Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World, 323-30 B.C.Answer the following questions: What do you know about Alexander the Great? What is he famous for? Give Russian equivalents to the following proper names, study the pronunciation: Achilles [α'kili:z] Alexander ['ælig¸za:ndə] the Great Danube, The ['dænju:b] Hercules ['hɜ:kjuli:z] – (also Heracles) Persia ['pɜ:∫ə] Thebes [θi:bz]
Study the following words and expressions:
amateur ['æmətə], n - любитель attitude to/toward ['ætitju:d], n - отношение к breakdown ['breikdaun], n - развал captive ['kæptiv], n - пленный consolidate [kən'sɒliˏdeit], v - укреплять, объединять demand [di'ma:nd], v - требовать descend [di'send], v - происходить (из к-л. рода) embrace [im'breis], v - принимать immensity [i'mensiti], n - необъятность introspection [intrəu'spek∫ən], n - самонаблюдение regadless [ri'ga:dlis], adj - не взирая на, не считаясь с urge [ɜ:dʒ], v - настаивать virtuous ['vɜ:tjuəs], adj - добродетельный, целомудренный visionary ['viʒənəri], n - мечтатель, фантазёр warfare ['wɔ:ˏfea], n - война worship ['wɜ:∫ip], v - почитать
for instance [fər'instəns] - например in general - в общем pay attention to [pei α'ten∫αn] обращать внимание на private affair [praivət ə'fea] - личное дело sense of importance [sens αv im'po:təns] - чувство значимости to gain the throne [gein θə θrəun] получать трон to run something - руководить, управлять tolerable way of life ['tolərαbl] - сносный уровень жизни
Read the text below using a dictionary if necessary: Alexander III (356-323 B.C.) or, as he is better known, Alexander the Great, gained the throne he had just reached his 20th birthday. Within fifteen months he stamped out rebellions, marched into various Greek cities demanding submission, sent his armies as far north as the Danube River, and destroyed the city of Thebes. By 327, Alexander's armies had moved as far east as India. However, his troops were exhausted and could go no further. We can only wonder how much more territory Alexander would have added to the Empire had he had a fresh supply of troops. Regardless, his illustrious career as leader and military strategist came to an end in 323 B.C., when he died from fever. He was 33 years old. Alexander has been portrayed as an idealistic visionary and as an arrogant and ruthless conqueror. He sought to imitate Achilles, the hero of Homer's Iliad. He claimed to be descended from Hercules, a Greek hero worshipped as a god. In the Egyptian fashion, he called himself pharaoh. After victories against the Persians, he adopted features of their rule. He called himself the Great King. He urged his followers to bow down before him, in Persian fashion. He also married Roxane, a Persian captive, and arranged for more than 10,000 of his soldiers to do the same. He wore Persian clothes and used Persians as administrators. By doing this, Alexander was trying to fuse the cultures of East and West, of Asia Minor and Greece. This fusion, and all that it came to represent, is what historians mean by the expression Hellenization. The immediate cause for the collapse of Classical Greece was the experience of a century of warfare. The city-state could no longer supply a tolerable way of life for its citizens. Intellectuals began to turn away from the principles of direct democracy and embrace the idea of the monarchy. On a spiritual level, the 4th century witnessed a permanent change in the attitudes of all Greeks. What resulted was a new attitude toward life and its expectations – a new world view. In the classical world of the polis, public and private lives were fused. Duty to the city-state was in itself virtuous. But in the Hellenistic world, public and private lives were made separate, and the individual's only duty was to himself. In art, sculpture, architecture, or philosophy or wherever we choose to look, we see more attention paid to individualism and introspection. By the 4th century, Greek citizens became more interested in their private affairs rather than in the affairs of the polis. In general, the democracy of the city-state was made for the amateur and not the professional. The ideal of the polis was that every individual was to take a direct role in political, economic, spiritual and social affairs. But perhaps this was just too much responsibility to place on the shoulders of the citizens. Hellenistic Greece was a predominately urban culture. The cities founded by Alexander were centers of government and trade as well as culture. These were large cities by ancient standards. For instance, Alexandria in Egypt contained perhaps 500,000 people. The Greeks brought their temples, their theatres and schools to other cities, thus exporting their culture and Greek culture became a way of life. The upper classes began to copy the Greek spirit. They sent their children to Greek schools and the Greek language became a common, almost international language. What the breakdown of Alexander's empire had accomplished was nothing less than the Hellenization of the Mediterranean world. Cultures once foreign to the Hellenic world now became more Greek-like – they were Hellenized. One of the most important developments in association with this process of Hellenization, was the shift from the world of the polis to the new world of the cosmopolis. Such a shift was decisive in creating the Hellenistic world as a world of conflicting identities, and when identities are challenged or changed, intense internal conflicts are the result. The world of the polis had clearly given way to the world of the cosmopolis. And with that change from the smallness of the city-state to the immensity of the world-city, there were corresponding changes in the world view. The city-state was no longer run by citizens, citizens whose private and public duties were identical. In the world-state, bureaucrats and officials took over the duties formerly given over to citizens. Citizens lost their sense of importance as they became subjects under the control of vast bureaucratic kingdoms. From the face-to-face contact of the Athenian public Assembly, the people now became little more than numbers. As a result, they lost their identity. Ex.1. Answer the following questions: 1. What did Alexander manage to do within 15 month of the throne? 2. What kind of person was Alexander the Great like? 3. What is called for Hellenization? 4. What was the main reason for the collapse of Classical Greece? 5. What are the principal differences between the polis and the Hellenistic world? 6. What did citizens lose in the world of the cosmopolis?
Ex.2. Match the words with their definitions:
Ex. 3. Complete the table with the appropriate forms of the words given:
Ex. 4. Insert the words and phrases given into the sentences in their correct form. Translate the sentences into Russian: to exhaust /to arrange /to fuse /to run /collapse
1. What _______ in the classical world of the polis? 2. The immediate cause of the _______ of Classical Greece was the experience of a century of warfare. 3. Alexander’s troops couldn’t go further as they_________. 4. Who _____the city ________ by? 5. What ______ Alexander _________ to for more than 10 000 of his soldiers?
Ex. 5. Translate from Russian into English: 1. Войска Александра не могли двигаться дальше, потому что солдаты были сильно истощены. 2. Элленизация – это смешение культур запада и востока и введение греческих обычаев и традиций. 3. В области философии, архитектуры и культуры много внимания уделялось самонаблюдению и к IV веку граждане стали больше интересоваться личными делами, чем государственными. 4. Город Александрия в Египте, например, имел население в 500 000 человек, а его библиотека содержала 500 000 разных книг. 5. Граждане потеряли чувство независимости, так как они находились под контролем огромной бюрократической машины. 6. Римляне создали империю, о которой греки только мечтали. Ex. 6. Make a brief report on one of the following topics: 1. The role of Alexander the Great in world history. 2. Hellenization. 3. Advantages and disadvantages of Hellenization. Text B
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