Alexander the Great Midterm

Founding of the Olympic Games

776 BC

Archaic Period

750-480 BC

Classical Period

480-323 BC

Hellenistic Age

323-30 BC

Year of Xerxes’s invasion of Greece

480 BC

Years of Peloponnesian War

431-404 BC

Year of Kings Peace

387 BC

Years Philip II Reigned

359-336 BC

Battle of Chaeonea year

338 BC

Alexander the Great lifespan

356-323 BC

Battle of Granicus year

334 BC

Battle of Issus Year

333 BC

Battle of Gaugamela Year

331 BC

According to Diodorus Siculus, Alexander is revered as

almost a god

According to Tarn, Alexander represents

unity of mankind

Seneca focus on

great destruction and restlessness of Alexander’s conquest

Victor Davis Hansen writes about

legacy of murder and ethnic cleansing

Peter Green writes that historians use Alexander to

project pieces of themselves

Alexander’s Opis speech raises issues such as

sources

The Opis speech was recorded by

Arrian 500 years after it happened

who wrote the eyewitness accounts of Opis speech

Pteloemy and Aristopulus

Factual judgement

assesing causality of historical events and effectiveness of Alexander’s decisions

• objective historians want to do this

Age of Alexander when he inherited Philip’s position

20

Age when Alexander conquered Persian Empire

26

Age when Alxadner reached limits of known world

30

Alexander died in

323 BCE, before his 33rd birthday

Alexander Romance

collection of fictional stories that developed primarily in Egypt centuries after his death

Most important ancient source for Alexander

Arrian’s Anabasis, written in 2nd century CE

Year Alexander secured his position in Europe, defeating northern opponents and destroying Thebes

335

Year Alexander invaded Persia and won at Granicus

334

Year he defeated Darius III at Issus

333

Year he captured Tyre, helped neutralize Persian naval power

332

Year he defeated Darius at Gaugamela

331

Pothos

passionate or irresistible desire for achievement

Antigonid was given

Macedonia and Greece

Ptolemaic Kingdom

Egypt

Seleucid Kingdom

much of Asia

Attalid Kingdom

Pergamum

Macedonian language could be dificult for

standard Greek speakers to understand

Royal Macedonians claimed descendancy from

Temenus of Argos, ultimately Heracles

Macedonia connected symbolically to Greek religion bc

Mount Olympus located in Macedonian territory

League of Corinth was

Panhellenic alliance, instrument of Macedonian imperial control

Philip assassinated in

336 BCE

Alexander established himself as

King of Asia

After visiting Siwah Oasis in Egypt, he

associated himself w being ‘son of Zeus’

Alexanders personal seer

Aristandrus

Alexander educated under

Aristotle at Mieza

Ancient Macedonia was made of

rugged moutains in the north and west, fertile plain in the south

Alexander age when he died

32

In Arabic tradition, Alexander became

Dhul-Quarnian (the Two-horned One)

Bronze Age Years

3300-1100

2 civilizations of Bronze Age

Minoans (Crete) and Mycenaean

Dark Age Years

1100-750 BC

Transition Phase between Dark Age and Archaic Age

Eight Century Renaissance

Archaic Age

750-480

Classical Age

480-323

ends with death of Alexander

Hellenistic Age

323-30 BC

ends with death of Cleopatra

Roman Imperial Period

30 BC - 330 AD

Byzantine Empire

330 - 1453 AD

Sociopolitical Evolution Theory

increased complexity of Social Organization

Bands

Foragers: hunters and gatherers

Tribes

sedentary life: egalitarian farmers

Cheifdoms

social differentation; formal leadership that controls production and redistribution of surplus

• council of chiefs with single Paramount chief

Examples of Chiefdoms

Homer’s Illiad (Agamemnon and others)

Ithaca (Odyseeus and others)

Macedonia (before Philip II)

States

central government, monopoly of deadly force

Civilized states

central government, monopoly of deadly force, writing

Paleolithic

20000-8300 BC

Mesolithic

8300-6000 BC

Neolithic

6000-3300

Chalcolithic (copper stone) age

3800-3300 BC

To make bronze, you needed

tin, which needed to be traded from Afghanistan, British Isles

Bands were in Greece during

Paleolithic to Neolithic Period

Tribes were in Greece during

Neolithic Revolution to Bronze Age

Cheifdom were in Greece during

Early Myceneans

States were in Greece during

Mycenaean Palace Culture

• collapse of Bronze Age World in Aegean

Cheifdoms in Greece during

Dark Age (Homeric Society)

States returned to Greece via

Polis (8th century onwards)

Oreintalizing Revolution

Eighth Century Renaissance

• trade

• population growth

• alphabet

Panhellenic Sanctuatries from 8th Cent. Renaissance

delphi, delos, olympia (776 BC 1st Olympic Games)

Polis ‘city-state’

city and its adjacent territory that make up a single, self-governing political unity

Archons

chief officials

Council of Elders

aristocratic elite

Greek topography

hundreds of autonomous poleis

Crisis of the Archaic happend in

750-480 BC

• repercussions of Greek Renaissance

Reprecussions of Greek Ranissance were

population growth, scarcity of resources

exploitation and debt slavery

elite competition

increased importance of hoplite farmers

• enormous social tensions in 7th-6th century

Establishment of tyrannies

coup, had support of normal population, no negative connotation at start

Cylon

attempted tyranny in 632 BCE

Draco

lawgiver 620

Solon

Reformer 594 BC

Pisistratus and sons

tyranny 560-511 BC

Kleisthenes

508 BC, isonomia = equal rights

Kleisthenes created

assembly of all free male citizens

council of 500

popular courts with mass juries

• enourmous step towards democracy

Assyrians

930-610 BC