Alexander the Great

1. Parentage

Philip, King of Macedonia

Olympias of Epirus

The God Zeus?

Alexander (one day to be

called ‘the Great’)

Born 356BC

2. Teachers and Heros

Leonidas, Lysimachus + the very famous philosopher Aristotle

Achilles, the Greek Hero (ancestor through Olympias)

Heracles [Hercules], the very strong demi-god, (ancestor through Philip)

3. Conquering Greece

By 338BC, Philip of Macedonia controlled almost all of Greece.

1. Started in northern and central Greece Paeonia, Thrace and Thessaly.

2. Turned his army into full-time professionals.

3. Moved southward.

4. Defeated Thebes and Athens at Chaironeia in 338BC.

5. Set up the League of Corinth.

A reconstruction of Philip’s face. (www.livius.org)

The Macedonian Phalanx

4. The League of Corinth1. Draw a diagram

profiling the three parts of the League listed on page 23 of Artus’ book.

2. Read the oath of allegiance and answer the following questions:

a. What did the Greek states swear to do (5 things)?

b. Which Greek state did not swear this oath?

c. What was the Common

Council?

The Battle of Chaironeia

Alexander and Philip did not always see eye to eye. Relations between them were strained for the following reasons:

1. The ill-feeling between Olympias and Philip. Alexander was caught in the middle, loyal to both at different times.

2. Philip’s relationship with Attalus’ young niece Eurydice/Cleopatra. This was a threat to Alex, because if there was a son from this marriage, his right to succession may be threatened, especially as Eurydice was a full-blooded Macedonian.

[Read about and summarise the incident at their wedding – Renault pgs.55-56]

3. The Pixodarus affair.

[Find out how this affair came about – read and summarise from last line of page 58 to bottom of pg.60]

5. Alexander and Philip

Images: www.livius.org

The Wedding Feast of Philip and Cleopatra

6. The Murder of PhilipIn 336BC, on the eve of his invasion of Persia, Philip attended

a wedding between his daughter Cleopatra and Olympias’ brother Alexander. As he was walking into the theatre where the wedding was held, he was fatally stabbed by a man called Pausanias. Why?

1. Pausanias was a jealous ex-lover.

2. Alexander and/or Olympais put Pausanias up to it.

3. There was a conspiracy against Philip involving the Lyncestis brothers (a notable Macedonian family)

4. Demosthenes of Athens paid Pausanias to do it.

5. The Persian King Darius paid Pausanias to do it.

6. Some combination of the above…

The Murder of Philip

Alexander is Proclaimed King

7. King AlexanderAfter Alexander was proclaimed King, he had a number

of immediate problems to solve, first inside Macedonia, then in the rest of Greece:

1. He killed all rivals to the throne, including 2 of the 3 Lyncestian brothers (see Artus, pg.16) and Amyntas (son of Philip’s elder brother). Attalus was also killed.

2. All Greece was in revolt. He first went south, where he outwitted the Thessalians to gain their support. Athens and the other southern states acclaimed him as Philip’s successor.

3. He then needed to go north, to deal with revolts in Illyria.

4. While in the north, there were rumours that he had been killed. Thebes again revolted, with support from Athens.

5. Alexander laid siege to Thebes and defeated it. He then handed the matter over to the League of Corinth, who voted that Thebes should be destroyed.

8. The War of RevengeAlexander had inherited his father’s army and secured power over Greece. He then prepared to take on the might of the Persian Empire.