Alexander the great & The
Hellenistic Era.
By: Eva Bahrke
Taylor Knatz
Veronica Wrinkle
Geography
• The location of the Hellenistic Era didn’t really affect
the civilizations development. “Alexander the Great
pretty much plowed his way through everything and
anything until he reached India.” (Mrs. Underhill)
• Exact Location: 20 deg. E- 70 deg. E, 35 deg. N-35 deg.
N.
• Relative Location: Surrounded by Mediterranean and
Arabian Sea
• Conquered Syria, Palestine, Egypt, & all of the Persian
Empire
• Surrounded by Caucasus and Zagros mountains
• Alexander followed the Greek gods.
• When Alexander would conquer he would let
the people live free will/ practice their
religion.
• He wanted all people from wherever he
conquered to live happily and peacefully.
• He entered Asia minor 334 BC w/ 37,000
soldiers
• Freed Lonian Greek cities of western Asia
• Defeated large Persian army in Issus
• Conquered Syria, Palestine, Egypt
• Named cities like capital of Egypt (Alexandria)
after himself
• Fought Persia at Gaugamela, won, got control
of entire Persia empire
• Moves to east & northwest into India- returns
• 1000’s die in dessert
• The center of research & development was in
Alexandria, where researchers came up with
several new findings.
• Used dissections to show the distinction between
arteries & nerves.
• Learned to use the pulse for diagnosis & saw the
heart as a pump w/ valves.
• They were able to control bleeding with
tourniquets & surgically remove hernias, bladder
stones, and hemorrhoids.
• Greek mathematics mainly excelled in geometry. Since they did not
have place value digits, or the zero, both of which are needed for
higher level computations.
• Euclid wrote a geometry book whose proofs are still used in schools
today.
• Eratosthenes, another mathematician, calculated the
circumference of the earth by measuring the different lengths of
shadows of 2 sticks 200 miles apart at high noon on the summer
solstice.
• His calculations was ignored in favor of a much smaller estimate of
the earths’ size. This was important, since the smaller estimate of
the size of the globe would give captains the courage to sail the
high seas during the age of exploration.
• In philosophy, several new ideas emerged.
• One of these, stoicism, stressed, among other things, doing ones duty
and bearing up under hardship.
• The term stoic is still used to call someone who bears adversity w/
strength and courage.
• Another major philosophy to emerge was Epicureanism. Our main goal
in life is to avoid pain. People misinterpreted this to mean we should live
a hedonistic “eat, drink, and be merry” lifestyle.
• The term epicurean still denotes this sort of attitude. Epicurean the
founder, saw such a lifestyle as ultimately destructive, and exactly the
opposite of what he was striving for.
• We should live moderate sensible lives. This and his idea that god exists,
but is totally detached from profound events on earth, would have a
profound influence on the philosophy of Deism during the
enlightenment in the 1700’s.
• The steam engine was invented by Hiero of Alexandria & used for various
toys & tricks to amaze people such as opening temple doors. People had
no use for steam power so it was forgotten until the 1600’s in western
Europe, when there was a need for slave laboring devices.
• Finally Archimedes of Syracuse demonstrated the properties of water
displacement.
• He also defended his city from a besieging Roman army by designing
catapults & fantastic machines , such as giant cranes for picking up &
dropping enemy ships beneath Syracuses’ walls.
• Thanks largely to Archimedes devices, Syracuse held out for two years
before the Romans broke in.
• Archimedes died in the sack of the city, totally absorbed in a math
problem & oblivious to the havoc going on around him.
• The government
type was a
monarchy;
Alexander was
the king and his
word was law.
• The relationship
between government,
religion, and other
structures was that
while Alexander was
king he ruled with the
help of his beliefs. He
believed fully in Greek
gods, in fact he saw
himself as the great god
Hercules.
• They’re political structure
was like a hierarchy. Back
then it was a man- ruled
world and once again the
kings word was law, so
limitations to that would be
if the king made a law and
you didn’t agree with it, you
couldn’t do anything about
it. Benefits would be
Alexander could do
whatever he wanted & if
you were a male of higher
status you were in luck.
• The political structures of
this civilization is different
from ours because here in
the United States women
have rights and the
presidents word doesn’t
just instantly become a law,
we have a choice if we want
the presidents ideas to
become laws or not.
However their civilization is
similar to some of the ones
we see today like
Afghanistan due the manruled world thing going on.
• They had significant economic development
based on the large growth of finance. An
international money economy based upon
gold & silver coins.
• Speculation, cornering of markets intense
competition, the growth of large business
houses & the development of insurances &
advertising were other significant things about
this age.
Causes that led to such a great economy:
• The opening of a vast area of trade from the
Indus River to the Nile.
• The rise in prices that led to an increase in
investment & speculation.
• The promotion of trade & industry by
government.
The result of these factors was the
growth of a system of large – scale
production, trade, and finance.
• Social structures in this civilization existed
because the political legacies were the
creation of monarchies.
• The king obviously benefited from these social
structures but the ones who were harmed
were probably the ones with a low social
status due to poverty.
• Social structures connected to this civilizations
religion, politics, & economics because
basically if you had a high social status you’d
have a good job in one of these categories.
• Someone could change their social status and
make it higher by befriending someone with a
high social status so you would have
“connections” or if someone overthrew the
king or got a higher job.
• Someone could lower their social status by
making bad choices and doing retched actions
that could make them an outcast or if they
went from rich to poor.
• On the night of June 1st, in chambers within
the royal palace, Alexander was holding a
memorial feast to honor the death of a close
friend. Out of nowhere, around mid-evening,
he had intense pain in his abdomen and
collapsed to the floor. He went to his
bedchamber to rest. Sadly after ten days of
agony, convulsions, and delirium, he fell into a
coma and passed away.
• Alexander the greats’ death is one of history’s
most enduring mysteries. What caused such a
strong and healthy ruler at such a young age,
who also ruled half the known world to die so
unexpectedly and at the very height of his
power? Historians proposed malaria, alcohol
poisoning, and typhoid fever as possible
causes of death. Homicide was also an option,
but no one has seriously investigated the
possibility.
• http://www.flowofhistory.com/units/birth/3/F
C25 - The Hellenistic Eras’ Achievements
• http://quizlet.com/4145946/alexander-thegreat-his-achievements-flash-cards/ Alexander the Greats Achievements
• http://www.greek-thesaurus.gr/hellenisticage-economic-social.html - Economics of
Alexander the Great
• http://wso.williams.edu/~junterek/persia.htm
• http://www.livius.org/ajal/alexander/alexander_+30.html
• http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi
d=20091020181400AA5FsJO