Alexander the Great

 Kingdom just north of Greece  Greeks thought Macedonians were barbarians  Macedonians thought of themselves as Greek  Spoke Greek

 From Macedonia  Studied in Greece when he was young  Macedonia was poor and divided  Philip united Macedonia  Wanted to conquer Greek city-states  Created alliances with them by threat/bribe  Built army stronger than Sparta’s  Conquered remaining city-states  Athens and Thebes tried to fight Philip 338 BC  Failed, and Philip took control of all of Greece

 Philip wanted to conquer all of Persia next  Assassinated in 336BC  Alexander the Great  Philip’s son  Became king at age 20  Had been educated in Greece by Aristotle  Took Achilles as his hero instead  Vowed to visit site of Ancient Troy and lay a wreath on Achilles’ tomb  Achilles was the hero from the Iliad

 Invaded Persian Empire  Empire weaker than it had been  Still huge  Egypt to India  Success at conquering his own empire  Took Persia, Egypt, lands beyond the Indus River  Built cities wherever he conquered  Named many after himself: Alexandria, Alexandroupolis

 Success came from driving his army hard  Didn’t lose battles  Troops refused to go on  Soon after crossing Indus River  Alexander upset, but turned back  Caught fever in 323 BC  Age 33  Died  Sickness the cause?

 Kingdom split into thirds 50 years after his death  Greece/Macedonia, Egypt, Persia  Each ruled by one of his former commanders  Greek cities formed in each of these empires  Modeled after Ancient Greece  Language, architecture, entertainment  People moved from Greece to these cities  Spread Greek culture  Hellenism  Greek culture after the death of Alexander the Great  Hellas was the name the Greeks gave to their land

 Greatest of Hellenistic cities  Located in Egypt at the Nile Delta  Became capital  Center of business and trade  Lighthouse  Library  Largest in the world  500,000 scrolls  Used by scholars from all over the world

 Euclid  Developed geometry  Geometric proofs explaining geometric shapes  Eratosthenes  Calculated distance around the earth  Very close to correct distance  Archimedes  Developed the system of pulleys and levers for heavy lifting  Aristarchus  Believed sun to be center of universe, not the earth