The Tennis Court Oath

1. The Tennis Court Oath We swear never to separate ourselves from the National Assembly, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the realm is drawn up and fixed upon solid foundations.

2. The Oath signified the first time that French citizens formally stood in opposition to Louis XVI, and the refusal by members of the National Assembly to back down forced the king to make concessions. The Oath also inspired a wide variety of revolutionary activity in the months afterwards, ranging from rioting across the French countryside to renewed calls for a written French constitution. Moreover, the Oath communicated in unambiguous fashion the idea that the deputies of the National Assembly were declaring themselves the supreme state power. From this point forward, Louis XVI would find the Crown increasingly unable to rest upon monarchical traditions of divine right.

3. Alexander the Great In the 350s b.c. Philip I assumed the throne of Macedon, a relatively poor province north of Greece. He developed a first-class army and, taking advantage of the temporary weakness of Athens (Greece's dominant city-state) after the Social War (358-55), began conquering Athenian-dominated provinces on the Greco-Macedonian frontier. While the Greek polises continued their almost constant squabbling, Philip extended Macedonian control over areas to Macedon's north, then he attacked Greece itself. In 338 b.c. Philip's army defeated an Athenian-Theban alliance at Leuctra, giving him mastery of the Greek peninsula. He established the Hellenic League the following year, uniting almost all the Greek polises into an alliance aimed at defeating the Persian Empire. As the forces of the Hellenic League prepared to cross the Hellespont into Asia Minor in 336, Philip was assassinated and succeeded by his son Alexander.

5. He quickly established a reputation as a courageous and innovative general. In 333 b.c. he began his invasion of Asia Minor, defeating armies sent against him by local Persian governors or by the Persian Emperor Darius III. At Issus late in the year Alexander's 30,000 soundly defeated Darius' army three times that size while losing but 450 men. Alexander's strategy was to take control of the eastern Mediterranean coastline. He had no fleet while the Persian navy could roam at will, harassing his supply lines and provoking revolts in Greece. Denying the Persians their ports would force them to either abandon the eastern Mediterranean or defect to the Macedonian cause. His first conquest was simple. Sidon surrendered without a fight, for it had long suffered under Persian dominance. Its sister city Tyre, however, had profited from a Persian alliance and was determined to hold out against the invaders while Darius rallied another army inland.

7. Alexander's army marched to Tyre sometime in January 332. He spoke with the city elders, expressing a desire to worship their god Melkart, a Phoenician version of Heracles. When they suggested he worship in Old Tyre, where there was a better temple, he took it as an insult and prepared his attack. Tyre was well situated to withstand a siege. It was built on an island half a mile offshore, making direct assault without a fleet extremely difficult. Two harbors served the city, meaning that supplies could be brought in at will. Further, Tyre had ties to Carthage, which promised to send assistance in case of attack. Having no ships meant Alexander's forces could approach the city only one way: if they could not walk on water, they would have to build a causeway. Although neither his staff nor army favored his idea, Alexander began dismantling the city of Old Tyre and placing the stones in the water. He scoured the countryside for timber for piling for the causeway, manpower, and supplies. This was an unbelievably massive engineering feat, for Alexander ordered that the causeway be built 200 feet wide.

12. The operation of 332 b.c. was the first truly amphibious assault in history, with the Macedonians having to develop the tactics that would be followed to modern times: preparatory bombardment, combat swimmers, obstacle removal, and fire support and harassing fire from offshore vessels. Even the use of ramps off the ships for unloading assault troops began here. Alexander's capture of the city did indeed deny Persia one of its primary harbors, but the slaughter that ensued only impressed some of the other cities. When his forces reached Gaza, they again had to besiege the city, and the resulting aftermath was as bloody as that in Tyre. Possession of the city gave Alexander the ability to secure his supply lines overland from Macedon, as well as supplement them with naval transport. His forces pressed southward into Egypt, where they spent the winter of 332/331. There, Alexander established a new city that he named after himself

13. Alexander’s Will • Construction of a monumental tomb for his father Philip, "to match the greatest of the pyramids of Egypt”. • Erection of great temples in Delos, Delphi, Dodona, Dium, Amphipolis, Cyrnus, and a monumental temple to Athena at Troy. • Conquest of Arabia and the entire Mediterranean Basin[71] • Circumnavigation of Africa. • Establishment of cities and the "transplant of populations from Asia to Europe and in the opposite direction from Europe to Asia, in order to bring the largest continent to common unity and to friendship by means of intermarriage and family ties."