Saint Jerome (St. Jerome)

born c. 347, Stridon, Dalmatia

died 419/420, Bethlehem, Palestine

Born into a wealthy Christian family in Dalmatia, he was educated there and in Rome. Baptized c. 366, he spent most of the next 20 years in travel. He lived two years as a hermit in the desert of Chalcis. From 377 to 379 Jerome was in Antioch, where he studied biblical texts and translated the works of Origen and Eusebius. He lived in Rome (382-85), but theological controversy and opposition to his ascetic views led him to depart for the Holy Land, and he settled in Bethlehem, where he lived until his death. Traditionally regarded as the most learned of the Latin Fathers, he wrote numerous biblical commentaries and theological tracts on Pelagianism and other heresies. In 406 he completed his translation of the Bible into Latin, including his own translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew; Jerome's Latin Bible is known as the Vulgate.

The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, with scattered passages of Aramaic. It was first translated in its entirety into Aramaic and then, in the 3rd century AD, into Greek (the Septuagint). Hebrew scholars created the authoritative Masoretic text (6th-10th century) from Aramaic Targums, the original Hebrew scrolls having been lost. The New Testament was originally in Greek or Aramaic. Christians translated both Testaments into Coptic, Ethiopian, Gothic, and Latin. St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405) was the standard Christian translation for 1,000 years. New learning in the 15th-16th century generated new translations. Martin Luther translated the entire Bible into German (1522-34). The first complete English translation, credited to John Wycliffe, appeared in 1382, but it was the King James version (1611) that became the standard for more than three centuries. By the late 20th century the entire Bible had been translated into 250 languages and portions of it into more than 1,300.

Throughout the history of Ancient Greece there were between 1500 and 2000 city-states established. Some flourished, others floundered, were abandoned, were destroyed, or were united with other city-states to form kingdoms and leagues.

In the Peloponnesus, the kingdom of Sparta conquered many of the smaller villages on the two peninsulas to the south and finally the Messenians, including Ithome and Pylos, to the west, joining them into the Spartan League. Further north the city state of Argos united under it the ancient cities of Mycenae and Tiryns. Athens took possession of the little city-kingdoms on the Attic peninsula, including Eleusis, Decelea and Marathon, creating the Athenian League. And to the north of Athens a fourth union, the Boeotian League, was led by Thebes, uniting her with Delium, Aulis, Thespiae and Plataea, among others.

In Macedonia, Olynthus, Stagira, Aphipolis, Pella, Therma, Methone, Pydna, Aigai, Amphipolis& Philippi and others.

Other city states include Corcyra, Acarnania, Ithaca, Cephallenia, Leucas, Ambracia, Dodona, Aetolia, Calydon, Zacynthus, Patrae, Achaeia, Elis, Arcadia, Olympia, Lepreon, Cythera, Crete, Cydonia, Carpathus, Rhodes, Samos, Priene, Miletus, Halicarnassus, Lindus, Icaria, Lebedos, Teos, Ilium/Troy, Abydos, Lampsacus, Antandrus, Cyzicus, Sestus, Phthia, Pylos, Chersonesus, Imbros, Lemnos, Methymna, Mytilene, Pergamum, Cyma, Phocaea, Magnesia, Smyrna, Sardes, Colophon, Delos, Naxos, Potidaea, Scione, Torone, Torone, Thebae, Pharsalus, Larissa, Pherae, Crissa, Phocis, Locris, Doris, Sicyon, Nemea, Corinth, Megara, Troezen, Epidaurus, Hermione, Eretria, Chalcis, Chaeronea, Cirrae, Melos, Chios, Massallia, Neapolis, Nicaea, Syracuse, Agrigentum, et al ad nauseum...

The alphabet from alpha to tau was taken over from a north Semitic alphabet (probably a Phoenician script used in Syria); its introduction to Greece is perhaps reflected in the myth which tells how Cadmus, son of Agenor king of Tyre, brought letters to Thebes, the city he had founded. The shapes of the letters, their names and their order are virtually the same in both alphabets but they do not necessarily represent the same sounds. The Semitic alphabet has no characters for vowels, and the Greek therefore used for its vowels Semitic characters for consonants not in use in Greece. Thus Semitic consonant characters were used for ɑ, ε, o, and ι. The character for upsilon was taken over from a cursive Phoenician script and added to the alphabet after tau. In Greece local variations lasted for centuries. Some dialects had an extra letter, Ϝ, between epsilon and zeta, pronounced like English w and called first 'wau' by the Greeks and later digamma. It disappeared in pre-classical times from the Attic-Ionic dialects and does not appear in the standard alphabet given above. Other letters were added after upsilon to represent the sounds pH and kh.

The Latin alphabet seems to have come from an early form of Etruscan script which was itself derived from the (Euboean) Greek alphabet as used at Cumae (in Campania), a colony of Chalcis in Euboea. The early Latin alphabet was the same as its modern English derivative except that it lacked the letters G, J (for which I did duty), U, W (for which V also served), Y, and Z. The character X represented the sound ks (unlike the Greek X, which represented the sound kh). H represented the aspirate (for its varying significance in Greek see 1 above). Greek gamma was represented by the character C which was at first used for the G sound as well as for the K sound (compare the names Gaius and Gnaeus which when abbreviated were written in archaic fashion C. and Cn.); the character G was introduced in the third century BC.

alphabet" class='external' title="alphabet

Pythagoras of Samos (Greek: Ὁ Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, O Pūthagoras o Samios, "Pythagoras the Samian", or simply Ὁ Πυθαγόρας; born between 580 and 572 BC, died between 500 and 490 BC) was an Ionian Greek mathematician and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist; however some have questioned the scope of his contributions to mathematics and natural philosophy. Herodotus referred to him as "the most able philosopher among the Greeks". His name led him to be associated with Pythian Apollo; Aristippus explained his name by saying, "He spoke (agor-) the truth no less than did the Pythian (Pyth-)," and Iamblichus tells the story that the Pythia prophesied that his pregnant mother would give birth to a man supremely beautiful, wise, and beneficial to humankind.[1] He is best known for the Pythagorean theorem, which bears his name. Known as "the father of numbers", Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religious teaching in the late 6th century BC. Because legend and obfuscation cloud his work even more than with the other pre-Socratics, one can say little with confidence about his life and teachings. We do know that Pythagoras and his students believed that everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were the ultimate reality and, through mathematics, everything could be predicted and measured in rhythmic patterns or cycles. According to Iamblichus of Chalcis, Pythagoras once said that "number is the ruler of forms and ideas and the cause of gods and daemons." He was the first man to call himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom,[2] and Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato. Unfortunately, very little is known about Pythagoras because none of his writings have survived. Many of the accomplishments credited to Pythagoras may actually have been accomplishments of his colleagues and successors. Pythagoras was born on Samos, a Greek island in the eastern Aegean, off the coast of Asia Minor. He was born to Pythais (his mother, a native of Samos) and Mnesarchus (his father, a Phoenician merchant from Tyre). As a young man, he left his native city for Croton, Calabria, in Southern Italy, to escape the tyrannical government of Polycrates. According to Iamblichus, Thales, impressed with his abilities, advised Pythagoras to head to Memphis in Egypt and study with the priests there who were renowned for their wisdom. He was also discipled in the temples of Tyre and Byblos in Phoenicia. It may have been in Egypt where he learned some geometric principles which eventually inspired his formulation of the theorem that is now called by his name. This possible inspiration is presented as an extraordinaire problem in the Berlin Papyrus. Upon his migration from Samos to Croton, Calabria, Italy, Pythagoras established a secret religious society very similar to (and possibly influenced by) the earlier Orphic cult. Pythagoras undertook a reform of the cultural life of Croton, urging the citizens to follow virtue and form an elite circle of followers around himself called Pythagoreans. Very strict rules of conduct governed this cultural center. He opened his school to both male and female students uniformly. Those who joined the inner circle of Pythagoras's society called themselves the Mathematikoi. They lived at the school, owned no personal possessions and were required to assume a mainly vegetarian diet (meat that could be sacrificed was allowed to be eaten). Other students who lived in neighboring areas were also permitted to attend Pythagoras's school. Known as Akousmatikoi, these students were permitted to eat meat and own personal belongings. Richard Blackmore, in his book The Lay Monastery (1714), saw in the religious observances of the Pythagoreans, "the first instance recorded in history of a monastic life." According to Iamblichus, the Pythagoreans followed a structured life of religious teaching, common meals, exercise, reading and philosophical study. Music featured as an essential organizing factor of this life: the disciples would sing hymns to Apollo together regularly; they used the lyre to cure illness of the soul or body; poetry recitations occurred before and after sleep to aid the memory. Flavius Josephus, in his polemical Against Apion, in defence of Judaism against Greek philosophy, mentions that according to Hermippus of Smyrna, Pythagoras was familiar with Jewish beliefs, incorporating some of them in his own philosophy. Towards the end of his life he fled to Metapontum because of a plot against him and his followers by a noble of Croton named Cylon. He died in Metapontum around 90 years old from unknown causes. Bertrand Russell, in A History of Western Philosophy, contended that the influence of Pythagoras on Plato and others was so great that he should be considered the most influential of all western philosophy.The so-called Pythagoreans, who were the first to take up mathematics, not only advanced this subject, but saturated with it, they fancied that the principles of mathematics were the principles of all things. -Aristotle, Metaphysics 1-5 , cc. 350 BC The organization was in some ways a school, in some ways a brotherhood, and in some ways a monastery. It was based upon the religious teachings of Pythagoras and was very secretive. At first, the school was highly concerned with the morality of society. Members were required to live ethically, love one another, share political beliefs, practice pacifism, and devote themselves to the mathematics of nature. Pythagoras's followers were commonly called "Pythagoreans". They are generally accepted as philosophical mathematicians who had an influence on the beginning of axiomatic geometry, which after two hundred years of development was written down by Euclid in The Elements. The Pythagoreans observed a rule of silence called echemythia, the breaking of which was punishable by death. This was because the Pythagoreans believed that a man's words were usually careless and misrepresented him and that when someone was "in doubt as to what he should say, he should always remain silent". Another rule that they had was to help a man "in raising a burden, but do not assist him in laying it down, for it is a great sin to encourage indolence", and they said "departing from your house, turn not back, for the furies will be your attendants"; this axiom reminded them that it was better to learn none of the truth about mathematics, God, and the universe at all than to learn a little without learning all. (The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P. Hall). In his biography of Pythagoras (written seven centuries after Pythagoras's time), Porphyry stated that this silence was "of no ordinary kind." The Pythagoreans were divided into an inner circle called the mathematikoi("mathematicians") and an outer circle called the akousmatikoi ("listeners"). Porphyry wrote "the mathematikoi learned the more detailed and exactly elaborated version of this knowledge, the akousmatikoi(were) those who had heard only the summary headings of his (Pythagoras's) writings, without the more exact exposition." According to Iamblichus, the akousmatikoi were the exoteric disciples who listened to lectures that Pythagoras gave out loud from behind a veil. The akousmatikoi were not allowed to see Pythagoras and they were not taught the inner secrets of the cult. Instead they were taught laws of behavior and morality in the form of cryptic, brief sayings that had hidden meanings. The akousmatikoi recognized the mathematikoi as real Pythagoreans, but not vice versa. After the murder of a number of the mathematikoi by the cohorts of Cylon, a resentful disciple, the two groups split from each other entirely, with Pythagoras's wife Theano and their two daughters leading the mathematikoi. Theano, daughter of the Orphic initiate Brontinus, was a mathematician in her own right. She is credited with having written treatises on mathematics, physics, medicine, and child psychology, although nothing of her writing survives. Her most important work is said to have been a treatise on the philosophical principle of the golden mean. In a time when women were usually considered property and relegated to the role of housekeeper or spouse, Pythagoras allowed women to function on equal terms in his society.[3] The Pythagorean society is associated with prohibitions such as not to step over a crossbar, and not to eat beans. These rules seem like primitive superstition, similar to "walking under a ladder brings bad luck". The abusive epithet mystikos logos ("mystical speech") was hurled at Pythagoras even in ancient times to discredit him. The prohibition on beans could be linked to favism, which is relatively widespread around the Mediterranean. The key here is that akousmatameans "rules", so that the superstitious taboos primarily applied to the akousmatikoi, and many of the rules were probably invented after Pythagoras's death and independent from the mathematikoi (arguably the real preservers of the Pythagorean tradition). The mathematikoi placed greater emphasis on inner understanding than did the akousmatikoi, even to the extent of dispensing with certain rules and ritual practices. For the mathematikoi, being a Pythagorean was a question of innate quality and inner understanding. There was also another way of dealing with the akousmata - by allegorizing them. We have a few examples of this, one being Aristotle's explanations of them: "'step not over a balance', i.e. be not covetous; 'poke not the fire with a sword', i.e. do not vex with sharp words a man swollen with anger, 'eat not heart', i.e. do not vex yourself with grief," etc. We have evidence for Pythagoreans allegorizing in this way at least as far back as the early fifth century BC. This suggests that the strange sayings were riddles for the initiated. The Pythagoreans are known for their theory of the transmigration of souls, and also for their theory that numbers constitute the true nature of things. They performed purification rites and followed and developed various rules of living which they believed would enable their soul to achieve a higher rank among the gods. Much of their mysticism concerning the soul seem inseparable from the Orphic tradition. The Orphics advocated various purificatory rites and practices as well as incubatory rites of descent into the underworld. Pythagoras is also closely linked with Pherecydes of Syros, the man ancient commentators tend to credit as the first Greek to teach a transmigration of souls. Ancient commentators agree that Pherekydes was Pythagoras's most intimate teacher. Pherekydes expounded his teaching on the soul in terms of a pentemychos ("five-nooks", or "five hidden cavities") - the most likely origin of the Pythagorean use of the pentagram, used by them as a symbol of recognition among members and as a symbol of inner health (ugieia). The Pythagorean theorem: The sum of the areas of the two squares on the legs (a and b) equals the area of the square on the hypotenuse (c).

Since the fourth century AD, Pythagoras has commonly been given credit for discovering the Pythagorean theorem, a theorem in geometry that states that in a right-angled triangle the square of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle), c, is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, band a-that is, a2 + b2 = c2. While the theorem that now bears his name was known and previously utilized by the Babylonians and Indians, he, or his students, are often said to have constructed the first proof. It must, however, be stressed that the way in which the Babylonians handled Pythagorean numbers, implies that they knew that the principle was generally applicable, and knew some kind of proof, which has not yet been found in the (still largely unpublished) cuneiform sources.[5] Because of the secretive nature of his school and the custom of its students to attribute everything to their teacher, there is no evidence that Pythagoras himself worked on or proved this theorem. For that matter, there is no evidence that he worked on any mathematical or meta-mathematical problems. Some attribute it as a carefully constructed myth by followers of Plato over two centuries after the death of Pythagoras, mainly to bolster the case for Platonic meta-physics, which resonate well with the ideas they attributed to Pythagoras. This attribution has stuck, down the centuries up to modern times.[6] The earliest known mention of Pythagoras's name in connection with the theorem occurred five centuries after his death, in the writings of Cicero and Plutarch. Today, Pythagoras is revered as a prophet by the Ahl al-Tawhid or Druze faith along with his fellow Greek, Plato. But Pythagoras also had his critics, such as Heraclitus who said that "much learning does not teach wisdom; otherwise it would have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, and again Xenophanes and Hecataeus".[7] Pythagoras' religious and scientific views were, in his opinion, inseparably interconnected. Religiously, Pythagoras was a believer of metempsychosis. He believed in transmigration, or the reincarnation of the soul again and again into the bodies of humans, animals, or vegetables until it became moral. His ideas of reincarnation were influenced by ancient Greek religion. He was one of the first to propose that the thought processes and the soul were located in the brain and not the heart. He himself claimed to have lived four lives that he could remember in detail, and heard the cry of his dead friend in the bark of a dog. One of Pythagoras' beliefs was that the essence of being is number. Thus, being relies on stability of all things that create the universe. Things like health relied on a stable proportion of elements; too much or too little of one thing causes an imbalance that makes a being unhealthy. Pythagoras viewed thinking as the calculating with the idea numbers. When combined with the Folk theories, the philosophy evolves into a belief that Knowledge of the essence of being can be found in the form of numbers. If this is taken a step further, one can say that because mathematics is an unseen essence, the essence of being is an unseen characteristic that can be encountered by the study of mathematics. No texts by Pythagoras survive, although forgeries under his name - a few of which remain extant - did circulate in antiquity. Critical ancient sources like Aristotle and Aristoxenus cast doubt on these writings. Ancient Pythagoreans usually quoted their master's doctrines with the phrase autos ephe ("he himself said") - emphasizing the essentially oral nature of his teaching. Pythagoras appears as a character in the last book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, where Ovid has him expound upon his philosophical viewpoints. Pythagoras has been quoted as saying, "No man is free who cannot command himself." There is another side to Pythagoras, as he became the subject of elaborate legends surrounding his historic persona. Aristotle described Pythagoras as a wonder-worker and somewhat of a supernatural figure, attributing to him such aspects as a golden thigh, which was a sign of divinity. According to Aristotle and others' accounts, some ancients believed that he had the ability to travel through space and time, and to communicate with animals and plants.[8] An extract from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable's entry entitled "Golden Thigh": Pythagoras is said to have had a golden thigh, which he showed to Abaris, the Hyperborean priest, and exhibited in the Olympic games.[9] Another legend, also taken from Brewer's Dictionary, describes his writing on the moon: Pythagoras asserted he could write on the moon. His plan of operation was to write on a looking-glass in blood, and place it opposite the moon, when the inscription would appear photographed or reflected on the moon's disc.[10]

One of Pythagoras's major accomplishments was the discovery that music was based on proportional intervals of the numbers one through four. He believed that the number system, and therefore the universe system, was based on the sum of these numbers: ten. Pythagoreans swore by the Tetrachtys of the Decad, or ten, rather than by the gods. Odd numbers were masculine and even were feminine. He discovered the theory of mathematical proportions, constructed from three to five geometrical solids. One member of his order, Hippasos, also discovered Irrational Numbers, but the idea was unthinkable to Pythagoras, and according to legend, Hippasos was executed. Pythagoras (or the Pythagoreans) also discovered square numbers. They found that if one took, for example, four small stones and arranged them into a square, each side of the square was not only equivalent to the other, but that when the two sides were multiplied together, they equaled the sum total of stones in the square arrangement, hence the name "Square Root"[11]. He was one of the first to think that the earth was round, that all planets have an axis, and that all the planets travel around one central point. He originally identified that point as Earth, but later renounced it for the idea that the planets revolve around a central "fire" that he never identified as the sun. He also believed that the moon was another planet that he called a "counter-Earth" - furthering his belief in the Limited-Unlimited. Pythagoras or in a broader sense, the Pythagoreans, allegedly exercised an important influence on the work of Plato. According to R. M. Hare, his influence consists of three points: a) the platonic Republic might be related to the idea of "a tightly organized community of like-minded thinkers", like the one established by Pythagoras in Croton. b) there is evidence that Plato possibly took from Pythagoras the idea that mathematics and, generally speaking, abstract thinking is a secure basis for philosophical thinking as well as "for substantial theses in science and morals". c) Plato and Pythagoras shared a "mystical approach to the soul and its place in the material world". It is probable that both have been influenced by Orphism.[12] Plato's harmonics were clearly influenced by the work of Archytas, a genuine Pythagorean of the third generation, who made important contributions to geometry, reflected in Book VIII of Euclid's Elements. In the legends of ancient Rome, Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome, is said to have studied under Pythagoras. This is unlikely, since the commonly accepted dates for the two lives do not overlap. Pythagoras started a secret society called the Pythagorean brotherhood devoted to the study of mathematics. This had a great effect on future esoteric traditions, such as Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, both of which were occult groups dedicated to the study of mathematics and both of which claimed to have evolved out of the Pythagorean brotherhood. The mystical and occult qualities of Pythagorean mathematics are discussed in a chapter of Manly P. Hall's The Secret Teachings of All Agesentitled "Pythagorean Mathematics". Pythagorean theory was tremendously influential on later numerology, which was extremely popular throughout the Middle East in the ancient world. The 8th-century Muslim alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan grounded his work in an elaborate numerology greatly influenced by Pythagorean theory

Macedonia never conquered "Greece" in the context that this question implies. Macedonia united Greece (Hellas), under Macedonian Hegemony and went on and conquered Persia.

• Quote: It is difficult to imagine that Philip II's policy toward Greece was an end in itself. Once his Balkan borders had been secured his general course seems to have been directed toward the establishment of stability in Greece, NOT CONQUEST.

One of the main falsifications of ancient Macedonian history has to do with the mistaken claim, used mostly by propagandists from the Former Yugoslav Republic (FYROM) that Macedonians confronted a "united" Greek army in Chaeronea and 'conquered Greece'.

Put in context:

The opposing sides in Chaeronea were:

Side A'

Macedonia, Thessaly, Epirus, Aetolia, Northern Phocis, Epicnemidian Locrians*

Side B'

Athens, Beotian League (Thebes, etc), Euboean League, Achaean League, Corinth, Megara, Corcyra, Acarnania, Ambracia, Southern Phocis.

Neutral sides

Sparta, Argos, Arcadia, Messene.

The three last had alliances both with Athens and Philip but their pro-Macedonian activity of 344/3 BEC showed they were leaning towards Philip. However, they didn't send aid to Chaeronea in Philip's side because of the blocking in Isthmus by Corinth and Megara. Sparta had withdrawn almost entirely from Greek affairs in 344 BCE.

[*] Elis had an alliance with Philip though they didn't take part in Chaeronea but showed their pro-Macedonian feelings by joining their forces with Philip in the invasion of Laconia in the autumn of 338 BCE. If this is translated by the propagandists of the Former Yugoslav Republic to mean that Macedonians confronted a "United" Greek army then in Coronea Spartans also confronted a "United" Greek army. Battle of Coronea (394 BCE) Combatants Sparta Vs Thebes, Argos, and other Greek allies

As the eminent historian J. B. Bury writes:

• • If the chances of another issue to the battle of Chaeronea have been exaggerated, the significance of that event has been often misrepresented. The battle of Chaeronea belongs to the same historical series as the battles of Aegospotami (405 B.C.) and Leuctra (371B.C.).
  • As the hegemony or first place among Greek states had passed successively from Athens to Sparta, and to Thebes, so now it passed to Macedon. The statement that Greek liberty perished on the plain of Chaeronea is as true or as false as that it perished on the field of Leuctra or the strand of the Goat's River. Whenever a Greek state became supreme, that supremacy entailed the depression of some states and the dependency or subjection of others. Athens was reduced to a secondary place by Macedon, and Thebes fared still worse; but we must not forget what Sparta, in the day of her triumph, did to Athens, or the more evil things which Thebes proposed.
• THE BATTLE OF CHAERONEA - Philip called the Congress of Corinth, during which all the Greek states, except Sparta, entered a Hellenic League against Persia, under Macedonian hegemony. The league council had proportional representation and was presided over by a chairman, replaced by the Macedonian king in wartime. The autonomy of the members was guaranteed, existing constitutions were not to be altered, and no private property was to be confiscated. There was no tribute required and no more than four garrisons-Thebes, Corinth, Chalcis, and Ambracia. The king had supreme military command, and the Amphictyonic Council served as a court of appeals. Philip announced plans for a campaign against the Persian Empire.

The Macedonian King Phillip II first ruler to unite Greece under Macedonian hegemony. He never "conquered" Greece.

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Alexander the Great was following Phillip II dream of uniting Greece and Macedonia.

Macedonia never conquered Greece in the context that this loaded question implies. Macedonia united Greece (Hellas), under Macedonian Hegemony and together they conquered Persia.

• Quote: It is difficult to imagine that Philip II's policy toward Greece was an end in itself. Once his Balkan borders had been secured his general course seems to have been directed toward the establishment of stability in Greece, NOT CONQUEST.

~ E.N.Borza, "On the Shadows of Olympus" (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990) page 230

One of the main falsifications of ancient Macedonian history has to do with the mistaken claim, used mostly by propagandists from the Former Yugoslav Republic (FYROM) that Macedonians confronted a "united" Greek army in Chaeronia and 'conquered Greece'.

Put in context:

The opposing sides in Chaeronea were:

Side A'

Macedonia, Thessaly, Epirus, Aetolia, Northern Phocis, Epicnemidian Locrians*

Side B'

Athens, Beotian League (Thebes, etc), Euboean League, Achaean League, Corinth, Megara, Corcyra, Acarnania, Ambracia, Southern Phocis.

Neutral sides

Sparta, Argos, Arcadia, Messene. The three last had alliances both with Athens and Philip but their pro-Macedonian activity of 344/3 BEC showed they were leaning towards Philip. However they didn't sent aid to Chaeronea in Philip's side because of the blocking in Isthmus by Corinth and Megara. Sparta had withdrawn almost entirely from Greek affairs in 344 BCE.

[*] Elis had an alliance with Philip though they didn't take part in Chaeronea but showed their pro-macedonian feelings by joining their forces with Philip in the invasion of Laconia in the autumn of 338 BCE.

If this is translated by the propagandists of the Former Yugoslav Republic to mean that Macedonians confronted a "United" Greek army then in Coronea Spartans also confronted a "United" Greek army.

Battle of Coronea (394 BCE)

Combatants

Sparta Vs Thebes, Argos, and other Greek allies

• As the eminent historian J. B. Bury writes:
• • If the chances of another issue to the battle of Chaeronea have been exaggerated, the significance of that event has been often misrepresented. The battle of Chaeronea belongs to the same historical series as the battles of Aegospotami (405 B.C.) and Leuctra (371B.C.).
  • As the hegemony or first place among Greek states had passed successively from Athens to Sparta, and to Thebes, so now it passed to Macedon. The statement that Greek liberty perished on the plain of Chaeronea is as true or as false as that it perished on the field of Leuctra or the strand of the Goat's River. Whenever a Greek state became supreme, that supremacy entailed the depression of some states and the dependency or subjection of others. Athens was reduced to a secondary place by Macedon, and Thebes fared still worse; but we must not forget what Sparta, in the day of her triumph, did to Athens, or the more evil things which Thebes proposed.
• THE BATTLE OF CHAERONEA - Philip called the Congress of Corinth, during which all the Greek states, except Sparta, entered a Hellenic League against Persia, under Macedonian hegemony. The league council had proportional representation and was presided over by a chairman, replaced by the Macedonian king in wartime. The autonomy of the members was guaranteed, existing constitutions were not to be altered, and no private property was to be confiscated. There was no tribute required and no more than four garrisons-Thebes, Corinth, Chalcis, and Ambracia. The king had supreme military command, and the Amphictyonic Council served as a court of appeals. Philip announced plans for a campaign against the Persian Empire.

~ "Encyclopaedia of World History" 6th Edition 2001

Rome did not actually invade mainland Greece. It annexed it after 69 years during which she fought six wars. She was drawn into several wars to support her Greek allies in the conflicts between Greek states and, finally, to end the expansionist aims of the kingdom of Macedon, the largest and dominant state in mainland Greece.

Rome's involvement in Greece started because Philip V, the king of Macedon, allied with Hannibal, who was invading Italy, and wanted expand westward to the Adriatic coast (which lies opposite Italy). On that coast he attacked Illyria (which was under Roman control) and western Greece. The Romans fought the First Macedonian War (215-205 B.C.) with the aim of stopping Phillip's expansion close to Italy and preventing him from sending aid to Hannibal. They were supported by allied Greek states: the Aetolian League, the Kingdom of Pergamon and the cities of Sparta, Ellis and Messenia. The war only involved minor battles and was inconclusive. The Romans signed a peace treaty and withdrew from Greece as they had achieved their objectives.

Rome fought the Second Macedonian War (200-197 B.C.) because of Phillip's new wars aimed at conquering the islands and the Anatolian shores of the Aegean Sea. He tried to weaken the island of Rhodes, the great naval power in this Sea, seized Greek territories in western Anatolia (present day Turkey) and attacked the Kingdom of Pergamon, the largest Greek state in Anatolia. Rhodes and Pergamon asked Rome for help and allied with her. Rome sent some ambassadors to try to find a negotiated solution. They made their way to Athens to meet Attalus I, the king of Pergamon and diplomats from Rhodes. They found little desire for war among the Greek states along their route. However, Athens declared war on Macedon and the Macedonians attacked her territories. The Romans issued an ultimatum to Phillip V demanding him to stop attacking any Greek state. Philip ignored this and seized the city of Abydus in Anatolia. Rome declared war. She fought with the help of Greek allies: Rhodes, Pergamon and the Aetolian league. Rome gained the upper hand and this led to some cities of the Achaean League (which was an ally of Macedon) to defect and side with Rome. Since he had only few Greek allies left, Philip had to raise a mercenary army. He was defeated and had to sue for peace on Roman terms. He had to give up his conquests in Anatolia and withdraw from territories in mainland Greece. The Romans left Greece, but left garrisons in three key Greek cities for three years.

The next war Rome fought in Greece was the Roman-Seleucid War (192-188 B.C.) The Seleucid Empire, which was based in Syria, was the most powerful Greek state in Asia. After defeating Ptolemy V, the Greek king of Egypt, in Coele-Syria, Antiochus III, the Seleucid king, conquered all of Ptolemy's territories in Anatolia. He then moved on to Europe and conquered part of Thrace (to the northeast of Greece). The city of Lapsacus asked Rome for help. This lead to three years of negotiations which broke down when Antiochus offered to ally with Rome in exchange for retaining his conquests in Anatolia and Thrace. Rome rejected this and wanted that Antiochus to leave Europe and restore the freedom of the Greeks in Anatolia. Meanwhile, the Aetolian League ended their alliance with Rome, allied with Antiochus and wanted a war against Rome, claiming that Antiochus would liberate Greece from the Romans. In 192 B.C. the Aetolian seized the city of Dementria, but failed to take Sparta and Chalcis. The Romans threatened intervention if Demetria was not freed. This led Antiochus to invade Greece. He expected that Sparta and Macedon would ally with him. Instead, many Greek states allied with Rome: Rhodes, Pergamon, Macedon and the Achaean league. Only the Athamatians joined him. The Seleucids were defeated both in Greece and Anatolia and had to give up most of their possessions in Anatolia. The Romans gave most of these to her main ally in the area, Pergamon.

In 197 B.C. Philip V of Macedon died. His successor, Perseus, had expansionistic aims. He increased the size of his army and made alliances with the kingdom of Epirus (in western Greece), some Illyrian tribes (an area which was under Rome's sphere of influence) and some enemies of Thracian tribes allied to Rome. King Euemenes II of Pergamon accused Perseus of violating the laws of other Greek states. Concerned about their position in Illyria and of their Thracian and Greek allies and the balance of power in Greece, Rome declared war. She fought the Third Macedonian War ((171-168 B.C.) with the support of Pergamon. When the Romans won the war, they took Perseus and members of his court and the aristocracy to Rome as prisoners and enslaved 300,000 Macedonians. Some Macedonian cities and villages were destroyed. Macedon was split into four client republics and their political and economic contacts were restricted.

The Fourth Macedonian War (15O-148 B.C.) triggered by rebellion incited by Andriscus, a pretender to the throne who posed the son of king Perseus and wanted to re-establish the kingdom of Macedon. Andricus was defeated and two years later Macedon was annexed as a Roman province. In the same year (146 B.C.) there was the Achaean war. The Achaean League waged war against Rome and was quickly defeated. The Romans destroyed the main city of the league: Corinth (which lies on the narrow stretch of land which joins the peninsula of the Peloponnese in the south of Greece to the rest of Greece). Rome annexed the Greek territories south of Macedon in central Greece and the Peloponnese Achaea. The also annexed the kingdom of Epirus, in western Greece. Both were incorporated into the Roman province of Macedon.

Mostly every person interested in Science asks this question. Here is the list of greeks astronomers and their discoveries:

Pythagoras

Pythagoras (580?-? B.C.) was a philosopher and mathematician who is famous for formulating the Pythagorean Theorem, but the principles of the theorem were known earlier. Little is known about his early life but scholars suspect that he was born on the island of Samos. Around 529 B.C., he settled in Crotona, Italy. Pythagoras taught that numbers were the essence of all things and was responsible for starting the Pythagorean Brotherhood which was held in suspicion by the common people in that area. Most of the members of this brotherhood were killed in a political uprising. Pythagoras believed that the earth was spherical and that the planets have their own movements. His successors were responsible for developing the idea that the earth revolved around a central fire.

Plato

Plato (427?-347? B.C.) was born in Athens to a very distinguished family and became a philosopher and educator. Plato was really his nickname; his real name was Aristocles. He tried to enter politics twice, but was repelled by the politicians' disgusting practices, one of which was the condemning of his friend Socrates to death. In 387 B.C. he founded the Academy, which was a school of philosophy and science in Athens. One of his pupils at the Academy was Aristotle, who became famous as a philosopher. He created 36 literary works, 35 dialogues, and a group of letters. His works were mainly concerned with philosophy and ethics but he taught Aristotle at his Academy, who in turn contributed to astronomy and science.

Aristotle

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was probably the most learned philosopher in ancient Greece and was one of the most influential thinkers in Western culture. He and his teacher Plato are considered to be the most important Greek philosophers. Aristotle was born in a small town in the northern part of Greece named Stagira, but his parents died when he was young, so a guardian named Proxenus raised him. He entered Plato's school at age 18 and remained there for 20 years. After Plato died in 347 B.C., he left the school and married a woman named Pithias. Around 343 B.C., Aristotle became the personal educator of Alexander, the son of PhilipII, king of Macedonia. Alexander later became known Alexander the Great when he conquered the Persian empire. Around 334 B.C., Aristotle returned to Athens and started a school called the Lyceum. Soon after Alexander died in 323 B.C., Aristotle was charged with impiety, which was lack of reverence for the gods. He fled to the city of Chalcis but died a year later.

Aristotle wrote on logic, philosophy, metaphysics, ethics, and politics. He wrote about the movement of heavenly bodies in his book On the Heavens and investigated the change that occurs when something seems to created or destroyed in On Coming-to-be and Passing-away. Aristotle was aware that the moon shines by reflecting light from the sun and was aware of the spherical shape of the earth because of the circular shadow it cast on the moon during an eclipse. Aristotle also expanded an idea introduced by Eudoxus (408-355 B.C.) who suggested many transparent shells rotating around the earth with the stars and planets on them. It did not explain the motions of the planets very well. Aristotle reasoned that the earth must be at the center of the universe because if it orbited anything else, it would leave its moon behind.

Euclid

Euclid (300? B.C.) is known as the father of geometry. His most famous work is a book, which was used as a textbook until about 1903, called Elements. In his book, he developed a system of geometry known as Euclidean geometry. Euclidean geometry can be divided into plane geometry and solid geometry. Plane geometry deals with shapes and concepts on a two dimensional plane, solid geometry deals with the study of three dimensional shapes such as cones and spheres. Plane geometry is still taught in all high school math books.

Archimedes

Archimedes (287?-212 B.C.) was a mathematician and inventor. He is called the father of experimental science by many historians because he tested his ideas with experiments. He discovered the laws of levers and pulleys and the basic laws of hydrostatics. He also found a more precise way of calculating the value of pi and invented a number system that was more workable than the Roman system. His inventions include the catapult and the Archimedian screw. He is most famous for finding a way of determining whether king Hiero's crown was solid gold. He first dipped a lump of solid gold, which was the same weight as the crown, in water and measured how much water overflowed the container. He then dipped the crown in the tub and measured the water that overflowed that time. If the amounts of water were equal, then the crown was solid gold. They weren't, and by this method, he discovered that the goldsmith who made the crown had cheated the king. Archimedes was killed when the Romans captured Syracuse, the town of his birth.

Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes (276?-194? B.C.) was a talented astronomer, poet, and historian who found a way to determine the size of the earth. He assumed that the earth was a sphere and that the sun was far enough away from the earth that the light rays coming to it would be almost parallel. Then he found that at the sun was directly overhead on the summer solstice at noon at a town called Syene because a pole cast no shadow. He also found that at noon of the same day at Alexandra, which was about 7 degrees or 4900 stadia (1 stadium equals about 0.16 km) to the north, a vertical pole casts no shadow. He then used Euclidean geometry to calculate the circumference of the earth at about 252,000 stadia (40,320 km) which was close to today's mean value of 40,030 km.

Aristarchus

Little is known about Aristarchus (200s B.C.) other than that he was a Greek astronomer who was the first to say that the earth revolves around the sun. His works were lost, but his ideas were quoted by the Greek mathematician Archimedes. In Aristarchus's surviving treatise On the Magnitudes and Distances of the Sun and Moon, he does not mention his theory on earth's orbit.

Hipparchus

Hipparchus (180?-125? B.C.) was an astronomer who was born in Nicaea and discovered the precession of the equinoxes. He found from records of earlier observations that the stars had shifted eastward. He explained that phenomenon by a slow westward motion of the equinoxes called the precession of the equinoxes. Hipparchus created the first star chart, which showed their brightness and position on a celestial sphere. He also distinguished between the different lengths of the solar and sidereal years. Based on his observations of the unequal length of the seasons, he drew up an improved description of the sun's movement. Of his writings, all were lost except for a commentary about an astronomical poem. Ptolemy absorbed everything of value from Hipparchus's treatises.

In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization. Literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. From about the 9th century BC written records begin to appear. Greece was divided into many small self-governing communities, a pattern largely dictated by Greek geography, where every island, valley and plain is cut off from its neighbours by the sea or mountain ranges. Early Athenian coin, 5th century BC

The Lelantine War (c.710-c.650 BC) was an ongoing conflict with the distinction of being the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period. Fought between the important poleis (city-states) of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea, both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, though Chalcis was the nominal victor. A mercantile class rose in the first half of the 7th century, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC.[citation needed] This seems to have introduced tension to many city states. The aristocratic regimes which generally governed the poleis were threatened by the new-found wealth of merchants, who in turn desired political power. From 650 BC onwards, the aristocracies had to fight not to be overthrown and replaced by populist tyrants. The word derives from the non-pejorative Greek τύραννος tyrannos, meaning 'illegitimate ruler', although this was applicable to both good and bad leaders alike.[2][3] A growing population and shortage of land also seems to have created internal strife between the poor and the rich in many city states. In Sparta, the Messenian Wars resulted in the conquest of Messenia and enserfment of the Messenians, beginning in the latter half of the 8th century BC, an act without precedent or antecedent in ancient Greece. This practice allowed a social revolution to occur.[4] The subjugated population, thenceforth known as helots, farmed and laboured for Sparta, whilst every Spartan male citizen became a soldier of the Spartan Army in a permanently militarized state. Even the elite were obliged to live and train as soldiers; this equality between rich and poor served to diffuse the social conflict. These reforms, attributed to the shadowy Lycurgus of Sparta, were probably complete by 650 BC. Athens suffered a land and agrarian crisis in the late 7th century, again resulting in civil strife. The Archon (chief magistrate) Draco made severe reforms to the law code in 621 BC (hence Draconian), but these failed to quell the conflict. Eventually the moderate reforms of Solon (594 BC), improving the lot of the poor but firmly entrenching the aristocracy in power, gave Athens some stability. The Greek world in the mid 6th century BC.

By the 6th century BC several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs: Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes. Each of them had brought the surrounding rural areas and smaller towns under their control, and Athens and Corinth had become major maritime and mercantile powers as well. Rapidly increasing population in the 8th and 7th centuries had resulted in emigration of many Greeks to form colonies in Magna Graecia (Southern Italy and Sicily), Asia Minor and further afield. The emigration effectively ceased in the 6th century by which time the Greek world had, culturally and linguistically, become much larger than the area of present-day Greece. Greek colonies were not politically controlled by their founding cities, although they often retained religious and commercial links with them. In this period, huge economic development occurred in Greece and also her overseas colonies which experienced a growth in commerce and manufacturing. There was a large improvement in the living standards of the population. Some studies estimate that the average size of the Greek household, in the period from 800 BC to 300 BC, increased five times, which indicates a large increase in the average income of the population. In the second half of the 6th century, Athens fell under the tyranny of Peisistratos and then his sons Hippias and Hipparchos. However, in 510 BC, at the instigation of the Athenian aristocrat Cleisthenes, the Spartan king Cleomenes I helped the Athenians overthrow the tyranny. Afterwards, Sparta and Athens promptly turned on each other, at which point Cleomenes I installed Isagoras as a pro-Spartan archon. Eager to prevent Athens from becoming a Spartan puppet, Cleisthenes responded by proposing to his fellow citizens that Athens undergo a revolution; that all citizens shared in the power, regardless of status; that Athens become a 'democracy'. So enthusiastically did the Athenians take to this idea, that, having overthrown Isagoras and implemented Cleisthenes's reforms, they were easily able to repel a Spartan-led three-pronged invasion aimed at restoring Isagoras.[5] The advent of the democracy cured many of the ills of Athens and led to a 'golden age' for the Athenians. Main article: Classical Greece == Main articles: Greco-Persian Wars and Peloponnesian War Athens and Sparta would soon have to become allies in the face of the largest external threat ancient Greece would see until the Roman conquest. After suppressing the Ionian Revolt, a rebellion of the Greek cities of Ionia, Darius I of Persia, King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, decided to subjugate Greece. His invasion in 490 BC was ended by the heroic Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon under Miltiades the Younger. Xerxes I of Persia, son and successor of Darius I, attempted his own invasion 10 years later, but despite his overwhelmingly large army he was defeated after the famous rearguard action at Thermopylae and victories for the allied Greeks at the Battles of Salamis and Plataea. The Greco-Persian Wars continued until 449 BC, led by the Athenians and their Delian League, during which time the Macedon, Thrace, the Aegean Islands and Ionia were all liberated from Persian influence. Delian League ("Athenian Empire"), immediately before the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC.

The dominant position of the maritime Athenian 'Empire' threatened Sparta and the Peloponnesian League of mainland Greek cities. Inevitably, this led to conflict, resulting in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). Though effectively a stalemate for much of the war, Athens suffered a number of setbacks. A great plague in 430 BC followed by a disastrous military campaign known as the Sicilian Expedition severely weakened Athens. Sparta was able to ferment rebellion amongst Athens's allies, further reducing the Athenian ability to wage war. The decisive moment came in 405 BC when Sparta cut off the grain supply to Athens from the Hellespont. Forced to attack, the crippled Athenian fleet was decisively defeated by the Spartans under the command of Lysander at Aegospotami. In 404 BC Athens sued for peace, and Sparta dictated a predictably stern settlement: Athens lost her city walls (including the Long Walls), her fleet, and all of her overseas possessions. == Greece thus entered the 4th century under a Spartan hegemony, but it was clear from the start that this was weak. A demographic crisis meant Sparta was overstretched, and by 395 BC Athens, Argos, Thebes, and Corinth felt able to challenge Spartan dominance, resulting in the Corinthian War (395-387 BC). Another war of stalemates, it ended with the status quo restored, after the threat of Persian intervention on behalf of the Spartans. The Spartan hegemony lasted another 16 years, until, when attempting to impose their will on the Thebans, the Spartans suffered a decisive defeat at Leuctra in 371 BC. The Theban general Epaminondas then led Theban troops into the Peloponnese, whereupon other city-states defected from the Spartan cause. The Thebans were thus able to march into Messenia and free the population. Deprived of land and its serfs, Sparta declined to a second-rank power. The Theban hegemony thus established was short-lived; at the battle of Mantinea in 362 BC, Thebes lost her key leader, Epaminondas, and much of her manpower, even though they were victorious in battle. In fact such were the losses to all the great city-states at Mantinea that none could establish dominance in the aftermath. The weakened state of the heartland of Greece coincided with the rising power of Macedon, led by Philip II. In twenty years, Philip had unified his kingdom, expanded it north and west at the expense of Illyrian tribes, and then conquered Thessaly and Thrace. His success stemmed from his innovative reforms to the Macedon army. Phillip intervened repeatedly in the affairs of the southern city-states, culminating in his invasion of 338 BC. Decisively defeating an allied army of Thebes and Athens at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), he became de facto hegemon of all of Greece. He compelled the majority of the city-states to join the League of Corinth, allying them to him, and preventing them from warring with each other. Philip then entered into war against the Achemaenid Empire but was assassinated by Pausanias of Orestis early on in the conflict. Alexander, son and successor of Philip, continued the war. Alexander defeated Darius III of Persia and completely destroyed the Achaemenid Empire, annexing it to Macedon and earning himself the epithet 'the Great'. When Alexander died in 323 BC, Greek power and influence was at its zenith. However, there had been a fundamental shift away from the fierce independence and classical culture of the poleis-and instead towards the developing Hellenistic culture. Main articles: Wars of Alexander the Great, Hellenistic Period, and Hellenistic civilization The Hellenistic period lasted from 323 BC, which marked the end of the Wars of Alexander the Great, to the annexation of the Greece by the Roman Republic in 146 BC. Although the establishment of Roman rule did not break the continuity of Hellenistic society and culture, which remained essentially unchanged until the advent of Christianity, it did mark the end of Greek political independence. The major Hellenistic realms; the Ptolemaic kingdom (dark blue); the Seleucid empire (yellow); Macedon (green) and Epirus (pink).

During the Hellenistic period, the importance of "Greece proper" (that is, the territory of modern Greece) within the Greek-speaking world declined sharply. The great centers of Hellenistic culture were Alexandria and Antioch, capitals of Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria respectively. The conquests of Alexander had numerous consequences for the Greek city-states. It greatly widened the horizons of the Greeks and led to a steady emigration, particularly of the young and ambitious, to the new Greek empires in the east. Many Greeks migrated to Alexandria, Antioch and the many other new Hellenistic cities founded in Alexander's wake, as far away as what are now Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdom survived until the end of the 1st century BC. After the death of Alexander his empire was, after quite some conflict, divided amongst his generals, resulting in the Ptolemaic Kingdom (based upon Egypt), the Seleucid Empire (based on the Levant, Mesopotamia and Persia) and the Antigonid dynasty based in Macedon. In the intervening period, the poleis of Greece were able to wrest back some of their freedom, although still nominally subject to the Macedonian Kingdom. The city states formed themselves into two leagues; the Achaean League (including Thebes, Corinth and Argos) and the Aetolian League (including Sparta and Athens). For much of the period until the Roman conquest, these leagues were usually at war with each other, and/or allied to different sides in the conflicts between the Diadochi (the successor states to Alexander's empire). The Antigonid Kingdom became involved in a war with the Roman Republic in the late 3rd century. Although the First Macedonian War was inconclusive, the Romans, in typical fashion, continued to make war on Macedon until it was completely absorbed into the Roman Republic (by 149 BC). In the east the unwieldy Seleucid Empire gradually disintegrated, although a rump survived until 64 BC, whilst the Ptolemaic Kingdom continued in Egypt until 30 BC, when it too was conquered by the Romans. The Aetolian league grew wary of Roman involvement in Greece, and sided with the Seleucids in the Roman-Syrian War; when the Romans were victorious, the league was effectively absorbed into the Republic. Although the Achaean league outlasted both the Aetolian league and Macedon, it was also soon defeated and absorbed by the Romans in 146 BC, bringing an end to the independence of all of Greece.

Philip never conquered Greece. With various methods, he brought the Greeks together and united them under Macedonian hegemony through the formation of the Pan-Hellenic league of Corinth.

After the Peloponnesian Wars, the Greeks who had a history of disunity were even more disjointed. Athens had been defeated by Sparta, and Sparta was in turn defeated by Thebes which was the leading political power in Greece. Philip took advantage and built up his military and reinforced his alliances. Demosthenes of Athens who held a personal grudge with Philip after being snubbed at the Macedonian royal court spoke against the threat from Macedonia to Athenian hegemony.

[10] When, Athenians, will you take the necessary action? What are you waiting for? Until you are compelled, I presume. But what are we to think of what is happening now? For my own part I think that for a free people there can be no greater compulsion than shame for their position. Or tell me, are you content to run round and ask one another, "Is there any news today?" Could there be any news more startling than that a Macedonian is triumphing over Athenians and settling the destiny of Hellas?

Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1930.

Also, while the Athenian allies may have had an advantage in quality, Philip had a greater advantage in numbers. The Macedonian Army was larger and more modern. The phalanx infantry formation used by the Thebans to defeat Sparta was improved by the Macedonians with longer spears and ranks of sixteen instead of eight. After an enemy had been broken up by the Macedonian phalanx, the Macedonian heavy cavalry charged in for the kill.

On the battlefield of Chaeronea, Macedonia and its Greek allies met with the Athenians and their allies from the Greek city states....

As the eminent historian J. B. Bury writes:

• If the chances of another issue to the battle of Chaeronea have been exaggerated, the significance of that event has been often misrepresented. The battle of Chaeronea belongs to the same historical series as the battles of Aegospotami (405 B.C.) and Leuctra (371B.C.).
• As the hegemony or first place among Greek states had passed successively from Athens to Sparta, and to Thebes, so now it passed to Macedon. The statement that Greek liberty perished on the plain of Chaeronea is as true or as false as that it perished on the field of Leuctra or the strand of the Goat's River. Whenever a Greek state became supreme, that supremacy entailed the depression of some states and the dependency or subjection of others. Athens was reduced to a secondary place by Macedon, and Thebes fared still worse; but we must not forget what Sparta, in the day of her triumph, did to Athens, or the more evil things which Thebes proposed.

In the context of Ancient Greek art, architecture, and culture, Hellenistic Greece corresponds to the period between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the annexation of the classical Greek heartlands by Rome in 146 BC focuses on the history of 'Greece proper' (effectively the area of modern Greece) during this period.

During the Hellenistic period the importance of Greece proper within the Greek-speaking world declined sharply. The great centers of Hellenistic culture were Alexandria and Antioch, capitals of Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria respectively. Cities such as Pergamon, Ephesus, Rhodes and Seleucia were also important, and increasing urbanization of the Eastern Mediterranean was characteristic of the time.

• 1 Macedonian dominance
• 2 Philip V
• 3 Rise of Rome
• 4 End of Greek independence
• 5 See also
• 6 Further reading

The quests of Alexander had a number of consequences for the Greek city-states. It greatly widened the horizons of the Greeks, making the endless conflicts between the cities which had marked the 5th and 4th centuries BC seem petty and unimportant. It led to a steady emigration, particularly of the young and ambitious, to the new Greek empires in the east. Many Greeks migrated to Alexandria, Antioch and the many other new Hellenistic cities founded in Alexander's wake, as far away as what are now Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdom survived until the end of the 1st century BC.

The defeat of the Greek cities by Philip and Alexander also taught the Greeks that their city-states could never again be powers in their own right, and that the hegemony of Macedon and its successor states could not be challenged unless the city states united, or at least federated. The Greeks valued their local independence too much to consider actual unification, but they made several attempts to form federations through which they could hope to reassert their independence.

Following Alexander's death a struggle for power broke out among his generals, which resulted in the break-up of his empire and the establishment of a number of new kingdoms. Macedon fell to Cassander, son of Alexander's leading general Antipater, who after several years of warfare made himself master of most of Greece. He founded a new Macedonian capital at Thessaloniki and was generally a constructive ruler.

Cassander's power was challenged by Antigonus, ruler of Anatolia, who promised the Greek cities that he would restore their freedom if they supported him. This led to successful revolts against Cassander's local rulers. In 307 BC Antigonus's son Demetrius captured Athens and restored its democratic system, which had been suppressed by Alexander. But in 301 BC a coalition of Cassander and the other Hellenistic kings defeated Antigonus at the Battle of Ipsus, ending his challenge. Hellenistic Greek tomb door bas relief, Leeds City Museum.

After Cassander's death in 298 BC, however, Demetrius seized the Macedonian throne and gained control of most of Greece. He was defeated by a second coalition of Greek rulers in 285 BC, and mastery of Greece passed to the king Lysimachus of Thrace. Lysimachus was in turn defeated and killed in 280 BC. The Macedonian throne then passed to Demetrius's son Antigonus II, who also defeated an invasion of the Greek lands by the Gauls, who at this time were living in the Balkans. The battle against the Gauls united the Antigonids of Macedon and the Seleucids of Antioch, an alliance which was also directed against the wealthiest Hellenistic power, the Ptolemies of Egypt.

Antigonus II ruled until his death in 239 BC, and his family retained the Macedonian throne until it was abolished by the Romans in 146 BC. Their control over the Greek city states was intermittent, however, since other rulers, particularly the Ptolemies, subsidised anti-Macedonian parties in Greece to undermine the Antigonids' power. Antigonus placed a garrison at Corinth, the strategic centre of Greece, but Athens, Rhodes, Pergamum and other Greek states retained substantial independence, and formed the Aetolian League as a means of defending it. Sparta also remained independent, but generally refused to join any league.

In 267 BC Ptolemy II persuaded the Greek cities to revolt against Antigonus, in what became the Chremonidian War, after the Athenian leader Chremonides. The cities were defeated and Athens lost her independence and her democratic institutions. The Aetolian League was restricted to the Peloponnese, but on being allowed to gain control of Thebes in 245 BC became a Macedonian ally. This marked the end of Athens as a political actor, although it remained the largest, wealthiest and most cultivated city in Greece. In 255 BC Antigonus defeated the Egyptian fleet at Cos and brought the Aegean islands, except Rhodes, under his rule as well.

Antigonus II died in 239 BC. His death saw another revolt of the city-states of the Achaean League, whose dominant figure was Aratus of Sicyon. Antigonus's son Demetrius II died in 229 BC, leaving a child (Philip V) as king, with the general Antigonus Doson as regent. The Achaeans, while nominally subject to Ptolemy, were in effect independent, and controlled most of southern Greece. Athens remained aloof from this conflict by common consent.

Sparta remained hostile to the Achaeans, and in 227 BC Sparta's king Cleomenes III invaded Achaea and seized control of the League. Aratus preferred distant Macedon to nearby Sparta, and allied himself with Doson, who in 222 BC defeated the Spartans and annexed their city - the first time Sparta had ever been occupied by a foreign power.

Philip V, who came to power when Doson died in 221 BC, was the last Macedonian ruler with both the talent and the opportunity to unite Greece and preserve its independence against the "cloud rising in the west": the ever-increasing power of Rome. He was known as "the darling of Hellas". Under his auspices the Peace of Naupactus (217 BC) brought conflict between Macedon and the Greek leagues to an end, and at this time he controlled all of Greece except Athens, Rhodes and Pergamum.

In 215 BC, however, Philip formed an alliance with Rome's enemy Carthage, which drew Rome directly into Greek affairs for the first time. Rome promptly lured the Achaean cities away from their nominal loyalty to Philip, and formed alliances with Rhodes and Pergamum, now the strongest power in Asia Minor. The First Macedonian War broke out in 212 BC, and ended inconclusively in 205 BC, but Macedon was now marked as an enemy of Rome. Rome's ally Rhodes gained control of the Aegean islands.

In 202 BC Rome defeated Carthage, and was free to turn her attention eastwards, urged on by her Greek allies, Rhodes and Pergamum. In 198 the Second Macedonian War broke out for obscure reasons, but basically because Rome saw Macedon as a potential ally of the Seleucids, the greatest power in the east. Philip's allies in Greece deserted him and in 197 BC he was decisively defeated at the Cynoscephalae by the Roman proconsul Titus Quinctius Flamininus.

Luckily for the Greeks, Flamininus was a moderate man and an admirer of Greek culture. Philip had to surrender his fleet and become a Roman ally, but was otherwise spared. At the Isthmian Games in 196 BC, Flamininus declared all the Greek cities free, although Roman garrisons were placed at Corinth and Chalcis. But the freedom promised by Rome was an illusion. All the cities except Rhodes were enrolled in a new League which Rome ultimately controlled, and democracies were replaced by aristocratic regimes allied to Rome.

During the following years Rome was drawn deeper into Greek politics, since the defeated party in any dispute appealed to Rome for help. Macedon was still independent, though nominally a Roman ally. When Philip V died in 179 BC he was succeeded by his son Perseus, who like all the Macedonian kings dreamed of uniting the Greeks under Macedonian rule. Macedon was now too weak to achieve this objective, but Rome's ally Eumenes II of Pergamum persuaded Rome that Perseus was a potential threat to Rome's position.

Under the leadership of an adventurer called Andriscus, Macedon rebelled against Roman rule in 149 BC: as a result it was directly annexed the following year and became a Roman province, the first of the Greek states to suffer this fate. Rome now demanded that the Achaean League, the last stronghold of Greek independence, be dissolved. The Achaeans refused and, feeling that they might as well die fighting, declared war on Rome. Most of the Greek cities rallied to the Achaeans' side, even slaves were freed to fight for Greek independence. The Roman consul Lucius Mummius advanced from Macedonia and defeated the Greeks at Corinth, which was razed to the ground.

In 146 BC the Greek peninsula, though not the islands, became a Roman protectorate. Roman taxes were imposed, except in Athens and Sparta, and all the cities had to accept rule by Rome's local allies. In 133 BC the last king of Pergamum died and left his kingdom to Rome: this brought most of the Aegean peninsula under direct Roman rule as part of the province of Asia. Macedo-Ptolemaic soldiers of the Ptolemaic kingdom, 100 BC, detail of the Nile mosaic of Palestrina.

The final downfall of Greece came in 88 BC, when King Mithridates of Pontus rebelled against Rome, and massacred up to 100,000 Romans and Roman allies across Asia Minor. Although Mithridates was not Greek, many Greek cities, including Athens, overthrew their Roman puppet rulers and joined him. When he was driven out of Greece by the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Roman vengeance fell upon Greece again, and the Greek cities never recovered. Mithridates was finally defeated by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) in 65 BC.

Further ruin was brought to Greece by the Roman civil wars, which were partly fought in Greece. Finally, in 27 BC, Augustus directly annexed Greece to the new Roman Empire as the province of Achaea. The struggles with Rome had left Greece depopulated and demoralised. Nevertheless, Roman rule at least brought an end to warfare, and cities such as Athens, Corinth, Thessaloniki and Patras soon recovered their prosperity.

• Hellenistic civilization
• Hellenistic period
• Alexander the Great
• Hellenistic art

• Austin, Michel M., The Hellenistic world from Alexander to the Roman conquest: a selection of ancient sources in translation, Cambridge University Press, 1981. ISBN 0521228298

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