 Greece was weakened by the ongoing fighting among the city-states

 Phillip II was ruler of Macedonia, a kingdom north of Greece  His goal was to invade and rule Greece  The city-state of Athens tried bring together all the city-states to form an alliance against Phillip, but very few responded  Phillip II won easily; see the Macedonian strength and powerful army, the Greeks agreed to make Phillip their leader

 When Phillip II died his son took power, Alexander, at the age of 20  Alexander was a great military leader; despite having the smaller army he was not afraid to take on the Persian army  His conquests took him to Egypt, which was then under Persian rule; the Persian governor knew of Alexander’s great military skills and surrendered without a fight, naming Alexander pharaoh  His last battle against Persia was at Gaugamela; he won & shortly after became ruler over all of the Persian empire

 His empire was the largest the world had ever had before  He worked hard to spread Greek culture by building new cities throughout the empire, many named after himself  He encouraged Greeks to move to his new cities, he built temples and theaters just like the ones in Greece, Greek became a common language among all people within the empire  Also spread Greek art, literature, and science  Still encouraged people to keep their own cultures which helped to create a blended lifestyle throughout the empire  Part-Persian, -Egyptian, -Syrian, -Greek  “Hellenistic” means Greek-like; many refer to Alexander’s time as the Hellenistic Age

 Alexander wanted to expand his empire into Central Asia  He crossed over the Indus River, but did not go much further  His soldiers were exhausted and refused to go any farther  Disappointed, he began to march home to Greece

 Alexander never got back to Greece; he became sick on the way back and died just a few days after  His body was taken to Egypt and buried in a gold coffin  He had no heir (male child) to take over this throne, so people fought for power; in the end 3 of his powerful generals divided the power

 Hellenistic Macedonia  Weak government; constantly struggled against rebellions  Invaded and conquered by Roman invaders  Hellenistic Syria  Very diverse with cultures, but none were happy with Hellenistic/Greek-like rulers and way of life  Many rebellions which led to a weakened empire  Invaded and conquered by Romans about 40 years after Macedonia

 Hellenistic Egypt  Encouraged Greek culture  Built world’s largest library in the city of Alexandria  Also built the Museum, a place for scholars and artists to meet  Alexandria became a great place for culture and learning  However, it too was conquered by Rome about a decade after Syria