The Fall of the City-States and the Rise of the Hellenistic World, 400-323 B.C.E.

I. Failure of the City-State and the Triumph of Macedonia

A. Peloponnesian War (431-404BCE)--resentment towards the high-handed attitude of Athens led a number of other city-states, under the direction of Sparta, to begin the two-decade long Peloponnesian War. During the early years of the conflict, Athens refused to engage the invading army outside the walls it had constructed to connect it to the port of Piraeus; the hoplites that made up the bulk of the attacking force would have to withdraw during the year to harvest the crops at their farms. With the financial assistance of Persia, however, Sparta was able to build a navy to defeat the Athenians, and Sparta quickly assumed Athens place as the most despised city-state because of its own haughty attitude. The skirmishing continued in Greece until the king of Persia brokered the King's Peace in 387BCE. Problems in the eastern portion of the empire diverted Persian attention elsewhere,  but the position of the King of Persia as the guarantor of the status quo kept the Greek city-states in a weakened condition.

1. Fall of Sparta--When Sparta turned to Persia for assistance, it lost prestige with the other Greek city-states. After the Peloponnesian War, Sparta attempted to extend its influence (and enrich the city itself) by extending its control into central Greece. This provoked the city-states in central Greece--Thebes, Corinth, Argos, and Athens--to form a coalition among themselves to unite against Sparta. In response, Sparta sought alliance again with Persia, in return for acknowledging the Persian king's right to rule Anatolia--in effect, shirking their traditional stance of defending Greece from outsiders in 386 B.C.E.

2. Brief Rise of Thebes--Thebians crushed an attempted Spartan invasion of Thebes in 371 B.C.E., and then invaded the Peloponnesian peninsula shortly thereafter. The Thebians freed most of the helots, greatly weakening Sparta. Because Thebes was only 40 miles from Athens, the growing military might of the city-state was viewed as a threat by the Athenians, who promptly launched their own attack on the city. This near constant warfare between city-states kept any one city-state from prevailing over another--but also left them susceptible to attack from outsiders.

B. Philip of Macedonia--if he had not been murdered as he was reaching the height of his powers, Philip II might have procured the honorary title "The Great" before his son Alexander. Phillip II transformed his previously backward kingdom of Macedonia into the premier military power in the Greek world. He refined the hoplite battle tactics, and incorporated and coordinated the use of cavalry and infantry together. His military engineers developed the early catapults,  which transformed siege warfare. By 338BCE, Philip brought this new technology to use against a coalition of Greek city-states, defeating them and then establishing the Confederacy of Corinth to attack Persia. He had just established a bridgehead on the Asiatic side of Hellespont when he was killed by assassins in 336BCE.

1. Macedonia Society--the Macedonians military prowess sprang from the character of their monarchy and their people's ethnic pride. The Macedonian king maintained political control by maintaining the support of the elite, who ranked as the king's social equals and maintained many followers. Men spent their time training for war, hunting, and drinking heavily (the last should be kept in mind when we discuss Alexander the Great). The king had to excel at all three to remain in power. While the elite saw themselves as ethnical Greek, Macedonians in general were contemptuous of the Greeks, who they saw as too soft to survive in their country's northern climes.

2. Rule of Philip II, 359-336 B.C.E.--Philip came to power in 359 shortly after a military disaster for Macedonia, in which the king was killed along with about 4000 Macedonian troops. Philip re-organized the Macedonian army, introduced his superior tactical use of the phalanx, and was able to overcome the Illyrians--and the also eliminate his local rivals and maintain his kingship. Philip then used the combination of his military, diplomacy, and bribes to persuade or force most of the city-states of northern and central Greece into alliance with him. Fearful of the havoc his powerful army could cause in Macedonia, Philip turned his attention to the east, vowing to conquer the Persian empire to "avenge" the Greeks of 150 earlier. While some Greek city-states attempted to counter Philip's growing influence, but were defeated at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 B.C.E., and Philip forced them to join his alliance.

3. Battle of Chaeronea--marked the turning point in Greek history: never again would the city-states of Greece act independently in foreign policy. City-states remained Greece's central economic and social organization, but the city-states hereafter always had to be concerned about the control a foreign king had over them.

C. Alexander the Great--used the military innovations of his father, and the avowed goal of revenging Xerxes invasion of Greece, to roll through the Persian Empire, eventually reaching the Indus Valley. Also demonstrating that he could learn from his avowed enemy, he maintained the framework of the Persian administration, while replacing the administrators themselves with those personally loyal to him--while at the same time, marrying several well-connected Persian and Iranian women,  and adopting Persian-style dress and some customs--much to the dismay of the Macedonian nobility. His death in 323BCE  ended this controversy.

1. The Energy--Alexander succeeded his father in 336 B.C.E., at the age of 20; by the time of his death in 323 B.C.E., he had conquered Anatolia, much of the Middle East, Egypt, Persia, and southwestern Asia as far east as the Indus Valley (present-day Pakistan. Alexander inspired his troops from the front (as would only be proper for a Macedonian king), riding into battle at the head of his troops in a brightly plumed helmet and flowing cape. Alexander spent so much of his time in conquest, in fact, that he was not able to sire an heir in his lifetime--his son was not born until after he died.

2. The Hedonist--Alexander's death at such an early ages has spawned a host of rumors, from claims that he simply drank himself to death (maybe that explains his attraction to Iron Maiden?), that he and his male lover Hephaestion died of AIDS. It should be recalled, however, that Alexander's behavior would have been well within the cultural norms of the Macedonian elite, who regularly got quite drunk. Alexander also took a great number of wives, in part as a means of diplomacy, and the we do not know for sure if he and Hephaestion were actually lovers or not--and in any means, we cannot judge Alexander's sexuality by todays standards. From Macedonian practice, in all likelihood, Alexander was poisoned--and if he wasn't poisoned, he may have simply picked up some mysterious disease during his conquest of southwest Asia. All we know for certain is that Alexander died without a viable heir, and as a result his empire was divided into three parts.

D. The Hellenistic Sythesis, 323-30BCE--the short-lived Macedonian dynasty was broken into three kingdoms after Alexander's death:  Seleucid, Ptolemaic, and Antigonid.




1. Selucid--took over the bulk of the empire, and promptly lost great portions of it--the Indus Valley and Afghanistan,  and most of Iran by the middle of the second century BCE. From their capital is Syrian Antioch, the Selucid monarchs controlled Mesopotamia, Syrian, and parts of Anatolia

2. Ptolemies--ruled Egypt, which was more homogenous than the Selucid kingdom, and easier to control. The Ptolemies ruled from Alexandria, planned by Alexander himself. The Ptolemies were happy to collect taxes from the rich agricultural lands, but did little to attempt to integrate Egyptians into the kingdom; only the last Ptolemy ruler,  Cleopatra (51-30BCE) even bothered to learn the Egyptian language.

3. Antigonids--ruled over the ethnically homogeneous region of Macedonia and northern Greece. While they maintained garrisons in the southern part, and the threat of invasion kept the southern city-states in line, they did not control southern Greece. The southern city-states banded together in various alliances, except for Sparta and Athens. Sparta continued to believe its own myth of invincibility, even while losing battles to Macedonia, and Athens was content to remain neutral, an educational center.

E. Alexandria--was the premier city of the Hellenistic Age, the center of learning, culture, and Greek-style democracy.

F. Conclusion