ALEXANDER AND THE HELLENISTIC ERA

Chapter 4 section 5

OBJECTIVES

Evaluate how cultures and beliefs were spread throughout conquered civilizations and shaped identity and character of Western Civilization.

Learning Goal: By the end of this lesson, I will be able to identify Alexander the Great’s influence and how the Hellenistic culture spread to new lands.

MACEDONIANS CONQUER GREECEBy the end of the 5th century B.C.E., Macedonia turned from a rural city-state into a ruling civilization.King Philip of Macedonia turned the nation into a superpower through building a strong military.Fearing invasion, Athens allied with other Greek city-states to build military power. They went to battle with Macedonia during the Battle of Chaeronea, in 338 B.C.E.Macedonia won the battle, thus overtaking Greece.King Philip convinced the Greek city-states to merge. He formed a league, in order to fight Macedonia’s rival, Persia.

MAP OF MACEDONIA 336 BCE

ALEXANDER THE GREATAlexander was groomed for kingship from early on. He became king at the age of 20, when King Philip proved too frail to lead the army against Persia.

The main goal was the invasion of the Persian Empire. Revenge was also a factor: Alexander wanted to avenge Persia’s burning of Athens in 480 B.C.E.

Alexander and an army of 37,000 men, marched into the Asia Minor in 334 B.C.E.

By 332 B.C.E., Alexander and his army conquered Syria, Palestine and Egypt. These conquests demonstrate his mastery as a tactician and military leader.

The conquering of Egypt proved to be his biggest spoil of war. Built afterward was Alexandria, the Greek capital of Egypt.

BATTLE WITH THE PERSIANSBy 331 B.C.E., Alexander’s past conquests have now prepared him for battling with his civilization’s rival, Persia.He and his army fought a decisive battle with the Persians in Gaugamela. His army proved victorious.After that victory, the Persian Empire belonged to Greece.Alexander pushed his army as far as into modern-day Pakistan. The previous battle proved exhausting, as he died at the age of 32 in 323 B.C.E.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT’S LEGACYAlexander left behind a great legacy. The expansion of Greek and Hellenistic values are owed to his influence.He consistently receives praise for his work as a military leader and his conquests served as a template for similar undertakings.The spread of Hellenistic culture, philosophy, and religion was aided by Alexander the Great’s dedication to education and the arts.Macedonia’s rule over vast areas brought in numerous lucrative resources, some of which were used for currency, including silver and gold.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST:  BATTLE OF THE HYDASPES Watch the following video and take notes. Write two paragraphs comparing and contrasting the video’s depiction of the battle and the actual battle. In the first paragraph, describe the battle scene in the video clip. In the second paragraph, based on your own research, write about what actually occurred.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYRi-Hbi2Sg

THE HELLENISTIC ERA

The word Hellenistic derives from the Greek, meaning to imitate the Greeks.To reiterate, King Philip and Alexander the Great influenced the conquered lands through expansion of their culture, art, architecture, philosophy and sciences.The greatest emblem of this era would be the Alexandria library in Egypt. The library was the first of its kind and the largest in the ancient world. At one point, it had 500,000 scrolls.

It became the hotbed for all scholars, poets, scientists and philosophers.

HELLENISTIC KINGDOMS

The united empire created by Alexander fell. By 300 B.C.E. the hope for a united Greek empire was lost.

However, other Greek-inspired kingdoms copied the Hellenistic model set forth by Alexander the Great.

There were four Hellenistic kingdoms:MacedoniaSyriaPergamum (west Asian Minor)Egypt

HELLENISTIC ARTS AND LITERATUREThe Hellenistic era marked a considerable peak in cultural development and accomplishment in many areas, including science, philosophy, literature and architecture.

The library in Alexandria, Egypt encouraged careful study for poets, philosophers and other thinkers.

Pergamum, located in the Asia Minor, was also a hotbed for artists, poets and philosophers. The kingdom also boasted its own library, whose only rival was the Alexandria library in Egypt.

The wealth accumulated from the conquests of past helped to create a new wealthy class. This wealthy class patronized many sculptors. This encouraged the development of art in the ancient world.

SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHYConsiderable advancements in the sciences are well-documented in Hellenistic Era. These advancements took place in astronomy, specifically cosmology, and mathematics and were radical for its time.

Aristarchus of Samos proposed that the sun was the center of universe, over a millennia before Copernicus and Galileo.

Eratosthenes also contributed to astronomy with his knowledge of the circumference of Earth.

The mathematician Euclid wrote Elements, a textbook on plane geometry. Archimedes also worked in geometry and established the concept of pi.

A new philosophy, Epicureanism, promoted self-happiness as the ultimate goal.