Words for Board: Alexander, Darius III, Selecuse, Ptolemy, Hellenic, Hellenistic, Infanticide

See your syllabus for the 40 years of history after the Peloponnesian War. Greece was so weak they were ready for someone outside to conquer them. And there was somebody ready and waiting. Macedonia was a large hunk of territory to the North of Greece. They were similar in origin to Greece but no real Greek culture got that far north. They were kind of like country cousins. They had a leader named Phillip II who had pulled them all together. He had a new style of phalanx that used long (20 feet) spears and was really tough. He marched down to Greece and took them all on and whipped them in a big battle. If you went to class, you got to see all about him on the VCR. Actually, the movie we saw is about his son, Alexander . . . starring Richard Burton and titled Alexander the Great. It had big battles and jealous wife scenes in it and everything. You may want to stay up and watch it on the late night show cuz it's kind of neat.

Anyway, the real hero of the big battle between the Macedonians and Greeks was Phillip's son, Alexander. His mom was Olympius and claimed that actually he was the son of her and a god. Alexander could trace his roots back to Hercules on his father's side and back to Achilles on his mother's. The Greeks had given up on the gods in their family trees but the Macedonians were a little behind the times. Philip had planned to take over the Persians after the Greeks using Greek and Macedonian troops. But he went home and kind of got assassinated before he could manage it. So, Alex had to lead the troops. What was Alexander like? Glad you asked. He was courteous, open-minded, military genius. He could get tough when he was loaded but otherwise was a really nice guy. He got along very well with the people he conquered. He kind of respected their governments, religions, cultures, etc. and they didn't mind him. He was educated by Aristotle in Greece and got the best education available at the time. He was a genius. He was king at 20, and had lots of practice being in charge of the country cuz he was always regent while his father was off fighting wars. He had lots of trouble in the beginning with pretenders to the throne but he took care of them all. Plus, all this time the Macedonians had been keeping the real barbarians further up north off Greece's back and they started attacking again. Meanwhile, the Greeks revolted and Alexander had to get them again. As an example, he destroyed Thebes except for the government buildings and temples. Now he was ready to take on Persia. Why attack Persia? "They attacked us long ago." Actually, they were rich and weak.

The new Persian king was Darius III. The Persians had never figured out how to make the phalanx work. Actually, they never tried. If they needed that type of army, they hired a Greek army from the people on their border. Darius was not a military leader.

Alexander crossed the Hellespont in 334 BC. He stopped at the old site of Troy cuz his ancestor was Achilles and it was good propaganda. The last time the Greeks got around Troy, they whipped the Trojans. So, he was trying to show that they could do it again. It's going to be tough for him. He was fighting on Persian soil. He didn't have extra money. The Greeks back home are waiting for him to screw up so they can rebel again. He didn't have many men compared to the whole Persian Empire. And the further he got into Persia, the further his supply lines had to go.

Darius knew he was coming. Darius had 3 armies, a western one made up mostly of mercenary Greeks, a central one and an eastern one. He had the choice to attack as soon as Alex landed and push him into the sea or waiting and gathering his whole army and hitting Alex with everything he had. He decided to use the western army Greek traitors cuz they're fighting against Greeks? Or are they heroes cuz they're trying to get rid of Alex who had taken over Greece? The correct answer is whoever wins decides. Alexander won. He marched down and wintered at Gordius where there was a neat tourist attraction. It was called the Gordian knot. It was really tricky and the legend said that whoever untied it would become the ruler of Asia. Alex did some tricky stuff to it and kind of satisfied the legend, which was good propaganda for him.

In the spring of 333 BC, Alexander was on the move. He got up in the mountains and got pneumonia. It took a long time but he recovered. Darius had moved his central army up behind Alexander. Darius and Alex had been exchanging some nasty/nice letters all this time. Alex whipped the central army. Next, he moved to Egypt. The Egyptians saw him as a deliverer from the Persians whom they hated very much. Alex borrowed Egyptian ways, robes, etc. He told them the story about how his dad was a god which fit right in with their culture. The Greeks with him didn't like it very much though. He went back to Persia to fight the last big army which was made up of everyone Darius had left. Alex was outnumbered by quite a lot and the Persians had some secret weapons. They had scythe chariots–chariots with long knives sticking out from the wheels. And they had a herd of elephants for the battle which weren't seen much and were really scary to look at. Trouble is, elephants aren't any good in battle cuz they are unmanageable and very timid and noises scare them. They were no big worry. Alex got rid of the scythe chariots by having javelin throwers hide in the grass and jump up after the chariots went by and kill one of the horses, which makes the chariots run funny having only one engine. Darius may have influenced the battle cuz after awhile he decided he was losing and left the battlefield. After that, his army collapsed. It took Alex 5 more years to catch Darius, who had lots of room to retreat. He burned the capital city down but that may have been an accident from a drunken party.

Around this time, there was a plot on Alexander's life by some of his friends. Alex was now befriending Persians, wearing Persian clothes, giving them government jobs, etc. The Greeks didn't like it. They had come over to conquer the Persians, not be friendly. Alex was stationed in the Far East. He decided to conquer India since he was in the neighborhood. He had no idea how big India was. He took 160,000 men, including some Persians in the army now. He almost got killed in India. He was taking this little town. He always fought with his men. He went over the wall of the town on a scaling ladder but he was one of the first ones over. You don't necessarily want to be the first to drop into a town you're trying to conquer. They're inside waiting for you. He got wounded badly but he recovered. He might have gone on fighting forever. His troops were tired. Some of them had marched with him 11,000 miles during the 8 years they'd been fighting with him. They wanted to go back home–not to Greece. They wanted to go home to the Persian Empire to spend their money and lord over the Persians. Alex finally agreed. He had come to India over the Himalayan Mountains. But he didn't want to go home that way cuz the mountains were big and he'd lost some deserters up there. (Have you heard the Legend of Shangri La? It's white people who live up in those mountains that supposedly live much longer than normal. They don't, but there actually are people up there that are descendants of the deserters of Alexander.) Alex decided to take a shortcut (uh-oh). He took the low road over the desert which was bad news. ½ of his troops went home on ship and the other ½ followed him through the desert for a little trip that included 60 days without water with men and animals dying the whole way.

324 BC, he made it back to Persia. Good thing he came home cuz there was lots of graft while he was gone. Those people expected him to go on fighting until he was killed and they didn't think he'd come home. Surprise! But he had changed while gone. In the start of his career, he wanted to be the champion of Greek culture. Now he saw that Persian was just as good. He wanted to mix the best of Greek and Persian together into one super big state that he would rule from Babylon. He encouraged intermarriage to mix the cultures. There was one night of weddings when 80 of his officers married Persian women. Alex even married one of the ladies from each ruling family to show his heart was in the right place. (After Alex died, there were 79 divorces from that biggie wedding!!)

He gave his common soldiers a dowry if they'd marry a Persian. He was founding new cities all the time. He had let the old wounded Greeks kind of manage his new cities so that he was mixing the culture and leaving a safe city at the same time. A lot of the new cities were called Alexandria but the only one that made it was the one in Egypt. He was getting ready to move some Persians back home to Greece when he caught Babylonian Swamp fever (probably malaria). It doesn't kill you but it leaves you so weak that something else can kill you easier. He died in 323 BC at the age of 32. Could he have mixed the cultures? Probably not. He was the only one who wanted to see the cultures mixed. And it's hard to lead people in peacetime when they don't have to stick together against the enemy. What did he accomplish? Not much. Greeks and Persians wouldn't get together in the super race he wanted. He had left both Greece and Macedonia much weaker by taking young men away for his army. He caused tremendous inflation cuz he minted so much money. He put together a large empire which won't hold together after his death. His major generals took the empire and divided it among themselves. One took Macedonia and Greece. One took Asia Minor. Selecuse took the heart of Persia with Babylon and Ptolemy took Egypt. They all let India go cuz it was too big and far away. They fought amongst themselves, especially Selecuse and Ptolemy.

There's a couple of terms you need to know. Hellenic describes the time period when the Greeks ran their own affairs–up until about 338 BC. (Remember that Greeks called themselves "Hellenes"?) Hellenistic was when people other than Greeks ran things up until about 200 BC, when another super big power conquers the world. (Foreshadowing . . . )

Greece back home was in decline. The young men were gone. Athenians were very depressed as were all Greeks. To show this, there was a rise in Infanticide ("killing infants"). Greek fathers were availing themselves of the option to leave their kids to die cuz they didn't believe in the future. As a young Greek male type, you were very popular. All the generals overseas want you in their army cuz Greeks are the only ones who can make the phalanx work. If you signed up to be in their army, you'd get a free farm with slaves to run it and tax concessions, etc. All you have to do is risk your life!!

Macedonia was unchanged. Selecuse found that the Persians had run their empire pretty well so he did the same–run your own affairs as long as you pay taxes. Ptolemy ran Egypt like the Pharaohs used to. Both these generals founded mini-dynasties (Ptolemy I, II, etc.). There was a new capital city of Egypt–Alexandria. It grew to become the biggest city at the time. At the height of its career, it had 600,000 people of all races in the city. (Consider that Sparta could put 10,000 troops in the field on its best day and it's no wonder the Greeks are depressed. The world is too big for them. They don't have the size or manpower to make it any more.) The Egyptians hated foreigners running them but the Greeks got them to work cuz they had no choice. Egypt became the leading food producer. The role of women improved in the world cuz if you're a Greek of any kind, even a woman, you were neat. There were new cities planned–this time they were laid out instead of following the old goat trails. Standards in education rose. The world was picking up.