexandria he marched along the coast to the famous oracle of Amon at Siwa.

There the Egyptian priests told him that he was the son of their god (Amon) - which confirmed the stories his mother had told him.

-Heartland of Persia itself - Mesopotamia and Iran

By 331, Alexander conquered the Persian capital - Persepolis, and had declared himself king of Asia in place of Persian king

Alexander and his troops were amazed by the wealth and luxury of the Persian court - nothing like that among the Greeks.

- Afghanistan and India

Alexander wasn't content with just Persia; he wanted to conquer the entire known world

Afghanistan (Bactria) 327

There he fell in love with the chief's daughter, Roxane.

They were married - she'd later give birth to Alexander's only surviving son.

(unusual for Greek to marry a barbarian)

After marrying Roxane, Alexander invaded India and conquered much territory there.

Following one bloody battle (which his forces won) his men refused to go any further.

Reluctantly Alexander agreed to turn back.

He returned by way of the Gedrosian desert (in Pakistan/Iran) - some of the most God forsaken land in the world.

He lost more than half of his army to thirst, and skirmishes.

Consolidation of empire and death

When back in Persia, Alexander began to consolidate is conquests - in a very non-Greek way.

We see the beginnings of the fusion of Greek and Near Easter customs:

He made his subjects worship him as a god - even the Greeks.

He forced his Macedonian troops to marry Persian women - his goal of uniting the two races

He used Persian and Egyptian officials

Then in 324, Alexander's beloved friend Hephaestion died.

Alexander was heartbroken.

The following summer (323) Alexander too became ill, and he died in Babylon.

He was 32.

Left behind a pregnant wife and a number of ambitious Macedonian generals.

C. Successor kings: Hellenistic monarchies

In 20 years after A's death, these generals would fight for Alexander's empire.

In the end, none of them were able to get all of it

The empire ended up splitting into 3 big pieces.

(MAP)

Macedonia and Greece - Antigonids

Seleucid kingdom: Old Persian empire ( Mesopotamia, Iran, southern Asia Minor, Syria) Ptolemaic Egypt - Ptolemies

These Hellenistic kingdoms will dominate western history for several centuries

300 BC - to 150 BC (longer in case of Egypt)

The royal families remained Greek or Macedonian in language and ancestory - they didn't marry conquered peoples (unlike Alexander)

The highest officials and generals were Greeks/Macedonians -

Ordinary subjects were a mixture of Greek-speakers, and Egyptians, Syrians, Jews, Assyrians, so on - cosmopolitan world

the fusion of Greek and Near Eastern civilization that took place under the Hellenistic monarchs.

Feb. 13 (101H): The Hellenistic era and the beginnings of Rome

I. Hellenistic monarchies