IV. End as of 3/13/95
A. Covering the rear--(Starr, p. 395)
1. Alexander's campaign in the north against the Illyrians and Triballoi. The way to deal with barbarian peoples is to destroy their wretched homes and means of support.
2. Revolt of Thebes--and set a horrible example of what happens when you make trouble.
B. King vs. King--Alexander vs. Darius III Codomannus
1. Note: Darius was an excellent leader, but a lousy general. Alexander was superlative at both. Consider the modern examples: Stalin/Zhukov, Hitler vs. Roosevelt/Marshall, Lincoln/Grant vs. Davis/Lee. Saddam Hussein vs. Bush/Powell/Schwarzkopf
2. Persian Empire wasn't what it had been
a) Artaxerxes Ochus had had a terrible time beating Egypt back into semi- submission (independent for the last time from 404-343, Starr p. 397)
b) We mentioned how he ended up killing his son
c) Darius III was a distant relative put into power by the eunuch Bagoas, who had poisoned everybody who got into his way until Darius, meant to be a puppet, poisoned him first.
d) Satraps acting up, independent-minded--"Satrap's Revolt" of 373-358.
e) Darius III had absolutely no military experience and oh, God, would it show.
3. Persian assetts:
a) VAST empire all loyal to the same man. Darius was effectively able to send huge armies into the field even after two of them had been entirely destroyed.
b) Like the Romans, excellent road system and communications (King's Eyes & Ears, again)
c) Incredible gold reservers from all those years of taxation and almost no major public spending which meant that
d) They had the best Greek soldiers money could buy:
(1) Mercenary troops, who would in fact give Alexander his worst trouble in the West
(2) Mercenary commanders--such as Mentor, who had reconquered the Aegean Islands and coast, and Memnon, the most formidable single opponent Alexander ever fought. These men, I should note, were two brothers from Rhodes.
e) They also tried the money bit--remember Demosthenes.
4. PHILIP, however, had set up counters
a) Physical occupation of Greece, which Alexander continued by leaving Antipater and the army
b) League of Corinth's prohibition on any Greek serving with the Persian Army and authorization of a holy war.
c) Foothold in Asia (Attalus and Parmenio since 336) so that the Persians couldn't turn it into a naval war.
C. The War Itself, 336-330
1. First, get into Persia
a) Alexander at Troy, propaganda (Plutarch, 2.150)
b) Battle of the Granicus, 334
(1) Memnon vs. the Persian Satraps: withdraw and devastate (scorched Earth policy) vs. Satraps' arrogance and desire to protect the tax base
(2) Big Mistake--cavalry battle on the Macedonians' terms
(3) Statues of 34 slain and dedication on the Athenian acropolis, "except the Spartans."
c) "Gordium," and Gordian knot--still more propaganda (Plut. 2.152)
2. Second, kill the Persian navy
a) Coastal strategy (Starr, p. 397), but a question:
(1) Was Alexander really destroying the Persian navy's ports by conquering down the coast? The Persians could use the Aegean islands--their main fleet base outside of Halicarnassus was Samos.
(2) Or was he following Philip's policy of going for the vitals? When Alexander conquered Phoenicia, he ACQUIRED the Persian navy.
(3) Why was he so intent (otherwise) on taking Tyre? (333-2)
3. Always, kill the Persian army
a) Darius III ended up as Alexander's best general by mobilizing these huge armies for Alexander to destroy, e.g. Issus in 333.
(1) The Persian army was holding
(2) The Greek mercenaries had PENETRATED the phalanx. Alexander made a point of slaughtering them after the battle.
(3) When Darius fled, all was lost. The question here: Did the Persians have more to lose by Darius staying or running (each time).
b) Final big battle: Gaugamela, 10/1/331 (Starr, p. 399, calls it Arbela after a neighboring village),
(1) Set piece battle: Let Darius arrange things to suit him right down the line and accordingly commit all his availible resources to the battle
(2) Total (if at first chancy) rout, destruction of much of the Persian army, Alexander's subsequent effort to keep Darius on the run and unable to raise another.
4. Finally, divide and conquer
a) Ada and Caria (Plut. 2.156)
b) Separate and reduce Phoenicia
c) Egypt and Siwa--the new Pharoah,(p. 398)
d) Babylon--newest king, appropriate courtesy
e) New "Great King," Darius's mother, wife, and family (Plutarch, 2. 163)
f) In Afghanistan (330-27) tried that, married Roxane, but had to go back to "wretched homes" strategy and blockhouses columns (Starr, p. 400). It wasn't fun.
g) India--beat and pardon Porus at the Hydaspes (326), carve him out, then go on to the next petty ruler. Shame the army had had enough.
5. Retreat and death, Final Plans?
a) Arabia, spice trade and route to Indian holdings (Starr, p. 401)
b) The legend was that he was going to head West against Carthage (another traditional enemy of the Greeks since Battle of Alalia, 535; Helorus, in 492) via Cyrene, which had surrendered itself to him, then to Gibraltar, Spain, Italy and Home.
c) Supposedly (after entering Babylon, at the priests' instructions, through a malarial swamp), dying, when asked who would be his heir, he said, "the strongest."
D. What happened--
1. The "divide and conquer" strategy came back to haunt the Macedonians.
a) Ptolemy was ruling Egypt by the time they got around to burying Alexander and had no interest in keeping the central monarchy going
b) Perdiccas, the regent was killed in 322, Alexander IV and Arrhidaeus dead by 315 killed by Olympias and Antipater's son Cassander.
c) Antigonus Monopthalmus had the best chance to reunite the pieces.
(1) Central location--he'd been left behind on the march East as satrap of central Phrygia, with money and local resources which he parlayed into greater ones
(2) Threw Cassander out of Greece in 314 with the support of the free Greek cities.
(3) In 307 his son Demetrius threw Cassander out of Athens again and was hailed as a king, a title he at once sent to his father.
d) You can call 307, then, the offical end of Alexander's unified Empire, although you'll be getting a few more details in the
E. Life of Demetrius--All Starr gives you he gives on p. 403 although a great deal goes unsaid behind the quote on p. 404 that "Rhodes continued to be free." You could write a book. . .
1. Historiographical Note: The Slaughter of the Innocents
a) Sometime between the 1st centuries B.C.-A.D. the librarians at Alexandria and Pergamon established a set of literary criteria for what books they would buy, and, accordingly, would be copied and preserved.
b) Their standard for historiography was Thucydides: an intricate style that only truly brilliant and erudite and well-read (such as themselves) could appreciate.
c) Content was less important than style, and since the writers between their time and Thucydides' had DARED to have their own literary style, writers such as Philistus (in the West), Hieronymous, the Rhodians, even a good chunk of Polybius never made it. The holes in the record of Greek history between Thucydides and their time (and sometimes after it) are just staggering.
d) The Romans put all their eggs, when they laid them, in a basket named Livy, and when a good big chunk of Livy went, there went their data.
2. Plutarch and some others (e.g., Appian) did the best they could to repair the data--witness his note on p. 446 that people aren't sure if Demetrius was Antigonus's son or nephew.
3. Note the character study on pp. 446-7, some great anecdotes. People (including Plutarch) always tend to find the villains more interesting). It was a pretty dog-eat-dog age and an age of chivalry--cf. Olympias, Cassander, Ceraunus's assassination of Seleceus Nicator vs. Ptolemy returning Demetrius's furniture after Gaza.
4. Demetrius at Athens--the Athenians desperate to be nice to anyone in power
5. Demetrius at Rhodes:
a) Demetrius interested in anything that would help him defeat the others, weapons systems & large ships worked for him (p. 457)
b) The ancient world's one great chance to develop technology
(1) Slave labor made people with the money to manufacture uninterested in saving on labor costs
(2) Distaste for devices even in military circles (the bolt anecdote) overcome by need for new weapons, Ptolemy founds the Museum.
(3) BUT there always seemed to be a counter for every new weapon, witness Rhodes, pp. 457-8. He blew it.
c) Basic lesson of the Siege of Rhodes (also, U.S. Revolution, Vietnam): You cannot defeat a people who are willing to keep fighting and fighting for what they believe unless you are willing and able to destroy their means and will to fight. Demetrius couldn't hack it.
6. Why the Empire stayed divided:
a) Ever play Risk? The more you control, the more resources you've got to exploit
b) When Antigonus Monopthalmos got too powerful, SPLAT at Ipsos, 305.
7. The Mercenary mentality--
a) Demetrius acclaimed as King of Macedonia, (1.468), gets ready for the next round, but the Macedonians have had enough (1.473)
b) Pyrrhus of Epirus and Lysimachus double-team him, he still almost pulls it out with his lightning raid on Asia (best joke in Antiquity, (1.476, explain).
c) Game, set, match.
V. And Pyrrhus--the Romans first encounter the Hellenistic World.
A. Who he? King of Epirus, in modern Albania, Northwest of Greece, West of Macedonia
B. Descendant of Achilles
1. Note his heroic attributes! Magic toe (1.521)
2. Jaw with single notched row of bone, no teeth
3. Single combat with Demetrius's officer Pantauchus (1.524)
4. Worth noting name of opposing Roman general, Curius Dentatus
a) Historiographical considerations?
b) Roman pick their man?
c) Simple coincidence
C. Product of unsettled times--Lost his kingdom in a coup, sheltered by Antigonus & Demetrius, fought at Ipsus, hostage and then ally of Ptolemy in Egypt, back on throne
D. A much younger cousin of Alexander, Hannibal ranked him 2nd in the list of generals behind Alexander and ahead of himself.
1. Summoned as his grandfather Alexander of Molossus had been in 334 (until the Tarentines turned on him), as Archidamus of Sparta had been in 343.
a) Taras: founded by Spartans in 710 by Parthenai, the children of Spartan women by ??? during one of the Messenian wars
b) Believed itself destined to conquer all of Southern Italy
c) Thurii (colony of Athens where Herodotus ended up) asked the Romans for support against Lucanian hill tribes
d) Taras sank seven Roman ships sent to support the Army in 282, called in Pyrrhus
2. Mythology can work against you, as well as for you!
a) The Romans had a laid a claim to Greek heritage by declaring themselves the descendants of the Trojan hero Aeneas
b) Pyrrhus, as Achilles' descendant, accordingly had a mandate for war against them.
c) Also had a mandate against Carthage, traditional foes of Western Greece since before the Halorus, 491
E. The War against Pyrrhus
1. With the truly powerful states (Syria, Thrace, Egypt ) on a war footing in the East, Italy looked like easy pickings (1.528, p. 465)
2. Reputation--Alexander hadn't been there
3. Problems:
a) Bad Storm, Pyrrhus loses much of his first invasion fleet
b) Puts Tarentines on a war footing and finds out that they aren't up to it (1.531)
c) Carthaginians truly formidable at sea, across his supply lines
d) Romans truly horrifying on land.
4. Battle of Heracleia 280
a) Infantry battle dead even
b) Elephants scare off Roman cavalry (Lucanian cows)
c) Legion flanked, breaks
d) Horrible casualties--"Pyrrhic Victories," Pyrrhus's trained and superlative mercenaries vs. lots and lots of well-trained Italian farmboys(1.537) Pyrrhus couldn't get more mercenaries with Lysimachus and Seleuceus facing off at Corupedion, 281
5. Peace feelers--Roman toughness and disdain of Greek kultur-- Philosophy anecdote, 1.535.
6. Asculum, 279
a) Pyrrhus brings up the irresistable force to meet the Roman immovable object
b) The Romans fight bloodily every inch of the way before they end up in their camp, which stops the Elephants.
7. Plutarch points out Pyrrhus's flaw--"Quod agis, bene age."
a) In Sicily, Carthaginians grim, Greeks unwilling after a century of absolute hell.
b) The Romans pressed him in Italy, pulled out, nasty battle with the Mamertines (ex-Mercenaries): "What a lovely wrestling field we're leaving ..." 1.539
8. No allies at Beneventum, 275
a) The Romans wait in the trenches, have learned to counter the elephants
b) Pyrrhus pulls out while he can
9. Back to Greece--
a) Lysimachus had died at Corupedion, but Ceraunus had assassinated Seleceus I immediately afterward and become king of Thrace & Macedonia
b) Ceraunus had been killed by the Gauls in 279 after nearly wiping out Gonatas and what was left of Demetrius's empire
c) Gonatas had beaten the Gauls in 277 (catapults/ships), become king of Macedonia
d) Pyrrhus invades Macedonia and Greece as soon as he gets back
e) Beats Antigonus's Gallic mercenaries, last chance for the barbarian to pose as defender of Greeks, 1.541
f) Heads into Greece, shadowed by Antigonus
(1) Attack on Sparta--down, but not out
(2) Antigonus on the high ground, 1.546
g) Gets killed due to bad planning in street fighting in Argos, 272
F. Final division of the Hellenistic World--
1. Antigonids (from Monopthalmus and lies about Philip II) controlling Macedonia and Thrace, Dosun over the Hellespont in 227, Philip V vs. Rhodes in 199
2. Ptolemies in Egypt, trying to get into Syria, in Asia because of their navy until Actium, 31.
3. Seleucids (from Selecus I Nicator), lose India, hold Persia in degrees.
VI. Rome: The Internal Enemies
VII. End as of 3/20/95