Handbook

In the middle of the 4th century BC the major Greek confederacies – centred around Sparta, Thebes, and Athens – were fighting each other to a standstill. Meanwhile, up in Macedon, Philip II was using a combination of statecraft and steel to meld a range of fractious warlords and territories into a nascent Macedonian empire. He used this newly forged power to subdue the major states of mainland Greece, before declaring war on Persia. After Philip’s untimely death by assassination his teenage son Alexander III went on to exceed his father’s wildest dreams by conquering the Persian empire (including Egypt) and other territories as far east as the Indus River. The legacy of Alexander the Great’s conquests is still being felt to this day.

This unit of study will cover the period from 404 to 275 BC. As well as closely examining the reigns and achievements of Philip II and Alexander III (359-323 BC) you will consider the geopolitical situation in Greece from 404-359 BC that allowed Philip’s ascendancy and the Hellenistic world that emerged in the wake of Alexander’s death, which significantly differed from cultural and political arrangements that preceded it.