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STORY LINES CHRONOLOGY I In the wake of the Peloponnesian War, divisions 404 b.c.e. Sparta defeats Athens in the within and among the Greek states eventually Peloponnesian War made them vulnerable to the imperial ambitions 401 b.c.e. Xenophon and the Ten Thousand of King Philip II of Macedonia and his son, begin their Persian expedition Alexander the Great. 395–338 b.c.e. The struggle for Greek hegemony (Thebes, Athens, Sparta) Before I Alexander’s conquest of the Persian Empire and Egypt united the civilizations of antiquity under 371 b.c.e. Epaminondas of Thebes defeats You Greco-Macedonian rule. Even after his untimely the Spartans at Leuctra death, a shared language and culture continued 356 b.c.e. Philip II becomes king to bind these civilizations together in a new of Macedonia Read Hellenistic (“Greek-like”) world. 338 b.c.e. Macedonia defeats Thebes and Athens at Chaeronea I Ease of travel, trade, and communication in this 336–323 b.c.e. Reign and campaigns of Alexander Hellenistic world fostered urbanization on an This 323–c. 275 b.c.e. Formation of the Hellenistic unprecedented scale. The resulting cosmopolitan kingdoms culture challenged traditional social, economic, and 323–c. 225 b.c.e. The Greek diaspora Chapter political norms, giving rise to new social classes, forms of wealth, and technological innovations. c. 300 b.c.e. Formation of the Aetolian and Achaean Leagues I The unique art forms and intellectual inquiries of 300–270 b.c.e. Rise of Stoicism and Epicureanism Greece were thus disseminated throughout this c. 300–200 b.c.e. The Hellenistic scientific revolution world, and transformed by it. 203–120 b.c.e. Lifetime of Polybius 87915 04 106-139 r2 rs.indd 106 09/09/10 10:23 PM 4 The Greek World Expands, 400–150 b.c.e. hen the young Alexander of Macedonia set out for Persia in 334 B.C.E, he brought along two CORE OBJECTIVES favorite books. The fi rst was a copy of the Iliad, which his teacher Aristotle had given him. I E X P L A I N Macedonia’s rise to power and its The second was the Anabasis, “The Inland triumph over the Greek poleis. Expedition,” by an Athenian called Xenophon (ZEN-oh-fon, I W DESCRIBE Alexander’s methods of conquest, 430–354 B.C.E). Both choices are signifi cant. The Iliad recounts colonization, and governance. the story of a much earlier Greek assault on Asia, and its I IDENTIFY the three main Hellenistic kingdoms protagonist is the hero Achilles—a fi gure with whom Alexander and their essential differences. identifi ed: consummate warrior, favorite of the gods, a man who I DEFINE the main characteristics of the Hellenistic inspired passionate loyalty. It is also full of information useful world. to someone planning a long campaign in foreign lands against I UNDERSTAND how new philosophies and a formidable enemy, with a fractious army drawn from all parts artistic movements reflect historical changes. of Greece and little prospect of bringing them home safely or soon. The Anabasis was an even more practical choice. Its author had been one of 10,000 Greek mercenaries hired by a Persian prince to overthrow his older brother, the Great King. The attempted coup failed, but Xenophon’s book made the prince, Cyrus, another role model for Alexander. It also told, in detail, how Persians fought, how they lived, how they were governed, and what the terrain of their vast empire was like. Moreover, it 107 87915 04 106-139 r2 rs.indd 107 09/09/10 10:24 PM showed what a dedicated army of hoplites could accomplish the so-called Corinthian War (395–387 B.C.E.). Eventually, on Persian soil. This book would be Alexander’s bible for the Spartans could bring the war to a conclusion only by the next ten years as he cut a victorious swath through the turning once again to Persia, as they had done in the fi nal ancient civilizations of the Near East. stages of the Peloponnesian War. The Persians brokered a An avid student of history, Alexander recognized that peace which they were also prepared to enforce, one which the golden age of the Greek polis had ended in the war of left Sparta in control. This pattern of Greek-on-Greek vio- attrition between Athens and Sparta. The fi fty years prior to lence, temporarily halted by the intervention of Persia, was his own birth in 356 B.C.E. had merely continued this trend repeated time and again over the next fi fty years, during on a smaller scale, as the dominant poleis—fi rst Sparta, which the advantage shifted steadily toward Persia. then Thebes, then Athens—jockeyed for prominence. Meanwhile, social and economic problems were mounting. Faith in the old ideals of democracy decayed as a vast gulf The Struggle for Hegemony opened up between the rich and the poor. Increasingly, the wealthy withdrew from politics altogether, while free citi- After the Corinthian War, the Spartans punished the zens were reduced to debt slavery. As the poleis decayed, most dangerous of their rivals, Thebes, by occupying the a new generation of intellectuals argued about what had city for four years. This subjugation to a military garrison gone wrong, and they tried to imagine how Greece could was intended and received as an act of humiliation, and be saved. One was Aristotle, pupil of Plato and Alexander’s own tutor. Under the circumstances, no one would have been able to predict that the era of greatest Greek infl uence lay ahead. For rather suddenly, the stalemate of the weakened poleis was shattered by the rise to prominence of a tiny kingdom on their northern borders. Beginning in the reign of King Philip II, Macedonia came to control the Greek mainland. Then, under Philip’s remarkable son, a united Greek and Macedonian army extended Greek culture and Greek gov- ernance from Egypt to the frontiers of India. This personal empire, the empire of Alexander, could not last. But a cultural empire built upon it did. For a thou- sand years, a Hellenistic (“Greek-like”) civilization united the disparate lands and peoples of a vast region, forming the basis of the more lasting Roman Empire and mirroring, in uncanny ways, the cosmopolitan world of our own time. How this happened is the subject of Chapter 4. THE DOWNFALL OF THE GREEK POLIS The Peloponnesian War had left Sparta as the dominant power in the Greek world, but the Spartans showed little tal- ent for their new preeminence. At home, Spartan politicians HONORING THE THEBAN SACRED BAND. According to ancient remained deeply divided over the wisdom of sending forces historians, all 300 of the Band’s sworn lovers fell at the Battle of beyond their frontiers; abroad, Spartan armies showed even Chaeronea in 338 b.c.e., when Thebes was defeated by Macedonian forces led by King Philip II and his son, Alexander. An excavation less restraint than the Athenians had done in subduing cities undertaken at this site in 1890 uncovered the remains of only 254 that should have been their allies. In 395, a signifi cant por- warriors, but is possible that some were buried elsewhere. This tion of Greece—including such sworn enemies as Athens, monument is a modern reconstruction of the one originally erected by Argos, Corinth, and Thebes—were aligned against Sparta in the citizens of Thebes toward the end of the fourth century b.c.e. 108 | CHAPTER 4 The Greek World Expands, 400–150 B.C.E. 87915 04 106-139 r2 rs.indd 108 09/09/10 10:24 PM when the Thebans regained their autonomy they elected as making a narrow wedge of ten men abreast whose hidden their leader a fi erce patriot who was also a military genius, strength he further disguised under a cover of arrows and Epaminondas (eh-pa-min-OHN-das, c. 410–362 B.C.E.). For javelin attacks. When the two sides met, the weight of the decades, various poleis had been experimenting with the Theban left drove through the Spartan right fl ank, break- basic form of the hoplite phalanx, adding light skirmish- ing this key phalanx in two and collapsing it. Epaminondas ers and archers to enhance its effectiveness. Epaminondas followed his victory by marching through Messenia and now went further. In imitation of the Spartan system, he freeing the helots. Spartan power—and the unique social formed an elite hoplite unit known as the Theban Sacred system that had supported it—was at an end. Overnight, Band, made up of 150 couples, sworn lovers who had ple- Epaminondas had reduced Sparta to a small, provincial dged to fi ght to the death for their polis and for each other’s polis and launched what has often been called the Theban honor. Epaminondas also trained a corps of lighter-armed, Hegemony. fast-moving infantry. By the early 370s, he was ready for But as Theban power grew, so did the animosity of the another trial of strength with the Spartans. other Greek poleis. In 371, Athens had supported Thebes The Theban and Spartan armies met at Leuctra in against Sparta, its ancient enemy, but when the Thebans 371 B.C.E.. Epaminondas defi ed convention by placing his and Spartans squared off again in 362 at the Battle of best troops (the Sacred Band) on the left-hand side of his Mantinea, the Athenians allied themselves with the weaker formation, and by stacking this phalanx fi fty rows deep, Spartans.