HistoryofWesternCivilizationbefo (19).pdf

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1、2.5.Alexander the Great and Hellenistic World1.The Alexander Mosaic This painting is called Alexander Mosaic,originally from Pompeii.The Roman floor mosaic copy of a Greek painting.It measures 2.72 by 5.13 meters,made of 1.5 million stones.This mosaic depicts a battle between the armies of Alexander

2、 the Great and DariusIII of Persia at the Battle of Issus in 333 BC.Look at the painting,Alexander is rushing forward with bravery and violence;his spear cut through a Persian soldiers body.And this is Darius,theking of Persia.And he is stretching his right hand helplessly.The Persian army was frigh

3、tened and retreating.This mosaic showed the superiority ofthe Greek army led by their great king,Alexander the Great.Last time we talked Philip II was assassinated in 336 BC,before his death the majority of Greece cities were under Macedonian control.Philip IIwas succeeded by his 20-year-old son Ale

4、xander,the great king who created one of the largest empires of the ancient world by the age of thirty.2.Alexander the Great 356-323 BC is often ranked among the most influential people in history.When he was 13,Philip invited Aristotle to bethe tutor of Alexander.Aristotle taught Alexander medicine

5、,philosophy,morals,religion,logic,and art.Alexander developed a passion forHomers epics.On his campaigns he always carried a copy of the Iliad given by Aristotle.He thought himself a new Achilles,the great hero of theTrojan War.Alexander is widely considered one of historys most successful military

6、commanders,never lost in battle.Today all militaryacademies throughout the world still teach his tactics.3.The Empire of Alexander.In 13years Alexander conquered Persia,middle Asia,Egypt and he crossed Indus River,4.Until in 324BC his army reached todays Pakistan.His soldiers refused to go further.T

7、he representative of the soldiers told him:“if there is onething above all others a successful man should know,it is when to stop”.Alexander was very angry but he had no choice but to return.In 323 hedied in Babylon.Alexanders legacy extended beyond his successful military conquests,he built many ci

8、ties on the Greek model,and the mostfamous one is Alexandria in Egypt.His campaigns increased contacts and trade between East and West.He tried to combine the Greek cultureand local culture,he encouraged his officers marry the daughters of local elites.He had brought and spread the Greek civilizatio

9、n to the areas heconquered.He actually started a new age.5.The Hellenistic world.This is the Hellenistic world.It started from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC.Scholars are divided aboutwhat event signals the end of the Hellenistic era.Someone chose the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC,which ma

10、rked the conquest of Greek mainlandby the Roman Republic;some chose the Battle of Actium in 31 BC,the final War of the Roman Republic,Octavian defeated the combined forcesof Mark Antony and Cleopatra,this battle marked the emergence of the Roman Empire.If you talk about only the Greek mainland,the B

11、attle ofCorinth should be your choice;if you talk about the whole area dominated by the Greek culture including Egypt and western Asia the Battle ofActium should be the right answer.In Greek mythology,Hellen was a king,the progenitor of the Greek people,progenitor means ancestor.According to Thucydi

12、des,the author ofHistory of the Peloponnesian War,Hellens sons conquered Greece,and thus the people of Greece were called Hellenes,after the name of theirancestor.Hellenistic is a modern word created by German historian Johann Gustav Droysen in the mid-19th century to refer to the periodbetween Alex

13、anders conquests and the emergence of the Roman Empire.Droysen book history of Alexander the Great was the first workrepresenting a new school of historical thought called the Great Man Theory,this theory was popularized in the 1840s by the Scottish writerThomas Carlyle,and he stated that The histor

14、y of the world is but the biography of great men6.After the death of Alexander,the Macedonian Empire was divided by three kingdoms.The most stable one was Empire of Ptolemy in Egyptbuilt by Ptolemy,a general once followed Alexander,the last ruler of this kingdom was queen Cleopatra who was defeated

15、by Roman Octaviain 31BC.The second kingdom was built by another Alexanders general Seleucus,the Seleucid kingdom which covering a vast area from todayTurkey to Afghanistan.It was conquered by Roman in 64 BC.The third was kingdom of Macedon and Greece,ruled by Antigonid dynasty,thiskingdom was built

16、by the son of another Alexanders general Antigonus,until it was conquered by the Roman Republic in 168 BC.7.Hellenistic is an adjective,meaning characteristic of or relating to Greek civilization.In the Hellenistic world,Greek culture dominated not onlyGreece and Macedonia but also Egypt and west As

17、ia.At this time,Greek cultural influence and power was at its peak,experiencing prosperityand progress in the arts,exploration,literature,theatre,architecture,music,mathematics,philosophy,and science.All big cities have built agora,the marketplace,and temples,theaters,baths,and a gymniasion,used as

18、both sports center and school.Alexandria replaced Athens became thecenter of Greek culture.Father of geometry Euclid,and mathematician Archimedes all worked there,Archimedes was famous for his calculationof the approximate value of pi,also called Archimedes constant.Constant means a non-varying valu

19、e.8.The Nike and Venus de Milo are the best examples of the Hellenistic art9.Hellenistic Philosophy During the Hellenistic period,many different schools of thought developed.Three of them are very influential.Cynic is someone practicing Cynicism.For the Cynics,the purpose of life is to live in virtu

20、e,in agreement with nature.People could achievefreedom by rejecting all conventional desires for wealth,power,sex,and fame.And live a simple life free from all possessions.The first cynic wasAntisthenes,a pupil of Socrates;he was followed by Diogenes,who lived in a tub on the streets of Athens.Cynic

21、 in Greek means dog,peoplecalled them dogs because they lived on the streets like dogs.There was a story,Alexander the Great visited Diogenes on the street,asked“if therewas anything I can do for you”Yes,stand out of my sunlight”.Diogenes replied,Alexander then declared,If I were not Alexander,then

22、I shouldwish to be Diogenes.Cynicism spread with the rise of the Roman Empire in the 1st century,throughout the cities of the empire Cynics could befound begging and preaching on the street.Cynicism gradually declined and finally disappeared in the late 5th century.10.This is Diogenes lived on the s

23、treet like a dog.Today If we say someone cynical about something,we mean someone doesnt believe that it1can be successful or that the people involved are selfish not honest.We call someone has this attitude a cynic.11.EpicureansEpicureanism was founded by Epicurus 341-270BC.Epicureans believed pleas

24、ure was the chief good in life.We should pursue the greatestamount of pleasure possible during ones lifetime.The purpose of life was to enjoy happy and tranquil life,peace and freedom from fear.Pleasurewas to be pursued moderately and rationally because todays pleasure could be tomorrows suffering.T

25、o pursue pleasure we should focus onfriendship and private enjoyment,and retreat from politics,and public competition.Epicurus believed death is the end of both the body and thesoul and therefore should not be feared.He also taught the universe is infinite and eternal;what happened in the natural wo

26、rld is the result of atomsmoving and interacting in empty space.StoicsStoicism was founded by Zeno of Citium c.334-c.262 BC in Athens in the early 3rd century BC.Zeno taught“all mem should regard themselvesas members of one city and people,having one life and order”.Cynics and Epicureans rejected pu

27、blic life but Stoics emphasized people shouldparticipate in it.They also taught virtue is the only good for human beings.Stoicism flourished throughout the Roman and Greek world until the3rd century AD,the famous Stoic in Roman Empire was Emperor Marcus Aurelius.12.Key words:Alexander the Great,the Hellenistic world,The Nike and Venus de Milo,Cynics and Diogenes,Stoics and Zeno13.Questions:1.What caused the Peloponnesian War?How to avoid the Thucydides Trap?2.What are the main principles of the philosophiesof Socrates and Plato?3.What are the achievements of Alexander the Great?2