Alexander the Great
(356-323 BCE)
Long before Alexander the Great’s conquests,
Greeks had discovered great opportunities for
conquest in the East
• In 401 BCE, a Persian prince, Cyrus, had raised a
force of 10,000 Greek mercenaries to fight his older
brother for the throne.
• Although the Greeks defeated a huge Persian army,
the prince was killed in the first major battle.
• Trapped in the middle of the Persian Empire, the
mercenaries were forced to march 1,500 miles
through hostile territory until they reached
Byzantium.
• The expedition, recounted in Xenophon’s Anabasis,
demonstrated to the world the strength of Greek
armies and their phalanx formations.
Two generations after that expedition, the kingdom of Macedonia
took advantage of Greek military power
• The Macedonians were Greek themselves,
although the rest of Greece looked down
upon them
• The country was still wild, controlled by
various tribes or clans
• A hereditary king, with religious and
military power, ruled over them in theory
• Macedonia (aka Macedon) remained a
backwater until Philip II became king
• Philip II had, as a youth, spent time at the
court in Thebes and observed the efficient
government and army of Epaminondas at
first hand
Philip II was a vigorous man. He tamed the
local warlords in Macedonia.
• He also subjected all free men to
conscription.
• He made soldiers serve as royal
troops under his officers.
• He adopted the Greek phalanx
but combined it with light
infantry and heavy cavalry.
He conquered the rest of Greece. He was successful
for several reasons
• Money. In Philip’s rule Macedonia had many
large gold mines
• Manpower. Macedonia had a large peasantry.
• He had a superior army completely loyal to
him. Greek city-states, in contrast, relied
increasingly on mercenaries, who were
expensive
• The Greek city-states were divided.
• Philip’s patience, cunning, treachery, bribery,
dishonesty
• Support from some in Athens like the orator
Isocrates, who called upon Philip to lead an
anti-Persian alliance
Philip conquered Greece in 338 BCE. He then decided
to conquer Persia.
• Key victory- Chaeronia, where Macedon defeated Thebes and Athens. 18-yearold Alexander leads Philip’s cavalry in this battle.
• To conquer Persia, Philip and Alexander realized they needed the assistance of
other Greek city-states.
• To win their active support, Philip and Alexander:
1. appealed to myths and legends of conquests in the East, such as the story of
Hercules and the Iliad
2. They cherished pride in Greek victories in the Persian War
3. They called for vengeance against the Persians, who still controlled some Greek
city-states in Asia Minor
4. They promised that enormous wealth could be won in the East
5. League of Corinth was formed by Philip in 337 to further his aims. A military
alliance, its aims were similar to those of the Delian League of 150 years earlier.
- The Greeks had other reasons to join Philip:
1. A war of conquest to the east would defuse internal violence
2. A war in the east would open new areas for expansion and colonization.
Carthage’s rise in the Western Mediterranean made expansion there less likely.
The Macedonians did not persuade all Greeks
to join them
• Some Greeks hated the
Macedonians more than the
Persians
• Other Greeks feared the
Macedonians more than the
Persians since the Persians were
further away while the Greeks
were closer
• Other Greek cities preferred
neutrality
• Some Greeks served the Persians
as mercenaries or were under
direct Persian control
After Philip was assassinated in 336 BCE at his daughter’s
wedding by one of his bodyguards, Pausanius, Alexander
launches the invasion in 334 BCE
• Although he was only 20 at the time, Alexander
had long been preparing himself for the task
• Alexander first consolidated his power in
Macedon and Greece; he destroyed Thebes in
335 when it revolted
• In the next 10 years, Alexander quadrupled the
world known to the Greeks
1. He overthrew the Persian Empire
2. He made conquests from Libya to Afghanistan
and Pakistan
3. He created an empire that moved Greeks and
Greek culture throughout the East
4. His empire also absorbed aspects of these
civilizations to create an eclectic new civilization
known as Hellenism
How did Alexander do it?
• The Persian ruler, Darius II, was not
a forceful individual, the Persians
had little central control, and their
commanders bickered among
themselves
• Alexander was a charismatic leader
• Alexander was open to new ideas
and cultures
• Macedonians had superior training
and leadership
• Alexander received support from
local rulers
What did Alexander accomplish?
• Founded a huge, multinational
empire
• Spread Greek civilization to the
east
• Attempted a reconciliation
between Greek and Persian, East
and West
• Established greater trade
between East and West
Alexander the Great’s Legacy?
• Alexander’s generals set up
several successor kingdoms
after his death
• The Romans caused all of
them to come to an end, at
different times
• Hellenistic civilization
flourished (shift from polis
to cosmopolis, new mystery
cults (Serapis), Stoicism and
Epicureanism, Greek math,
science and medicine)