Name Key Period Date Chapter 8: The Ancient Greeks Lesson 4: Alexander s Great Empire Big Idea: Alexander the Great built the first empire to begin in Europe and spread Greek civilization to parts of Asia. First Paragraph 1) diffuse spread After the Peloponnesian War, the Greek city-states fought small battles with each other. Then in 338 BCE the kingdom of Macedonia conquered all of the Greek city-states. The Macedonian leader Alexander the Great went on to build a huge empire. The Making of an Emperor Alexander was the son of King Philip II and a Greek mother, Olympias. His parents wanted him to love Greek culture, so they hired a famous Greek philosopher to tutor him: Aristotle. Alexander was interested in many subjects, including: Literature Philosophy Politics
While Aristotle taught Alexander about other cultures, Alexander s father taught him about warfare. Alexander s schooling ended when he was just 16 years old because he had to fight in his father s army. Alexander was the commander of the cavalry (soldiers on horseback) by the time he was 18. Alexander became the king when he was just 20 years old. When King Philip died and Alexander became the king, many Greek city-states rebelled. Alexander s army attacked the Greek city of Thebes when it rebelled. Alexander crushed the city and sold its people into slavery. This discouraged other Greek city-states from rebelling. The Building of an Empire When Alexander had the Greek cities under his control, he turned the attack on the Persian Empire. After he conquered many of the cities on the coast of Asia Minor. Legend says that Alexander became king of Gordium, a city in Asia Minor, by cutting the Gordian knot. Another legend states that Alexander conquered the island city of Tyre by building a causeway, or land bridge.
Alexander then went to Egypt. The Egyptians were happy to be free from Persian rule, so they crowned Alexander pharaoh. After Egypt, Alexander defeated a much larger Persian army at Gaugamela and forced the Persian emperor, Darius III, to flee. This ended more than 200 years of Persian rule in southwestern Asia. Alexander then conquered cities like Babylon and Persepolis. The End of the Empire 1) expeditions journeys of exploration 2) legacy something lasting left behind by someone who has died. Alexander moved his army to the Indus River, and Alexander planned to push them to the Ganges River, but his army refused to follow him. He ordered his army to return home, but he only made it as far as Babylon. He died from a fever that was probably caused by malaria. After Alexander died, his empire quickly split into many parts. The largest kingdoms were: Egypt Macedonia Syria These kingdoms were often at war with each other.
Alexander s Legacy 1) scholars seekers of knowledge Alexander spread Greek culture throughout the world. His rule and the time that followed was known as Hellenistic Age, meaning Greek-like. This was a time of great achievement. Alexander built many new cities in his empire, and they became centers for learning.
The library at Alexandria, Egypt contained more than 500,000 scrolls of papyrus. There were many Hellenistic scholars who made important contributions, including: Euclid - he did much important work in geometry. He also wrote a famous textbook called the Elements. Archimedes he used mathematics to create many useful machines, such as the screw pump and siege engines. He also famously described the properties of a lever, and said, Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth. It is believed that he also discovered how to find the volume of irregularly shaped objects, leading him to shout, Eureka! in the bathtub. Aristarchus He used mathematics to present a heliocentric model of the universe (he was the first to do so). His idea that the planets revolved around the sun (he even had them in the correct order) was rejected in favor of the geocentric model presented by Ptolemy and Aristotle. Later, Copernicus revived the idea that the planets revolved around the sun. Eratosthenes He served as a librarian at Alexandria and figured out the circumference of the earth. He also developed a very simple method for finding prime numbers, which mimicked a sieve.