Transcript The Greek World

The Greek World
 Crash Course World History: Perisans and Greeks
Take the “How Greek Are You
Survey”
 Add up your score and check against the scale.
If you scored between 60 and 80
 60 – 80 – Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes, and
Homer are you best buds! You value scepticism and
have a healthy questioning of authority. You are a
romantic that can see the beauty of all things, even
painful or hurtful things and you emphasize dialogue
and discussion rather than force and action.
If you scored between 40 and 60
 40 – 60 – You are very much like a modern person. You
are a product of the modern world’s blending and
exposure to other philosophies and experiences. Some
of the Greek ways of thinking are just not possible in a
polis the size of Winnipeg and even less possible in a
country the size of Canada so it’s understandable you
are not totally Greek.
If you scored between 20 and 40
 20 – 40 – Still somewhat in the “Dark Ages”, you are
more action oriented and living in the here and now.
You are focussed and efficient and that which does not
concern your daily life does not clutter your attention.
If you scored less than 20
 0 – 20 – You, sir, are a barbarian. You live a life of
hedonism and action, you are totally in the moment
and you do not worry about the past and even less
about the future. Peter Griffin, Bart Simpson, and
Steve-O are more your philosophical inspirations. Get
your finger out of your nose and open a window cause
you are all about the party!
The Mediterranean Civilizations –
Greece and Rome
Part 1 – The
Greek World
Geography
 Greece – rugged rocky terrain,
variable rainfall amounts –
unpredictable growing
conditions
 Only 10% of land is arable, and
it must be fallowed often. Poor,
chalky, acidic soil.
 Heavy reliance on the
“Mediterranean Triad” – grains,
olives, wine – specifically,
beans, barley, and wheat.
Maritime Culture
 No place in the islands or the southern mainland is
more than 32 miles from the sea
 Relatively calm waters and inlets along the coast make
sailing relatively safe and reliable.
 This means that trade becomes important.
 This combination of terrain, weather, and soil
conditions leads to the formation of separate, small,
farming communities that are periodically forced to
trade amongst each other – early forms of city-states
The history of settlement in Greece can be
divided into 8 distinct periods:
 Stone Age – 1000,000 – c3500 BCE
 Early Bronze Age (Cycladic) – c3500 BCE – 2000BCE
 Middle Bronze Age (Minoan) – c2000 BCE – 1600 BCE
 Late Bronze Age (Mycenaean) - 1600 BCE – 1100 BCE
 Dark Ages – 1100 BCE – 700 BCE
 Archaic Period – 700 BCE – 480BCE
 Classical Period – 480 BCE – 323 BCE
 Hellenistic Period – 323 – 31 BCE
Stone Age
 Divided into three eras – Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and
Neolithic
 Paleolithic – hunting and gathering, no
permanent settlements and stone tools.
 Mesolithic – agriculture begins – gradual
formation of permanent settlements – Francthi
 Neolithic – agricultural revolution is complete,
permanent settlements begin to form, social
stratification develops, political class is formed,
public works indicate civic organization – palaces
The Bronze Age
 There are three dominant Bronze Age cultures found
in ancient Greece:
 Cycladic – 2500 BCE to 1900 BCE
 Minoan – 2000 BCE to 1400 BCE
 Mycenaean - 1600 BCE to 1100 BCE
Early Bronze Age
 Development of metallurgy -
Bronze
 multiplier effect – a single
event that triggers a chain
reaction of developments in a
society
 Arms race begins and trade
follows – city-states fight and
trade for new innovations in
weaponry
Social changes – Early Bronze Age
 Craft specialization – trade skills for staples
allows for specialized craftsmen in urban centers.
 New professions
 New social strata
 Power/wealth shifts
 Spatial distribution of settlements change – fewer,
larger settlements that control larger areas markets
Social changes of the Early
Bronze Age
 Social stratification becomes more complex
 Accumulations of wealth occur
 As trade becomes more important, certain settlements
along the coast become more important than others.
 Urbanization increases
 Commerce emphasized
 The cities begin to rise – Aegean Sea and the west coast of
Turkey - Troy
Cycladic Period
 Centered in the scattered, rocky
islands in the Eastern
Mediterranean Ios, Naxos, Melos
 Skilled metalworkers and
craftsmen
 Not concentrated in towns, not
warlike – had no defences for their
settlements
 Religion focussed on female
deities
 No emphasis on scale – all art is
small, figurines, etc.
Cycladic culture
 Early Cycladic settlements prominent with trade and
shipping
 Linear A style develops from the bureaucratic needs of
the local central palace
 Ends with the Indo-European invasions c2000BCE –
only surviving culture from this time is on the island of
Crete – Minoans
Middle Bronze Age
 Cycladic society faded slowly but had great influence on
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the cultures that would follow.
Gradually pushed out from an invasion from the north Indo-European tribes – linguists show that this infiltration
was gradual and assimilative – they blended with local
populations to form Achaeans (proto-Greeks)
Only the Minoans survive on Crete
Eventually, Minoans retake the mainland – culture
flourishes/spreads
Linear A style found - simplified form of Egyptian
hieroglyphics – indicating trade and contact
Emphasis on animals and nature loving in art
Minoan
 Centered on the island of Crete –
last of the Cycladic islands,
resisted the Indo-European
invasion
 Remarkably sophisticated culture
– largely unknown until 1899
 Arthur Evans – Discovered a
massive palace at Knossos – held
6000 people, over 800 rooms, no
organized floorplan – palace
appears to have been added to
over time – labyrinthine
 Palace at Knossos
Minoan Culture
 Assumed to be the palace of King Minos from Homeric poetry.
 Some walls still had frescoes on them depicting bulls – the bull
figured prominently in Minoan culture – Minotaur
 Prominent traders – Crete lies along trade routes between
mainland Europe, Egypt, and the Middle East.
Minoan Culture
 Other large centers have been discovered on Crete at Phaestus
and Hagia Triada.
 Depictions of Cretan life showed a peaceful people with a fully
developed and prosperous middle class. Women were depicted
topless, indicating they held a high status.
 Their style of their art emphasized time, place, and
individuality over idealized and essential in Egyptian art.
Naturalistic rather than stylized.
Minoan Religion
 Minoan religion was centred on worship of the bull. Young
females were often shown “bull vaulting” – presumably
showing reverence and mastery of the savagery and power
of nature.
 No depictions of the warrior class, no walls or fortifications
for major cities, there are no monumental depictions of the
ruler and the cult of the king is absent – possibly due to the
high status of women in the culture
 There is, however, some evidence of child sacrifice
 Minoan Civilization
Linear A/B
 Minoans developed their own style of writing called
Linear A –this indicated a bureaucratic class that
controlled trade and taxation.
 Well developed road systems crossed the island.
Towns had streetplans, drainage, and habitations show
a social stratification between upper and lower classes.
First flush toilets are found in Knossos
 Levies and taxes were paid in the form of goods and
flowed through regional centers before ending up at
Knossos.
 A second style of writing Linear B, was found at
Knossos, this later style indicated to Evans that
Knossos Palace had changed hands.
Minoan Collapse
 Beginning around 1450 BCE,
Minoan civilization began to
die out with the final
destruction of Knossos in 1375
BCE. There are several
theories as to the cause:
 Eruption of the volcano at
Thera – causing massive
devastation all over the
Cyclades
 Invasion from mainland
Greeks – Mycenaeans
 Minoan Collapse
Late Bronze Age
 Myceneans capture Knossos – conquer Minoans in
c1450 BCE
 Dynamic pottery becomes static as Minoan
influence ends
 Greece becomes divided into loose federation of
city-states subject to federal capital at Mycenae
 Development of Linear B style
 Accumulation of wealth as capital gains control of
trade routes through conquest/piracy
Mycenae
 Dominated the eastern
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Mediterranean from 1600 BCE to 1100
BCE – become one of the three
dominant Mediterranean cultures:
1) Egyptians
2) Hittites
3) Mycenaeans
Dynasty founded in c1600 BCE
Perseus (?)
City is named in Homeric epics –
Agamemnon, Odysseus, Atreus
Mycenaean History and Archeology
Mycenaean culture
 The Mycenaean economy was based on small scale
agriculture, including the “Mediterranean Triad” as well as
metalworkers and craftsmen. The most important industry
was textiles – wool and linen.
 Above all, while the Minoans were based on trade and
commerce, the Mycenaeans were based on piracy and
conquest.
 The palace was the administrative center for the
surrounding countryside. It would house the warrior king
and their bureaucracy as well as the service craftsmen
required to run the capital. Land surrounding the palace
was either owned by the king and worked by slaves or
leased to free farmers.
Mycenaean religion
 Classical Greek gods begin to arise – Poseidon, Zeus-
Hera
 Role of women is prominent
 Borrowed heavily from Minoan culture
 Priest class subjugated to the king
 Sanctuary found at Mycenae for a snake-goddess
Mycenae
 Reached the peak of it’s power after to came to dominate
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the gold trade routes from Eastern Europe
1400’s – construction of the citadel:
Massive “Lion’s Gate” above the main entrance to the city
Cyclopean walls – massive stone block construction
Cistern dug under the city – water supply could withstand
long sieges
Mycenaean burials
 Peribolos walls surround a series of graveshafts – 2
circles
 Capital city discovered in 1870’s by Heinrich
Schliemann
 He thought he had found the grave of
Agamemnon himself due to the amount of gold it
contained.
 2 grave circles contained 19 bodies – 8 men, 4 women,
7 children – men were all wearing gold, approx. 6ft.
Tall- indicating high wealth, status, and good nutrition
throughout their lives.
Mycenaean burials - Tholoi
 By 1400 Tholos tombs become common – Treasury of Atreus
 Just outside the walls of Mycenae
 Circular beehive construction - corbel – largest interior dome for the
next 2000 years
 Lintel stone over 118 tonnes
 Used for multiple burial but the treasures were raided – obvious, not
hidden.
Mycenae
2500 BCE – earliest evidence of settlement at Mycenae
 1600 BCE – Wealth comes to Mycenae, probably result
of mercenary activity hired by Egyptians
 1200 BCE – economic recession, loss of markets, force
Myceneans to attack northern allies – Trojans
 1180 BCE – according to Homer – Helen, a Mycenaean
priestess and wife of Menelaus, brother of
Agamemnon is abducted by Paris of Troy – sparking
the Trojan War.
Mycenaeans
 Mycenaeans are
victorious, but have
eliminated an ally on
their northern
frontier and have
exhausted the royal
treasury in the
process.
 1125 BCE –
Mycenaeans are
overrun by the
Dorian invasion.
Bronze Age ends
 Trojan War develops 1180 –
begins the decline in power
of Mycenae as settlements
are raided and destroyed eg. Palace of Nestor at Pylos
– 1200 BCE
 Mycenaean collapse – 1100
BCE
 The Truth About Troy
Dark Ages c1200 BCE to
480 BCE
 After the fall of Mycenae – a Dark Age begins in Greece.
 No culture surviving, no written records
 Federal system is destroyed – palaces burned, Knossos,
Mycenae, Pylos
 civilization drops significantly, very few historical
records exist because writing stopped sometime
between 1100 and 1000 BCE
Dark Age society
 Aristocratic Age – heroes, great men
honour becomes social focus and prime
motivation. Stress of the type not the
individual.
 Trade collapses – produces closed
household economies. Each household
aims to consume all it produces.
Exceptions – iron, salt
 Social stratification diminishes –
becomes more simple
 Similar to Egyptians, idealized
conceptual art dominates the Greek
world. Geometric design develops.
Population Collapse
 Eg. Pylos – population falls to 10% of Late Bronze Age
levels
 Centralized government, population, literacy,
urbanization, all disappear from Greek life for 400
years
 Exact cause is still unknown
Possible Causes?
 Dorian Invasion from the
north – possible but not
sufficient to destroy the
entire culture
 Decline in Hittite and
Egyptian kingdoms – would
disrupt trading networks
that made Mycenae so
powerful
 Volcanic or other natural
disasters – could have
caused agricultural failures
Historians now think that the
Mycenaean Collapse was internal:
 Fragile culture based on military elites dominating
maritime commerce
 Overpopulation in a land that could not support too
many people
 Overspecialization on certain cash crops like sheep
and wheat
 Rivalry among city states lead to mutual sacking of city
palaces
 Father will have no common bond with son
 Neither will guest with host, nor friend with
friend
 The brother-love of past days will be gone...
 Men will destroy the towns of other men...
 Hesiod (c800 BCE)
 What kind of society is depicted here?
 How reliable is this as a source?
The Greeks scatter across the
Mediterranean
 Evidence of mercenary service in the Egyptian military
 Many turned to piracy.
 Many migrated out of mainland Greece to the islands
and west coast of Asia Minor (Turkey)
 Each of these migrations develops a separate
nationality for their region. Different dialect of Greek
is spoken:
 Dorian - Peloponesse
 Ionion – West coast of Asia Minor and islands
 Aeolian – Attica and scattered mainland settlements
Technology
 Iron replaces bronze as copper and tin become difficult
to import. Quality of iron tools begins to improve as
techniques are mastered over time.
 Pottery quality declines, decoration is simple and
geometric
 Pictorial representations of humans and animals almost
disappear and there is little to no luxury items being
produced.
 What gold from this period that has been found dates
from the Mycenaean Period and was probably robbed
from original tombs.
Cultural contributions
 All that is known from this period comes from
archaeology and from epic poetry:
 Iliad – older poem, dating from the 8th c BCE
 Odyssey – dating from c750 BCE
 Both are oral histories that originate in the previous Late
Bronze Age Mycenaean period – harkening back to the
“good old days” where society was in a more perfect state.
 These oral histories transmit a desire to return to
previous culture from generation to generation.
 The societies depicted in Homeric poetry are not truly
Mycenaean, but more Dark Age.
Literature
 Literature begins in the Dark Ages – essential in
formation of Greek nationalism.
 word of mouth, historical accounts passed on
from Mycenean ages as mythology in an effort to
recapture the past.
 Heroic poetry – Homer: Illiad and Oddessy –
Trojan War and Odysseus’ return to Ithica –
becomes the first exploration of human nature and
the human condition
Philosophy emerges…
 Didactic poetry – Hesiod –
cosmogony/theogeny
 Philosophy’s first attempt to
explain/understand the world
around them
 Near the end of the period, the
realization that religion and epic
poetry are inadequate for this
purpose. More is needed.
Social Structure
 Social distinctions were based on ownership and
military prowess.
 Aristocrats would own farmland and engage in combat
with their own weapons and horses in coalitions with
other aristocrats.
 Petty kings would dominate small populations of
farmers, herders, kin and military alliances.
 Tensions were indicated in literature between
emerging middle class peasants and aristocratic
warrior classes.
Change begins…
 Beginning in the 11th century – influences from beyond
the borders of Greek civilization begin to appear.
 Geometric pottery designs – Egyptian?
 Iron works that have no precedent in mainland or
island Greek culture
 Greek forms of tomb burial change and cremation
becomes common
 Changes in art forms throughout the Dark Ages begins
to indicate that it is coming to an end:
Geometric Period – 900-700 BCE
 Geometric style dominates
 Humans and animals appear for the first time
 Depictions of humans in funerals and mourning
Orientalising Period – 700 – 600 BCE
 Rendering of human form becomes more naturalistic
 Egyptian influence prominent in sculpture, pose, size,
materials
 2 styles – Attic – mythological/fantastic stories
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Corinthian – imaginary/mythological
animals
 Development of Doric and Ionic architectural styles
Doric
Corinthian
Doric columns on the Greek temple at Segesta, Sicily, c. 424–416 bc
Corinthian Coloumns at the Church of the Madeleine
built from 1807 to 1845 by Pierre Vignon.
What is means to be Greek….
 Awakening of Greek nationalities – Dorian, Ionian, Minoan,
Aeolian
 While a different dialect is used, their common experience is
Greek and they are all unified by the oral heritage
 First pan-hellenic Olympic Games – 776 BCE at the festival of
Zeus at Olympia
 City-states emerge at the end of the period – Sparta and
Athens dominate – oligarchy and democracy
Archaic Period - c700 BCE–
c500 BCE
 Out of the Dark Age social structure of farmers and
herdsmen loosely ruled by petty kings develops a
radically new social structure
 New political organization
 New military organization
 New artistic traditions
 New intellectual approaches
 New alphabet
C800 BCE – Archaic Period
begins
 Population begins to increase, this stresses the land
capacity.
 Coinage appears – money. This intensifies social
stratification, slavery appears
 Growing sense of individualism emerges – manifested
in the appearance of lyric poetry – Sappho, women
characters and emotional poetry is in stark contrast to
male dominated epic poetry
 Drama appears as well.
 Artwork scale increases, figures become more lifelike
and less Egyptian. 3 dimensional
 Bust inscribed Sappho of Eressos, Roman copy of a
Greek original of the 5th century BC
 Emphasis on the individual as valuable and distinct
from their social role or position
 More spare time and stability allowing for abstract
intellectual pursuits – politics and philosophy.
 All of these developments become major themes in
the development of Western Civilization
Signs of a rapid change in Greek
society
 Huge population increase – in some regions (Attica –
7x)
 Shift in herding to stable agriculture
 Increased urbanization, larger settlements
 Population soon outstrips carrying capacity of arable
land
 Increased division of labour
Politics
 The old social structure of chieftains and tribes
becomes inadequate for this more complex society
 These changes, combined with the geography of the
region lead to a broad social class with the wealth and
leisure time to pursue intellectual innovation –
included outside influences through trade.
 2 kinds of political organization emerge:
 Ethnos – Peloponnesian/oligarchy
 Polis – Aegean/ democracy
Polis
 Polis – habitation, house, collective group. The city-
state arises out of these. Organized settlements
separated by landforms and connected by the sea and
trade. The result is a grouping of small administrations
– the city state, dominated by a large central
permanent settlement.
Polis
 Like a large extended family:
 Athens – 1000 sq miles, ½ the size of P.E.I.
 Crete – 3000 sq miles, 43 different poleis
 Lesbos – 6 different poleis
 Winnipeg would have 4 poleis for its size
 Each polis would have its own army, administration,
leadership, social mores, its own religion, regional
dialect, system of weights and measurements and its
own calendar.
 Polis – root of the word politics
Social Hierarchy
 These populations got even smaller – only adult males
were given full citizenship..
 Women – subjugated to males
 Metics – resident aliens, also don’t count. Displaced
from one polis to another
 Slaves – did not have citizenship.
 Children
The Emergence of Political Life
 Athens – 250,000 people – 20,000 free adult males
 By far the biggest polis
 Overall, Greek life takes place in a very small scale.
Everything occurs on a public setting/family setting.
Out of this environment comes political life – a new
development
Social Stratification
 Vast wealth accumulations were rare in Greece – gap
between rich and poor is very small. With the climate,
there is an abundance of leisure time – a totally new
development this leading to “public life” – interaction
among relatively equal members of small
communities, political life develops.
 Small farms, a focus on individual cultivation, no mass
agriculture is possible – horticulture not agriculture.
 Silver mines are one of the only large scale industries –
Laurium – just outside of Athens – worked by slaves.
 Average lifespan of a slave was one year n the mines
Ostracism
 Ostracism – some individuals’ personal characteristics
warrant extreme social isolation and segregation;
people could be “voted off the polis”
 Ostracism becomes necessary to maintain social order
and to reduce tensions. There may be crime or guilt
involved, simply social volatility could warrant
ostracism.
 Aristotle – man is a political animal
 Ostracised individuals would be banished from their
home polis and would be forced to live in exile or try to
join another polis.
All of these developments lead to political and
social stasis – normal flows of political life are
blocked. Tensions begin to build
 Solutions:
 Infanticide – killing of the less desirable young to curb
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population growth.
Colonization – finding new breathing spaces to support higher
numbers – up to 1500 are established all over the Mediterranean
and parts of Persia – brings Greeks into new conflicts.
Colonization period – 750 BCE to 550 BCE
Tyranny – someone who forces their way into power from outside
the social structure, a sudden and radical political change from
one order to another
Religion – when faced with difficult social pressures, religion
begins to pervade daily life more and more.
Social Development
 Frederick Jackson Turner – American frontier historian
– developed the Turner Thesis of social development
 The frontier is where innovations take place in a
society – social, technological, political, etc.
 The frontier culture and setting make the best
laboratory for these kinds of developments. They are
then passed into the central culture.
 This effect is exhibited in ancient Greek civilization in
the Dark Ages as population pressures lead to
colonization and the creation of a frontier culture in
the western Mediterranean and the Southern Balkans
Greek religion during the Dark
Ages – polytheistic spectrum
Apollo – calm acceptance:
“Know thyself”
Vs
Dionysius- Abandon self control
“Forget thyself”
 Dionysian approach to religion – rooted in the notion
of life cycle – rebirth
 Dualistic religion like the Egyptians
 Based on mystery and religious hierarchy. Acceptance
into the religion was granted only after approval and
included ceremonies that were kept secret.
 This created a mechanism for compensation for deindividualization of economically strained eras
 Eleusinian Mysteries – based in the temple of
Dionysus in Eleusis – place where mysterious rites
were performed that were fabled to grant eternal life.
Classical Greece (480 BCE – 323 BCE)
 This period lasts through the creation of a Greek empire, by
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Alexander the Great.
Characterized by most of the cultural wonders that we associate
with ancient Greece.
The period of the height of democracy, the flowering of Greek
Tragedy, and the architectural marvels at Athens
Begins either with the fall of the Athenian tyrant Hippias, in 510
B.C., or the Persian Wars, which the Greeks fought against the
Persians in Greece and Asia Minor from 490-479 B.C.
When you think of the movie 300, you're thinking of one of the
battles fought during the Persian Wars.
This period ends with the death of Alexander the Great in 323
B.C.
The Rise of Democracy
 Democracy didn’t happen overnight. The process
developed and changed over time.
 Besides war and conquest, in the Classical period the
Greeks produced great literature, poetry, philosophy,
drama, and art.
 the genre of history was first established.
 It also produced the institution we know of as Athenian
democracy.
 Democracy lasted beyond the Classical period and had
its roots in the earlier time, but it still characterized the
Classical age.
Oligarchy vs. Democracy
In the Archaic Age, Athens and Sparta had followed different
paths. Sparta had two kings and an oligarchic (rule by a few)
government
A Spartan woman had the right to own property, whereas in
Athens, she had few freedoms. In Sparta, men and women served
the state; in Athens, they served the oikos 'household/family'.
Oligarchy
oligos 'few' + arche 'rule'
Democracy
demos 'the people of a country'
+ krateo 'rule'
Democracy
Oligarchy
Tyranny
Monarchy
Anarchy
Economy
Economy = oikos 'home' + nomos 'custom, usage,
ordinance'
 Men were trained in Sparta to be laconic warriors and
in Athens to be public speakers.
Persian Wars
 Despite an almost endless series of differences, the
Hellenes from Sparta, Athens, and elsewhere fought
together against the monarchical Persian Empire.
 In 479 they repelled the numerically mightier Persian
force from the Greek mainland.
Peloponnesian and Delian
Alliances
 For the next few decades after the end of the Persian Wars,
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relations between the 2 major poleis'city-states' deteriorates
The Spartans, who had earlier been the unquestioned leaders of
the Greeks, suspected Athens (a new naval power) of trying to
take control of all of Greece.
Most of the poleis on the Peloponnese allied with Sparta.
Athens was at the head of the poleis in the Delian League.
Its members were along the coast of the Aegean Sea and on
islands in it.
The Delian League initially had been formed against the Persian
Empire, but finding it lucrative, Athens transformed it into its
own empire.
Public Office
 Pericles, foremost statesman of Athens from 461-429,
introduced payment for public offices so more of the
population than just the rich could hold them.
 Pericles initiated the building of the Parthenon, which
was supervised by the famed Athenian sculptor
Pheidias.
 Drama and philosophy flourish
The Aftermath of
Peloponnesian War
 Tensions between the Peloponnesian and Delian alliances
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mount
The Peloponnesian War breaks out in 431 and lasted for 27
years.
Pericles, along with many others, dies of plague early in the
war.
Even after the end of the Peloponnesian War, which Athens
lost, Thebes, Sparta, and Athens continued to take turns as
the dominant Greek powers
Instead of one of them becoming the clear leader, they
dissipated their strength and fell prey to the empire-building
Macedonian king Phillip II and his son Alexander the Great.
Alexander the Great
 Philip II and his son Alexander (of Macedonia) put an end to the power
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of the individual city-states and spread the culture of Greece all the
way to the Indian Sea.
Born around July 20, 356 B.C.E.
Tutored by Leonidas (possibly his uncle) and the great Greek
philosopher Aristotle.
During his youth, Alexander showed great observational powers when
he tamed the wild horse Bucephalus.
In 326, when his beloved horse died, he renamed a city in
India/Pakistan, on the banks of the Hydaspes (Jhelum) river, for
Bucephalus.
In 340 B.C.E., while his father Philip went off to fight rebels, Alexander
was made regent in Macedonia.
During his regency, the Maedi of northern Macedonia revolted.
Alexander put down the revolt and renamed their city after himself.
In 336 after his father was assassinated, he became ruler of Macedonia.
The Gordian Knot
 One legend about Alexander the Great is that when he
was in Gordium, Turkey, in 333, he undid the Gordian
Knot.
 This knot had been tied by the legendary, fabulously
wealthy King Midas.
 The prophecy about the Gordian knot was that the
person who untied it would rule all of Asia.
 Alexander the Great is said to have undone the
Gordian Knot not by unraveling it, but by slashing
through it with a sword.
Death
 In 323, he returned to Babylonia and becomes
suddenly ill and dies.
 cause is unknown.
 It could have been disease or poison.
 It might have had to do with a wound inflicted in India.
Alexander the Great
Iron Maiden: Alexander the Great