Download Hellenic Disarray and Philip II of Macedonia

Fredricksmeyer
World of the Ancient Greeks
Hellenic Disarray
and Philip II of Macedonia (403-336)
Spartan hegemony (404-371)
Spartan Realpolitik before and after the Peloponnesian War
Treatment of helots
Bargain with Persia
Brutal decarchies (ten-men juntas) backed by Spartan garrisons
Exaction of tribute
Support of oligarchic coup of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens (403)
its eventual collapse and the execution of Socrates
Conflicts between Athens, Sparta, and Thebes in various alliances, with Persia playing
all sides
King’s Peace (386 BCE) imposes order with terms most favorable to Sparta
Alliance between Athens, Thebes and others, and the new “Second Athenian
Confederation” and “Boeotian Federation”
Theban hegemony (371-62)
Battle of Leuktra (371)-Spartan infantry defeated by Thebes!
Pelopidas, and Epaminondas who packs one infantry wing
“Sacred Band” of Thebans (378-338)
homosexual couples
military unit perhaps inspired by Plato’s Symposium (Plutarch)
Theban mismanagement and a decade of mostly indecisive land- and sea-battles
Battle of Mantineia (362)
Thebes wins vs. alliance of Athens and Sparta, but Pyrrhic victory: Epaminondas
killed; Pelopidas too had died in 364
Greek states again relapse into separatism and chaos
Cultural metamorphosis and the triumph of individualism
High classical period (450-400) and the “anxiety of influence”
Athenian law of 386
Aristotle’s Poetics and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex
Yet, brilliance in cultural areas other than attic drama, including mathematics,
astronomy, law, literary criticism, sculpture, rhetoric, philosophy
At the same time, chaos and disarray of the Greek political world reinforced by these
cultural trends, as seen for example in philosophy:
legacy of sophists (Protagoras: “man is the measure of all
things”):anthropocentrism>individualism
Aristippus and the pleasure principle
Antisthenes and the rejection of worldly affairs
In short, for socio-political, military, and cultural reasons, the Greek world especially
vulnerable to external threat
The Rise of Philip II of Macedonia (382-336)
Macedonia traditionally limited by habits of its aristocracy: hunting, drinking, sex,
court intrigue and assassinations
Philip’s family, the Argeads, had emerged as premier warlords
Philip’s two older brothers strengthen and stabilize Macedonian army
the “Foot Companions”
Philip’s ascends throne in 359
Philip’s military innovations:
elite shock troops, called the Guards Brigade
increases depth and flexibility (with light-weight armor) of Foot Companions
phalanx
replaces doru (short thrusting spear) and hoplon (massive shield/knee to chin)
with sarissa (ca. 15 foot pike) and pelte (small shield strapped onto
forearm, since size of sarissa requires two hands) that create a virtually
impenetrable hedge of points
slantwise battle formation: left and center held back as right pushes forward
Macedonian-style phalanx remained the premier infantry force in the Western
World until the more flexible Roman maniple
implements expansionist foreign policy-military
aggression and diplomacy
Demosthenes
Philippics starting in 351
Isocrates calls for Pan-hellenic league led by Philip to invade Persia
Philip takes Chalcidic peninsula by 348
Peace of Philocrates (348)
Philip enters Sacred War
Athenian/Theban alliance that faces Philip at Chaeronea
Battle of Chaeronea (338) with his 18-year old Alexander as the general who delivered
the coup de grace
Philip II and League of Corinth
plans to invade Persia
encouraged by the March of the Ten Thousand as led and recounted by
Xenophon in the Anabasis that had occurred in 401, in which a relatively
small force of Greeks had marched deep into Persian territory, defeated a
much larger Persian force, and returned home safely
Philip assassinated
perhaps as orchestrated by Alexander and Olympias
Alexander becomes the King of Macedonia and the commander-in-chief of most
lethal military force on earth at the age of 20