Alexander the Great

The spectacular conquests of Alexander the Great made the Greeks masters of the Middle East. Although Alexander's empire broke up shortly after his death, he influenced the course of history of the region.

Alexander the Great was undoubtedly a genius, but he owed much to what his father, Philip II of Macedon had left behind. It was Philip who built an army that consisted of heavy cavalry and infantry armed with pikes, which allowed Macedonia to become the first power among the Greek states. After the victory over the Athenian-Theban forces under Chaeronea (338 BC), most of the city-states became satellites of Macedonia and were pulled in the royal plans for the conquest of Persia (today's Iran). Some units had already set off, when Philip was assassinated in 336 BC.

In the hope that the death of the king weakened Macedonia , the Greek cities immediately launched a rebellion. However, Philip's successor, twenty-year-old Alexander quelled it quickly and ruthlessly. The historic city of Thebes whose resistance was particularly staunch,was leveled in retaliation and its inhabitants turned into into slaves. Not wasting any time, in 334 BC Alexander proceeded with entering Asia Minor (now Turkey) with its 35,000-strong army.

The gamble

The invasion was a risky move - the Persian Empire was vast and its army many times larger than the army of Alexander. On the other hand, the empire was weaker than it could be expected and its rulers had problems with maintaining the unity of the state. In addition, the Greeks were excellent warriors - actually they were so good that even the Persians themselves were willing to hire them as mercenaries.

By entering Persia, Alexander began the implementation his plans that had been discussed in Greece for years. But he had to hurry as maintaining the army was a serious burden for the treasury. Philip had left debts and, despite taking new loans, Alexander was unable to afford to keep the Greek fleet in readiness. He desperately needed a victory and spoils.

Alexander's first victory in the war was won in a battle with hastily gathered Persian over the Granicos river. Greek cities in Asia Minor, earlier conquered by the Persians, greeted him as a liberator. In a further march, Alexander stopped at Gordium, where he was shown an extremely complicated knot. Legend had it that the one who would solve the Gordian knot would rule Asia. There are various speculations about the reaction of the king, but the most popular story has it that he just took out his sword and "solved" the problem by cutting the knot.

Initially, Alexander's strategy was to march south, capture rich Phoenician cities and cut off the enemy fleet from bases in the Mediterranean. The prevailing forces under the command of the Persian emperor Darius met him at Issus. However, as could be expected, heavy, unwieldy Persian formations were outmaneuvered by the light troops and encircled by the Macedonian cavalry of Alexander which then launched its charge to the rear of the enemy. Darius himself had to flee, allowing his entire family to fall into the hands of the winner. Alexander, as usual, personally commanded the charge.

During south-bound march Alexander was forced into prolonged siege of the famous city of Tyre, situated on the coastal island. It took seven months to force the city's capitulation. Further conquest was relatively easy and about 332 BC the king took Egypt, then a province of the Persian Empire. There he was crowned Pharaoh and greeted as the son of the sun god, Amun.

Obsession

Alexander's obsessive need for new conquests was made apparent by the refusal of Darius's conciliatory offer. The Persian ruler promised Alexander huge territories in exchange for peace. Alexander, however, pushed on, marching to the north and northeast, directing a blow to the very heart of the empire. The decisive confrontation took place at Gaugamela and Arbela, where the Macedonian cavalry once again circled and smashed the Persian army. As the conquest continued, Babylon was occupied and the capital of the Persian Empire, Persepolis, was looted and burned. Darius's rich treasury fell in the hands of Alexander, thus ending financial problems that plagued the king since his father's death.

But the war went on. Alexander chased Darius, and when he was assassinated by his own supporters, the Macedonian king chased the usurper Bessus. There were long and difficult campaigns, in which Alexander conquered vast areas in the east of the Persian Empire. But Persia was not enough: The king walked his army through the Hindu Kush and entered the Indus Valley. There, Macedonians defeated the local ruler Poros (326 BC), but the king wanted to march further into India. Soldiers, utterly exhausted by incessant march, revolted and Alexander reluctantly agreed to turn back.

Now as King of Kings and Lord of Asia, ruling an empire of Babylon, Alexander began to wear Persian robes and demanded a divine worship. One could accuse him of megalomania, but perhaps Alexander consciously applied this policy as what he thought was the best way of governing a large, cosmopolitan empire. But the Macedonian soldiers of Alexander neither liked the new image of the ruler nor accepted his policy of awarding Persians with posts in the army and administration. When threatened by demobilization of the army, the king found a way to keep the soldiers by his side. He organized a ceremony called "a wedding of East and West", during which 9,000 Macedonians allegedly took Asian wives. Alexander's efforts to unite Greece and Persia in one organism are sometimes regarded as an expression of visionary idealism, but might have been simply pragmatism: to prevent the country from falling apart, efforts to keep it united had to involve all the peoples of the empire.

Suddenly, in June, 323 BC Alexander died. He wasn't even. The state was divided between senior commanders, but Greek language and culture maintained its high status in the cities of the former empire. Throughout the period of Roman domination and beyond, the East remained under the influence of Greek culture, while Alexander established himself as one of the greatest leaders in history.

Important dates

• 334 BC
  Alexander defeats the Persians at the Granicos river
• 333 BC
  Alexander defeats Darius the Gulf of Issus
• 331 BC
  Decisive defeat of Darius at Gaugamela
• 330 BC
  Conquering Persepolis; assassination of Darius
• 330-372 BC
  Conquest of the eastern territories of the Persian Empire
• 326 BC
  Macedonians enter India, defeat Poros. Soldiers force Alexander to give up further conquests

Ancient Greece

Civilization of ancient Greece is made up of the history of small city-states, often at odds with each other, which included, among others, Athens and Sparta. Their achievements in the fields of culture, science and politics formed the basis of European civilization.

From the period of the so-called. dark ages Greece has emerged as a country made up of small, usually self-sufficient farming communities. They served as a source of supply for the city, which was the administrative center and commercial, as well as a place of refuge in case of danger. Cities such as Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Thebes gave the name of the small states, or rather the States cities (polis), which consisted of the whole ancient Greece. Despite its small size, the Greek city-states today are of interest because it is within them some of the political and social ideas were first "tested".

Out of the Dark Ages

During the dark ages the Greek settlements spread to the whole Aegean Sea and along the coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey). By the eighth century BC the Greeks were able to play their trade relations with other nations, exporting such characteristic products as olive oil, wine, ceramics and metal products. With a relatively new invention of the Phoenician, the alphabet, the Greeks again possessed the ability to write, lost during the dark ages. However, peace and prosperity led to rapid population growth which made it difficult to feed all the agricultural city-states.

Therefore, the Greeks began to migrate in search of land where they could found new self-sufficient cities. In this way, a number of colonies in southern Italy and Sicily - the area later called the Great Greece – were created. Over the next two centuries, the Greeks colonized many areas along the Mediterranean coast and around the Black Sea. Many of the established colonies were to be soon absorbed by the neighboring nations, but they usually did not cease to exist, which suggests that Greek culture had a large impact.

During this time, the city-state have undergone substantial political transformation. Monarchies gave way aristocracies - governments exercised by a group of large landowners. However, their position was becoming less stable with the development of trade relations and the introduction of the monetary system (about 600 BC) derived from the Lydians who lived in the western part of Asia Minor. The sixth century BC was characterized by a large number of internal strife in the policies on which the government was often taken over by tyrants. Both "aristocracy" and "tyrant" are words of Greek origin, but the Greeks used them without negative connotations relating to the cruel an unwanted ruler. The tyrant was just the person who took power by force, sometimes in order to carry out the necessary reforms and often with the support of the general public.

Regardless of the reforms carried out by the famous legislator Solon, power in Athens also has been taken over by a tyrant named Pisistratus. However, Pisistratus's successor was banished from Athens in 510 BC, and within policies introduced democracy - that is, the power of citizens (Greek: Demokratia). Due to the fact that the poleis were relatively small, power wasn't exercised by a select group of people, but by all the residents who gathered to take key decisions or pass new laws. However, the Greek democracy was limited, because women and slaves did not have the right to vote.

In the fifth century BC in many city-states there were conflicts between supporters of democracy and oligarchy. Supporters of the oligarchy argued for the authority exercised by the rich and privileged social group.

Athens and Sparta

While Athens were the model of democracy, Sparta was an example of oligarchy. However, in many ways Sparta was a unique polis. In most Greek city-states the difference between the amount of free citizens and the number of slaves was relatively small. In contrast Spartans were a small group of "supermen", outnumbered by potentially dangerous population of non-free peasants (helots). In order to maintain its dominance, Spartans turned into a caste of warriors, taught to bear suffering and live in harsh conditions from an early age. Though Spartan lifestyle was austere and not very prolific culturally, many Greeks looked up to it. Obedience, discipline and unwavering moral rules of Spartans were often shown as a contrast to cynical, destructive individualism of Athenians.

The Greeks were loyal primarily to their poleis, but they were aware that they all belonged to one nation of the Hellenes. They shared the poetry of Homer, the belief in Zeus and the other gods and the belief in spiritual and bodily development, as evidenced by the gymnasiums and the Olympic Games. They also had a sense of their individuality, as opposed to other nations - whose representatives grouped under the name "barbarians" - their social life was governed by the law. Both in oligarchy and democracy, citizens possessed certain rights and they could not be executed on the king's or emperor's whim, as was the case among the Persians whom the Greeks called barbarians, disregarding their powerful empire and advanced culture.

Meanwhile, Persian expansion that began in the sixth century BC seemed unstoppable - Greek cities of Asia Minor fell victim to it. However, the Persians showed little interest in native Greek territory that they regarded as poor and located too far beyond the Aegean Sea. But it was only until Athens provided support to the Greeks from Asia Minor during their uprising against the tyranny of the invaders. The uprising was crushed, and in 490 BC the Persian king Darius sent an expedition aimed to punish Athens. However, the Athenians had a famous victory at Marathon, located about 40 km from the city. The feat of the Greek soldier who ran to Athens with the news of the victory and fell dead from exhaustion is to this day commemorated in the form of a long-distance course during the Olympic Games. Ten years later, the son of Darius, Xerxes, carried a much more powerful attack, building a bridge of boats across the Hellespont Strait (today's Dardanelles) - connecting Asia Minor to Europe that allowed his massive army to cross the waters. Since the invaders posed a threat to all Greek cities, they decided to create a defensive Panhellenic Association. When Xerxes was approaching from the north, the armies pulled out of various poleis tried to delay his march. 300 Spartans led by Leonidas were killed while trying to stop the aggressor in the narrow pass of Thermopylae.

The sacrifice appeared to be in vain, as the Greeks had to give way. The population of Athens was evacuated and the invaders burned the temples of the city, located on the Acropolis. Although the Greek leader Themistocles, anticipating war with the Persians, strengthened the Athenian fleet, it was still outnumbered by that of the Persians. However, the Greeks managed to lure the enemy into a narrow bay near the city Salamis where room for maneuvers was very limited. The Greek charge caused panic among the Persian ships, which resulted in total destruction of the invading fleet.

Breakthrough battle

Battle of Salamis is one of the most famous battles in history. It was of key importance - in the next year, the Persian army was defeated at Plataea and ultimately Hellas was free. The Athenians and their allies continued to fight, freeing other Greek cities in Asia Minor one after another.

Athens secured at that time a leading position among the Greek cities. In 478 BC, Delian League was established - its aim was to combine the forces of Athens and its allies to continue the war with the Persians. Relationship soon became the instrument of political pressure. Athens allies were forced to establish a democratic system modeled upon the Athenian one and increasing expenditures on an expanding fleet. When in 449 years BC the war with Persia ended, the union has not ceased to exist and any attempt to leave it was severely punished.

Athens in the classical era

Fifth century BC was the golden age of Greek culture, equated mainly with Athens. Of course, both during this period and prior to it, other cities had a significant contribution to the culture of Greece in the form of poetry, ceramics or sculpture. For example, the first philosophers who tried to explain the nature of the world in a more physical than magical way, came from Miletus.

However, the greatest intellectual and artistic achievements were related primarily to Athens. Among the reconstructed temples on the Acropolis is the Parthenon with its perfect proportions and carved decorations. The first drama evolved from ritual in honor of the Greek god Dionysus. Philosophers coming from Athens, primarily Socrates and Plato, were the first to explore inquisitive problems of ethics and politics. It was in Athens where Herodotus of Halicarnassus wrote - it was perhaps the first historian who instead of just citing rumors and stories, employed analysis and critically examined facts.

An equally great historian, Thucydides, was a strategist who commanded the Athenian troops during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) which is later described. Alarmed by the growing power of Athens, Sparta created the Peloponnesian League whose members came from the Peloponnese peninsula located in the southern Greece. The first fight between the two leagues was inconclusive and it seems such status would continue for a long time. However, Athens began to give way after the city was by an epidemic that also claimed life the city's outstanding leader - Pericles. The Spartans managed to ravage the territory around Athens (Attica), but could not break through the famous Athenian Long Walls, protecting the road leading to the port of Piraeus. As the Athens retained dominance at sea, the port allowed fresh supplies to reach the city.

Reversing the roles

After a seven-year truce war broke out anew. Athens besieged Syracuse, an important center of Greek Sicily. Once the roles were reversed and the besieging troops were in the lap, the whole expedition was shattered. Loss of a large number of ships and men was also a turning point in the war against Sparta. Athens were surrounded and the Athenian League's fleet destroyed. In 404 BC famine forced the inhabitants to surrender.

Sparta and Thebes

Sparta was able to achieve at least one goal - Athens never managed to rebuild its power. But with a limited manpower, Spartans were not able to control the whole of Greece despite the fact that in many cities they handed over the power to allied oligarchies. The advantage of Sparta did not last long, as the Athens, Thebes and Corinth joined forces to challenge its authoritarianism. In 371 BC Thebes, under the leadership of Epaminondas, crushed Spartan army near Leuctra. The military reputation of Sparta waned forever.

Hegemony of Thebes was even shorter and Greece entered the second half of the fourth century BC as divided as usual. Many Greeks lost their heart for warfare, relying on mercenaries in military matters. But it was not the case with Macedonia whose society might have been backward, but it was ruled a gifted king commanding a strong army. Philip II of Macedon gradually expanded his power by attacking several Greek cities, sometimes with help from neighboring poleis that counted on their share in looting. In 338 BC the Macedonian army smashed the combined forces of Athens and Thebes at Chaeronea. This defeat eventually put an end to the independence of Greece, as well as the classical period of its culture.

Important dates

• 776 BC
  The first Olympic Games
• 600 BC
  The origins of the military caste Spartans
• 594 BC
  The reforms of Solon in Athens
• 499-94 BC
  Rise of the Greeks against the Persians in Asia Minor
• 490 BC
  The victory of the Greeks over the Persians at Marathon expedition
• 480 BC
  Persian invasion: victory of the Greek fleet at the Battle of Salamis
• 479 BC
  The victory over the Persians on land (at Plataea) and sea (at cape Mykale)
• 478 BC
  Establishment of the Maritime Union of Athens
• 431 BC
  The outbreak of the Peloponnesian War
• 404 BC
  The capitulation of Athens end the Peloponnesian War, the hegemony of Sparta
• 371 BC
  Sparta defeated by Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra
• 338 BC
  Battle of Chaeronea, after which Philip II of Macedon achieved hegemony in Greece

Persian Empire

For almost 200 years the Persian Empire stretched from Egypt to the Indus, which created favorable conditions for the development of civilization for almost the entire period. Later, there was a rapid decline of the glory and the empire succumbed to the power of Alexander the Great.

The civilizations of Egypt and Western Asia had already matured when the nomadic peoples of the Medes and Persians moved from the steppes toward the highlands of Iranian high plateau. Medes settled on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, the Persians occupied the area on the south-east, on the eastern shore of the bay, which we call the Persian Gulf. Although these tribes generally represented a lower degree of cultural development than some of their neighbors such as the Assyrians, they have brought together a highly developed religious and ethical system of Zoroastrianism, which has survived to this day.

Originally it was the Medes who took a leading position, creating a united kingdom with a capital in Ecbatana and collecting tribute from some of the Persian tribes. However, they remained vassals of warlike Assyrians until the king Cyaxares (Hvakhshathra) allied with Chaldean people, won Nineveh (612 BC), and finally defeated the Assyrians.

Cyrus the Great

The size of the Medes was short-lived. Persians united under the rule of the Achaemenid dynasty, which released a brilliant leader in the person of Cyrus II the Great (559-529 BC). Around the year 559 BC Cyrus led to the overthrow of the king of the Medes and took control of the empire, which included the greater part of today's Iran, Armenia and the eastern part of Asia Minor (now part of Turkey). But this was only the beginning. In the year 546 BC Cyrus entered the western part of Asia Minor, conquering Lydia and Greek cities on its coast. According to legend, Lydian king Croesus was about to be burned at the stake when Cyrus spared his life. This story may be true, since it is known that he was a gracious ruler. Cyrus then extended the borders of the Persian dominion to the north - to the Caspian Sea and led a campaign in the east, the Hindu Kush range. He fully deserved the title of Great King, but it did not satisfy his ambition. Eventually he died while waging a war in Central Asia.

Expanding the empire

The son of Cyrus, Cambyses II (592-522 BC) has implemented a plan of his father for the invasion of Egypt, conquering the whole country for the first time in its long history.

Attempts to expand the Persians towards Libya and Ethiopia have not brought such success, and at the end of his reign, Cambyses II's focused on an usurper and the uprising in the empire caused by the Medes, Babylonians, and other conquered peoples. The situation was still critical at the time of Cambyses II's death. He did not father a heir, but Darius, a popular commander of the Ten Thousand Immortals (royal guard) was recognized by the army as the new Great King. The suppression of rebellions in the country and restoring peace in the empire took the new ruler two years.

In the early period of the reign of Darius I (522-486 BC) moved the borders of the empire in the east to the Indus River. Then he apparently decided it was time to consolidate and reorganize the state. Building on the achievements of the previous Great Kings, he gave the Persian empire and created a distinctive form for the institutions.

The cosmopolitan empire

Like the Assyrians, the Persians ruled the peoples who differed greatly languages, customs and religion. But while the Assyrians maintained their domination through terror, the Persians tried to pacify conquered peoples. Twenty satrapies (administrative regions) into which Darius divided his vast empire were ruled by, as far as possible, local notables. Local customs, laws and institutions were respected and all religions tolerated. A known example is the reconstruction of the temple in Jerusalem that had been destroyed earlier by the Babylonians.

Representatives of all the peoples of the empire served in the Persian army, which became cosmopolitan. A good road system favored the development of trade and transport network of fixed points allowed postal couriers to change horses and reach the remotest corners of the country in a few weeks. The rise in prosperity favored the introduction of money (Lydian invention) in the form of standardized gold coins. Maintaining a whole so in essence the fragile empire (never before existed more) for almost 200 years has been a huge success. The largest territorial expansion reached it for Darius. In the year 512 BC He crossed the Bosphorus and stepped to Europe, unsuccessfully chasing Scythian nomads to the Danube. Again crossed there 20 years later, this time taking Thrace until the Macedonian border.

Power of the Greeks

After the suppression of the revolt of Greek cities in Asia Minor, Darius decided to hit the Greeks in their native territory. However, by 409 BC forces sent to punish Athens for helping the Greeks in Asia were defeated at the Battle of Marathon. It was a relatively small win, but when the son of Darius, Xerxes (486-465 BC) began a full-scale war, it brought disastrous results of Salamis (480 BC) and the Plataea (479 BC). Finally Persia concluded peace with the Greeks (446 BC).

The Persians were good riders, but their infantry was inferior to Greek hoplites. Greek mercenaries played an important role in the revolts and civil wars between rival usurpers who increasingly troubled the empire. Despite signs of resurgence under the rule of Artaxerxes III (385-388 BC) the empire was clearly in decline and it was evident that only feuds between the Greek secured Persia against dangerous consequences onslaught of dangerous opponents.

Darius III had the bad luck to be the Great King when the Greek threat materialized, and Alexander the Great of Macedon began his stunning career.

Did you know...

• Persian Empire at its peak was divided into 20 regions called satrapies.
• Persepolis was more the center of religious ceremonies and state than real capital. Its ruins located in inaccessible mountain terrain contain the remains of the barracks and the royal treasury. Other buildings have rooms designed for royal feasts and ceremonies.

Important dates

• about 1000 BC
  Medes and Persians arrive on the territory of today's Iran
• 612 BC
  Medes destroyed Nineveh
• ca 559-550 BC
  Cyrus the Great conquers the empire of the Medes
• about 546 BC
  Cyrus defeats Croesus of Lydia
• 539 BC
  Cyrus wins Babylon
• 525 BC
  Cambyses II conquers Egypt
• ca 522-520 BC
  Darius I renewed empire
• 512 BC
  The expedition of Darius I beyond the Danube
• 499-494 BC
  Rise of the Greeks in Asia Minor
• 429 BC
  The Persians occupied Thrace
• 490 BC
  Persians defeated at Marathon
• 480-446 BC
  Persian-Greek war
• 424-358 BC
  The period of turmoil
• 336-330 BC
  Darius III, the last of the Achaemenid
• 334-324 BC
  The conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great