Athens, Alexander, And All That

In a Nutshell
First global empire: Persia
Persians defeat of king Xerxes by the Greeks by WORKING TOGETHER.
Young king Alexander of Macedon from north of Greece, reunited the Greeks to
get revenge
Alexander conquered the whole Persian empire, and by spreading Greek culture
he created a new international community: Rome
The first Chinese empire: the Han Dynasty was created in Asia
Indian prince Chandragupta maurya took advantage and tried creating his own
huge empire as well.
What Happened When (Pg. 68 - 69)

509 BCE: Roman Republic founded

492 BCE: Greek colonies in the Persian Empire rebel but are defeated
490 BCE: Darius invades Greece
480 BCE: Dariuss successor, Xerxes, invades Greece
479 BCE: United Greeks defeat Persians at Platea
475 BCE: Warring States period begins in China
433 BCE: Athens and Sparta go to war against each other
415 BCE: Alcibiades leads Athenian invasion of Sicily
405 BCE: Sparta defeats Athens
399 BCE: Socrates is forced to commit suicide for corrupting Athenian youth
359 BCE: Philip II becomes king of Macedon
334 - 326 BCE: Philips son Alexander the Great conquered Persian Empire
300 BCE: Chandragupta unites India, founds Maurya Dynasty
221 BCE: Qin Shi Huang China in short-lived Qin Dynasty
218 BCE: Hannibal attacks Rome
206 BCE: Chinese peasant general Liu Bang founds Han Dynasty
202 BCE: Hannibal is defeated
146 BCE: Romans destroy Carthage
88 BCE: First Roman Civil War
58 BCE: Julius Caesar invades Gaul
44 BCE: Julius Caesar is elected dictator for life, but is then assassinated
31 BCE: Caesars adopted son, Octavian, defeats Antony and Cleopatra
27 BCE: Octavian becomes first emperor of Rome

Spinning The Globe (Pg. 69 - 81)

China Takes It On The Qin
The chaos from 475-221 BCE is known as the "Warring States" period: Six main
contenders dukes it out in bloody wars until a surprise late entry- a "barbarian" kingdom
in northwest China called qin who rose to power.

 Qin Shi Huang conquered a large amount of territory in the "civilized world"
Qin Shi Huang's empire payed the groundwork for the Han Dynasty which United
China (Around the same time Rome united with the Mediterranean world.)
The word China comes from Qin Shi Huang's name.
Qin Shi Huangs lasting accomplishment was abolishing Chinas feudal system
Qin Shi Huang died in 210 BCE, his incompetent son Huhai survived only 4
years on the throne before his own prime minister forced him to commit suicide.
In 206 BCE, a general from Jiangsu province, Liu Bang reunited Qin Shi Huang's
empire.
Although Liu Bang was born a peasant, he proclaimed a new dynasty called the
Han
Sometimes you can take it with you... (Pg. 69)
Qin Shi Huangs burial included an army of 8,099 life-size clay soldiers, horses, and chariots,
which would fight for him in the afterlife. Still on display near his capital city, Xian, his
terracotta army was assumed to be legendary until 1974, When Chinese farmers digging a
well discovered it. The soldiers range in height from 58 - 62. Every face was sculpted
individually, possibly using real soldiers as models. the clay soldiers were probably symbolic
substitutes for human sacrifices common during earlier time periods.
The Maurya Empire: (Pg. 71 - 72)
Size does matter
Chandragupta Maurya, born around 340 BCE, overthrew the ruling Nanda
dynasty of eastern India and kicked Alexander's governors out of western India before
he reached the age of 20.
In 305 BCE he defeated Seleucus, the general whom Alexander put In charge of
Persia, adding the modern territory of Afghanistan and Pakistan to his realm
He conquered about 1.6 million square miles in two decades- close to
Alexander's empire of 2.0. Million square miles
Ruling more than 40 years, from 273- 232 BCE, Ashoka consolidated controls of
southern India, established a centralized administration, and guaranteed the rule of law
Ashoka was a spiritual leader who embraced Buddhism and spread it through
India after witnessing the terrible slaughter caused by one of his conquests
He banned slavery
Renounced further territorial expansion
Sent diplomats to open friendly relations with neighboring states
He Built a huge system of roads, bridges, and canals to connect the different
parts of his empire, lodges, hospitals and temples to improve the lives of his subjects.
Agriculture and commerce flourished, as Indian merchants traveled thousands of
miles to trade luxury goods, including ivory, silk, spices, and gems.
Ashoka guaranteed peace in South Asia with a huge army of 600,000 foot
soldiers, 30,000 cavalry, and 9,000 war elephants
Deviated Septum, I swear... (Pg.71)

Indian surgeons invented plastic surgery around 600 BCE, beginning with the reconstruction of
noses which were often cut off as a punishment for adultery. The first text on plastic surgery was
the Shushruta Samhita by a renowned surgeon and teacher named Sushruta who is called, "the
father of plastic surgery." He invented a nose reconstruction technique that involved slicing off a
patch of skin from the cheek, reattaching it to the area of the severed nose, molding it to a new
nose, and creating new nostrils with two small pipes. The techniques were perfected by the
fourth century BCE.
Maya: (Pg. 72 - 73)
Taking it Higha
He first cities emerged in the lowlands of Guatemala and the Yucatan Peninsula
Thousand of years after they were abandoned, these early Mayan cities stand
out of from the jungle because of the giant pyramids the Maya built
Maya took Olmec tradition to the "next level" by constructing stepped pyramids,
some over a hundred feet tall, at cities such as Calakmul, Cival, and Nakbe
These cities had as many as 10,000 inhabitants
According to the Mayan creation myth, the world was created by the children of
the maize(corn) God, who ruled as an all-powerful king at the center of the cosmos
The Mayan kings linked their authority to his divine rule, symbolized by elaborate
headdress made of maize leaves and priceless ornaments, including jade breastplates
and jewelry made of jade, shell, bone, and pearl, which were buried with them when they
died
Ceremonial names with religious meaning such as:
K'ahk 'Yipyaj Chan K'awiil (Fire is the strength of the sky God)
K'Inich Yax K'uk Mo' ( sun green Quetzal Macaw)
Kings and nobles carried out important ceremonial duties and their doings were
recorded with an elaborate pictorial writing, on the long staircases leading to the temples
atop the pyramids.
They honored the gods through human sacrifices

With great power comes great responsibility... (Pg. 72)

The kings had to pierce their foreskins with a stingray spine. The blood from the wound
symbolized procreation, specifically the gods' creation of the universe. Meanwhile, piercing the
ears allowed the Kings to hear divine wisdom, and piercing the tongue meant they could speak
with divine authority.
Special Report: Mediterranean Fight League (Pg. 73)
Round 1: Greeks vs. Persians

 Darius the Great invaded Greece in 490 BCE to punish Athens for stirring up
trouble, but the Athenians defeated at Marathon.
Round 2: Greeks vs. Persians (Pg. 73 - 75)
Xerxes enjoyed big engineering projects, and wanted his engineers to build a
giant floating bridge across the Hellespont, a sea channel almost a mile across which
separates Europe from Asia.
The second engineering team produced two sturdier bridges, each composed of
about 300 ships bound together with types that were a foot wide.
Athens sent envoys to Sparta begging for an alliance.
The side led by King Leonidas wanted to send an army to help
Athens, but the other conservative faction said that Sparta was safe.
The Spartans managed to hold off a quarter million Persian soldiers for three
days.
One of history's most gifted politician leaders is Themistocles, who is from
Athens.
Themistocles knew Sparta would never help Athens unless the Spartans were in
charge so he persuaded the Athenians to give the Spartans overall command of the
allied forces including the Athenian fleet.
He then privately persuaded the Spartans to let him do the naval planning.
Themistocles most impressive accomplishment was getting the Athenians to
evacuate their city.
By having Themistocles was using the Athenians as bait for the Persian fleet.
Greeks first great victory at Salamis, swept the Persian navy from the sea
eliminating half the invasion force.
Second victory: came 2 years later outside the city of Plataea
where the Greek army United around 10,000 Spartan warriors, annihilated the
persian land army.
Round 3: Greeks vs. Greeks (Pg. 75 - 77)
Persian wars ended in 479 BCE
Athens formed the Delian League, supposedly an "alliance" against Persia,
which quickly turned into an Athenian empire covering the Aegean Sea
Named after Delos the island where the alliance was "agreed"
upon.
Athenians built huge stone walls around their city and its port, effectively
canceling out Spartan combat skill
Spartans reformed their club, the Peloponnesian league which had no navy but
claimed total superiority on the ground.
Basically one side owned the sea and the other the land
In 433 BCE the Athenians allowed a small argument to spiral out of control
The Athenians watched the Spartans burn their fields and farmhouses year after
year knowing they could survive off the Athenian empire
Alcibiades was way too ambitious for his own good or for the good of his country
Sicily was 10,000 square miles larger than the entire Athenian empire!

Bonus Round: Athens vs. The Plague (Pg. 76)

Stages of the Plague
Throat and tongue became bloody and had and emitted an unnatural and fetid

odor
Sneezing hoarseness and hard cough, diarrhea, vomiting ensued, followed by
terrible pain
Burning sensation was terrible that the patient could not wear clothing and many
of them went naked
Survivors often lost their fingers,toes,eyes, or genitals. Others had no physical
harm but lost their memory unable to recognize friends and family
The plague struck Athens for the first time in 430 BCE(second year of the war)
The plague killed about one third of the total population including refugees from
the countryside (50,00-80,000 people)
Spartan army fled convinced that a curse was upon them
Round 4: Alexander vs. Everyone (Pg. 77 - 80)
Philip II, Alexander of Macedon's father took advantage of Greeks weakness to
build Macedonia.
He reorganized it to include a Cavalry a deadly new formation
armed with spears 14 ft. Long, and crushed regional competitors
He headed south annihilating the Greek armies at Chaeronea in 338 BCE
Philip invited famous Greek scholars to the royal court in which his son Alexander
got Aristotle as his personal tutor
After Philip died in 335 BCE, the Greeks gave Alexander the first test of his reign
He captured Thebes the ringleader of the conspiracy, and burned
it to the ground
In Asia Minor (Modern day turkey) Alexander liberated the Ionian
Greek colonies in the west coast, the headed east to defeat a huge Persian army
at Issus in 333 BCE
Dealt with a puzzle called the Gordian Knot, where any man who
wanted to conquer Asia had to untangle the rope kept at the city of Gordium. He
just cut the knot in half with his sword
He built a kilometer- long causeway connecting the island Tyre to
the shore
Chased Darius III into modern-day Iran and Afghanistan
Darius was betrayed by his satraps Bessus who assassinated the Persian king
Alexander gave Bessus to Darius's family for execution and ordered a lavish
funeral for the King
In southern Mesopotamia in 323 BCE, Alexander contracted a fever (malaria?)
and died a few weeks later at the age of 33

Who's up, Who's down (Pg.80 - 82)

Rome: Way up

 Alexander's empire laid groundwork for the most successful empire in history:
Rome
According to Roman legend, the city was founded by refugees from Troy
After Troy burned, around 1200 BCE, a Trojan hero Aeneas, supposedly left
western turkey and settled in central Italy.
Many groups occupied central Italy including the Etruscans, cousins of the
Romans
Romans and Etruscans were friendly
Etruscan kings ruled Rome for almost 200 years
When the first "Punic War" between Rome and Carthage began in 264 BCE,
Carthage was larger and more powerful than Rome
Second Punic war began in 218 BCE
When Hannibal annihilated 50,00 Roman troopers at the battle of Cannae in 216
BCE, it was clear that this was the most serious threat Rome had faced
By 202 BCE, they pushed Hannibal back to Africa, where the consul Scipio
defeated him in what is now Tunisia
Alexander the Great dies in 323 BCE
They decide to split the Roman Empire into three main parts (Generals got a part
each)
Seleucus: Mesopotamia and Persia (The "Seleucid" kingdom)
Ptolemy: Egypt ( The "Ptolemaic" kingdom)
Antigonus: Received the rest
In 89 BCE Mithridates of Pontus ordered the Massacre of 80,000 Roman citizens
in Asia Minor
Julius Caesar, a Roman senator invaded Gaul, modern France a year later
Caesar's conquests made him really rich
He used his money to buy political influence and gain control of the Senate
His wealth allowed him to change Rome from a worn-out republic into a one-man
party
Free banquets
Games
Public festivals
Caesar was stabbed to death on the floor of the Senate in 44 BCE, this lead to
the establishment of a true dictatorship under Caesar's adopted son Octavian

Slaves:
Briefly Up, Then right back down (Pg. 83 - 84)
Spartacus was born north of Greece in Thrace, who received training in the
Roman army as a barbarian "ally" before he became a slave in 73 BCE
Having great combat skills, he went to the gladiator school at Capua about 100
miles from Rome
Learned how to entertain a Roman audience with dramatic hand-to-hand combat
About 80 gladiators followed Spartacus into rebellion using kitchen utensil as
weapons
Romans butchered 60,000 runaway slaves, including women and children

 66 hundred survivors were crucified along the Appian way connecting Capua to
Rome
Body of Spartacus was never found
Overthinking: Up- But What Does That Mean? (Pg. 84 - 86)
Heraclitus, 536-475 BCE:
His contribution was the notion that the Universe is always in motion- not static
and changing
He was a mystical thinker who said that as part of the universe, we can
comprehend its profound harmony if we look deep inside ourselves.
Anaxagoras, 500-428 BCE:
Agreed with Heraclitus that the universe functions according to natural laws,
adding that everything is made up of smaller constituents, which themselves are made
up of even smaller things, down to infinitesimally small essential units, which he called
"seeds"
He studied natural phenomena such as stars, meteors, storms, and rainbows to
understand the rules governing them
Democritus, 460-370 BCE:
Democritus invented the theory of "atoms", tiny, spherical particles that can't be
further subdivided, resembling the "seeds" of Anaxagoras
He said atoms are always in motion, even in apparently solid objects; their
interactions produce the physical properties we perceive with our senses.
For example, a grapes "flavor" is simply the result of its constituent atoms
interacting with the atoms that make up our taste buds and saliva
Zeno, 490-430 BCE:
Zeno proved that nature was a lot more complicated then we think...
Zeno's most famous paradox is the story of a race between Achilles and a
tortoise

Socrates, 470-399 BCE:

Socrates focused on rhetoric, a sophisticated technique of verbal persuasion that
Athenian orators used to convince their audiences of statements that weren't always true
In 399 BCE, he was put on trial on the vague charge of "corrupting the youth"
with strange ideas.
He was forced to commit suicide by drinking hemlock
By the numbers (Pg.93)

 29 length, in years of the Peloponnesian war

4,500 weight in pounds, of golden goblets captured by Alexander the Great from
the Persian King Darius III after the battle of Issus
329 number of Persian concubines captured by Alexander after the same battle
277 number of Persian caterers captured
17 number of Persian Bartenders captured
40,000 number of silver talents captured by Alexander from the Persian capital at
Susa
1,111 weight, in tons, of this amount of silver
6,600 number of rebels crucified by the Romans along the Appian Way after the
failed slave revolt led by Spartacus
52,000 miles of roads built by the Romans
46,837 total length, in miles, of U.S. Interstate Highway system in 2004
9,000 number of war elephants employed by the Indian emperor Ashoka
120,000 number of Chinese nobles moved by Qin Shi Huang to Xian, his capital,
so he could keep an eye on them
6,000 miles of roads built by order of Qin Shi Huang
1,000 miles of canals built by his order
2,500 length, in miles, of the Great Wall built at his order
25 height in feet, of the wall in most places
14 depth in feet of the wall at the top
1,000,000 number of Chinese peasants said to have died building the wall
22 area in square miles of Qin Shi Huangs tomb