Transcript Hellenistic Age

Hellenistic Kingdoms
and Culture:
The Legacy of Alexander
the Great
Macedonia
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Rugged frontier land in northern Greece
359 BCE King Philip II gains throne
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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
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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
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Burned Thebes to the ground for rebelling
Sold citizens into slavery
Yet saved the house of Pindar the poet
Conquest Begins
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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?
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Alexander returned to Babylon
Began to plan for his next invasions
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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
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Macedonia/Greece, Egypt, and Persia
Aftermath of Alexander
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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
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Philosophy: Stoicism; Epicureanism
Mathematics:
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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
Archimedes