Greek History

Macedon and the Hellenistic World 405 BCE to 323 BCE

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The period between 405 BCE and 355 BCE can largely be described as period where Sparta, Thebes and Athens competed for power with Greece. Each of these powers would have their own period where they would become the dominant force in Greece. However, in the end all their squalling managed to do was weaken their ability to resist Philip of Macedon when he finally decided to march south to unify the Greek world. After the Peloponnesian War the dominant power within Greece, was without a question, Sparta. Athens had lost substantial amounts of manpower and the fleet that had made it the master of the Mediterranean was gone. Thebes, during the Peloponnesian War had been able to greatly enrich itself at Athens expense.

Sparta’s victory was somewhat bittersweet as it had been the constant supply of Persian gold that had allowed Sparta to construct a fleet and ultimately defeat the Athenians. Persia had agreed to supply Sparta with funds in return for guaranteed control over the Greek city-states in Asia Minor. Sparta had a choice, stand up to the Persians or submit. Despite Sparta’s military prowess, the Spartan system was not one that could handle the demands imposed on it by an empire. The Spartan economic system relied entirely on the work of the helots and the Spartan army was needed to control the helots. Thus the Spartans could ill afford lengthy operations abroad. Nevertheless in 397 BCE, when the Persians demanded control of the states in Asia Minor, Sparta made an imperialistic decision and decided to stand up against the Persians. Threatened by Spartan military power the Persians began to supply all of Sparta’s enemies in Greece with funds in order to keep the Spartan army from leaving Greece. The Persians gave Athens the funds to rebuild their fleet and construct a new long wall between Piraeus and Athens. With their power restored, Athens once again began to embark on imperialistic adventures. This scared the Spartans who made peace with the Persians in 387 BCE.

The end of the Spartan hegemony, and Sparta as a power came in 371 BCE, when Sparta attempted to dismantle Thebes’ Boeotian League. At the battle of Leuktra the Thebans employed new tactics, deepening the hoplite formation. These new tactics combined with intense, almost Spartan like training allowed the Thebans to inflict a crushing blow against the Spartan army, forever breaking the illusion of Spartan military superiority. In order to completely destroy Spartan power, Thebes permanently freed Messenia from Spartan control. At this point, the Athenians, now scared of Thebes switch their alliance to Sparta. The Theban hegemony was not to last, as at the battle of Mantinea, Epaminondas the great general responsible for Theban success died, thus ending Thebes’s hegemony. After Mantinea Athens enjoyed a brief period as the most powerful state in Greece, however this was short lived as in 355 BCE the “Sacred War” broke out in Greece and Philip of Macedon entered into the Greek political world.

Philip, at 23 years of age, had succeeded to the throne of Macedonia in 359 BCE after his brother Perdikkas died in battle. Upon accession Philip faced a great wealth of problems, the army was completely demoralized from its recent defeat at the hands of the Illyrians, there were several other claimants to the throne and neighboring tribes were taking advantage of Macedon’s weakness to seize territory. In order to solve his military problems, Philip introduced a regiment of intensive training and began to develop new tactics. Perhaps most importantly, Philip enlarged the Macedonian Cavalry and changed the formation of the cavalry from a square to a wedge shape. As he reorganized his army, Philip also took steps to secure his borders against encroaching neighbours.

In 355 BCE the Phocian seized Apollo’s treasury and started “The Scared Wars”. Philip used the opportunity to enter into the fray and for his support was given Phocis’ seat on the Amphictyonic Council, in effect giving Philip Hellenic status. In 342 BCE, Philip decided to move against Thrace with the aim of completely subjecting it. Philip’s actions aroused the suspicions of the Athenians, and in order to protect their interests in the north they declared war on Macedon. Terrified at the prospects of Macedonian expansion, Thebes now joined the war on the side of Athens. Together, both Athens and Thebes made a stand at Chaeronea, however Alexander (Alexander the Great) in command of the Macedonian cavalry utterly obliterated them. After Chaeronea Philip punished Thebes by dismantling the Boeotian League but was rather lenient towards Athens. This was probably due to his love for Athenian culture. To control his newly conquered Greek States, Philip created the League of Corinth. With Greece conquered Philip now turned his attention to the waning Persian Empire, which had been experiencing a period of turmoil. Philip sent an advance force towards Asia Minor to prepare for war, but before he could begin his war he fell to an assassins bow in 336 BCE. The task of conquering Persia would now be left to his successor, Alexander.

Upon Philip’s death, the members of the aristocracy immediately proclaimed Alexander as king. In 336 BCE, Alexander made a quick march into Greece to assert his rights as leader of the Corinthian League. He then returned to Macedon to deal with warring tribes in the north. Thebes took this opportunity to revolt, but Alexander quickly marched south again and in a brutal move suppressed the revolt by destroying the entire city in 335 BCE. The sources that we have on Alexander are surprisingly quite bad; almost every report is second hand. The few primary facts that we have are mostly from author who several hundred years later were quoting works that have been lost to us. There are no Herodotus or Thucydides to guide us through this period in history.

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