Alexander the Great and Hellenistic

Culture

Alexander the Great Macedonia was a powerful kingdom to the north of the

Greek city-states

Philip II reorganized the Macedonian army and adopted the phalanx system Conquered all of the major Greek city-states except

Sparta and became the new leader of Greece in 338 BC, he was assassinated in 336 BC

After his death, his son Alexander came to the throne (356-323 BC) - Alexander was a great military leader and strategist

Reestablished control in Greece due to a revolt Thebes resisted and Alexander burned down the

city and sold all the people into slavery

Decided to fulfill his father’s dream of conquering the Persian Empire Destroyed the Persian army and emperor Darius III

fled – he was later murdered by one of his own officers

After this victory, Alexander led his army deeper into Asia Went and conquered parts of India When his army refused to go any further, Alexander

agreed to go home

On his way back home, Alexander fell ill in the city of Babylon and died a few days later He left no heir, so his generals began to fight for

control In the end the empire was divided among the three

most powerful generals Macedonia and Greece, Persian Empire, and Egypt

Legacy of Alexander Created new cities, most of them named Alexandria

Built Alexandria as the Greek capital of Egypt – important city which had a famous library

Alexander envisioned a world in which many cultures would live together

Made a conscious effort to bring people and ideas from different places together Alexander married two Persian princesses Encouraged Greeks to move to the Alexandria cities

Created a new type of culture Blended elements of Greek civilization with ideas

from Persia, Egypt, and Central Asia

Created the Hellenistic Era Hellenistic means “to imitate the Greeks” Expansion of Greek language and ideas to other parts

of the world Massive spread of Greek colonists to Asia

Hellenistic Achievements - philosophers Interest in Greek philosophy Cynicism school of philosophy = cynics rejected

ideas of pleasure and wealth Instead people should live according to nature

Epicureans = people should seek out pleasure and avoid pain

Stoicism – great emphasis on reason, self-discipline, and emotional control Stoics believed people should identify their

proper role in society and strive to fulfill that role

Hellenistic Achievements – Science and Math Euclid = formulated many of the ideas about

geometry that are still used and learned today Eratosthenes = determined the world was round and

calculated its circumference Archimedes of Syracuse = one of the greatest

inventors of the ancient world Established the value of pi, developed a compound

pulley that could lift heavy loads, and used levers and pulleys to lift a ship out of the water

Alexander’s empire fell apart soon after his death, and the different Hellenistic kingdoms were shortly conquered by the Romans