Kingdom of Macedonia was north of Greece

This was a deserved reputation for a long time Plagued by periodic barbarian invasions from the Balkans and by frequent civil wars, Macedonia remained a minor kingdom too troubled by its own problems to be a major source of concern for the Greeks Greek city-states considered Macedonia to be outside the Greek world and inhabited by a bunch of barbarians Not worthy of serious consideration unless their help was needed in a war Kingdom of Macedonia was north of Greece

PHILIP II • Situation changed in 359 BC • When Philip II became king • Educated in Thebes , familiar with Greek military techniques, and a very skillful politician • Genius at sizing up a situation and figuring out how to exploit it for his own advantage • Recognized that the Greek city-states would be easy pickings for anyone bold enough to attack them

MACEDONIAN ADVANTAGES • No single city-state was strong enough to resist him and it was unlikely that they would be able to form any sort of alliance against him • The Macedonian army had become a formidable fighting force • Based on heavily armed cavalry units, supplemented by light cavalry and hoplite infantry • More mobile and more effective than anything the Greeks had • Also possessed strong esprit-de-corps

DEATH OF PHILIP II • By playing one city-state off against the other and through the basic superiority of his army, Philip had taken control of Greece by 338 BC • Imposed lenient terms on the defeated city-states and even tried to win their support by vowing to attack Persia to avenge all the trouble the Persians had caused Greece in the past • But he was the midst of planning this campaign when he was assassinated at his daughter’s wedding • Succeeded by his 20-year old son, Alexander

ALEXANDER CREATES AN ARMY • Determined to carry out his father’s planned invasion of Persian Empire • Already had extensive military experience as his father’s chief general • Needed Greek soldiers but Greeks did not deliver promised numbers • Attacked Thebes in 335 and burned it to the ground • Slaughtered entire population or sold them into slavery • Taught Greeks a lesson and Greek recruitment into his army skyrocketed • had final force of 30,000 soldiers and 5000 horsemen

START OF ALEXANDER’S CONQUESTS • Invaded Persia through Asia Minor in 334 • Defeated Persian army every time they met • Then headed into Syria and took over the entire Mediterranean coast without any real resistance • Invaded Egypt where he was proclaimed pharaoh • Built city of Alexandria to celebrate event at the mouth of the Niles • Would become one of the greatest cities in the ancient world Lighthouse at Alexandria

END OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE • Left Egypt in 331 and headed for Babylon • Persians tried to block him but were beaten again • Persian emperor Darius was now on the run • Fleeing to Persiapolis • Alexander attacks and destroys the city • Alexander finally caught Darius and his army at Ecbatana in July 330 • Darius is killed by his own men as Alexander approaches • Persian Empire collapses Darius

ALEXANDER’S AMBITION • Alexander continues to conquer eastward • Convinced that it was his destiny to conquer all territory up to the edge of the world • Some Macedonian advisors were against this plan • Also did not like the way Alexander had gone native • Wearing Persian clothes, adopting Persian rituals, appointing Persians to important positions, adding Persian contingents to the army, and marrying a Persian princess • Several conspiracies were launched to overthrow Alexander • He discovered all of them and killed all those involved

TO THE EDGE OF THE WORLD • Marched east through Armenia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan and then crossed the Indus River into India • Involved in some terrible battles in India but kept moving east • At the Hyphasis River, his men refused to move any further • Simply worn out and homesick • Alexander ultimately gave in and agreed to return home

PUNISHMENT • Took southern route home through the horrible desert of southern Pakistan • For reasons of revenge • Felt betrayed by mutiny in India and decided to punish his men by marching them through the desert • 50% of the army died during this march and those who survived suffered terribly • Finally made it back to Babylon in 324

ALEXANDER’S PLAN • Was not interested in organizing an administration to govern his empire • Obsessed with creating a Macedonian/Persian master race • Ordered officers to marry Persian women • Wanted to create a new Macedonian/Persian ruling class which would permanently join East and West • By blending conquered and conqueror, he hoped to install an element of stability in his empire

DEATH OF ALEXANDER • In June 323, Alexander died at the age of 32 • In the midst of planning the invasion of Arabia • Exact cause of death is unknown • Maybe pneumonia, malaria, alcoholic poisoning, or food poisoning • No one will ever know for sure

LEGACY • Brilliant general and leader • Seems at time to be a hero come to life from one of Homer’s poems • Major contribution was the destruction of the Persian Empire • Opened the door for the penetration of Greek culture into the Middle East • Big weakness was lack of concern for administrative matters • Liked to conquer, not consolidate • Liked to fight, not govern • Empire died with him as a result • Virtually guaranteed by absence of any sort of centralized administrative structure

CIVIL WAR • Half-brother Philip III (mildly retarded) and son by Persian wife, Alexander IV set up as dual rulers • Real power was in hands of Alexander IV’s mother, Roxanne, and a group of generals • Factions developed among ruling clique • Quickly turned into a bloodbath in which all the major contenders were murdered • Generals, Alexander IV, Philip III, and Roxanne Roxanne

SUCCESSOR KINGDOMS Ptolemy took over Egypt, Cyprus, Palestine, and Phoencia Ptolemies would lose everything but Egypt but would hang on to it until last of the Ptolemies, Cleopatra, took wrong side in Roman civil war and was forced to commit suicide in 31 BC Antigonus Gonatus took Macedonia and part of Greece He and his successors would rule it until the Romans displaced them in the second century BC Second line of contenders finally came to a semblance of a settlement Selecus took over Syria, most of Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and western Persia Seleucid Kingdon would later divide in half and incorporated into the Roman and Parthian empires Alexander’s empire would become permanently divided into independent, frequently hostile, kingdoms ruled by the descendants of his Macedonian officers

SUCCESSOR KINGDOM RULERS • Successor kings were not native rulers governing with local support • They were outsiders who depended on the support of large bureaucracies and mercenary armies • Turned to Greece for these bureaucrats and soldiers • Became a special elite sitting on the top of native populations who supported them with heavy taxes • Always remained a foreign element, both outside and above the native populations they ruled • Never won the “hearts and minds” of their subjects Ptolemy of Egypt

HELLENISTIC AGE • Certain degree of unity to the post-Alexander world • Greek culture had spread from Aegean world to rest of known world • Same political institutions, educational systems, art forms could be found everywhere • Uniform coinage, systems of finance, laws and even language caused development of local and international commerce • Civilized world had become unified in a cultural and economic sense • Mainly Greek in origin and operation but also contained doses of Mesopotamian influences • Mixture of Greek and Mesopotamian elements into a worldwide, unifying, hybrid civilization is known as Hellenistic Civilization

GREEK GODS • Greek gods were closely identified with particular cities and places • Athena with Athens, for example • Greeks regarded individual gods as their special protective deities • No way in which this kind of association could be transplanted elsewhere • New cities of the successor kingdoms were filled with people from all over the world • Not a closed population who all believed together in a single protective god or goddess • If Greeks still wanted to worship their special god or goddess, they now had to do so on their own or in small groups • Worship of the gods was no longer a part of civic and public life • It now became a matter of private devotion for the individual Aphrodite Athena

HYBRID GODS • Religion of transplanted Greeks mingled with native religions • Result was often fusion of Greek gods with native gods • Serapis • Fusion of Egyptian god Osiris with minor Greek god Apis • Invented by Ptolemies and proved to be very popular • Viewed as a kind and gentle god • Believed to have some control over healing the sick and injured • Generally worshipped in small groups (or cults)

MYSTERIES OF ISIS • Cult of Serapis operated on two levels • For majority of worshippers, he was an attractive universal god prayed to in numerous private shrines • For small devout minority, there was a side-cult to his worship • The Mysteries of Isis • Ceremonies and rituals which were believed to grant followers immortality if done regularly and correctly • Did not believe that a person could escape physical death • But did believe the soul would live on if a person devoted theirlife to the Mysteries

OTHER HYBRID GODS • Serapis just one example of hybrid god • Others included: • Cybele the Great Mother • Adonis • Reflection of the growing personalization of religion • Its retreat from the public realm to the sphere of the individual • And when religion entered the individual or private sphere, then questions such immortality and divine compassions became important Cybele Adonis

POPULAR PHILOSOPHIES • They developed partly in response to the mixture of Greek and non-Greek culture • But also partly due to increased concern for the importance of the individual as opposed to the group • As Greeks settled throughout the world and were cut off from the stability, security, and sense of community that membership in their old native city-states had given them, many turned to these popular philosophies to give them a sense of permanence and worth as individuals

CYNICISM I • Taught that the main source of unhappiness was that men were too attached to society, its conventions, and material possessions • Taught that being attached to wife, children, native country, or any sort of material possession was dangerous because fate could wipe them out at any time • Argued that in order to be truly free and happy, a person had to liberate himself from his attachment to things of the material world

CYNICISM II • Teles argued that citizenship was a form of slavery • All its obligations and duties weighed men down with unnecessary burdens and made them unhappy • Better to be a woman or a slave since they were excluded from the burdens of political involvement • Teles even claimed the poor were happier than the rich because they did not have to worry about property or possessions • Only way to achieve true happiness was to cut yourself off from the world, give up all material possessions, family, citizenship, etc; and find happiness in the mere fact of being alive

EPICUREANISM I • Believed that the main sources of unhappiness were fear and desire • These emotions should be avoided or eliminated to achieve true happiness • And replaced with the pursuit of “pleasure” • Not just hedonistic self-indulgence • Because excessive pleasure was no better than pain and fear • Men should pursue simple and attainable pleasure • Pleasure that could be obtained without much effort • Too much effort in the pursuit of pleasure would cause anxiety, excessive desire, and even pain • Pursue simple pleasures with moderation and life will become happier and better

EPICUREANISM II • The best way to overcome fear was through knowledge • Pursuit of knowledge for its own sake was selfish vanity • Man should only know as much as was necessary to be free from fear of all natural phenomena and from the gods • Believed that all natural phenomena had a physical explanation • Once man understood these explanations, his fear (which was based on ignorance and/or superstition) would disappear • And man would be closer to true happiness

STOICISM I • Believed that the universe ran according to natural laws • Which fit into a divine master plan for mankind • Every living thing had a predestined part to play in this master plan • To be happy, one had to find out and understand precisely what man’s role was in this plan • The soul was the thing that brought order to the body and which brought the body into harmony with the universe and the divine master plan • Men needed to follow the dictates of their souls to live according to the master plan and understand it • Since men had the power to think, they also had the power to accept or reject their role in the master plan • Rejecting one’s role would lead to unhappiness because you were rejecting your own true nature • Men should therefore cheerfully and willingly accept their part in the divine place and Not resist or struggle against it

STOCISM II • Each individual has his unique place in the universe and his duty lay in performing whatever functions were attached to that place • Not striving to change it • Stoics therefore accepted, without complaint, everything that happened to them in life • The only way to preserve inner calm and tranquility • Taught that virtue should always be practiced • Not because of its outcome but because it was the essential ingredient in the divine plan • A person should do good because he was supposed to • Not because he might benefit materially from doing so

SUMMARY • All the popular philosophies developed at least partly in response to the emphasis on the individual during the Hellenistic Age • Each was concerned with personal behavior and happiness • Each was unconcerned with, even hostile to, such collective entities as the state • Entities that had been of prime importance during the days of the Greek polis but which had declined with the dispersion of Greeks and Greek culture throughout the civilized world • Growing individualism was the most important psychological development of the Hellenistic Age and a great step towards the development of modern attitudes towards the individual and his relationship with society

Kingdom of Macedonia was north of Greece