1. Hellenistic Kingdoms and Culture: The Legacy of Alexander the Great

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

6. 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

7. 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
Alexandria at N of Nile, a mini Greece
Light house at Pharos 440 feet high
Women had more rights not restrict to homes could learn to read and write
Women came into power Cleopatra

9. 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
Stoics all people are morally equal and should have equal protection of rights
Pythagoras theory
Euclid basics of geometry
Aristarchus Earth rotates on axis around the sun
Archimedes lever and pulley, pie, geometry of spheres and cylinders, screw
Hippocrates oath studied causes of illness ethical standards Alexandria, Egypt = largest library in ancient times with more than 5000 scrolls
Attracted many scholars to area
Unfortunately very little literature from time period survived
Theory = sun center of universe (Aristarchus) = people do not accept! (Earth centered universe accepted)
Eratosthenes = determined that the Earth was round

10. Archimedes