Greek imperialism. Empires, imperialisms, ancient and modern. (Lecture 5)

1. Lecture 5 Greek Imperialism II. EMPIRES, IMPERIALISMS, ANCIENT AND MODERN

IBSU
2016

2. Main Topics

• Greek Imperialism II.
The Rise of Macedon.
The Empire of Alexander.
The Diadochi.
The Hellenization of the East.

3. The Rise of Macedon, Philip II

• He was a member of
the Argead dynasty, the
third son of King
Amyntas III, and father
of Alexander the Great
and Philip III

4. The Rise of Macedon, Philip II

• military skills and
expansionist vision
• Using diplomacy
His most important innovation
was the introduction of
the phalanx infantry corps,
armed with the famous sarissa,
an exceedingly long spear, at the
time the most important army
corps in Macedonia.
Philip pushed back the Paionians
and Thracians promising tributes,
and crushed the 3,000
Athenian hoplites (359).

5. Philip II and Diplomatic marriages

Diplomatic marriages
Philip II
and Diplomatic marriages
Philip had married Audata, greatgranddaughter of the Illyrian king
of Dardania, Bardyllis. However, this
did not prevent him from marching
against them in 358 and crushing
them in a battle in which some 7,000
Illyrians died (357).
By this move, Philip established his
authority inland as far as Lake
Ohrid and earned the favour of
the Epirotes.
Philip had married
the Epirote princess Olympias, who
was the daughter of the king of
the Molossians.

6. Monetary system

Philip II gold stater, with head of Apollo.
Silver tetradrachms dated back to the
reign of Philip II

7.

8. Building Regional Empire

Gaining Resources
Defeating an alliance of
Thebans and Athenians at
the Battle of Chaeronea in
338 BC,
Philip created and led
the League of Corinth in 337
BC
Philip was elected as leader
-hegemon of the army of
invasion against the Persian
Empire.
During 356 BC, Philip
also conquered the town
of Crenides and changed
its name to Philippi: he
established a powerful
garrison there to control
its mines, which granted
him much of the gold
later used for his
campaigns.

9. From the Regional Empire towards to the World Empire

• In 342 BC, Philip led a great
military expedition north against
the Scythians, conquering the
Thracian fortified settlement
Eumolpia to give it his
name, Philippopolis (modern Plov
div).
The status of Thrace in
342-334 under the
Macedonian sway as a
kind of regular satrapy.
• Philip II as he built his power
and created many
institutions to imitate those
known from the Achaemenid
Empire.
established a Royal Secretary
and Archive.
used a special throne
borrowed from the
Achaemenid court to
demonstrate his elevated
rank.

10. From the Regional Empire towards to the World Empire Alexander III (356-323 BC), or Alexander the Great

• Alexander was tutored by
Aristotle in science and the
political arts
• received a complete education
in military tactics and strategy
from the great Macedonian
generals, Antipater and
Parmenion.
• his first diplomatic experience
while he was still a child, when
he received the ambassadors of
Persia during his father's
absence.

11. From the Regional Empire towards to the World Empire Alexander III (356-323 BC), or Alexander the Great

• revolted in Thebes in
335 BC.
• The remaining Greek
states hastened to offer
ships and men for
Alexander's next
venture, an attack on
the Persians in Asia
Minor.
As a warning to the
other Greeks, Alexander
destroyed Thebes,
except for their
temples.

12. From the Regional Empire towards to the World Empire Alexander III (356-323 BC), or Alexander the Great

• Wars against Persia
• Foundation New Cities
• 334 BC. Granicus River
• Phrygia to Gordius.
• northern Syria, Battle of Issus in
333 BC.
• into Assyria & Babylonia
• Persia
• Afghanistan and Turkestan and
eventually penetrating India. When
his soldiers refused to proceed
further east, Alexander returned to
Babylon in 325 BC.
• During 332 and 331 BC Alexander
founded the Nile city of Alexandria.

13. From the Regional Empire towards to the World Empire Alexander III (356-323 BC), or Alexander the Great

14. From the Regional Empire towards to the World Empire a major problems

• spoke many different
languages, and there
where many differed
customs.
• creating a uniform
economic and cultural
world stretching from
the Straits of Gibraltar
to the Indus River.
• Governing problems

15. Diversity in opinion regarding his political status

• In the old Persian
Empire Alexander
was an absolute
monarch!
• In Egypt he was
worshiped as a god!
• to the Greek he was
merely a
commander-inchief!
His choice!
Empire, desired to model his whole
government after Persian absolutism.
He had planned to create a ruling class
by intermarriage of Macedonian and
Persian nobles.
He himself married foreign, Roxanne
of Bacteria and later a Persian
princess.
Alexander demanded that Greeks
and Macedonians fall at his feet and
kiss the dust before him, he
demanded that they recognize him as
a god, as in fact the son of Zeus.

16. Answers on these challenges Hellenistic Age (323-146 BC.)

Results
• a common Graeco-Oriental
culture.
• all benefited from the
release of Persian gold.
• A single trade area was
opened to the merchants of
each region.
• The new trade areas
opened we know today as
the famous "Silk Routes".
values & standards
he married Darius' daughters
Barsine (also called Stateira) and
Hephaestion married her sister
Drypetis, and 10,000 of Macedonian
soldiers which married with native
wives were given generous gifts.
• incorporate Persians on equal terms
in the army and the administration
of the provinces was heavily
criticized by Macedonians.
• Persian aristocracy had been
accepted into the royal cavalry
bodyguard.

17. Hellenistic Age (323-146 BC.)

Results
• all benefited from the
release of Persian gold.
values & standards
• the establishment of a
new coinage with a silver
standard based on that
of Athens in place of the old
bimetallic system current
(Bimetallism, monetary
standard or system based
upon the use of two metals,
traditionally GOLD AND
SILVER, rather than one
(monometallism) .

18. new coinage with a silver standard 

new coinage with a silver standard
This coin is an excellent example of an early Alexander
tetradrachm, which would have circulated throughout the
empire.
This is a lifetime issue - 325-323 B.C - The
legs of Zeus are side by side)

19. values & standards

values & standards
• Alexander’s foundation
of new cities—
Plutarch speaks of over
70—initiated a new
chapter in Greek
expansion…..
No doubt many of the
colonists, by no means
volunteers, deserted
these cities, and
marriages with native
women led to some
dilution of Greek ways.
His plans for racial
fusion, on the other
hand, were a failure.

20. values & standards

values & standards
• the spread
of Hellenic thought and
customs over much of
Asia as far
as Bactria and India.
• multilingualism and Greek as a
lingua Franca
• spread Hellenism in a vast
colonizing wave throughout
the Middle East and created, if not
politically at least economically
and culturally, a single world
stretching from Gibraltar to the
Punjab, open to trade and social
intercourse and with a
considerable overlay of common
civilization and the Greek koinē as
a lingua franca.

21. values & standards

values & standards
• under his supervision was
prepared in Babylon an
immense fleet, a great basin
dug out to contain 1000
ships, and the watercommunications of Babylonia
taken in hand.
• Innovations were carried out
in the tactical system of the
army which were to modify
considerably the methods of
future battle-fields.
• it is clear that he set up
a central organization
with collectors perhaps
independent of the
local satraps.
• chief treasurer.

22. International Contacts

• 325 BC in spring at Babylon he received
complimentary embassies from
• the Libyans a
• from the Bruttians,
• From Etruscans, and Lucanians of Italy;
• representatives of the cities of Greece who
came to celebrate and confirm Alexander's
divine status.

23. The Diadochi- the heirs

• Ptolemy Lagus,
Alexander's half bother
(Egypt and Palestine);
• Seleucus Nicator
(Mesopotamia and Syria);
• Cassander (Macedonia
and Greece);
• Antigonus (Asia Minor)
• Lysimachus (Thrace).