Aetolia
Aetolia is a mountainous region of Greece on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, forming the eastern part of the modern regional unit of Aetolia-Acarnania. The Achelous River separates Aetolia from Acarnania to the west. In classical times Aetolia comprised two parts: Old Aetolia in the west, from the Achelous to the Evenus and Calydon; the country has a level and fruitful coastal region, but an unproductive and mountainous interior. The mountains contained many wild beasts, acquired fame in Greek mythology as the scene of the hunt for the Calydonian Boar. Tribes known as Curetes – named after the nearby mountain Kourion, or just to stand out from the Acarnanians, who were called so because they were unshorn – and Leleges inhabited the country, but at an early period Greeks from Elis, led by the mythical eponym Aetolus, set up colonies. Dionysius of Halicarnassus mentions that Curetes was the old name of the Aetolians and Leleges the old name of the Locrians; the Aetolians took part under their king Thoas.
The mountain tribes of Aetolia were the Ophioneis, the Apodotoi, the Agraeis, the Aperantoi and the Eurytanians. The primitive lifestyle of those tribes made an impression on ancient historians. Polybius doubted their Greek heritage, while Livy reports that they spoke a language similar to the Macedonians. On the other hand, Thucydides claims that Eurytanians spoke a difficult language and ate their food raw, they were semi-barbaric and predatory. They worshiped Apollo as god of Artemis as goddess of wilderness, they worshiped Athena, not as goddess of wisdom, but emphasizing the element of war – i.e. a goddess, a counterbalance to the god Ares. They called Artemis "Laphrios gods," i.e. patrons of the spoils and loot of war. In addition, they worshiped the river Achelous and Bacchus. In Thermos, an area north of Trichonis lake, there was after the 7th century a shrine of Apollo “Thermios,” which became a significant religious center during the time of the Aetolian League; the Aetolians refused to participate in the Persian Wars.
In 426 BC, led by Aegitios, they defeated the Athenians and their allies, who had turned against Apodotia and Ophioneia under the general command of Demosthenes. However, they failed to regain Naupaktos, which had meanwhile been conquered by the Corinthians with the aid of the Athenians. At the end of the Peloponnesian War, the Aetolians took part as mercenaries of the Athenians in the expedition against Syracuse; the Achaeans occupied Calydon, but the Aetolians recovered it in 361 BC. In 338 BC, Naupaktos was again taken by the Aetolians, with the help of Philip II. During the Lamian War, the Aetolians helped the Athenian general Leosthenes defeat Antipater; as a result, they came into conflict with Antipater and Craterus, taking great risks, but were saved by the disagreement between the two Macedonian generals and Perdiccas. The Acarnanians attempted to invade their land, but the Aetolians were able to force them to flee; the Aetolians set up the Aetolian League, in early times. It soon became a powerful confederation and by c. 340 BC it became one of the leading military powers in ancient Greece.
It had been organized during the reign of Philip II by the cities of Aetolia for their mutual benefit and protection and became a formidable rival to the Macedonian monarchs and the Achaean League. The great courage shown by the Aetolians during the fighting against the Macedonians increased their glamour and fame after winning the last Amphictyonic war and more after repulsing the Gallic invasion under Brennus and rescuing the sanctuary of Delphi. Subsequently, the Sotiria Games were established in honour of Zeus the Saviour; the Aetolians’ power magnified with the occupation of the lands of Ozoloi and Phocians, as well as Boeotia. They united under the power of their League in the areas of Tegea, Orchomenus and Phigaleia. Between 220 -- 217 BC, the Social War broke out between the Aetolian Leagues; the war was first started by the Aetolians with the help of the Eleans. Allies of the Achaeans were the Macedonians, the Boeotians, the Phocians, the Epirotes, the Acarnanians and the Messenians.
The Aetolians allied with the Romans, while Philip destroyed the temple of Apollo Thermios and allied with the Carthaginians. The Aetolians continued to fight on the side of the Romans in the Battle of Cynoscephalae, ignoring the great dangers looming for Greece as a result of this alliance; the Aetolians took the side of Antiochus III against the Roman Republic, on the defeat of that monarch in 189 BC, they became the subjects of Rome. Following the conquest of the Achaeans by Lucius Mummius Achaicus in 146 BC, Aetolia became part of the Roman province of Achaea; when the Roman garrisons were withdrawn because of the civil wars in Rome, the Aetolians, began to fight each other. Following Octavius’ victory at the Battle of Actium, the Aetolians who had sided with Antony disbanded completely. Octavius handed Calydon over to the Achaeans, who devastated it and moved the statue of Artemis Laphria to Patras. There were subsequent invasions by Goths and Vandals several centuries at the end of the Roman Empire.
Aetolia's reputation has suffered from a rather hostile treatment in the sources. Polybius is considered now to have a h
Amphictyonic League
In the Archaic period of Greek history, an amphictyony, a "league of neighbors", or Amphictyonic League was an ancient religious association of Greek tribes formed in the dim past, before the rise of the Greek polis. The six Dorian cities of coastal southwest Asia Minor, or the twelve Ionian cities to the north, a dodecapolis forming an Ionian League emerging in the aftermath of a dimly-remembered "Meliac war" in the mid-7th century BC, were of considerable antiquity when the first written records emerge. A Delian amphictyony, of polities under the aegis of Apollo's shrine at Delos, was well-established in the 7th century, as the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo of that approximate date lists them, those cities and islands that trembled and refused to offer themselves for the birthplace of Apollo when pregnant Leto went to each in turn; the joint Ionian festival celebrated. A Delian amphictyony was recreated as an instrument of Athenian hegemony. Thucydides made recollection of the Lelantine War fought in Euboea sometime between the late 8th century BC and the first half of the 7th century BC: "The war between Chalcis and Eretria was the one in which most cities belonging to the rest of Greece were divided up into alliances with one side or the other."
Historians have puzzled over the broader meanings of "alliance" in such early times. "But comparatively large-scale associations lead more to contacts, to friendships and enmities at a distance than do little city-like units," George Forrest notes, remarking apropos that Phrygia and Assyria were at war with each other about 720–710 BC, raising tensions among interested Greeks. In historic times, an amphictyony might survive as a form of religious organization enjoined to support specific temples or sacred places. Twelve members would meet at specific times in the same sanctuary to keep religious festivals and conduct other matters as well. An early amphictyony centered on Kalaureia, an island close to the coast of Troezen in the Peloponnesus sacred to Poseidon, was noted by Strabo. Archaeology of the site suggested to Thomas Kelly that the sacred league was founded in the second quarter of the 7th century BC, c. 680-650. The island was known at one time as Eirene in reference to the amphictyony.
Strabo lists the poleis that belonged: "And there was a kind of Amphictyonic League connected with this temple, a league of seven cities which shared in the sacrifice. The least obscure and longest-lasting amphictyony was the Delphic or Great Amphictyonic League, organized to support the greater temples of Apollo and Demeter, its council had the power to pronounce punishments against offenders. Punishments could range from fines to conduct sacred wars; the Amphictyonic League set the rules of battle so as to protect sanctuaries and impose sentences on those who molested sanctuaries. All members were obliged to pledge themselves by an oath. Based on legend, the Great Amphictyonic League was founded somewhat after the Trojan War, for the protection and administration of the temple of Apollo in Delphi and temple of Demeter in Anthela, near Thermopylae; the founding myth claimed that it had been founded in the most distant past by an eponymous founder Amphictyon, brother of Hellen, the common ancestor of all Hellenes.
Representatives of the twelve members met in Thermopylae in Delphi in autumn. The twelve founders enumerated by Aeschines were the Aenianes or Oetaeans, the Boeotians of Thebes, the Dolopes, the Dorians of Sparta, the Ionians of Athens, the Phthian Achaeans, the Locrians, the Magnesians, the Malians, the Perrhaebians, the Phocians, the Pythians of Delphi, the Thessalians; the League doctrine required that no member would be wiped out in war and no water supply of any member would be cut in wartime. It did not prevent members from fighting about the dominance over the temples; the oldest religious Amphictyonic League was known as Anthelian, because it was centered on the cult of the chthonic goddess Demeter at Anthela. The twelve delegates were entitled Pylagorai a reference to the local Gates of Hades, since Demeter was a chthonic goddess in her older local cults; the immediate dwellers-round were some small states and Achaea-Phthiotis that paved the way for the entry of the body of the rest Boeotian tribes which were living around Thessaly.
Boeotia and Phocis the remotest may have joined only during or after the "First Sacred War", which led to the defeat of the old priesthood and to a new control of the prosperity of the oracle at Delphi. As a result of the war the Anthelan body was known thenceforth as the Delphic Amphictyony and became the official overseer and military defender of the Delphic cult. A strange and revealing anti-Thessalian feeling appeared and a wall was built across the narrow defile at Thermopylae to keep the Thessalians out, it has been suggested that the Shield of Heracles may reflect anti-Thessalian feeling after the First Sacred War: in this epic, a Thessalian hero i
Athens
Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years and its earliest human presence starting somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennium BC. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state that emerged in conjunction with the seagoing development of the port of Piraeus, a distinct city prior to its 5th century BC incorporation with Athens. A center for the arts and philosophy, home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum, it is referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy because of its cultural and political impact on the European continent, in particular the Romans. In modern times, Athens is a large cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, industrial, maritime and cultural life in Greece. In 2012, Athens was ranked the world's 39th richest city by purchasing power and the 67th most expensive in a UBS study. Athens is a global one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe.
It has a large financial sector, its port Piraeus is both the largest passenger port in Europe, the second largest in the world. While at the same time being the sixth busiest passenger port in Europe; the Municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its administrative limits, a land area of 38.96 km2. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative municipal city limits, with a population of 3,090,508 over an area of 412 km2. According to Eurostat in 2011, the functional urban area of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, with a population of 3.8 million people. Athens is the southernmost capital on the European mainland; the heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, represented by ancient monuments and works of art, the most famous of all being the Parthenon, considered a key landmark of early Western civilization. The city retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a smaller number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery.
Landmarks of the modern era, dating back to the establishment of Athens as the capital of the independent Greek state in 1834, include the Hellenic Parliament and the so-called "architectural trilogy of Athens", consisting of the National Library of Greece, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Academy of Athens. Athens is home to several museums and cultural institutions, such as the National Archeological Museum, featuring the world's largest collection of ancient Greek antiquities, the Acropolis Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art, the Benaki Museum and the Byzantine and Christian Museum. Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, 108 years it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics, making it one of only a handful of cities to have hosted the Olympics more than once. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural. In earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη, it was rendered in the plural on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι.
The root of the word is not of Greek or Indo-European origin, is a remnant of the Pre-Greek substrate of Attica. In antiquity, it was debated whether Athens took its name from its patron goddess Athena or Athena took her name from the city. Modern scholars now agree that the goddess takes her name from the city, because the ending -ene is common in names of locations, but rare for personal names. During the medieval period, the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα. However, after the establishment of the modern Greek state, due to the conservatism of the written language, Ἀθῆναι became again the official name of the city and remained so until the abandonment of Katharevousa in the 1970s, when Ἀθήνα, Athína, became the official name. According to the ancient Athenian founding myth, the goddess of wisdom, competed against Poseidon, the god of the seas, for patronage of the yet-unnamed city. According to the account given by Pseudo-Apollodorus, Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt water spring welled up.
In an alternative version of the myth from Vergil's Georgics, Poseidon instead gave the Athenians the first horse. In both versions, Athena offered the Athenians the first domesticated olive tree. Cecrops declared Athena the patron goddess of Athens. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning "flower", to denote Athens as the "flowering city". Ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was sometimes referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindar's ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι, or as τὸ κλεινὸν ἄστυ. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines and Astines, all derivations involving false splitting of p
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism and other subjects, bringing the academic painting tradition to an artistic climax, he is considered one of the most important painters from this academic period. He was a teacher with a long list of students. Jean-Léon Gérôme was born at Haute-Saône, he went to Paris in 1840. He visited Florence, the Vatican and Pompeii, but he was more attracted to the world of nature. Taken by a fever, he was forced to return to Paris in 1844. On his return, he followed, like many other students of Delaroche, into the atelier of Charles Gleyre and studied there for a brief time, he attended the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1846 he tried to enter the prestigious Prix de Rome, but failed in the final stage because his figure drawing was inadequate, his painting, The Cock Fight, is an academic exercise, depicting a nude young man and a draped young woman with two fighting cocks, the Bay of Naples in the background.
He sent this painting to the Salon of 1847. This work was seen as the epitome of the Neo-Grec movement that had formed out of Gleyre's studio, was championed by the influential French critic Théophile Gautier. Gérôme took advantage of his sudden success, his paintings The Virgin, the Infant Jesus and St John and Anacreon and Cupid took a second-class medal in 1848. In 1849, he produced A portrait of a Lady. In 1851, he decorated a vase offered by Emperor Napoleon III of France to Prince Albert, now part of the Royal Collection at St. James's Palace, London, he exhibited Bacchus and Love, Drunk, a Greek Interior and Souvenir d'Italie, in 1851. In 1852, Gérôme received a commission by Alfred Emilien Comte de Nieuwerkerke, Surintendant des Beaux-Arts to the court of Napoleon III, for the painting of a large historical canvas, the Age of Augustus. In this canvas he combines the birth of Christ with conquered nations paying homage to Augustus. Thanks to a considerable down payment, he was able to travel in 1853 to Constantinople, together with the actor Edmond Got.
This would be the first of several travels to the East: in 1854 he made another journey to Greece and Turkey and the shores of the Danube, where he was present at a concert of Russian conscripts, making music under the threat of a lash. In 1853, Gérôme moved to the Boîte à Thé, a group of studios in the Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, Paris; this would become a meeting place for other artists and actors. George Sand entertained in the small theatre of the studio the great artists of her time such as the composers Hector Berlioz, Johannes Brahms and Gioachino Rossini and the novelists Théophile Gautier and Ivan Turgenev. In 1854, he completed another important commission of decorating the Chapel of St. Jerome in the church of St. Séverin in Paris, his Last communion of St. Jerome in this chapel reflects the influence of the school of Ingres on his religious works. To the exhibition of 1855 he contributed a Pifferaro, a Shepherd, A Russian Concert, The Age of Augustus, the Birth of Christ; the last was somewhat confused in effect, but in recognition of its consummate rendering the State purchased it.
However the modest painting, A Russian Concert was more appreciated than his huge canvases. In 1856, he visited Egypt for the first time. Gérôme's recurrent itinerary followed the classic grand tour of most occidental visitors to the Orient; this would herald the start of many orientalist paintings depicting Arab religion, genre scenes and North African landscapes. In an autobiographical essay of 1878, Gérôme described how important oil sketches made on the spot were for him: "even when worn out after long marched under the bright sun, as soon as our camping spot was reached I got down to work with concentration, but Oh! How many things were left behind of which I carried only the memory away! And I prefer three touches of colour on a piece of canvas to the most vivid memory, but one had to continue on with some regret." He did not only gather themes and costumes for his oriental scenes, but made oil studies from nature for their backgrounds. Several of these quick sketches are filled with details that exceed his wished for three touches of colour.
Gérôme's reputation was enhanced at the Salon of 1857 by a collection of works of a more popular kind: the Duel: after the Masked Ball, Egyptian Recruits crossing the Desert and Sesostris and Camels Watering, the drawing of, criticized by Edmond About. In 1858, he helped to decorate the Paris house of Prince Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte in the Pompeian style; the prince had bought his Greek Interior, a depiction of a brothel in the Pompeian manner. In Caesar Gérôme tried to return to a more severe class of work, the painting of Classical subjects, but the picture failed to interest the public. Phryne before the Areopagus, King Candaules and Socrates finding Alcibiades in the House of Aspasia gave rise to some scandal by reason of the subject
Aegina
Aegina is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, 27 kilometres from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of the hero Aeacus, born on the island and became its king. During ancient times Aegina was a rival of the great sea power of the era; the municipality of Aegina consists of the island of a few offshore islets. It is part of Attica region; the municipality is subdivided into the following five communities: Kypseli Mesagros Perdika Vathy The capital is the town of Aegina, situated at the northwestern end of the island. Due to its proximity to Athens, it is a popular vacation place during the summer months, with quite a few Athenians owning second houses on the island; the province of Aegina was one of the provinces of the Piraeus Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipalities Agkistri, it was abolished in 2006. Aegina is triangular in shape 15 km from east to west and 10 km from north to south, with an area of 87.41 km2. An extinct volcano constitutes two-thirds of Aegina.
The northern and western sides consist of stony but fertile plains, which are well cultivated and produce luxuriant crops of grain, with some cotton, almonds and figs, but the most characteristic crop of Aegina today is pistachio. Economically, the sponge fisheries are of notable importance; the southern volcanic part of the island is rugged and mountainous, barren. Its highest rise is the conical Mount Oros in the south, the Panhellenian ridge stretches northward with narrow fertile valleys on either side; the beaches are a popular tourist attraction. Hydrofoil ferries from Piraeus take only forty minutes to reach Aegina. There are regular bus services from Aegina town to destinations throughout the island such as Agia Marina. Portes is a fishing village on the east coast. Aegina, according to Herodotus, was a colony of Epidaurus, to which state it was subject, its placement between Attica and the Peloponnesus made it a site of trade earlier, its earliest inhabitants came from Asia Minor. Minoan ceramics have been found in contexts of c. 2000 BC.
The famous Aegina Treasure, now in the British Museum is estimated to date between 1700 and 1500 BC. The discovery on the island of a number of gold ornaments belonging to the last period of Mycenaean art suggests that Mycenaean culture existed in Aegina for some generations after the Dorian conquest of Argos and Lacedaemon, it is probable that the island was not doricised before the 9th century BC. One of the earliest historical facts is its membership in the Amphictyony or League of Calauria, attested around the 8th century BC; this ostensibly religious league included—besides Aegina—Athens, the Minyan Orchomenos, Hermione and Prasiae. It was an organisation of city-states that were still Mycenaean, for the purpose of suppressing piracy in the Aegean that began as a result of the decay of the naval supremacy of the Mycenaean princes. Aegina seems to have belonged to the Eretrian league during the Lelantine War, its early history reveals. It is stated on the authority of Ephorus, that Pheidon of Argos established a mint in Aegina, the first city-state to issue coins in Europe, the Aeginetic stater.
One stamped stater can be seen in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris. It is an electrum stater of a turtle, an animal sacred to Aphrodite, struck at Aegina that dates from 700 BC. Therefore, it is thought that the Aeginetes, within 30 or 40 years of the invention of coinage in Asia Minor by the Ionian Greeks or the Lydians, might have been the ones to introduce coinage to the Western world; the fact that the Aeginetic standard of weights and measures was one of the two standards in general use in the Greek world is sufficient evidence of the early commercial importance of the island. The Aeginetic weight standard of about 12.3 grams was adopted in the Greek world during the 7th century BC. The Aeginetic stater was divided into three drachmae of 4.1 grams of silver. Staters depicting a sea-turtle were struck up to the end of the 5th century BC. Following the end of the Peloponnesian War, 404 BC, it was replaced by the land tortoise. During the naval expansion of Aegina during the Archaic Period, Kydonia was an ideal maritime stop for Aegina's fleet on its way to other Mediterranean ports controlled by the emerging sea-power Aegina.
During the next century Aegina was one of the three principal states trading at the emporium of Naucratis in Egypt, it was the only Greek state near Europe that had a share in this factory. At the beginning of the 5th century BC it seems to have been an entrepôt of the Pontic grain trade, which, at a date, became an Athenian monopoly. Unlike the other commercial states of the 7th and 6th centuries BC, such as Corinth, Chalcis and Miletus, Aegina did not found any colonies; the settlements to which Strabo refers cannot be regarded as any real exceptions to this statement. The known history of Aegina is exclusively a
Ancient Macedonians
The Macedonians were an ancient tribe that lived on the alluvial plain around the rivers Haliacmon and lower Axios in the northeastern part of mainland Greece. An ancient Greek people, they expanded from their homeland along the Haliacmon valley on the northern edge of the Greek world, absorbing or driving out neighbouring non-Greek tribes Thracian and Illyrian, they spoke Ancient Macedonian, a language related to Ancient Greek a dialect, although the prestige language of the region was at first Attic and Koine Greek. Their religious beliefs mirrored those of other Greeks, following the main deities of the Greek pantheon, although the Macedonians continued Archaic burial practices that had ceased in other parts of Greece after the 6th century BC. Aside from the monarchy, the core of Macedonian society was its nobility. Similar to the aristocracy of neighboring Thessaly, their wealth was built on herding horses and cattle. Although composed of various clans, the kingdom of Macedonia, established around the 8th century BC, is associated with the Argead dynasty and the tribe named after it.
The dynasty was founded by Perdiccas I, descendant of the legendary Temenus of Argos, while the region of Macedon derived its name from Makedon, a figure of Greek mythology. Traditionally ruled by independent families, the Macedonians seem to have accepted Argead rule by the time of Alexander I. Under Philip II, the Macedonians are credited with numerous military innovations, which enlarged their territory and increased their control over other areas extending into Thrace; this consolidation of territory allowed for the exploits of Alexander the Great, the conquest of the Achaemenid Empire, the establishment of the diadochi successor states, the inauguration of the Hellenistic period in West Asia and the broader Mediterranean world. The Macedonians were conquered by the Roman Republic, which dismantled the Macedonian monarchy at the end of the Third Macedonian War and established the Roman province of Macedonia after the Fourth Macedonian War. Authors and statesmen of the ancient world expressed ambiguous if not conflicting ideas about the ethnic identity of the Macedonians as either Greeks, semi-Greeks, or barbarians.
This has led to debate among modern academics about the precise ethnic identity of the Macedonians, who embraced many aspects of contemporaneous Greek culture such as participation in Greek religious cults and athletic games, including the Ancient Olympic Games. Given the scant linguistic evidence, it is not clear how related the Macedonian language was to Greek, how close it was to the Phrygian and Illyrian languages; the ancient Macedonians participated in the production and fostering of Classical and Hellenistic art. In terms of visual arts, they produced frescoes, mosaics and decorative metalwork; the performing arts of music and Greek theatrical dramas were appreciated, while famous playwrights such as Euripides came to live in Macedonia. The kingdom attracted the presence of renowned philosophers, such as Aristotle, while native Macedonians contributed to the field of ancient Greek literature Greek historiography, their sport and leisure activities included hunting, foot races, chariot races, as well as feasting and drinking at aristocratic banquets known as symposia.
The expansion of the Macedonian kingdom has been described as a three-stage process. As a frontier kingdom on the border of the Greek world with barbarian Europe, the Macedonians first subjugated their immediate northern neighbours—various Illyrian and Thracian tribes—before turning against the states of southern and central Greece. Macedonia led a pan-Hellenic military force against their primary objective—the conquest of Persia—which they achieved with remarkable ease. Following the death of Alexander the Great and the Partition of Babylon in 323 BC, the diadochi successor states such as the Attalid and Seleucid Empires were established, ushering in the Hellenistic period of Greece, West Asia and the Hellenized Mediterranean Basin. With Alexander's conquest of the Achaemenid Empire, Macedonians colonized territories as far east as Central Asia; the Macedonians continued to rule much of Hellenistic Greece, forming alliances with Greek leagues such as the Cretan League and Epirote League. However, they fell into conflict with the Achaean League, Aetolian League, the city-state of Sparta, the Ptolemaic dynasty of Hellenistic Egypt that intervened in wars of the Aegean region and mainland Greece.
After Macedonia formed an alliance with Hannibal of Ancient Carthage in 215 BC, the rival Roman Republic responded by fighting a series of wars against Macedonia in conjunction with its Greek allies such as Pergamon and Rhodes. In the aftermath of the Third Macedonian War, the Romans abolished the Macedonian monarchy under Perseus of Macedon and replaced the kingdom with four client state republics. A brief revival of the monarchy by the pretender Andriscus led to the Fourth Macedonian War, after which Rome established the Roman province of Macedonia and subjugated the Macedonians. In Greek mythology, Makedon is the eponymous hero of Macedonia and is mentioned in Hesiod's Catalogue of Women; the first historical attestation of the Macedonians occurs in the works of Herodotus during the mid-5th century BC. The Macedonians are absent in Homer's Catalogue of Ships and the term "Macedonia" itself appears late; the Iliad states that upon leaving Mount Olympus, Hera journeyed via Pieria and
Isocrates
Isocrates, an ancient Greek rhetorician, was one of the ten Attic orators. Among the most influential Greek rhetoricians of his time, Isocrates made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works. Greek rhetoric is traced to Corax of Syracuse, who first formulated a set of rhetorical rules in the fifth century BC, his pupil Tisias was influential in the development of the rhetoric of the courtroom, by some accounts was the teacher of Isocrates. Within two generations, rhetoric had become an important art, its growth driven by social and political changes such as democracy and courts of law. Isocrates received a first-rate education, he was influenced by his sophist teachers and Gorgias, was closely acquainted with Socrates. After the Peloponnesian War, his family lost its wealth, Isocrates was forced to earn a living, his professional career is said to have begun with logography: he was a hired courtroom speechwriter. Athenian citizens did not hire lawyers. Instead, they would hire people like Isocrates to write speeches for them.
Isocrates had a great talent for this. His weak voice motivated him to publish pamphlets and although he played no direct part in state affairs, his written speech influenced the public and provided significant insight into major political issues of the day. Around 392 BC he set up his own school of rhetoric, proved to be not only an influential teacher, but a shrewd businessman, his fees were unusually high, he accepted no more than nine pupils at a time. Many of them went on to be philosophers and historians; as a consequence, he amassed a considerable fortune. According to Pliny the Elder he could sell a single oration for twenty talents. According to George Norlin, Isocrates defined rhetoric as outward feeling and inward thought of not expression, but reason and imagination. Like most who studied rhetoric before and after him, Isocrates believed it was used to persuade ourselves and others, but used in directing public affairs. Isocrates described rhetoric as "that endowment of our human nature which raises us above mere animality and enables us to live the civilized life."
Isocrates unambiguously defined his approach in the treatise Against the Sophists. This polemic was written to explain and advertise the reasoning and educational principles behind his new school, he promoted broad-based education by speaking against two types of teachers: the Eristics, who disputed about theoretical and ethical matters, the Sophists, who taught political debate techniques. While Isocrates is viewed by many as being a rhetor and practicing rhetoric, he refers to his study as philosophia—which he claims as his own. Against the Sophists is Isocrates' first published work where he gives an account of philosophia, his principal method is to contrast his ways of teaching with Sophistry. While Isocrates does not go against the Sophist method of teaching as a whole, he emphasizes his disagreement with bad Sophistry practices. Isocrates' program of rhetorical education stressed the ability to use language to address practical problems, he referred to his teachings as more of a philosophy than a school of rhetoric.
He emphasized that students needed three things to learn: a natural aptitude, inborn, knowledge training granted by teachers and textbooks, applied practices designed by educators. He stressed civic education, training students to serve the state. Students would practice delivering speeches on various subjects, he considered natural ability and practice to be more important than rules or principles of rhetoric. Rather than delineating static rules, Isocrates kairos, his school lasted for over fifty years, in many ways establishing the core of liberal arts education as we know it today, including oratory, history, citizenship and morality. Prior to Isocrates, teaching consisted of first-generation Sophists, walking from town to town as itinerants, who taught any individuals interested in political occupations how to be effective in public speaking; some popular itinerants of the late 5th century BC include Protagoras. Around 392-390 BC, Isocrates founded his academy in Athens at the Lyceum, known as the first academy of rhetoric.
The foundation of this academy brought students to Athens to study. Prior to this, teachers travelled amongst cities giving lectures to anyone interested; the first students in Isocrates’ school were Athenians. However, after he published the Panegyrius in 380 BC, his reputation spread to many other parts of Greece. Following the founding of Isocrates’ academy, Plato founded his own academy as a rival school of philosophy. Isocrates encouraged his students to wander and observe public behavior in the city to learn through imitation, his students aimed to learn. Some of his students included Isaeus, Hypereides, Theopompus and Timotheus. Many of these students remained under the instruction of Isocrates for three to four years. Timotheus had such a great appreciation for Isocrates that he erected a statue at Eleusis and dedicated it to him; because of Plato's attacks on the sophists, Isocrates' school — having its roots, if not the entirety of its mission, in rhetoric, the domain of the sophists — came to be viewed as unethical and deceitful.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hypereides". Encyclopædia Britannica. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 200.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
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