Alexander the Great and Hellenism

1. Alexander the Great and Hellenism

2. Agenda Bell Ringer: What makes a civilization “Classical”? • Brief Lecture on Hellenism and Alexander the Great. • Overview of DBQ, Question session. • Document-Based Question on Greek Politics and Culture. (50 minutes)

3. Philip of Macedon • Greece weakened by constant warfare. • 359 B.C. Philip II of Macedon becomes King. • He begins taking Colonies allied with Athens. • 338 B.C. – Philip defeats Thebes and Athens and the battle of Chaeronea, then he unites Greece. • Demosthenes felt that it threatened Athenian freedom.

4. Alexander Enters • 336 B.C. Philip II is assassinated. • 20 year old Alexander takes over. • 331 B.C. – Persia completely destroyed. • He wanted to bring the world under one empire. • 326 B.C. – They reach the Indus River Valley

5. His conquests, and ultimate failure • Divides troops in half, and some go by sea home, while others go with Alexander. • Two years, and a trek through the desert, most of his troops die. • 323 B.C. – Discontent goes through the empire. • Alexander becomes ill in Babylon, and dies at the age of 33.

7. Why is Alexander so great? • Married his Macedonian troops with Persians to promote unity in the empire. • Hellenistic – Greek like. • Ruler-worship – role of the polis is replaced with one of a monarch. These looked to for guidance.

8. ??? • Greek language, art, and culture spread throughout the Middle East. • Fusion of several cultures. • Some claim that Alexander was attempting to create a monarchy based on this merged cultural ideal. • His successors would only allow Greek and Macedonian administrators.

9. Document-Based Question • You will have 50 minutes to read the documents and write an essay based on those documents. • Two large groupings are given to you, but within Politics and Culture there can be smaller sub-groupings.

10. DBQ Rubric and Format • Rubric 1- Thesis 1- Three Groupings 1- Use all documents 2- Relevance to Thesis 1- POV from two documents 1- Additional Document Omitted from this essay. • Format • Introduction • Thesis • Grouping/Map Point 1 • Docs, Relevance (this document proves) • POV (optional) • Grouping/Map Point 2 • Grouping/Map Point 3 • Conclusion • You would usually place additional document here.