For almost 30 centuries—from its unification around 3100 B.C. to.docx
Mehr von Joe Boisvert Adjunct Professor of History, Gulf Coast State College Encore Program, Director of Compassionate Care, Amherst First Baptist Church, NH, Stephen Minister, Instructor Noah's Ark, Panama City, Florida
Mehr von Joe Boisvert Adjunct Professor of History, Gulf Coast State College Encore Program, Director of Compassionate Care, Amherst First Baptist Church, NH, Stephen Minister, Instructor Noah's Ark, Panama City, Florida (20)
3. Alexander the Great
Born: BC 356, Pella
Died: June 323 BC, Babylon
Children:Alexander IV of Macedon, Heracles
Nicknames: Hegemon of the Hellenic League, King of Macedon, Lord of Asia,
Pharaoh of Egypt, Shahanshah of Persia
Siblings: Philip III of Macedon,Cleopatra of Macedonia
Parents: Philip
Alexander III of Macedon,
commonly known as Alexander
the Great,
a king of Macedon, a state in
northern ancient Greece.
Born in Pella in 356 BC,
Alexander was tutored by
Aristotle until the age of 16.
5. Died Young
Alexander the Great (Greek: λέξανδρος Μέγας or
Μέγας λέξανδρος, Mégas Aléxandros; July 20, 356 BC –
June 10 or June 11, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III
of Macedon (λέξανδρος Γ' Μακεδών) was an ancient
Greek king (basileus) of Macedon (336–323 BC).
He was one of the most successful military
commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in
battle. By the time of his death, he had conquered
most of the world known to the ancient Greeks.
6. Kingship of Macedon
Alexander assumed the kingship of Macedon following
the death of his father Philip II, who had unified most of
the city-states of mainland Greece under Macedonian
hegemony in a federation called the League of Corinth.
After reconfirming Macedonian rule by quashing a
rebellion of southern Greek city-states and staging a
short but bloody excursion against Macedon's northern
neighbors,
Alexander set out east against the Achaemenid Persian
Empire, which he defeated and overthrew.
His conquests included Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea,
Gaza, Egypt, Bactria and Mesopotamia, and he extended
the boundaries of his own empire as far as Punjab, India.
7. Plan to Conquer the World
Alexander had already made plans prior to his
death for military and mercantile expansions
into the Arabian peninsula, after which he was to
turn his armies to the west (Carthage, Rome and
the Iberian Peninsula).
His original vision, however, had been to the
east, to the ends of the world and the Great
Outer Sea, as is described by his boyhood tutor
and mentor Aristotle.
8. Alexander Had His Soldiers
Marry Foreigners
Alexander integrated
many foreigners into
his army, leading
some scholars to
credit him with a
"policy of fusion". He
also encouraged
marriages between
his soldiers and
foreigners, and he
himself went on to
marry two foreign
princesses.
9. Alexander Died After Only
Twelve Years of War
Alexander died after twelve years of constant military
campaigning, possibly a result of malaria, poisoning,
typhoid fever, viral encephalitis or the consequences of
alcoholism. His legacy and conquests lived on long after
him and ushered in centuries of Greek settlement and
cultural influence over distant areas.This period is
known as the Hellenistic period, which featured a
combination of Greek, Middle Eastern and Indian
culture. Alexander himself featured prominently in the
history and myth of both Greek and non-Greek cultures.
His exploits inspired a literary tradition in which he
appeared as a legendary hero in the tradition of Achilles.
10. Alexander the Great in Bible
Prophecy
In the Bible, Daniel Chapter 8 makes detailed prophecies about a
future Greek leader.
Three hundred years later, Alexander the Great would fulfill these
prophecies to the letter.
___________________________________________________
Prophecy: A future Greek leader will advance rapidly from the
west.
And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat [the Greek
Empire] came from the west, across the surface of the whole
earth, without touching the ground [this indicates fantastic
speed]; and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes
[Alexander the Great]. — Daniel 8:5
Fulfillment: Alexander the Great advanced so rapidly from the
west, that military analysts to this day marvel at the speed and
efficiency with which he moved his forces. Later on in Chapter
8, Daniel specifically identifies the goat as Greece– a
remarkable prophecy made 300 years before Greece would rise
to power.
11. Prophecy: Alexander the Great would
attack and destroy the Media-Persian
Empire, the dominant empire in the
world.
Then he came to the ram that had two horns [one horn is Media,
one is Persia, this ram is the Media-Persian Empire], which I had
seen standing beside the river, and ran at him with furious power
[Alexander's forces attacked the Media-Persian Empire]. And I saw
him confronting the ram; he was moved with rage against him,
attacked the ram, and broke his two horns.There was no power in
the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and
trampled him; and there was no one that could deliver the ram from
his hand [the Media-Persian Empire was annihilated by Alexander
the Great]. — Daniel 8:5-7
Fulfillment: Alexander destroyed the Media-Persian Empire.
12. Prophecy:
Prophecy: His empire will be divided into four
smaller empires, none of which would be as powerful
as Alexander’s empire.
…and in place of it four notable ones came up
toward the four winds of heaven… — Daniel 8:8
The large horn that is between its eyes is the first
king. As for the broken horn and the four that stood
up in its place, four kingdoms shall arise out of that
nation, but not with its power. — Daniel 8:20-22
Fulfillment: Alexander’s empire was divided among
four of his generals: Lysimachus, Cassandra,
Seleucus, & Ptolemy. None of these empires ever
equaled Alexander’s empire in power.
14. Buried in Alexandria, Egypt
The conqueror's body was laid in a golden coffin,
and carried in state to Alexandria, the city he had
founded at the mouth of the Nile. Here a fine
tomb was built by order of Ptolemy, one of
Alexander's generals, who said that his dead
master also should be worshiped as a god.
Ptolemy wanted the body to remain in Egypt
because an oracle had said that he who buried
Alexander would be master of his kingdom.
15. The Ptolemaic Dynasty
The Ptolemaic dynasty was founded by Ptolemy son of
Lagus, a general of Alexander the Great. On Alexander's
death in 323 he was appointed satrap of Egypt, and
eventually declared himself king in 304.The dynasty lasted
until the death of CleopatraVII and the Roman conquest of
Egypt in 30, an episode which is still one of the best-known
chapters of ancient history.
The intervening period is one which is, by comparison to
most of pharaonic Egypt, very well, if not fully coherently,
documented.While Ptolemy I and CleopatraVII are perhaps
the best-known rulers, most of the Ptolemaic kings and
queens emerge as distinctive and interesting (if not
necessarily attractive) individuals.
16. Ptolemaic Egypt was one of the
two great powers of the
Hellenistic East
Ptolemaic Egypt was one of the two great powers of
the Hellenistic East for most of its existence. During
this period Egyptian armies ranged further east and
further north than at any other time in Egyptian
history. Alexandria was the center of the Hellenistic
intellectual world.The period also saw the final
flowering of pharaonic Egyptian art and
architecture. Many of the great temples we see
today, at Edfu, Esna, Kom Ombo, Dendera, Philae
and elsewhere, are basically Ptolemaic monuments.
The Ptolemaic era is unjustly neglected. Both
Egyptophiles and Hellenists have traditionally seen it
as decadent
17. Alexandria: The Ptolemaic
Dynasty
The achievements of the Greeks in the ancient
world, by no means few, may have reached their
peak in the city of Alexandria. No less a ruler
than its namesake, Alexander III of Macedonia
(Alexander the Great), Alexandria dominated the
eastern Mediterranean world culturally,
politically, and economically for more than nine
hundred years, the latter three hundred of which
it competed with even the eastern capital of the
Byzantine Empire, the famous Constantinople.
Few cities in the world can claim success of this
magnitude for close to millennium, and even
fewer still flourish to this day.
19. Alexandria’s Success
Part of the reason for Alexandria's success was its
location, both geographically as well as politically.
Situated on the coast of the Mediterranean, it was
the true bridge between Europe and Africa while still
being a world all to itself. It was largely separate
from the political upheavals of the Hellenistic
kingdoms, and then later shaded by the Pax
Romanum, as well as being quite far from the chaos
of the barbarian invasions that contributed to the fall
of the Roman Empire. Freed from many of the
fetters that chafed against its peers, and enriched by
both maritime trade and its Greek intellectual
tradition, Alexandria soon earned the title "Queen of
the Mediterranean."
20. Alexandria Power
Part of Alexandria's power and majesty came from
its status as the new capital of Egypt.
In 320 BC it replaced Memphis as the seat of ruler
ship for the Ptolemaic dynasty and it remained so
throughout the Byzantine period.
The rest was largely due to its monopoly on the
papyrus industry for the entire Mediterranean world,
as well as its hold on the manufacture and export of
medicines, perfumes, jewelry, and art.
Additionally, many materials and goods prized by
the ancient world from the east came into
Alexandria and were exported from there
21. Ptolemy Rule
To gain recognition by
the native Egyptian
populace, they named
themselves the
successors to the
Pharaohs.The later
Ptolemy's took on
Egyptian traditions by
marrying their siblings,
had themselves
portrayed on public
monuments in Egyptian
style and dress, and
participated in Egyptian
religious life.