Civilization #12: The Tyranny of Alexander the Great

okay so we are doing ex the greate today um let us review last class um where we discussed the father son dynamic between Philip II and his son Alexander okay we said that the father he is the founder and the Builder of a great organization and um as such he will have three particular characteristics unique to him okay first of all he will exercise really good judgment because he's starting with nothing and he has to build up slowly his Nation or his organization okay second thing that we said is he will promote Talent okay he will be a very generous and fair-minded individual who will Who will actively spot talent and create a meritocracy Okay the third thing we said was this person will be selfless extremely disciplined and this person will put the greater good before his or her own interests okay and that will inspire loyalty from uh his or her workers or soldiers we also said the son will be very different okay because the son is inheriting this Enterprise or this nation the sun will focus on expansion the sun will be a very aggressive risk taker okay um second characteristic of the sun is um because he is under the father's Shadow he will promote obedience and loyalty okay promote loyalty and the final characteristic the final contrast between the father and son is um the sun will be very selfish because the sun will be focused on personal Glory the reason why is the sun is insecure right the sun uh will hear people in the background in Shadows Whispering oh everything you've achieved it's because you're father and so the son is desperate very anxious to prove his own self-worth okay so um we see this dynamic in literature in and in history in our in our in our own lives right this is a very common Dynamic now we said that this would be a this is really a thought experiment okay but if you think about it this is also a analytical model it's a okay it's a way to understand the world around us and in an an anical model we have to test if it's true or not and if it's true it does two things okay first first thing it does is it it explains does it help us understand better understand the motivations and behavior of people around us in last class we F we focused on for the second and we um and that really helped us to understand his motivations and behavior okay today uh but the second thing it must do is predict okay it has to predict the future if this an anical model that we have is correct then it will allow us to predict future events and behavior okay and that's what I propose today I propose to use this model to predict the life of AC the great okay so from this model we can extrapolate three um characteristics of Alexander's Reign when he takes over as king okay um what's the first characteristic of Alexander when he when when he becomes king okay and Eko do you have any ideas of what he will do as king exactly okay so the first thing he we will um say is that he will focus on expansion okay he'll be a very aggressive risk taker he will take risks that are not strategically wise okay that's the first prediction we can make about him what the second prediction we can make about him based on this exactly we call this a tyrant okay he's he's become a tyrant a tyrant is someone who demands obedience from everyone okay does that make sense and so if he's a tyrant what is he what is he going to do to all these Talent people that his father promoted he's going to kill them right okay he's he's he's going to get rid of them because he needs to promote his own people and because he time the people will um counter his tyranny okay so we predict he will demand complete and total obedience from his followers okay and what's the third prediction we can make about him well the third prediction is that he the question is will he ever be happy when will he stop his ambition never okay so his ambition is boundless so these are the three predictions we can make about Alexander if he were to become king just based on our understanding of the father son Dynamic okay the first is that he will he will focus on aggressive expansion he will take risks that his father will not take okay that's the first thing second thing is he's going to become a tyrant who will demand total loyalty and obedience from his followers and if you um for his own good speak up and try to reason with him he will see you as a threat as as disloyal and as as an enemy who must be eliminated Okay the third prediction we can make is his ambition is boundless he will never stop expanding he will never stop going to war okay these These are three predictions we can make based on this anal model okay and it turns out these three predictions basically capture the essence of EX life okay all right so now I will slowly explain The Life and Times of action of the great all right so um any questions so far okay so we are using this anal model to understand The Life and Times of exam the great and what we're doing this we're trying to see if there are problems with this model okay all right so we have to take a very skeptical attitude we have this prediction model we're going to use it we're going to apply it to ex the grade and we're going to see that on the surface it does actually capture well or explains well his life at the same time we want to be generous and skeptical skeptical okay we want to ask ourselves is it possible that we are blinded by our prejudice and maybe we are being unfair to ACC the gr okay does that make sense all right so let's start with the first major event in a of the Great's life which is the death of his father in 33c uh BCE okay and alander right now he's only 20 and when his father dies he is automatically coronated as king of the kingdom of Macedon now I want to explain the circumstances of Philip's death because it's very important for us to understand the sort of psychology of his son so two years before um his death Philip actually remarried okay now um remember that Macedon is a society that promotes uh polygamy okay so Philip at this point already has six or seven wives the problem is that only one of his wives uh named olympas um has given birth to a son and therefore a he okay the son is Alexander the other wives have failed to give um birth to a hear and it seems Alexander will be anointed king after the death of his father so when Philip Mary's uh her name is um Cleopatra uidic um it's extremely controversial okay it sort of disrupts the political order of Macedonia the first reason is Cleopatra you you really see she is actually Macedonian before um Philip married foreign wives for diplomacy reasons and what this means is if Cleopatra Ur gives birth to a son this son will be more legitimate be more legitimate here than Alexander and this pushes Alexander out of the line of secession okay so this is extremely uh controversial and it's like dynamite almost okay so that's that's first problem second problem is you is the wife of one of her's great generals at Atlas okay and actually after the wedding ceremony um between your DC and Phillip atus gave a toast and he said here's a toes and I pray that nadon will soon have a legitimate hear and this direct insult to um Alexander okay the other problem is that atas his father-in-law is parmenion who is really Philip's partner okay the greatest General that macona has the person in control of the army okay so it seems like Alexander is being pushed out of the line of secession and um Alexander and his mother Olympia are both freaking out okay so in 33c uh 336 BC philli is assassinated by his bodyguard and no one knows uh who why this happened okay but we know what happened afterwards what happened is first of all olympas killed EDC and her daughter and son the son was going to be legitimate here to the throne now they're all dead okay that's the first thing that happens second thing that happens is atus becomes afraid and he he's about to Rebel okay and atus again is a general at this stage at this point paronan is now the kingmaker right because ponan is now head of the army he can choose to support atus his son-in-law and rebel okay and maybe become king himself or he can support Alexander okay and at this point the faithful decision that caran mix is he supports Alexander and he kills atus and atus again is his son-in-law and this makes Alexander now the legitimate he to fello he's now king of ason okay so from this um event we can surmise some things okay the first thing we can surmise is um olympas and Alexander are extremely ambitious right they will not be pushed aside if they see any risk to their power they will act viciously okay they're not afraid to kill they will they will they will even kill the king in order to assure their power okay that's the first thing the second thing that's more important for us is permanon is absolutely loyal to Alexander because if you think about it he's loyal to the m of Phillip okay Philip promoted ponon to be his partner and in a show of loyalty and gratitude peronia now is being loyal to the son Alexander okay so that's the first major event in alander light any questions about about this event before I move on okay so the second thing that happens is is remember like Philip is now in charge of this white Kingdom across Greece and when people hear about his death uh people start to Rebel okay the Athenians want to rebel the thians want to rebel the spaans want to rebel um and then to the north the lyans rebel okay so all the there are these rebellions the first thing that Alexander does is he mounts this extremely fast and decisive campaign to quell all Eternal descent because ultimately his ambition is to complete the dream of his father the conquest of Persia right so he goes to um yria which is in North uh which is north to uh um Macedonia and destroys all opposition next thing he does is he marches against Greece itself against thieves and thieves is the main source of opposition and Spartan and Athens both promised to send Troop to support thieves the problem is Alexander gets there really fast and he lays Siege to thieves and destroys it completely the next thing that he does is he decides to Massacre all the males and enslave all the woman now this is actually common practice back then in terms of warfare but this is not done to Greek cities do you understand the Greeks consider themselves special and so so in 404 BC when Sparta defeated Athens in the palan war remember that Sparta did not do anything Sparta just basically said guys will you promise not to bother us again and Athens says we promise that was it okay so what a the great did destroying thieves which is one of the great cultural centers of the Greek world that was like basically setting off a nuclear bomb okay and from then on um the Greeks were committed to overthrowing Alexander when the opportunity Rose at the same time Alexander by doing this by showing this by showing his ruthlessness he was able to for now pacify all uh discontent okay people are now afraid of him and that's what a wants he wants fear okay so now that Eternal descent has been pacified now that now that um his uh leadership has been legitimized he will now embark on the massive invasion of Persia okay now originally his father Philip II his dream was a unified Greek World okay what we call helenistic okay or the helenic world because remember at this point uh you have these Greek polares spread all across the agian and the Mediterranean okay in North Africa in Italy uh in Asia Minor in Anatolia okay and and Philip's Vision was to unify all these places but Alexander the Great his vision was actually to conquer Persia okay so so he's expanding his father's uh Vision so he's Landing he lands in Anatolia which is like modern turkey with this massive Invasion Force okay and he's going against the Persian Empire um the way that the Persian Empire is as design is it's not really an Empire it's more like a confederation or Alliance so the provinal governors who we call the satraps they're the ones responsible for defending their own territory and at this point uh the the king of King of Persia his name is Darius III he's not really bothered by Alexander okay he doesn't realize that Alexander will will pose a threat to his rule okay he he thinks this guy he's like 20 years old he's an upstart doesn't really matter so darus doesn't really bother himself okay but he s an advisor this guy U he's a Greek Menan of RADS so he's Greek and he understands Greek Warfare and so they have this war council between the satraps the local Governors and Men on of roads and what men Road proposes is the safest strategy to defeat Alexander which is basic what we call a war of attrition the idea is they will not encounter not fight Alexander on the battlefield because Alexander right now processes the greatest army in the world right let's not let's not fight him we will burn all the crops and starve his troops at the same time what we will do is we will bribe Athens and spart to rebel against Alexander And once he's overextended he has no choice but to go home okay the war is over doesn't cost us anything the SAT trops refuse this plan because it would mean destroying their own property okay so Sops are like no we can overwhelm him so at the Battle of granticus um in 334 BCE um Alexander's forces destroy the Persians okay and this is the first major battle of this war there'll be three major battles what's important for us is during this battle um Alexander displayed tremendous recklessness okay he rushed to the front of the battle he led his calvalry in um and he was almost overwhelmed okay one of the SAT traps knocked him down and One S was about to kill him slash him okay but then at the last minute a man named cus black clus the black comes running in and he slashes he cuts off the stup's arm thus saving aer's life all right so at this point there are two individuals that Alexander should be most grateful for right paronan who basically um he was a keymaker and he announced that the Army would be always loyal to Alexander okay and C is a black who saved Xander's life in battle and both of these men were individuals promoted heavily by his father for their talent okay so basically was his father's man that saved Alexander so you you would think exander would be very grateful to these men right unfortunately he would end up killing both men and this would forever change the course of his life okay all right so um after the battle of granticus men of RADS was given complete freedom to um do what he wanted okay so Mena roads tried to stop Alexander um and when he realized he couldn't do it because aer's Army was too powerful men of Road set sail for Greece he was hoping to bribe Athens and Sparta to join the war and rebel against um Alexander and here something that happens and aand gets really lucky okay and we will find this in his life he gets very lucky a lot of of times and what is it that happens when men of world set sail for Greece about to and he's about to unite the Greeks and rebel against Alexander and remember Athens and Sparta at this point really hates Alexander so what happens he dies okay he gets sick and he dies and when man of Rose Dies there's no more contact with the Greek world and now Persia is left to um basically defend itself okay the Greeks cannot be counted on there will be Greek rebellions against Alexander but they will be sporadic they will not be coronated okay so Darius has no choice but to confront Alexander in two massive battles so the first massive battle is in southern turkey Anatolia C the Battle of Isis okay in 333 BC the Second Battle will be will happen two years later in guacola um in Mesopotamia and both of these battles um are about the same okay so I'll explain what happened in both battles so you can understand AC strategy of of War all right so usually in battles there are three major forces there's something called the Left Flank okay the center flank and the right flank and both armies are like this now in both battles the Persians were heavily the Persian the Persians heavily outnumbered the Greeks two to one okay so it's massive difference and the calry is usually on the sides now there are some certain differences okay the first difference is the Persian the Persians have one leader Darius and he's in the center PR protected by his body guard called The Immortals The Immortals are the best troops of the Persians okay the macedonians have two leaders permon and alander Alexander is in charge of the calary paronian is in charge of the Infantry the what we call the PHX and in both battles the same thing happens which is on the left side darus commits Moses forces against paronan okay so paronan is being overwhelmed by Superior numbers but here the discipline of ponon is just incredible because even though they're being overwhelmed okay being outnumbered and they're about to be all outrun they hold their ground okay and then in the right in the center there's so much conflict that eventually what happens is there's a small Gap that allows Alexander to rush to Darius okay remember Darius is being protected heavily because he's a king right and at this point Alexander and his forces are overwhelming the Cavalry of Darius and they're about to close up they're getting close to Darius and at this point what Darius does and this is something you can never do in a in a battle what does Theus do now and he does this in both battles Isis and and uh guala what what does he do now he he sees ex closing in right but his Left Flank is about to overwhelm harmonia what does what does darus do now in both battles he runs away okay when he does that Alexander is now free to go back and rescue ponan and then the persons flee okay does that make sense all right so this is what happens in both battles Isis and guaga so um now that you have the basic overview of both battles let's let's let's Analyze This to ask ourselves how great a commander is Alexander okay and I want I want to make you again make the argument that he's actually not a great strategist okay he's a great Soldier he's very brave but he's not a great strategist not like his father okay the first thing I will say is this um when military historians look at battles they look at the wrong things right so they're usually looking at um Manpower technology and resources okay what we call Wealth right and if we look look at battles from this land right Manpower take technology and resources wealth then we can argue that Persians were heavily favored in this battle in this war right we can say that but I think this is a wrong way to look at a military strategy I think if you really want want to understand who who's a favorite who's the underdog you you have to look at three different things these three different things are cohesion the idea of cohesion is Unity right are these solders uh loyal to each other are they friends with each other okay second thing you want to look at is discipline how well trained are these troops Okay the third thing you want to look at is idea of devotion devotion just means how loyal are they to their leaders how much purpose do they have in the battle okay does that make sense and what what I want what I want what I want to show you today is but looking at these three things they give you a much better overview or analysis of who the better military is okay so if you just look at Manpower technology and resources then clearly the Persians are the heavy favorites right if you change your frame of reference and you will look at cohesion discipline and de devotion then the masonian are far superior right because look cohesion means they have a culture they have a similar culture right they're all Greeks whereas the Persians are a multicultural Empire that don't they don't speak the same language which means that all these different units that Darius has they're basically Fighting by fighting um by themselves so are not coordinated okay does that make sense that's the first thing second thing is the idea of discipline if you're an Empire the problem with an Empire is your soldiers don't fight that many battles right because you're an Empire no going to challenge you so these soldiers even though they have these very expensive um armor and horses they weren't disciplined they didn't have experience in battle whereas Alexander's Army is Philip's Army and for the past 30 years all they did was fight battle after battle against uh the Greeks okay so in terms of discipline the Greeks are far superior and and then you look at devotion um Darius is King why are people loyal to him because he pays them right it's profit it's interest whereas the soldiers under poman Alexander they love their leaders right their leaders um have taken to Victory to lots of Victories so they're very loyal to him okay so just in terms of these if you look just look at cohesion discipline and devotion we can predict that Alexander's Army would win regardless of the strategy okay and now you can make also make the argument that the strategy that Alexander employed right this we will confront the Persians head on Philip would have thought this was a stupid idea okay because first of all you're outnumbered second of all you're an enemy terrain right you're an enemy terrain therefore they are able to deploy the resources much better than you are okay now the third problem is this the Third problem is you cannot afford to retreat you understand there's no place to retreat if you if your army ever breaks right if ponan gets overwhelmed then you're all dead why take that risk right also before before both battles isus and gamola Darius want to negotiate with Alexander basically darus said I will give you half my Empire right that's pretty generous and Alexander says no I need all of it all right so historians will tell you that guacola is this shows the military prowess of Alexander and uh but if you analyze it properly I think you will see there are lots of problems with a strategy in both battles okay he was taking risk that he shouldn't have and he he sacrificed a lot of men that he didn't really need to sacrifice for example it was all about winning the war right personal Glory whereas Philip was concerned about the safety and well-being of his soldiers so Philip would not have engaged in such a battle he would have preferred negotiation and then over time slowly um overwhelm Persia okay does that make sense any questions so far about this analysis quick question yeah great I can see this you are right y yeah right okay so um um great question so um actually didn't really trust the Greeks um the Greeks didn't consider the macedonians part of the they didn't consider the maonan is Greek okay and so when Alexander sent his like when Alexander developed his invasion force of Persia there weren that many Greeks actually in in it was mostly Macedonia okay does that make sense right but but you're right if um given what the what uh a did in thieves he could not really trust the Greeks anymore okay he couldn't really trust the Greeks like switch sides and also there were a lot of Greek mercenaries fighting for Darius in this battle U men of Ro was was Greek okay and he sort of knew the Greeks really didn't like Alexander it's more like tribal Army rather that's right that's right that's right okay but but again we see this throughout history where a trial Army because of cohesion discipline and de devotion they basically able to conquer the world right so you look yeah yeah so so you look at Muhammad you look at gangas Khan right and you look at tamland you look at a lot of people right they were all trouble armies but because they had cohesion discipline and devotion they were able to basically conquer most of the world before they themselves um uh devolved into Civil War okay so does that make sense oh yeah okay any more questions before I continue okay um okay so while Alexander was campaigning against Persia he was doing things that sort of annoyed his soldiers okay so for example um he conquered Egypt without much resistance okay so he went to Egypt and basically the Egyptians hated the Persians for for for decades for centuries the Egyptians were trying to rebel against Persia without success so when alander came they saw him as a liberator so Egypt fell without resistance the first thing that Alexander does is he takes a trip into the desert he disappears for weeks he he goes something call he goes to a place called The Temple of Zeus um Aman uh Aman is the highest Egyptian god and Zeus is the highest Greek god so there are like a syesis okay so this is the highest God in the world and this is found in the isolate Oasis and actually goes to this Oasis in order to seek counsel he wants to see his future and at when he's at the Temple of Zeus Amon he's told that Phillip is not really his father okay Philip is not really his father actually his two father is take a wild guess who who the true father is Zeus Aman right Alexander is the first Son of God right he's the son of God he's like Heracles and dynastes he's actually the Son of God and so when Alexander returns to his soldiers after this Revelation he expects his soldiers to acknowledge this fact okay so one thing is um in the Macedonian army there's there's a lot of uh equality between soldiers and officers right so if you're Soldier you are allowed to speak your mind but now a under demands if you come into His presence you must first kiss his feet which is a Persian custom okay you must first you must kiss the feet of your king and the macedonians of course didn't really like this so now there's growing concern about the tyranny of Alexander okay um people like ponan and C as of black who were promoted heavily by his father are kind of annoyed basically Alexander renounced his father Philip's not really my father I'm really the son of a God okay Zeus Amon okay so okay so now there's going discontent among his soldiers does does that make sense so far and any questions before I move on is this clear to you okay all right so um you know in 331 BCE gamola the Battle of gual happens and Alexander wins this incredible Victory against the Persian king Darius Darius run away but then he's he but then he's eventually killed by one of his generals okay and the Persian Empire now is basically conquered there's no resistance against Xander anymore there's some resistance but not organized resistance okay and at this point um Alexander starts being a tyrant okay so the first major um sign that he's changing is in 330 BCE paronian is killed remember paronian you can argue was a man responsible for all of Alexander's victories right because permon is the one who's doing all the heavy lifting he's being overwhelmed by most of Persian forces he stands his ground which allows Alexander to claim his victory okay in 33 oce alander orders ponan to be killed and there's a lot of controversy around what happened right so I I'll just basically tell you the basic um facts and then we'll analyze what happened um so there's a lot of resentment against Alexander in the Army and now and then there are these conspiracies they don't go anywhere um but there are these conspiracies amongst officers to assassinate Alexander and one of these conspiracies um is found out and uh one of the officers who finds out about this conspiracy goes to um Pan's son okay and tells the son hey go tell the king people are trying to assassinate him the son per son uh he doesn't think this is a big deal and he's kind of drunk okay uh so he does he doesn't he forgets to tell alander okay the plot is uncovered and the sun uh F lius Fus he's implicated and he's tortured he had nothing to do with assassination but he's implicated because he didn't tell Alexander while he's being tortured he also confesses to his father being part of a plot even though there's no evidence implicating his father in fact you can make the argument that his father is completely loyal to Alexander okay and so just based on this a a forc confession under torture which is completely unreliable Alexander in the Army decide to have ponan killed okay so an assassin is sent and paronian is killed now um these are the basic facts and there's lot of argument about what happened okay so the most generous argument the most general generous interpretation is a didn't want ponan killed he knows permon ponan is Innocent but because Alexander was forced to kill his son Phil fetas actually didn't feel he had a choice in the matter okay because pan want might might want revenge so to maintain stability uh and peace within the Army he had to get permanent and killed okay that's the most generous explanation but there's another explanation that makes more sense which is Alexander has always been jealous of ponan right because ponan has the most legitimacy in the army Army troops feel more loyal to ponan than they do to Alexander right because they've been they uh ponan um they're more experience with ponan than with Alexander and ponan was responsible for many great triumphs so Alexander was jealous of ponon also there were these new young officers who want to climb the ranks and to do so they need to get rid of people like ponan right so maybe the conspiracy was um a fake conspiracy and it was organized by these low officers to implicate fites and then in order to get rid of uh ponan okay but regardless of how how you interpret this what we do know is after ponan was killed basically all the shackles all the restraints on Alexander went away because there's no one in the AR because now there's no one in the Army who can resist Alexander okay there's no one who who can basically urge restraint and caution so the next thing that happens is this in the year 328 clus a black is killed remember ctis of black is a person who saved A's life at the Battle of grakis okay but ctis of black again he is a loyal officer promoted by his father and now CL of black has a same Authority as ponan once had so CL of black is now a threat to Alexander so what Alexander does is he basically orders the CL of black to take some soldiers and go off to a far away place it's basically Exile okay ex is basically Exile exiling him from the main Army and cl of black knows basically he's finished so before CL of black is meant to go into Exile they have a large banquet okay and they're all drunk and cl of black now is angry and he gets into a vicious argument with Alexander and class of black basically says to Alexander you've betrayed your people the macedonians you've come to Persia and you could only conquer Persia with our help and now you're turning into a Persian okay you're adopting Persian uh Customs like forcing officers to kiss your feet you're promoting Persian officers in your army okay you're turning your back away from the culture that made you great then he says something that really pisses Alexander off what is what is one thing that you can say to Alexander that would really piss him off you in fact he would want to kill you now EV that You' chiev exander it's because your father this is not you okay this conus of Persia it's not you it's your father it's your father who built this amazing army it's your father who developed this plan to conquer Persia okay Alex gets so angry that he's about to Lunge at clus of black okay but before he can do so his bodyguard surrounds him and stops him and they pull away his sword and so this makes us think he's been doing this a lot okay Alexander the Great gets drunk a lot and kills a lot of people basically um um and then cler black he's taking out of the room but cler black is so strong he forces himself back in the room he starts to continue arguing against Alexander Alexander then goes and takes a spear and throws it at CL of black killing him on the spot so CL of black is now dead the two men who are most responsible for Alexander's victories in Persia are now both dead okay and he's become becoming more and more of a tyrant uh soon afterwards there's a conspiracy there's a real conspiracy to kill him what happens is this okay uh the King Alexander uh goes on a bore hunt with his pages okay his servants now the custom in Persia is the King has the right to the first kill but these are but his pages are macedonians so they don't know this so one of the pages is the first to kill the boar Alexander is so angry he beats the crap out of this page and the pages get together that night and they resolve to kill kill this Tyrant and um they develop they they uh organized a schedule so that on one night they would be all in the bedroom looking after Alexander while he sleeps and then and then of course they would take out their their dag stab Alexander to death okay that's a plan what happens is that night they were supposed to do this act Alexander goes out drinking he gets drunk and he does not come back until the early morning when the pages are gone okay at this point when the pages gets nervous and tells Alexander about the conspiracy and alander has everyone killed okay but during the trial the pages accused Alexander of being a tyrant okay does that make sense then what happens is in 326 BC after xand has conquered all Persia he decides to take his army to India okay now his army is not happy about this because look there are lots of good reasons to invade Persia right the first reason is Persia is very wealthy second reason is um Persia invaded Greece right so Greece so Persia was always a threat to the Greece the Greek mainland the third reason is there are lots of people who suspect it was the Persians who killed Philip okay so there are lots of good reasons to invade Persia there's absolutely no reason to invade India okay they've never been to India they have actually no idea what they will find in India it's it's a different Geography okay but in but Alexander forces his forces his army to invade India and basically modern day Pakistan and there they win these victories but the soldiers are really pissed off because they're far away from home they have AB no idea when this war will end and the weather in India really sucks okay so they basically Mutiny they refuse to fight and Alexander at this point has no choice but to give into the but but to retreat okay to return back to Babylon but he does two things to show his anger the first thing he does is he kills all the leaders of the Mutiny okay those who spoke up on behalf of their fellow soldiers were all killed one by one second thing that happens is rather than take his soldiers back um the original way Alexander made them through March through a desert which killed many of them okay many died because of dehydration and starvation it was a brutal march across the desert so um Alexander takes his army back to Babylon and at this at this point um Alexander decides he can't invade India so he'll go invade Arabia okay he'll go invade Arabia which is Desert there's a reason why no one invaded Arabia and the reason why it's all desert there's no reason to um invade Arabia but alander wants to be the first to conquer Arabia because his ambition is boundless okay he has to prove he's the greatest conqueror in the world you only way we can do that is by Conquering the entire world he's very suspicious of his own soldiers because they Mutiny against him in India right so he's starting to replace his army with Persians who are much more obedient he wants obedience then something else happens um back in Macedonia the general in charge interpreter who again is one of Philip's most loyal um generals he gets an argument with olympas okay olympas as's mother and anpr don't see either eye and olympius uh tells Alexander and Alexander invites anetor to Babylon where they will settle matters okay and inor knows what happened to pararan he knows what happened to C of black and at this point most of Alexander's generals are't happppy the fact that the Army is being persianized right they're being replaced by Persian officers who are more loyal to Alexander so um in 323 AER dies and again no one will ever know what actually happened but the theory is is this okay um I think the theory that makes the most sense is basically the top Echelon of the Mason Army and temper and the other generals basically decided Alexander has to go because he's a tyrant and eventually he's he's going to kill everyone okay so uh what happened was there was a banquet and's son his son is the cup Bearer to Alexander the the person who pours the drinks to Alexander during uh meals the sun puts poison in the cup aand drinks from it and he starts to vomit okay so Alexander leaves the room to vomit and then the Sun at temperature Sun brings a feather laced with more poison to help exander vomit some more okay but and so exander should have died on the spot but exander is so tough he's such a strong man that he lasts for a few more weeks okay and he dies in bed so Alexander now is dead okay okay this is important because even though he's dead in in the 10 years that he's been around he's been able to conquer most of the world which includes Egypt Mesopotamia Iran Afghanistan Pakistan okay he's he's able to conquer most of the known world and this c a problem for his for the generals who succeed him right because once you conquer most of this world and remember the plan was not to conquer most of the world it was just ander's balanced ambition that made them do so okay now the question is how do you govern and so because of this pressure they have no choice but to develop something called Greek culture and spread it in order to create legitimacy for themselves okay and this is this is something that we will talk about next class which will conclude our section on the Greeks okay the legacy of Alexander he's conquered the world and now his generals must govern it and to govern it they must use something called Greek culture so they must invent Greek culture and then spread it around the world and when they do so what will happen is the Greek culture will merge with local cultures to create new ideas okay um Greek culture one of these cultures that Greek culture will merge with is called Judaism Judaism and when these when these two cultures merge a new idea will emerge from this mixture called Christianity that changes the world forever okay that's why Christians love alander the great because they feel that without his Conquest Christianity could not have been born okay so there are many Christians who feel like ex the great yeah he was a tyrant but he was part of God's plan it was all part of a plan he did what he did because he truly is the son of Zeus Amon and Zeus commanded him to conquer the world okay all right but again that is a Christian perspective all right so that is it okay so let's review what we did today we basically looked at this an antical model we made three predictions about Alexander based on this anical model right the first is that he would focus on expansion second is he would become a tyrant the third is that he would never stop expanding it turns out he was exactly like this okay that this explains this predicts his life and times all right so um any questions okay so um next class what we will do is we will look look at um the spreading of Greek culture and the building of the helenistic world okay and that will end our section on the Greeks