• Hellenistic - periodisation of history, Alexander and aftermath
• Not a one-way road - Middle Eastern influences on Greece as well as Hellenistic influences elsewhere
• Evidence - Greek papyri mostly gone bc climate - Egyptian papyri survived so more evidence for Ptolemaic Egypt than elsewhere

Macedon

• Large territory, lots of arable land and natural resources eg timber
• Good for raising horses, large plains - reliance on cavalry
• Potential not developed pre-Philip - not involved with Greek affairs
  -- Attacked by N Balkan neighbours - Illyrians, Thracians, Paeonians
  -- Eight kings in a decade - deaths in battle, infighting, inability to unite kingdom
• Country viewed as backwards and uncivilised by Greeks - not urbanised

Philip II

• Became king 359 BC after brother died fighting Illyrians
• Implemented changes - broke power of northern aristocracy and absorbed their people into his army
• Improved army - new tactics and drills - sarissa/18' pike held with both hands prevented Greek hoplites from reaching lines (from experimental Theban tactics? spent time as hostage in Thebes)
• Exploited mineral wealth - conquered W Thrace and gold mines of Mt Pangaion - used wealth to hire mercenaries, buy allies, bribe enemies
• Marital diplomacy - 7 wives (polygamy) all from different poleis - Illyria (Audata), Elimeia (Philia), Thessaly/Pherae (Nicesipolis), Epirus (Olympias), Thessaly/Larissa (Philinna), Thrace (Meda), Macedonia (Cleopatra)
• Used Third Sacred War (356-346) to increase power in N Greece - became king of Thessaly
• 338 - Battle of Chaeronea - Philip vs Greek alliance - Philip won and formed the League of Corinth
• 336 - Plan for League to invade Persian Empire with Philip as general - but Philip assassinated summer of 336
• Assassinated by one of his bodyguards, Pausanias
  -- Aristotle - Pausanias angered by followers of Attalus, uncle of Philip's wife Cleopatra
  -- Cleitarchus - Pausanias a lover of Philip, Philip turned his attention to a younger man that Pausanias taunted into suicide, Attalus a friend of the younger man so got Pausanias drunk and raped him, Philip wouldn't punish Attalus and married his niece instead so Pausanias killed Philip
  -- Justin - Orchestrated by Olympias and/or Alexander
• Buried at Vergina - found grave goods suggesting it's his grave - bones of middle-aged man and younger woman (one of his wives who died shortly afterwards?)

No surviving contemporary source - polarised opinions - philosopher king? narcissistic youth? blood-thirsty tyrant?

Invasion of Persia

• Led League of Corinth invasion that Philip had been elected general of
• Spring 334 - Entered Anatolia with 40,000 men
  -- 15,000 Macedonians, 25,000 Greeks (excluding Spartans)
• Ideological purposes - revenge on Persia

May 334 - Battle of the Granicus River

• Most closely contested battle
• Alexander took part in/led the battle - leading by example
• Alexander almost killed by Persian satrap, saved by cavalry commander
• Greek casualties - 300-400 dead
• Persian casualties - 1000 cavalry and 3000 infantry dead, mostly killed in retreat
• Led to occupation of whole of Asia Minor (some sieges during 334)
• Opposing views of battle from Diodorus Siculus (camped overnight and attacked at dawn the next day) and Arrian (advised to attack at dawn by Parmenion but ignored advice) - most historians prefer Arrian
  -- Peter Green - revisionist historian, reconciles views with the fact that Alexander couldn't admit any temporary defeats and Parmenion later disgraced - tried to attack previous day but failed so attacked at dawn the next day instead

November 333 - Battle of Issus

• Alexander hugely outnumbered
  -- Hellenic army - around 40,000 men
  -- Persian army - Arrian says 600,000 and Diodorus and Justin say 400,000 but unlikely bc can't field that many soldiers, Peter Green plus others say about 100,000, Hans Delbrück says 25,000
• Darius III led Persian forces
• Landscape limited Persian ability to take advantage of forces
• Stratikis - Darius' formations trying to imitate Hellenic formations at Granicus
• Darius fled Alexander's direct charge, Alexander didn't pursue but Persian army broke up when they saw he had fled
• Followed coast rather than following Darius, took port cities inc. Tyre, went south into Egypt and founded Alexandria after the satrap in Egypt surrendered
• Captured Darius' wife, harem, mother, daughters - treated them well even though other captured Persian women weren't - Alexander later married Darius' daughter as his second wife

October 331 - Battle of Gaugamela

• Final decisive battle
• Darius had regrouped at Babylon - tried to negotiate
  -- Attempt 1 - Wrote to Alexander following Battle of Issus, demanded he release prisoners and leave Asia - Arrian says tone 'offensive'
  -- Attempt 2 - After taking of Tyre, offered land west of the Halys River, ransom for captives, treaty of friendship (Arrian mentions marriage to daughter Alexander later marries but Diodorus doesn't)
  -- Attempt 3 - After Alexander leaves Egypt, thanks him for treatment of his mother, offers co-rulership of the empire, territory west of the Euphrates, one of his daughters, and money (Arrian says 10,000, Diodorus says 30,000)
• Hellenic army - 31,000 heavy infantry, 9,000 light infantry, 7,000 cavalry
• Persian army - Arrian says 1,000,000 infantry and 40,000 cavalry; Diodorus says 800,000 infantry and 200,000 cavalry; Peter Green says total of 100,000; Hans Delbrück says 12,000 cavalry and other groups smaller than Hellenic equivalent
• Darius chose location - flat floodplains good for chariots
• Decisive win for Hellenic forces, Darius fled and was murdered by satrap Bessus - Bessus captured and executed by Alexander for murdering Darius

Secret of success

• Macedonian/Hellene success - Philip's military reforms, Alexander's tactics and skill as general, his leadership, loyalty of the troops
• Persian weakness - Loss/surrender of Egypt, revolts by governors (eg Babylonia 480s), weak kings (not as strong as Xerxes etc), palace coups

Persepolis

• Persepolis palace complex set alight
• Arrian - Alexander burnt it as retribution for burning of Athens by Persians
• Diodorus - During a drunken victory party, Alexander was encouraged to burn it by Thais, an Athenian courtesan, who wanted women to destroy the pride of the Persians in revenge
• Plutarch - Thais was the mistress of Ptolemy, at the party as the lover of Ptolemy, and encouraged Alexander to burn it
• Disagreement between versions - Arrian drew on Ptolemy's version and Ptolemy wouldn't want to attribute things to his mistress - Thais lived with Ptolemy in Egypt and bore him children

Rest of campaign

• Most Greeks returned home, had already been away for years - Alexander persuaded Macedonians to carry on east
• Said needed to suppress Bactrian revolts otherwise victory would be in vain, and that needed to ensure whole of empire not just part
• Led campaigns into the Indian sub-continent - 326 Battle of the Hydaspes etc - turned back at Ganges because troops getting tired of campaigning
• 325 - Alexander injured (arrow in chest/lung) and almost killed during the siege of Multan in the Mallian campaign
• 324 - Hephaestion dies - poison? typhoid? - honoured as a divine hero by Alexander, evidence the cult spread

Death

• June 323 at the palace in Babylon aged 32
• Plutarch - Developed a fever about two weeks before death after spending two days drinking/entertaining
• Diodorus - Downed a bowl of unwatered wine in honour of Hercules, suffered weakness (no fever) for 11 days - mentioned as an alternative by Arrian, denied by Plutarch
• Justin - poisoned by his wine-pourer Iollas, son of Antipater, on Antipater's orders because Alexander had removed him from power in Macedon and had summoned him to Babylon - mentioned as an unlikely theory by Diodorus and Arrian, dismissed by Plutarch
  -- Dismissed by some historians eg Robin Fox because no twelve-day acting poison - Leo Schep says could be white hellebore
• Natural causes suggested by historians - malaria, typhoid (1988 New England Journal of Medicine), meningitis, West Nile virus, poor health after drinking and battles

Third War of the Diadochi - 314-311

• Antigonus became too powerful for the liking of other rulers - he invaded Ptolemy's Syrian territory and besieged Tyre for a year and allied himself to Polyperchon who controlled territory in the Peloponnese
• Ptolemy invaded Syria (eg 312 Battle of Gaza) and Seleucus secured Babylon and the eastern parts of the empire
• Antigonus reached a compromise with Ptolemy and Cassander but continued the war with Seleucus
• The Babylonian War 311-309 ended with Antigonus' defeat and ended the chances of restoring Alexander's original empire
• 310 - Cassander had Roxana and Alexander IV killed but didn't publicly announce their deaths

Fourth War of the Diadochi - 308-301

• Ptolemy was expanding his power into the Aegean and to Cyprus and Seleucus was east consolidating his territory
• Antigonus resumed the war with his son Demetrius, who took Athens in 307 and defeated Ptolemy's fleet at Salamis in 306
• Both Antigonus and Demetrius claimed the throne, followed by Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus (Black Sea satrap/king) and Cassander
• 301 - Battle of Ipsus - Antigonus killed, Demetrius fled to Greece, Lysimachus and Seleucus divided Antigonus' Asian possessions

Struggle in Macedon - 298-285

• 298 - Cassander died and his sons Antipater II and Alexander V were weak
• 294 - Demetrius killed Alexander and seized Macedon and Greece but Lysimachus, Seleucus and Ptolemy invaded/captured/regained his outlying territories
• Lysimachus and Pyrrhus king of Epirus retook Macedon
• 287 - Demetrius left Greece to his son Antigonus Gonatus and launched an invasion to the east
• 286 - Demetrius captured by Seleucus and drank himself to death two years later

286-275

• Macedon - Lysimachus betrayed Pyrrhus and drove him out of Macedon after they had driven out Antigonus Gonatus from Greece
• Egypt - Ptolemy made his younger son Ptolemy Philadelphus his heir rather than his elder Ptolemy Ceraunus - Ceraunus fled to Seleucus and Ptolemy died in 282
• 282 - Lysimachus had his son Agathocles murdered on the advice of his second wife Arsinoe (Ptolemy's daughter) - Agathacles' widow Lysandra fled to Seleucus
• 281 - Seleucus defeated and killed Lysimachus and was killed in turn by Ptolemy Ceraunus
• Gauls invaded Macedon, Greece and Asia Minor after the death of Lysimachus left the Danube border open
• 279 - Ptolemy Ceraunus was killed by Gallic invaders and Antigonus Gonatus became ruler of Macedon

Final Order

• Ptolemy ruled Egypt, southern Syria and territories on the southern coast of Asia Minor (Ptolemaic dynasty)
• Antiochus ruled the Asian territories (Seleucid empire)
• Antigonus ruled Macedon and Greece (Antigonid dynasty)

Arrian

• 86-160 AD
• Prominent Greek family, got Roman citizenship as equites
• Studied under Epictetus
• Appointed to Senate as Governor of Cappadocia
• Settled in Athens
• Wrote Anabasis of Alexander
  -- Anabasis - march/campaign - took from Xenophon's Anabasis of the march of the 10,000

Plutarch

• 50-120 AD
• Well-travelled, based in Chaeronea
• Held local office eg Priest of Delphi
• Gained Roman citizenship
• Wrote over 230 texts - mostly philosophical and historiographical/biographical
• Best known for Parallel Lives - Alexander and Caesar - biography not history, more interested in person than achievments

Diodorus Siculus

• 1BC
• Author of Bibliotheke/library - universal history from myths to Caesar in 40 books
• Books 1-5 and 11-20 survive
  -- 16 - Philip's reign
  -- 17 - Alexander's reign
  -- 18-20 - only surviving continuous narrative/history of Diadochi
• Concept from Ephorus of Cyme but used multiple sources

Quintus Curtius Rufus

• 1C or early 2C AD
• History of Alexander in 10 books - 3-10 survive with gaps
• Multiple 'Quintus Curtius Rufus' - don't know which is author

Problems with Historiography

• Huge gaps - 300 years between Alexander's death and first extant work
• No surviving contemporary or closer works
• Surviving texts rely on/refer to non-surviving sources