History Chapter 11 - Alexander the Great PDF

# Chapter 11 - Alexander the Great I imitate Herakles, emulate Perseus, and follow in the footsteps of Dionysos, the divine author and progenitor of my family, and desire that victorious Hellenes should dance again in India and revive the memory of the Bacchic revels among the savage mountain tri...

# Chapter 11 - Alexander the Great I imitate Herakles, emulate Perseus, and follow in the footsteps of Dionysos, the divine author and progenitor of my family, and desire that victorious Hellenes should dance again in India and revive the memory of the Bacchic revels among the savage mountain tribes beyond the Kaukasos... (Alexander the Great, as quoted in Plutarch's _On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander_) - Socrates and his students were products of their environment, in that they had the time and means to consider their place in the wider world and the universe at large. - In a book attributed to him entitled _Magna Moralia_, Plato's student, Aristotle, explains to his readers how it was due to Socrates that modern Athenians valued knowledge over physical prowess. - As committed to spreading Socratic philosophy and knowledge as Plato had been, Aristotle founded his own school in Athens called Lyceum. - At the behest of King Philip II of Macedon, he became a tutor to the king’s 13-year-old son, Prince Alexander. **Footnotes:** * 337 Lynch, John Patrick. _Aristotle’s School_. 1972. * 338 Chandler, Joyce Helen. _Alexander the Man: King Alexander_. 2006. Alexander inherited the kingdom of Macedon at the age of twenty when his father was assassinated in 336 BCE. Though he was a young ruler, Alexander was more than capable of acting the part of a king. He was well trained in the arts of horsemanship and war but also well educated under the tutelage of his esteemed teacher, Aristotle. - Alexander’s kingdom was everything that Pericles had hoped Athens could be. - Though Macedon did conduct the majority of its business in the capital city of Pella, it was comprised of other cities, villages, and farms and therefore not entirely focused on its capital, as Athens was. - Philip II had invaded the Greek city-states to the south just a few years previously, uniting almost every realm under Macedonian rule and giving himself and his son access to their formidable armies as part of the Hellenic League. - The Hellenic League was a unification of Greek realms that represented most of mainland and Aegean Greece under the leadership of the Kingdom of Macedon, including Athens but excluding Sparta. - Alexander had a vast empire in mind just as Pericles had, and with the powerful Macedonian kingdom his father had built as his foundation, the young king found his dream quite achievable. - He set out almost immediately upon his succession with a force of 40,000 soldiers to Thrace and then Thebes to quell the quick revolts that had sprung up against his rule. **Footnotes:** * 339 Ibid. * 340 Gabriel, Richard A. _Phillip II of Macedonia: Greater That Alexander_. 2010. * 341 Wenkart, Michael. _The 50 Most Influential People in History_. 2014. The new king was hesitant to march into Persia without first securing his own borders at home. His army dominated the Thracians and Illyrians to the north of Macedon, ensuring no rivalry there in the near future. He marched directly to Thebes thereafter, who had rebelled in tandem with Athens. Alexander and his troops all but destroyed Thebes, causing Athens to cautiously abandon its own revolutionary plans. **Footnotes:** * 342 Ibid. Satisfied that the home front was secure, Alexander marched eastward and left his trusted General Antipater as regent of Macedon and Commander of the Corinthian League (another name for the Hellenistic League). **Footnotes:** * 343 Ibid. In addition to his 40,000 soldiers, Alexander took 120 warships from Crete with the same number of men across the Aegean Sea into Persia. His first clash with the Persian forces was victorious, so he continued southeast along the eastern edge of the Aegean coast, freeing the Greek cities there who had been oppressed under the Persians since the days of King Xerxes, granting them the right to practice democracy under his leadership. His next stop was the Persian city of Gordium, where he intended to write himself into local legend. **Footnotes:** * 344 Ibid. * 345, 346 Ibid. Centuries earlier, Gordium had been a Phrygian city. Legend has it that the Phrygians, possibly descended from nomadic Thracians, had found themselves without leadership and could not decide on who among them should be crowned king. In true Greek fashion, they consulted an oracle who told them the next man to drive into town with an ox-cart would be their king. They followed this advice and so ordained Gordias their king. His ox-cart was tied to a pole using an excessive multitude of complex knots, and there it stayed until Alexander of Macedon happened upon it. **Footnotes:** * 347, 348 Ibid. * 349 Ibid. Any man who could unfasten the knot, the oracle had said, was destined to rule all of Asia. Alexander determined that man would be himself. He tried pulling at various sections of the ancient knot but saw that it was futile and instead brandished his sword. Slashing through the legendary Gordian Knot, the young emperor proclaimed that it mattered not how the knot was loosed so long as the problem had been solved. **Footnotes:** * 350 Ibid. In 333 BCE, the Greek army faced Darius III, named in honor of the father of King Xerxes, the man whose forces were defeated by Themistocles and the Athenians at sea. After prolonged fighting between the two kings' armies, Darius fled and left his own army in disarray, along with his wife and mother. Alexander was victorious once more. After dividing up the conquered lands under the administrative rule of his allies, the young warlord made his way to Egypt via a very reluctant Gaza. **Footnotes:** * 351 Green, Peter. _Alexander of Macedon: 356-323 B.C._ 1991. * 352 Ibid. Amazingly, the Egyptians welcomed Alexander and his conquering army with open arms, the priests of Memphis happily anointing him their chosen king. Though the Macedonian's moniker was King of Asia for besting the Gordian Knot, it was the political annexation of Egypt under Greek rule that seemed to give him the most pride. He spent six months in the new Macedonian province, laying the groundwork for his brand-new city of Alexandria and meeting with local diplomats and governors. **Footnotes:** * 353 Ibid. * 354 Skelton, Debra, and Pamela Dell. _Empire of Alexander the Great._ 2009. During his time in Egypt, Alexander organized a cultural and sports festival whose feats and exhibitions celebrated both Egyptian and Greek civilizations. Alexander’s vision for Egypt was that of the most modern society - a mixture of Greeks and Egyptians who valued higher learning, architectural beauty, and, of course, military might. The time came when the Greeks were finally compelled to leave Egypt, and on their way home, they claimed Babylon and even lay claim to a large swathe of the Indus River Valley in India. He came away with several thousand war elephants with which to terrorize the Middle and Far East. Unfortunately, by that point, his army had had enough. They were wary of the massive forces of the Nanda Empire awaiting them in the southern portions of India and were eager to go home and enjoy the fruits of their 12-year labor. **Footnotes:** * 355 Ibid. * 356 Muehlbauer, Matthew S. and David J. Ulbrich (editors). _The Routledge History of Global War and Society_. 2018. Facing mutiny, Alexander was convinced to return to Greece at long last. Alas, he did not make it that far. In June of 323 BCE, Alexander of Macedon died following a sudden illness. Several accounts of his death survive, many of which suggest that the king was poisoned in the same fashion as his dear friend, Hephaestion, who died shortly before. Alexander died in Babylon, but his mummified corpse was sealed in a golden sarcophagus and sent to Macedon. En route, the sarcophagus was intercepted by Ptolemy I Soter who brought it to Memphis; Ptolemy II Philadelphus later brought it to Alexandria, where it remained on public display for all of Classical Antiquity. **Footnotes:** * 357 Heckel, Waldemar and Lawrence A. Tritle (editors). _Alexander the Great: A New History_. 2011. * 358 Robert S. Bianchi. "Hunting Alexander's Tomb". Archaeology.org. 2004. * 359 Ibid. By the 4th century CE, the location of the tomb was no longer known. Extensive searches for Alexander's remains have been fruitlessly conducted ever since. **Footnotes:** * 360 Ibid.