BC330-311 Alexander the Great of Macedon

In the twenty years from 330-311 BC the entire known world east of Rome was controlled by a Macedonian Greek, Alexander the Great (pictured) who died in Babylon in 323 BC

By 324 BC, when Rome was engaged in the conquest of Italy -- and the patricians and the plebeians were engaged in internal politics -- Alexander the Great, Philip of Macedon's son, was riding high on his amazing conquests and Pytheas, a Greek merchant, geographer and explorer from the Greek colony of Massilia (Marseille) was exploring Great Britain and the northern lands.

The Macedonian Greeks first conquered the Greek mainland and peninsula, and then, literally, the whole of the known world. While there were numerous Greek cities on the Italian peninsula and Rome itself was heavily influenced by Greek culture and thought, the Romans didn't see Alexander as a threat.

At that stage in the development of the Roman Republic, the Romans were more interested in their own immediate security than with world domination.

Ptolemy, one of Alexander's Macedonian generals, was appointed satrap of Egypt in 323 BC and successfully started the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, declaring himself King Ptolemy I and winning acceptance as the successor to the pharaohs of independent Egypt.

Alexander pressed on in his ambition to conquer the world, advancing through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indus river valley. By 326 BC he had reached Punjab and could have advanced down the Ganges to Bengal but his army were superstitious -- convinced they were at the end of the world -- and refused to go any further. Alexander reluctantly turned back, and died of a fever in Babylon in 323 BC.

In the power struggle after Alexander's death his empire broke up quickly. The part of his empire that included Israel changed hands at least five times in just over twenty years. Babylonia and Syria were ruled by the Seleucids, and Egypt by the Ptolemies.

Nevertheless, his conquests permanently changed the Greek world. Thousands of Greeks travelled with him or after him to settle in the new Greek cities he had founded as he advanced, the most important being Alexandria in Egypt where Ptolemy, one of Alexander's Macedonian generals, would become pharoah.

Greek-speaking kingdoms in Egypt, Syria, Persia and Bactria were established and the knowledge and cultures of east and west began to permeate and interact.

Helping this dissemination of knowledge was was a Greek merchant, geographer and explorer from the Greek colony of Massilia (Marseille) called Pytheas (d. 310 BC) . He made a voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe around 325 BC, travelling around a considerable part of Great Britain and circumnavigating it between 330 and 320 BC.

Pytheas is the first person on record to describe the Midnight Sun, the aurora and Polar ice, and the first to mention the name Britannia and Germanic tribes.

Pytheas estimated the circumference of Great Britain, and used the Pole Star to fix latitude. In northern Spain, he studied the tides, and understood the relationships between tides and phases of the Moon.

Pytheas was not the first person to sail up into the North Sea territories and around Great Britain.

Trade between Gaul and Great Britain was already routine; fishermen and others would travel to Orkney, Norway or Shetland.

In Cornwall, Great Britain, Pytheas studied the production and processing of tin, and referred to the British Isles as the 'Isles of the Pretani' possibly because the coastal inhabitants of Cornwall may have called themselves Pretani or Priteni, 'Painted' or 'Tattooed' people.

Pytheas also visited an island six days sailing north of Great Britain, called Thule which may have been Shetland. Pytheas says Thule was an agricultural country that produced honey and its inhabitants ate fruits and drank milk, and made a drink out of grain and honey. Unlike the people from Southern Europe, they had barns, and threshed their grain there rather than outside.

He also visited an island rich in amber that the inhabitants used for fuel and sold it to their neighbours, the Teutones. The island could have been Helgoland, Zealand in the Baltic Sea or even the shores of the Bay of Gdansk -- Sambia or the Curonian Lagoon -- which were historically the richest sources of amber in the North Europe.

BC350-331 King Philip II of Macedon

In the twenty years from 350-331 BC, King Philip II of Macedon (pictured) controlled everything north of Thermopylae.

The Kingdom of Macedon played little part in Greek politics before King Philip II ruled. He was an ambitious man who had been educated in Thebes and wanted to be accepted as the new leader of Greece.

Philip II of Macedon first established Macedonian dominance over Thessaly and Thrace, and gained his first opportunity to be drawn into Greek affairs when the Thebans appealed to him for help against the Phocians in 346 BC.

His intervention in the war between Thebes and Phocis brought him great recognition, and he created a 'Macedonian party' in every Greek city by using his great wealth to bribe Greek politicians.

The Athenian leader, Demosthenes, roused the Athenians to resist him and in 339 BC Thebes and Athens formed an alliance to resist Philip's growing influence.

They were defeated by Philip II of Macedon at Chaeronea in 338 BC. He tried to win over the Athenians after their defeat, but his efforts met with limited success.

He organized the cities into the League of Corinth, and announced that he would lead an invasion of Persia to liberate the Greek cities and avenge the Persian invasions of the previous century. Before he could do so, he was assassinated in 336 BC.

Philip was succeeded by his 20-year-old son, Alexander, who immediately set out to complete his father's plans. He wanted to bring back Athens back to glory by destroying the Persian King.

He travelled to Corinth where the assembled Greek cities recognized him as leader of the Greeks, then assembled his forces from all over Greece. The core of his army, though, was his hardy Macedonian mountain-fighters. While Alexander was campaigning in Thrace, he heard that the Greek cities had rebelled. He captured Thebes, razed the city to the ground, leaving only one building standing, the house of Pindar, a poet who had written in favour of his ancestors.

In 334 BC Alexander crossed into Asia, and defeated the Persians at the river Granicus. He settled affairs in Anatolia, then advanced south through Cilicia into Syria, defeated Darius III at Issus in 333 BC. He then advanced through Phoenicia to Egypt, which he captured with little resistance, the Egyptians welcoming him as a liberator from Persian oppression, and the prophesied son of Amun.

Darius was now ready to make peace and Alexander could have returned home in triumph, but he was determined to conquer Persia and make himself the ruler of the world. He advanced through Syria and Mesopotamia, and defeated Darius again at Gaugamela in 331 BC. Darius fled and was killed by his own followers, and Alexander found himself the master of the Persian Empire, occupying Susa and Persepolis without resistance.

Alexander's empire included Israel, but he did not attack Jerusalem directly. A delegation of Jews met him and assured him of their loyalty by showing him certain prophecies contained in their writings -- similar to the Egyptian's prophesied son of Amun.

While Alexander the Great was compaigning, the Greek cities were making renewed efforts to escape from Macedonian control. At Megalopolis in 331 BC, Alexander's regent Antipater defeated the Spartans, who had refused to join the Corinthian League or recognize Macedonian supremacy.

In Italy, Rome's allies -- part of a Latin alliance with Rome in control -- were also demanding their independence but Rome refused.

In 340 BC the Latin cities rose up against Rome and were defeated within two years. In 338 BC Rome dismantled the Latin League and took control of the lands of its former allies.

In 350 BC the Temple of Artemis (Diana) was built at Ephesus, Turkey.