Hellenistic+World+Rise+-+Events+and+Leaders

**Events and Leaders**

-Began with death of Alexander the Great, who conquered entire Persian Empire, including Asia Minor, the steppes of central Asia. Assyria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Levant, Persia, Pakistan, and parts of modern Afghanistan (Walbank, 46) - Alexander died unexpectedly at the climax of his success, at Babylon in 323BC (Errington, 1) - left empire with no direction or designated successor (http://www.historyofmacedonia.org/AncientMacedonia/AlexandertheGreat.html) - in final months, since death of his lifelong intimate Hephaestion, Alexander had been showing increasing symptoms of paranoia and magalomania - there wasn’t one single man who could take over for him and beat competitors -When he died, his successors (generals) argued over who would now get to rule these areas.(Walbank, 46) -successors fought a war from 323 B.C. to 276 B.C. to determine who would rule which areas (46) - fought over a huge expanse of territory- Greece, Asia Minor, the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt, Central Asia, Iran, India


 * Major Events of War**

-323 B.C. to 320 B.C.- Perdiccas (senior cavalry officer) tried to settle a compromise, which could claim legitimacy while leaving power in his hands. –Ended with Perdiccas dying a violent death (Walbank, 47) -320 B.C. to 301B.C., Antigonous tried to bring the whole empire under his control. (47) -301B.C. at Ipsus, a coalition of Antigonous’ enemies brought him down and killed him (47)- After 301 B.C. Antigonous’ son, Demetrius Poliorcetes, tried to seize control but a coalition between Lysimachus and Pyrrhus of Epirus defeated this attempt and Demetrius Poliorcetes died in captivity. (47) -288 B.C. Three out of four dynasties established > (47)  288 B.C.-276 B.C. War to capture the homeland- Macedonia and Central Greece (47) 288 B.C. -282 B.C.- Lysimachus tried to seize control, was defeated by Seleucus (47) 282 B.C. Lysimachus died, his dynasty becomes the Attalid dynasty (48) 276 B.C. The 4 th dynasty was established: Antigonous, (ruled by Demetrius’ son, Antigonous Gonatas), in Macedonia and central Greece. (48) -The final successor states (divisions of Alexander’s empire) are the following: 1. The Antigonid dynasty in Macedonia and central Greece 2. The Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt- based at Alexandria 3. The Seleucid dynasty in Syria and Mesopotamia- based at Antioch 4. The Attalid dynasty in Anatolia- based at Pergamum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic_period)  The Rise of the Hellenistic World
 * 1) Ptolelmy, in Egypt
 * 2) Seleucus, in Babylonia and Northern Seria
 * 3) Lysimachus, in Northern Anatolia and Thrace (later became the Attalid dynasty after the death of Lysimachus)