Notes as of 4/18/95

I. End as of 4/18/95

To Notes as of 4/18/95

II. What happened afterwards?

A. Demosthenes's great quote: "he can't be dead!"

1. Lamian War:

a) Antipater at Lamia,

b) Polypercheron in relieving army

c) Polypercheron Antipater's successor

d) Amorgos, 323, death of Demosthenes in 322

2. Death of Phocion, 318, when Polypercheron's son Alexander seizes Piraeus and removes even the dream of revival.

B. Destruction of the Regency:

1. Roxane murders Stateira, gives birth to Alexander IV

2. Army insists on Philip III as well

3. Perdiccas tries to wrest Egypt from Ptolemy, mutiny in 321

4. Cassander calls in Olympias to support him against Polypercheron in 317

5. Olympias's Rule

a) Murders Philip III, and Wife--we talked about that

b) Macedonia goes over to her and Alexander IV

c) Settles old scores

d) Cassander kills both of them in 317

6. First the Wars of the Diadochi:

a) Antigonus & Demetrius, Ipsos, 305

b) Cassander, dead in 297

c) Demetrius, beaten for good in 283, dies

d) Lysimachus, Corupedion, 281

e) Seleucus, assassinated in 280

7. Then the Wars of the Epigoni

a) Ptolemy Ceraunus, d. 278

b) Pyrrhus, d. 272

c) Ptolemy II (and Berenice), d. 246

d) Gonatas, d. 239

8. And finally, Business as Usual until 169.

C. Life of Demetrius

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 the 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 in Dem. 2 that people aren't sure if Demetrius was Antigonus's son or nephew.

3. Note the character study in Dem. 1, 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 (in 281) vs. Ptolemy returning Demetrius's furniture after Gaza (307).

4. Demetrius at Athens--the Athenians desperate to be nice to anyone in power particularly Monopthalmus's son.

5. Demetrius at Rhodes:

a) Demetrius interested in anything that would help him defeat the others, weapons systems & large ships worked for him

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, (Dem. 21). 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, (Dem. 36), gets ready for the next round, but the Macedonians have had enough (Dem. 44)

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, (Dem. 46) explain).

c) Game, set, match.

III. The Final Settlement

A. Demetrius's son Antigonus Gonatas ends up with Macedonia and the "Three Fetters" of Greece (Corinth, Demetrias, Chalcis)

1. Aetolian League: South of Macedonia, piratical, hostile

2. Achaean League

a) Revival of an old anti-Sparta alliance in 281

b) Allied with Macedonia from 251-198

c) Destroyed by Rome in 146

B. The Fellow who orchestrated Ipsos, Seleucus Nicator, handed Asia Minor and Syria and a shrinking chunk of Persia to his heirs.

1. Chandragupta and the 500 Elephants, so much for India

2. Persian/Parthian resurgence

C. The Ptolemies stayed in control, more or less and less, of Egypt until the death of Cleopatra VII in 31.

D. The Rhodians and the Pergamenes prove that the monsters have not eaten it all

1. Pergamon:

a) One of Al's fortified treasure depots, where Barsine and her son Hercles holed up for awhile

b) Philetaerus, Lysimachus's guard, fought off the Gauls, 279-8

c) Chunk of Seleucid territory, free until 133

2. Rhodes

a) Independent until destroyed by Cassius in 43

b) Fought

(1) Ptolemy II in the 240's

(2) Philip V: 201-196

(3) Antiochus III from 193-188

c) The Last of the Greek Democracies

(1) With a superlative navy

(2) Walls twenty-feet thick

d) Suppressed Piracy

e) Fed the Coasts

f) Supported Science and Education

3. Constant wars with the Seleucids over Syria

E. The Greeks and Macedonians remained convinced of their superiority until the Romans convinced them otherwise.

IV. Wind it up:

A. Final: 5/9, same time, same place

B. Evaluations

C. The Speech:

1. The Gauls, in 278

2. Culture, the Preservation of the Old Greek ideals

3. Science:

a) Eratosthenes, who measured the earth c. 275-194

b) Aristarchus, heliocentrism in c. 310-230

c) Hipparchus, c. 161

(1) From Earth to the Moon

(2) We don't know enough to plot the Solar System

d) Poseidonius: Tides and Ocean

e) Geminus and the Antikythera Device

4. The Idea of World Unity

a) NOT Alexander's concept of a unified East and West but

b) Rather, a unification of thought and culture

c) And that's why we're here

190--Alexander, Spring 95 1