Summary of Richard A. Billows's Before & After Alexander

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The North-West Bend of the Aegean Sea forms a great Gulf—the Thermaic Gulf—enclosed by land on three sides. To the west, the gently rolling plains of Pieria and Emathia are surrounded by the rich Amphaxitis plain.
#2 The question of the ethnicity and language of the ancient Macedonians has been caught up in the identity politics of the modern peoples and states of the southern Balkan peninsula. As the Ottoman Empire decayed, four local peoples sought to establish nation-states encompassing as much territory as possible.
#3 The question of who the Macedonians were has always been a mystery. They may have been a group of people who lived in the southern Balkans, but they may have also been a group of people who lived in Asia Minor.
#4 The earliest surviving Greek inscriptions, dating from the middle and second half of the eighth century, do not mention Macedonians. The first literary reference to Macedonia comes in one of the texts belonging to the Hesiodic corpus, the so-called Catalogue of Women, which was probably compiled around 700.

Sujets

• Greece
• ancient

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 04 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669347880
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Richard A. Billows's Before & After Alexander
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The North-West Bend of the Aegean Sea forms a great Gulf—the Thermaic Gulf—enclosed by land on three sides. To the west, the gently rolling plains of Pieria and Emathia are surrounded by the rich Amphaxitis plain.

#2

The question of the ethnicity and language of the ancient Macedonians has been caught up in the identity politics of the modern peoples and states of the southern Balkan peninsula. As the Ottoman Empire decayed, four local peoples sought to establish nation-states encompassing as much territory as possible.

#3

The question of who the Macedonians were has always been a mystery. They may have been a group of people who lived in the southern Balkans, but they may have also been a group of people who lived in Asia Minor.

#4

The earliest surviving Greek inscriptions, dating from the middle and second half of the eighth century, do not mention Macedonians. The first literary reference to Macedonia comes in one of the texts belonging to the Hesiodic corpus, the so-called Catalogue of Women, which was probably compiled around 700.

#5

The first fragments of the Catalogue of Women deal with the origins of the Greek people, specifically with the eponymous ancestors of the Greek people. According to this author, the Macedonians were not descendants of Hellen, but closely linked genealogically to them.

#6

The only sources that mention the Macedonians before the fourth century are the two great fifth-century historians Herodotus and Thucydides. They do not address the question of Macedonian ethnicity, but they do say that the Macedonian ruling family was descended from the greatest Greek hero, Heracles.

#7

The expansion of Macedonian power from Pieria northwards and eastwards through Bottiaea and Almopia to the Amphaxitis and beyond into the northern Chalcidice and the Pindus uplands was recorded by the Greek historian Thucydides. He claimed that the original inhabitants of these regions were displaced by the Macedonians.

#8

The argument against including the ancient Macedonians in the Greek world is based on the fact that they were not city-state Greeks. They were a tribal monarchy and landowning aristocracy, and their way of life was revolving around the agora, the gymnasium, and the theater.

#9

The Research Center for Greek and Roman Antiquity in Athens has focused attention on the nomenclature of the Macedonians, which is the list of names used by Macedonians. The majority of these names are Greek, and were typically used by Greeks.

#10

The Macedonian question is a modern-day red herring, based on modern notions of nationality and ethnicity. The ancient Macedonians were speakers of a dialect of Greek, and their names make this clear.

#11

The history of Macedonia begins with the reign of Alexander I, ruler of Macedonia during the first decades of the fifth century, and ends with the death of his son, Cassander, in 479. During this time, the Macedonians expanded their territory to the east and west, taking much of the northern Chalcidice.

#12

Perdiccas, the oldest of Alexander’s sons, had established himself as the ruler of Macedonia. He was weak, vacillating, and untrustworthy, however, and was assassinated in 399.

#13

Amyntas III, the last king of Macedonia, was forced to make a series of pacts with other powerful states in order to retain power. He was assassinated in 370, and his son Philip II brought stability to Macedonia.

#14

The Argead family was the ruling family of Macedonia, and they were rivals with other powerful dynastic families. The region was held together by allegiance to a ruling family, and a certain sense of common identity.

#15

The hetairoi, or companions, were the aristocrats who supported the ruler. They provided him with cavalry troops, which he could not field alone. The plain truth is that cavalry did not rule the battlefields of ancient Greece.

#16

The Greeks were able to intervene in Macedonia almost at will, and when sufficiently unified, even the colonial city-states of the Chalcidice could be more than a match for the rulers of Macedonia.

#17

Macedonia was a stratified society, with a small elite class of wealthy landowners and a large population of poor people dependent on them. The few remains of elaborate art from this period of Macedonia often depict the hunt, and there are numerous anecdotes of leading Macedonians hunting.

#18

The lifestyle of the Macedonians was very different from that of the Greeks, who had long left behind the manners and lifestyle depicted in Homer. The Macedonians seemed primitive and uncivilized to some Greeks, and they indeed had a primitive lifestyle.

#19

The weak state of Macedonia was not due to a lack of resources, but to the socio-economic conditions that existed in the region. Most Macedonians were poor serfs, and their state was therefore always at the mercy of stronger neighboring powers.

#20

Macedonia was a large country with extensive and well-watered agricultural plains and plateaus. It had the potential to be a strong power, and it had other important resources besides land and people.

#21

Macedonia was a forested country that was one of the most important sources of timber for the ancient Greeks. But it also caused weakness in most of its rulers, since it was difficult to control the coast and ports.

#22

The natural resources of Macedonia were iron and copper, silver and gold, which were mined in various parts of the country and its immediate environs. These metals were a significant source of wealth for the ruler strong enough to assert control.

#23

The Macedonian way of life was very similar to that of the Thessalians to the south. They never developed large cities, and their land aristocracy remained dominant over the region socially, economically, and politically.

#24

Thessaly and Macedonia were weak compared to the southern Greek city-states, despite their size and wealth. This was because the majority of their populations lived on the landed estates of the aristocracy, farming those lands for their aristocratic lords.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

When he grew up, Philip had little expectation of ever ruling his native land. His father, Amyntas, had ruled Macedonia for 24 years, but he had three older brothers who could make a claim to the rulership.

#2

Amyntas, the ruler of Macedonia, was driven out of the country by an Illyrian invasion around 392. He was only restored to power thanks to Thessalian help, from the Aleuadae of Larissa in northern Thessaly.

#3

The Illyrians were a group of tribes that lived in what is now northern Albania, Montenegro, and parts of coastal Croatia. They were a nuisance to their Greek-speaking neighbors to the south, but they were occasionally able to unite behind a powerful leader to become a regional power.

#4

Amyntas III Arrhidaeus, the son of Amyntas II, had to buy off the Illyrians with tribute money and a marriage alliance. He then needed to bolster his support within Macedonia. He entered into a second marriage with the intriguingly named Gygaea.

#5

Amyntas, the king of Macedonia, was driven out of his kingdom by the Illyrians in 392. He made a treaty with the Olynthian League, part of which survives in an inscription. The Olynthians then drove Amyntas out of eastern Macedonia and captured various Macedonian towns, including the new capital Pella.

#6

Amyntas, who had been the leader of the Olynthian League, was now in conflict with the Spartans, who had been meddling in the affairs of other Greeks. He abandoned his alliance with the Spartans and instead negotiated a treaty with the Athenians, who were becoming a threat to him as well.

#7

Amyntas was the king of Macedonia, and he was threatened several times with expulsion from his power. He was a clever and versatile man, but he was never able to muster the strength to begin to rebuild the improvements within Macedonia begun under Archelaus.

#8

Philip’s childhood was one of privilege, as he was the son of Macedonia’s ruler. He experienced luxury, receiving the best that was available in Macedonia by way of upbringing and education.

#9

The core of a young Macedonian noble’s upbringing was learning to ride and fight from horseback. Trained in this way, Philip enjoyed excellent health throughout his life, engaging constantly in extremely physically demanding pursuits and campaigns.

#10

The upper class Macedonian lifestyle revolved around the symposium, a male dining and drinking party. Only when they had proven themselves in the hunting field did Macedonian youths graduate to full participants in the symposium.