The Glory of Ancient Greece

1. Chapter 7 The Glory of Ancient Greece Section 3 The Spread of Greek Culture

2. Beginnings Macedonia was an area that was just North of Greece. The Greeks did not consider the Macedonians to be Greek even though they spoke the same language. They thought of them as barbarians, or wild and uncivilized people.

3. Phillip Comes to Power • Philip was a Macedonian but kept close ties with Greece because he studied there as a child. He hired Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, to tutor Alexander. • Philip became king in 359 BC, and after uniting Macedonia, began conquering various Greek city-states. (He assumed it would be easy because they were always fighting with each other.) • In 338 BC, Athens and Thebes joined together to stop Philip. They failed, and Greece fell under Philip’s rule.

4. Alexander Builds An Empire After he conquered all of Greece, Phillip had planned to attack Persia, but in 336B.C. he was assassinated, or murdered for political reasons. At 20 years old, his son Alexander, became king.

5. Alexander’s Conquests Although he was young, Alexander was a great soldier. One of his first actions was to attack the Persian Empire. In 334 BC, Alexander won his first battle in Persia. Over the next 11 years, Alexander would conquer Persia, Egypt, and all the way to India in the East. This caused people to refer to him as Alexander the Great.

6. Alexander’s Last Battle Alexander drove his army to move lightning fast as they conquered land. He conquered lands all the way to the Indus River Valley After refusing to go any further east because of exhaustion, Alexander and his troops turned around. On the way back, Alexander caught a fever. In 323 BC, he died after only 13 years as king.

7. Alexander’s Kingdom

8. Greek Culture Spreads Upon Alexander’s death (he was either poisoned or died of some disease), the empire declined. The empire was divided into 3 kingdoms, each ruled by a former commander in Alexander’s army. For the next 300 years, the descendants of the commanders fought over who would rule. As Alexander had done before them, his successors set up new cities throughout the kingdoms. As people moved to new areas, Greek culture was spread. The word Hellenistic describes Greek history after the death of Alexander the Great.

9. Hellenistic Kingdoms As Alexander conquered people, he hoped that the people’s culture and Greek culture would mix. This mixing did not occur in the three Hellenistic Kingdoms. The kingdoms were dominated by Greek language, the building of temples, agoras, and theaters for Greek tragedies.

10. Greek Culture in Egypt The greatest of Hellenistic cities was Alexandria in Egypt. Alexandria became the capital of Egypt. It was famous for its trade, business, and lighthouse that rose about 350ft. The Hellenistic cities were centers of learning, but Alexandria outdid them all. Alexandria had the largest library of the Ancient world. With over a half million scrolls it was the learning capital of the Greek world. Scholars and writers came from all over to use the large library.

11. Math & Science Math & Science flourished in Alexandria. A mathematician named Euclid developed Geometry. Eratosthenes calculated the distance around the earth. The greatest scientist of the time was Archimedes who discovered that people can use pulleys and levers to lift very heavy objects.

12. Let’s Review • Who was Phillip of Macedonia? • Who was Alexander the Great? • What does the Word Hellenistic mean? • Describe the Hellenistic Age?