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Hellenistic Kingdoms and Culture: The Legacy of Alexander the Great. Macedonia. Rugged frontier land in northern Greece 359 BCE King Philip II gains throne Born in Thebes Admired Greek culture Hired Aristotle to teach his son Demosthenes warns of Philips ambitions
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Hellenistic Kingdoms and Culture:The Legacy of Alexander the Great
Macedonia • Rugged frontier land in northern Greece • 359 BCE King Philip II gains throne • Born in Thebes • Admired Greek culture • Hired Aristotle to teach his son • Demosthenes warns of Philips ambitions • Battle of Chaeronea 338 BCE Athens and Thebes loose to Philip • Philip murdered at daughters wedding feast
Alexander • Philips wife, Olympias beats others to the throne and places Alexander there to replace Philip (age of 20) • Trained soldier and in the classic • Swift and brutal in decisions • Burned Thebes to the ground for rebelling • Sold citizens into slavery • Yet saved the house of Pindar the poet
Conquest Begins • 334 BCE crosses the Dardanelles to invade Persia • First victory at Granicus River in Asia Minor • Invaded Palestine • Then Egypt • Then Babylon • Then Persian capitals • Then on to India where his tired soldiers refused to cross the Indus river
Continued Conquests? • Alexander returned to Babylon • Began to plan for his next invasions • Sicily, Italy, Northern Africa • Took ill with malaria • On his death bed Alexander told people that he left his throne “To the strongest” • Chaos ensued with generals vying for control • Three separate countries were born • Macedonia/Greece, Egypt, and Persia
Aftermath of Alexander • Hellenistic Culture! • After Alexander’s death…4 generals divided his kingdom into separate states • Alexander blended the ideas and cultures of the people Alexander conquered = LEGACY! • Greek, Egyptian, Persian, and Indian (PIG – E) • Spread Greek architecture and arts • Created new planned cities • Alexandria, Egypt with a population over 1,000,000 • Athens, Greece is the Philosophical capital
Intellectualism • Philosophy: Stoicism; Epicureanism • Mathematics: • Pythagoras – a2 + b2 = c2 • Euclid – The Elements; father of geometry • Astronomy: Aristarchus – Earth rotates around the sun; Eratosthenes – Earth is round • Physics: Archimedes – water screw, 3.14 (pie), lever and pulley • Medicine: Hippocrates – causes of illness and Hippocratic Oath for doctors