Chapter 4

Section 5Alexander the Great

Hellenistic Period

Phillip II359 B.C. Phillip II becomes king of

Macedonia• Admired Greek Culture• Defeated the Greek city-states• Unification of Greece 338 B.C. • Phillip II is assassinated at his

daughters wedding in 336 B.C.

Alexander the Great• 20 years old at the death of his father and

becomes King of Macedonia and Greece• Alexander invades Asia / Persia 334 B.C. • Invasion lasts for 8 years and covers

20,000 miles– 37,000 men and as many support people

• His empire now stretched from Greece to India

• Built the City of Alexandria as the Greek capital of Egypt

• Generals fought each other for power

• In the end, the empire was divided among three most powerful generals

• Called themselves kings– Antigonus became king of

Macedonia and Greece– Seleucus ruled Persian

Empire – Ptolemy ruled Egypt

Power Struggle• Alexander’s empire largest

world had ever seen

• Did not rule very long

• 323 BC, Alexander fell ill while in Babylon

• Died a few days later at age 33

• Alexander died without naming heir

Death at Early AgeEnd of the Empire

Defeated - the Persian Darius IIControlled all of the Persian Empire

Hellenistic Period• Alexander’s legacy – Alexander and his

successors spread Greek language, art, literature, and architecture throughout Western Asia and North Africa

• Considerable increase in the knowledge of art, philosophy, math and the sciences

• Alexandria became the center of knowledge and a had large library of 500,000 scrolls

• Athens remained the center of Greek theatre

Hellenism - Hellenistic• Advances in Science

– Euclid wrote the “Elements” a text on plane geometry

– Archimedes worked on the geometry of spheres and cylinders and developed the constant “pi”• also devised the

Archimedes screw

Hellenistic Achievements and Beliefs

• Astronomy/GeographyEratosthenes – astronomer theorized the earth was round and calculated the circumference to be 24,675 miles (within 185 miles of the actual)

• Mathematics/Physics– Value of Pi, steam engine, levers• Art of Sculptures – Colossus of Rhodes

Colossus of RhodesOne of the Seven Wonders of the WorldOn the island of Rhodes

What is Stoicism and What did they believe?

Answer: • A school of thought (philosophy) developed by the teacher

Zeno in Hellenistic Athens.• It says that happiness can be achieved only when people

gain inner peace by living in harmony with the will of God • That people should bear whatever life offers• The real “stoic” is a perfect citizen

Philosophy