Alexander's World (by Daniel)

Hi - I'm Daniel, one of the instructors of the holiday history camp.  I started today's class by talking about some of the details about the world that Alexander lived in.  I began by talking about Ancient Greece in the time of Alexander.  Though the Greeks shared a language and religion and saw themselves as part of a single Greek identity, Greece was not politically united.  Instead, it was divided into hundreds of city-states (polis in Greek), which frequently fought against each other.  I also talked about the main types of government in Greek cities: democracy - rule by all (male and free) citizens, and oligarchy, where power was limited to only a small group of citizens, such as the rich, or members of certain "noble" families. 

I also talked about the place Alexander fought against, the Persian Empire.  This vast empire encompassed many nations and peoples, and was ruled by the Great King, who claimed to rule as a representative of Ahura Mazda, the supreme god and creator of the universe in the Zoroastrian religion that the Persians followed.  The Persians had attempted to conquer Greece in the 490s and 480s BC, but in both cases Greek states had banded together and managed to repel the invasion.  In Alexander's time, 150 years later, Greeks still saw Persia as the enemy and longed for revenge on their would-be conquerors.

Finally, I discussed Macedon, Alexander's own country.  Situated in northern Greece, Macedon was a rugged, mountainous kingdom.  Despite great natural wealth, it was not greatly influential on Greek politics for much of its history, because conflicts within the Macedonian royal family frequently prevented Macedon's rulers from playing much of a role outside their borders.  This changed with Alexander's father, Philip II.  After killing his rivals to the throne, Philip created a formidable army, armed with the sarisa, a six-metre long spear that represented a major innovation in military technology.  With this army, Philip conquered first neighbouring kingdoms and tribes, and then turned south to challenge the Greek city-states.  After defeating the Greeks, Philip declared that he would allow them to keep their independence, provided they joined him in a campaign against the Persians to punish them for their ancestors' attack on Greece.  When Philip was assassinated at his daughter's wedding (a murder whose true culprits were and remain uncertain), the kingdom of Macedon, and the campaign against Persia, were inherited by his 18-year-old son Alexander. 

With this background established, we joined Alexander as he lands in Asia with his army, prepared to challenge the mighty Persian Empire.