Alexander and the Great Hellenistic Age – was the supreme achievement, of Alexander the great. When summarizing the rich heritage from Greece, mention must be made that the great weakness — the Achilles’ heel of the city-states was – their inability to unite politically as one nation. The struggle for leadership, or hegemony as the Greeks called it, led both to the decline of Greece and the loss of her independence.
The citystates exhausted themselves with interstate wars so that it was easy for an outsider, Philip of Macedon, to conquer them and force union upon them. From there on the story moves into the amazing and unique feats of Philip’s son, Alexander the Great, who conquered much of the known world and sought to fuse therein the cultures of Greece and the Orient.
Notable is the effect upon Alexander’s troops of his personal bravery and self-confidence and that Alexander’s supreme achievement was the Hellenistic Age, a period in world history that lasted for about three hundred years. Some of the Oriental ideas and customs that were fused with the Greek during that age, have come down to us as part of Western civilization.
THE FALL OF ATHENS
The imperialism of Athens resulted in an unfortunate war with Sparta.
Both Athens and Sparta had shared in the defeat of Persia in Greece, but it was not long before the two were rivals again.
The Athenian navy was credited with the defeat of Persia, so some of the city-states facing Asia Minor were willing to join Athens in a naval league in the hope of forestalling any future invasion by Persia. In a short time, most of the coastal cities and colonies and the islands of the Aegean had joined this alliance. Its treasury was kept on the island of Delos, giving the alliance the name Delian League. As head of the confederation, Athens had command of the joint fleet and the right to collect money from the League’s members.
When the Aegean Sea had been cleared of the Persians and threat of another Persian war seemed past, many of Athens’ allies asked to withdraw from the Delian League. Then Athens’ imperialism reared its head. She took stock of her situation and said, “Nol” She wanted to keep the Mediterranean markets she was developing and destroy her commercial rivals.
When members of the League tried to pull out, Athens attacked them, disarmed them and forced them to pay tribute. In just such ways she made many of her allies into subjects and the naval alliance became an Athenian empire of some 300 city-states.
Sparta and her ally, Corinth, resented Athens’ growing trade and power. When, in B. C. 431, Athens attempted to “move in” on the trade of Corinth, she plunged Greece into the Peloponnesian Wars, civil wars which lasted some twenty-seven years, counting the intervals of peace. [The wars were named after the peninsula on which Sparta was located.]
Sparta and her allies invaded Attica, plundered the land and set siege to Athens. A plague stepped in and took the lives of a third of the people, including that of Pericles. In the end, Athens had lost her naval power and was starved into surrendering to sparta in B. C. 404. In return for the financial help, Persia had given Sparta in these wars, the Greek city-states in Asia Minor, were returned to Persia.
Weakened by the Peloponnesian Wars, the remaining city-states were easily conquered.
Internal dissension and jealousy broke what unity there had been among them. Thebes challenged Spartan rule, defeated the Spartans and became the military leader of Greece. Thus, as the city-states knocked each other out instead of uniting for the common good, the door was open for an outsider to conquer and unify them.
The outsider was Philip II, the remarkable king of Macedonia — the region northeast of Greece. Philip had been a hostage in Thebes for three years, when a youth and the Greek education he had received in Thebes, made him greatly admire Greek culture.
Philip had learned the arts of warfare from a Theban general, so when he became king, he built a strong standing army and kept his men under a strict program of exercise and drill. He united Macedonia and extended his kingdom eastward to the Hellespont. Among other moves for power, Philip took some colonies claimed by Athens and then set out to unify his Greek possessions. Gradually more and more city-states came under his sway.
Meanwhile, the flame of Greek liberty had not gone out and Athenians were debating Philip’s actions. Demosthenes, an Athenian statesman, begged his fellow townsmen to recognize what Philip was up to, to arm themselves and to lead the nearby city-states to fight for their liberty. The arguments went on for years. Finally, Demosthenes’ arguments and Philip’s advance towards Athens, persuaded the Athenians to fight. In B. C. 338 an army was organized hastily and sent towards Philip.
At Chaeronea, Philip’s dashing 18-year-old son Alexander, led the Macedonian cavalry in a victorious charge that ended Greek liberty. While the Greeks still considered Philip’ an outsider, they were forced to accept him as their leader. In a meeting at Corinth, each state pledged to aid Philip in a war against Persia.
LINKING THE PAST AND THE PRESENT
Alexander the Great, used many means to spread Greek culture in the regions he conquered. Among other things was the holding of athletic contests that were typically Greek. The games were often a shock to Orientals who were not used to seeing athletes expose so much of their bodies. At the same time, the Orientals were impressed by the Greek emphasis on individual contests in preference to team games. In our day, we find that the Olympic Games and the Pan-American Games do much to build understanding and good will among the athletes of participating nations.
THE CONQUESTS OF ALEXANDER
Philip’s plan to conquer Persia passed to his son.
While preparing for his march upon that great empire, the Macedonian king was assassinated. His son, Alexander, inherited the throne. As a boy, the young king had hoped that someday he would have the opportunity to conquer Persia. When the chance came, he apparently proved to be a more brilliant leader than his father.
Alexander had been tutored by the great Aristotle and had the greatest respect for Greek culture. When he came to the throne at the age of twenty, he had already proved he could lead an army. Before marching on Persia, Alexander went into the Greek peninsula with a picked force. He wanted to make it clear that he was the Greeks’ friend as well as their master. He called their leaders to a conference at Corinth as his father had done. There he outlined his plans for the conquest of Persia and was recognized as the leader of the Hellenes against the barbarians.
Soon after the conference, Alexander heard that Thebes was revolting. He marched there, took the city by surprise and let his men destroy everything, but the temples and the poet Pindar’s house. The Greeks recognized the bitter lesson and hurried to form a new league. Again, all the city-states except Sparta, promised to support Alexander’s campaign in Asia.
The conquest of Persia was begun in the spring of B. C. 334
Besides an army of between 30,000 and 40,000 men, Alexander had with him philosophers, historians and scientists. With him he carried the Iliad, which he often kept under his pillow at night.
The young king, but twenty-two years old, first visited the site of Troy, or Ilium. There he anointed Achilles’ tomb with oil and vowed he would carry to a successful end the struggle between Europe and Asia, which had begun long ago at Troy. Having paid tribute to one of his Greek heroes, Alexander launched his conquest of Persia, the most extensive empire in the ancient world. He opened a gateway to Asia Minor by winning his first battle at the river Granicus. Then he freed the Greek cities of Asia Minor one by one and offered each one democratic self-government under his protection.
The Persian king, Darius III, tried to cut Alexander’s supply lines from the rear and thereby brought on a battle at Issus. Alexander won a brilliant victory. The Persian king fled in panic, leaving his family as captives. Alexander had a taste of Oriental royal life after the battle, when he bathed in the luxurious bathtub of the great king. He remarked, “So, this is royalty!”
With Darius out of the way, the young Macedonian marched his men southward, toward Egypt. Except for Tyre and Gaza, which he had to take by force, Alexander was welcomed in Palestine, Syria and Egypt, as one who would relieve them of the tribute, Persia collected annually.
The young conqueror showed his respect for the Egyptian gods by making a long, hot journey across the desert to the Temple of Ammon west of Memphis. As he left the temple, the priests greeted him as the “Son of Ammon,” which meant that he could henceforth be honoured as divine. The interview was private and Alexander never revealed the conversation. He wrote his mother there were secrets which he would tell her on his return to Macedonia, but he never saw his mother or Macedonia again.
The most important aspect of this mysterious visit to the Oasis of Siwa was the change which occurred later in Alexander’s manner and nature. When he reached the heart of Persia and had close contact with Persian officers, he required the ceremony of prostration in his presence. This was difficult for his Macedonian soldiers to understand and accept. They also were required to treat him as a divine king. Under the Greek tradition of democracy, they had been used to meeting and talking to Alexander man to man. All at once, the situation was altered. They were now men, addressing a god.
There was much justification for Alexander’s attitude. If he were to rule an Oriental empire, his divinity would be respected, for many Orientals were brought up with the idea that the ruler was divine.
Leaving the Mediterranean region, Alexander moved into the heart of Persia.
In B. C. 331, Alexander marched across Mesopotamia to the Tigris River near Nineveh. One September night, he crossed the river to where Darius III waited with an army and cavalry. The ensuing Battle of Arbela, ended with Darius fleeing eastward and later, to be killed by his own officers as a traitor. Alexander was soon proclaimed king of Asia by right of conquest. Babylon, Susa (the Persian capital) and Persepolis, opened their gates to him. It is said that Alexander made his weary troops feel better by dividing among them part of the 300 million dollars’ worth of gold, he found in Darius’ vaults at Susa.
Alexander’s men wanted to return home, but he wanted to push his empire to the eastern edge of the known world, which he believed was beyond the Indus River. On his way he crossed the Hindu Kush mountain chain, into Sogdiana where Bokhara is now located.
Among his captives in Sogdiana was Roxane, the daughter of a chief. Although Alexander never surrendered in battle, he did surrender to romance. Roxane was young, beautiful, graceful and extremely well-mannered for a barbarian. Alexander married Roxane because he had fallen in love with her and because he wished to tie Europe and Asia together on the basis of equality. He hoped this gesture would help to break down the barrier between West and East.
The year B. C. 327 saw Alexander passing over the Himalayas into India. Crossing the Indus, he defeated the local king and said he was going on to the Ganges. His soldiers refused to go farther. Alexander sent part of his men home by way of Kandahar, sailed down the Indus to the Indian Ocean and travelled overland across the desert wastes of Baluchistan, to Susa.
At Susa, Alexander decided that the long quarrel between Europe and Asia should end in a wedding feast. He would be a Greco-Persian emperor governing a realm where Greeks and Persians would mingle their culture and their blood as one people. As a symbol of that union he married Statira, daughter of the murdered King Darius. At the same time, eighty of his officers took Persian brides.
Sometime later, Alexander led his army to Babylon. There, in B. C. 323, he caught a fever, ignored his illness, ate and drank excessively. The fever did not break. The palace doors were opened and his heartbroken soldiers passed silently by his dying body. Their thirty-three-year-old leader, feebly waved his hand in a sad farewell and in B.C. 323, on June 13, he died. His empire soon crumbled, but his plan of mixing Hellenic and Oriental civilization, resulted in the Hellenistic Age.
THE HELLENISTIC AGE
Alexander planned a fusion of civilizations.
To be sure, Alexander was a remarkable military genius, but his main place in history is often overlooked because of his military conquests. His greater claim to fame, lies in the plans he was making, to fuse Greek and Oriental civilizations. While Alexander believed the Greeks had developed a superior civilization, he realized that he could not force the Greek way of life upon the Oriental peoples. To successfully rule West and East, he must blend the two civilizations.
Historians have speculated on the manner in which, the course of history could have been altered, had Alexander lived another twenty years. He may have gone far, in fostering the unity that he envisioned for his empire. Speculate as we may, we have only one fact before us, after he was gone: there was no one who shared his ability or his desire to carry out such a dream.
When his generals asked Alexander to whom he was leaving his empire, he is said to have answered, “To the strongest.” After a generation of exhausting wars among those who contended for control, Alexander’s empire was divided into three parts. Greece and Macedonia fell into the hands of Antigonus, grandson of one of Alexander’s great generals. Most of the Asiatic section of the empire, was seized by Seleucus, another one of Alexander’s generals. Ptolemy, the ablest of Alexander’s officers, took Egypt. He founded a line of rulers called the Ptolemies,
Alexander took definite steps toward creating a world state.
Many historians recognize that Alexander’s central problem, like the central problem of our time, was this: How can the peoples of the world live together in peace? His immediate problem was how to keep the Greeks in line and at the same time, unify the lands he was conquering. In solving the immediate problem, he was taking several definitive steps, which we may sum up and examine.
Alexander’s basic plan for organizing an empire, was launched in Egypt. He won goodwill by making sacrifices to the Egyptian gods. The trip to the Temple of Ammon, made him feel that he would be accepted as the divine Pharaoh, a son of Ammon. Having clarified that point, Alexander made it clear that he was introducing Greek customs into Egypt. He held athletic games at Memphis. He founded Alexandria, as a city where the best in Greek, Egyptian and Macedonian cultures could be fused.
Imperial political rule was left in the hands of two native monarchs, but as a safeguard, he left the control of finances with a Greek official. On the military side, he set up a committee of several military commanders, to guard against a military dictatorship. Alexander followed this system in other parts of his empire; he selected Persians to rule in Persia and Indians to rule in India.
Alexander accepted the Oriental way of life, in adopting the Persian custom of wearing lavish clothes on state occasions. When he first appeared in Persian dress, his followers were shocked and offended. Gradually they saw the positive effect it had upon Oriental peoples and were more willing to follow his example.
Alexander’s decision to make Greek the official language of his empire, had a unifying effect and strengthened his control. Greek became the universal language of the Middle-East for the educated classes, as English has become the most important language of diplomacy in today’s world.
Alexander’s second step in mixing Hellenic and Oriental civilizations, was to lay out cosmopolitan cities. which would include various peoples For example, after he organized the Egyptian government at Memphis, he sailed down the Nile in B. C. 332, to found a new city. It is said, that he picked a site near the the mouth of the Nile and laid out a city with, white flour on the black soil. Of the ten Alexandrias he founded, this city became the most famous.
Alexander’s fusion plan encouraged intermarriage between Greeks and Orientals, particularly Persians. Alexander married Roxane and Statira, to set an example and encouraged thousands of Macedonians, to take Asiatic brides.
Determined to break down trade barriers and permit a freer exchange of goods, Alexander established a uniform currency. New overland trade routes were developed, to connect Europe, Asia and Africa. Guards patrolled these routes to ward-off bandits. Wells were dug at intervals, for watering stops. There were international laws to protect traders. River traffic was improved. Docks, harbours and warehouses, were built. Ideas as well as goods, were exchanged.
The Hellenistic Age was one of change and expansion.
The adjective Hellenistic, is usually attached to the period from B. C. 323, when Alexander died, to B. C. 31, when the Romans conquered Egypt. It was a period, when Hellenic culture was being spread over Alexander’s empire.
Alexander had spread a network of Greek cities over the East, thus creating new markets and an economic union of East and West. Banks became important. Money was borrowed and loaned; interest was paid; checks and drafts were used. Thousands and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Greeks migrated to the East, where native rulers made many of them government officials. Merchants, bankers, lawyers and teachers, found many opportunities awaiting them and often they became part of the wealthy ruling class.
The greatest cultural centre was Alexandria, in Egypt, where the Ptolemies reigned. They were Macedonians and greatly respected the Greek culture. The famous library housed about 700,000 books, handwritten on rolls of papyrus. Some 14,000 students attended the Museum, which we would call the University. Scholarships were granted to gifted students. Some of the greatest scholars of the Hellenistic Age, studied there.
The burden of supporting the economy and the growing wealthy class fell heavily upon the slaves and that great majority of the poorly paid population, which had no political rights — the masses. Slaves were especially common in farming and industry, while chain-gangs of criminals and prisoners-of-war, worked the mines and stone quarries. In the latter part of the Hellenistic Age, revolts among the slaves were common. The widespread existence of slavery and poverty was, perhaps, the basic weakness in Hellenistic culture.
The arts.
The architecture, sculpture and iterature, were essentially Greek in spirit and character. There were great artists and thinkers, but most of them did not approach in grandeur or in excellence, those of the Periclean Age of Athens. One of the outstanding scholars was Euclid, who lived about B. C. 300. Modern geometry is based to a large extent, on his studies. Another great mathematician was Archimedes of Sicily. He was noted especially for his studies of the circle, the spiral, the sphere and the cylinder.
Medicine.
Hippocrates’ influence still dominates medicine, even though he lived two centuries earlier. Since he was the first great physician, he has been called the “Father of Medicine.” Medical men of the Hellenistic Age followed Hippocrates’ example, in carefully observing and diagnosing illness and so, added to the discoveries of Hippocrates. For one thing, by dissecting the bodies of dead criminals, they discovered the nervous system and the fact that the brain is the seat of consciousness rather than the heart. Galen summed up the medical knowledge of the time, in books which were used as authorities for many centuries.
Education and philosophy.
In the field of education, the state began to assume the responsibility for learning. Many schools were supported by the state. The outstanding philosopher was Zeno. Stoic philosophy — the name given to the teachings of Zeno of Cyprus and his pupils — furnished the pre-Christian world, with a high ideal of the way life should be lived. The Stoics believed that developing the life of the spirit or soul, was more important than acquiring material riches. They advocated the brotherhood of man, world government, service to others and belief in one god.
Epicurus of Samos taught, that human life is the only life man will have, so he should have both bodily and mental pleasures during his lifetime, but especially intellectual satisfactions.
A third group of philosophers was known as Skeptics. They argued that it is not possible to know anything outside the five physical senses; that no two people agree as to what is painful or pleasurable. Therefore, they concluded, if no one knows what is true, a wise man will follow the customs of his neighbours and not try to have ideas or opinions of his own. Besides its advances in science, the Hellenistic Age made a contribution to world civilization, by diffusing Greek culture throughout the ancient East. At the back of that culture, was a people who critically examined each problem and looked for an answer that was in accord with the natural world. This inquiring approach to life was indeed a lasting gift to the growth of civilization.
During the latter part of the Hellenistic Age, the power of Rome began to dominate the Greco-Persian world. The “glory that was Greece”, was transformed into the “grandeur that was Rome.” The Roman Empire did not extinguish the Hellenistic culture, but mingled with it and helped develop a Greco-Roman civilization.
ARCHIMEDES — (c. B. C. 287 – 212) Few men in any age achieve the fame won by Archimedes of ancient Syracuse, in Sicily. Living from about B. C. 287 to 212, Archimedes is remembered as one of the world’s greatest mathematicians and scientists. He was fascinated by machines and is credited, with having invented a variety of mechanical devices. These included a hydraulic machine with a water-screw, made as an aid to irrigation in Egypt.
Amusing legends developed about a man such as Archimedes. One, relates how puzzling over a problem, he discovered the laws of specific gravity, by observing the displacement of water as he stepped into a bath. He shouted, “Eureka! Eureka! l have found it! I have found it!” and ran home without his belongings.
Archimedes’ death in B. C. 212, was a tragic one. In capturing the city of Syracuse, the Roman general Marcellus gave orders that the life and home of the great scientist should be saved. A Roman soldier, who did not recognize Archimedes, killed him as he was drawing a mathematical figure on the sand. Marcellus directed that Archimedes be given an honourable burial in keeping with his achievements.
