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Visual History of the World
(CONTENTS)
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The Ancient World
ca. 2500 B.C. - 900 A.D.
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The epics of Homer, the wars
of Caesar, and temples and palaces characterize the image of classic
antiquity and the cultures of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.
They are the sources from which the Western world draws the
foundations of its philosophy, literature, and, not least of all,
its state organization. The Greek city-states, above all Athens,
were the birthplace of democracy. The regions surrounding the
Mediterranean Sea and great parts of Northwest Europe were forged
together into the Roman Empire, which survived until the time of the
Great Migration of Peoples. Mighty empires also existed beyond the
ancient Mediterranean world, however, such as those of the Mauryas
in India and the Han in China.
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Alexander the Great
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The Rise and Fall of a World Power:
From Macedonia to the Diadochoi
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7TH-1ST CENTURY B.C.
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The Seleucids and the Ptolemies
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The two most important and longest lasting of the Diadochoi kingdoms
were those of the Seleucids in Syria and the Ptolemies in Egypt. These
kingdoms were ended by Roman conquest.
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6 Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid dynasty, received the
province of Babylonia after Alexander's death.

6 Seleucus I Nicator
Starting in 312 B.C., he
extended his rule through Syria and Mesopotamia and eastward into India.
In 305 Seleucus took the title of king and solidified his domain
through numerous alliances and military expeditions. He brought Greek
and Macedonian settlers into his realm and founded many cities. His son
Antigonus I Soter (king from 280 B.C.) introduced the Seleucid ruler
cult, settled Celts in Galatia, and founded Antioch.
The most prominent
of his descendents was 9 Antiochus
III the Great (king from 223
B.C.), who subjugated the Armenian, Bactrian, and Parthian kingdoms and,
between 202 and 194, occupied Phoenicia, the western and southern coasts
of Anatolia, and Thrace.

9 Antiochus III the Great
War with Rome in 192-189 resulted when he
crossed over to Europe and forced the Greek cities of Asia Minor under
his rule. In 189-188 B.C. Antiochus had to withdraw from Asia Minor down
to Taurus.
His successors dissipated their powers in fratricidal wars until the
Roman general Pompey dethroned the last Seleucid ruler in 64 B.C. and
made a Roman province of what was left of the empire.
As a friend of
Alexander, 7 Ptolemy I Soter, founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, wrote
Alexander's biography and started the state cult around him.

7
Ptolemy I Soter
He won
Egypt in 323 B.C. and took the title of king in 305. In alliance
with Seleucus I, he attacked Macedonia several times. Ptolemy solidified
his rule in Egypt, generally adopting Egyptian religious concepts and
the image of sovereign.
He founded the Mouseion, the 8 Serapeion, and
the great 12 library of Alexandria.
His son Ptolemy II installed the
Egyptian national cult around his own dynasty and constructed the
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Pharos lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient
World.
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8
Sphinx on the Serapeion in Alexandria
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12
The destruction of the Royal Library
of Alexandria by a fire in 47 B.C.
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10
The Pharos lighthouse in Alexandria,
one of the Seven Wonders of
antiquity
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11 Ptolemy III Euergetes (king from 246 B.C.) advanced to the
Euphrates and Asia Minor and defended the empire against the
expansionist ambitions of the Seleucids. After him, insignificant and
often shortlived kings reigned until Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos (king 80-51 B.C.). who
completely relied on the power of Rome. The story of his daughter
Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemaic dynasty, belongs to the Roman
era under Julius Caesar.
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11 Ptolemy III Euergetes
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Ptolemy II Philadelphia
Ptolemy II (308-246 B.C., king from 285 B.C.) married his sister Arsinoe
II (ca. 316-271 B.C.) according to old Egyptian custom.
He extended the
kingdom from Egypt into Nubia and the Arabian Peninsula and gained
maritime strength in the Mediterranean.
The couple, deified as the "Theoi
Adelphoi," were generous patrons of the arts and sciences and made
Alexandria a cultural center of the world.

Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his wife Arsinoe II
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Macedonia after Alexander's Death
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The struggle of the Diadochoi for Macedonia and Greece was played out
through family intrigues. Alexander's dynasty fell, and almost all of
the Diadochoi joined in the scramble for power in Europe.
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Upon Alexander's death in 323 B.C., his strongest generals proceeded
to divide power. They controlled the richest satrapies, leading the
strongest and largest armies, and fought for control of the empire.
4
Antipater, whom Alexander had appointed viceroy, ruled
3 Macedonia until
his death in 319 â.ñ .
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3 Map of ancient Greece showing Macedonia in the north in red, Thracia in
yellow, Epirus in green, copper engraving,
18th century
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4
King Antipater in battle, copper engraving,
17th century
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The Macedonians in Alexander's army wanted to
hold on to the Argead dynasty and chose Alexander's half-brother Philip
III Arrhidacus as king in 325 B.C.
Alexander IV, who was born after the 2 death of his father, also had dynastic claims.
Antipater became regent
of the empire in 321, while at the same time 1 Olympias, Alexander the
Great's mother, tried to secure influence as head of the dynasty.

1 Olympias, wife of Philip II and mother of Alexander the Great
2 Dying Alexander, marble sculpture, second century B.C.
Antipater decided on the loyal general Polyperchon as his successor,
but his own son Cassander wanted control and allied himself with
Antigonus I, who had established an empire in Asia. Cassander and
Antigonus unseated Polyperchon and allied themselves with King Philip
III and his wife Eurydice. Polyperchon in turn allied himself with
Olympias, and together they had the royal couple killed and from 317
ruled as regents in the name of the child Alexander IV. Thereupon,
Cassander started a campaign of revenge against the royal house. He
marched out of Athens with the army at his side in 316, had Olympias
executed, and drove out Polyperchon. He took the young Alexander IV and
his mother Roxana as prisoners and put them to death in 310. With this,
Cassander had annihilated Alexander's dynasty. Through shifting
alliances with other Diadochoi rulers (Lysimachus, Ptolemy I, and
Seleucus I), he was able to gain recognition from all as "viceroy of
Europe" by 311 B.C. After engaging in serious clashes with Antigonus
beginning in 307, Cassander's position finally became untenable around
300 B.C.
5 Thessalonica, Cassander's wife, who had tried to decide his
succession, was murdered by her son Antipater.
In 294 Antipater was
finally deposed by Demetrios I Poliorcetes, who gave way to the rule of
the Antagonids over Macedonia and Greece.The peace between the
successors ot Alexander recognized the effective division between
Antigonus, who was supreme in Asia; Cassander. who dominated Greece and
Macedon; Lysimachus, who ruled Thrace; Ptolemy, who governed Egypt; and
Seleucus, who ruled the eastern satrapies. Soon after his death in 297,
his dvnasty came to an end.
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5
King Antipater I kills his mother Thessalonica
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Macedonia under the Antigonids
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The descendents of Antigonus I finally succeeded in gaining power in
Macedonia and thus over Greece. Their successors waged war against the
growing power of Rome.
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Antigonus I Monophthalmus ("the One-eyed," ca. 382-301 â.ñ.)
and his son Demetrius I Poliorcetes—"the Besieger"—were the last of the
Diadochoi to hold onto Alexander's plans for a world empire. From their
power base in Asia, they invaded Greece and
took Athens claiming to be "liberators." After the expulsion of
Cassander, Antigonus assumed the title of king in 306 B.C. and revived
the Corinthian League for the liberation of all of Greece. In 301
Antigonus fell at Ipsus against Lysimachus and Seleucus I.
Demetrius was
able to bring a large part of Greece, Macedonia, and Asia Minor under
his control but was captured by Seleucus I in 285 B.C.
His son Antigonus
II Gonatas (king 283-239 B.C.), however, was able to maintain Antigonid
control of Macedonia and most of the Greek cities through alliances
until the country was invaded and conquered by the Romans in 168 B.C.
By about 250 B.C. the situation was generally settled, and Macedonia was
again the undisputed master of Greece. Demetrius II (king 239-229 B.C.)
son of Antigonus I, secured victories over the Celts and the Dardanians
and dominated the Aegean Sea, defeating the battle fleets of the
Egyptian Ptolemies at Cos in 258 â.ñ. and at Andros in 245 B.C.
Antigonus III Doson (regent, then king 229-221 B.C.) brought Sparta
under their sovereignty, and Antigonus united almost all of the Greek
peninsula in the "Hellenic League" in 224.
However, conflict began to develop with the rising power of
Rome, which sought to hinder Macedonia's consolidation of its strength
in Europe.
6 Philip V of Macedonia (king from 221 B.C.) allied himself
with the Carthaginian general Hannibal in 215 B.C. to expand
westward against Rome.

6 King Philip V forces Theoxena and her husband Poris
to commit suicide
for fleeing Macedonia
During the First Macedonian War (215-205 B.C.)
Philip was relatively successful, gaining access to the
Adriatic Sea, but when a few Greek cities pulled out of the
8 Second
Macedonian War (200-197 B.C.), he was defeated by the Romans.
In the
following years he became entangled by internal Greek unrest. Philip's
son 7, 9 Perseus was the last king of Macedonia. After suffering several
10 defeats by Rome, Perseus was captured in 168 and paraded through the
streets of Rome in a victory procession in 167.
Macedonia was then
divided into four republics and finally made part of the Roman Empire as
a new province.
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8
The Greeks are set free at the
Isthmic Games, 196 B.C.,
after the Second
Macedonian War
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7
King Perseus of Macedonia in profile,
contemporary cameo
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9
Perseus marches through the Thessalian
canyons to Illyria during the
Third Macedonian War
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10 Roman legionnaires break the Macedonian
phalanx in the Battle of Pydna,
168 B.C.
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The philosopher Epicurus,
ca. 270 B.C.
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The Athenian Philosophy
During the period of Antigonid rule over Greece, Athens remained a
center of culture and philosophy. In 306 B.C. Epicurus founded his
school, whose followers strove for individual happiness andpeace. The
Stoics, named after their meeting place in the columned
hall on the Agora of
Athens, first met around 300 B.C. and with their austere rationalism
stood in opposition to the hedonism of the Epicureans.
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The Stoa Poikile ("painted colonnade"),
at the Agora in Athens,
where philosophy
was taught and after which the
Stoics were named
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