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Callisthenes
Callisthenes of Olynthus (; grc-gre, Καλλισθένης; 360327 BCE) was a well-connected Greek historian in Macedon, who accompanied Alexander the Great during his Asiatic expedition. The philosopher Aristotle was Callisthenes's great uncle. Early life His mother Hero was the niece of Aristotle, and daughter of Proxenus of Atarneus and Arimneste, which made Callisthenes the great-nephew of Aristotle by his sister Arimneste, Callisthenes's grandmother. They first met when Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great. Career Through his great-uncle's influence, Callisthenes was later appointed to attend Alexander the Great on his Asiatic expedition as the official historian. During the first years of Alexander's campaign in Asia, Callisthenes showered praises upon the Macedonian conqueror. As the king and army penetrated further into Asia, however, Callisthenes's tone began to change. He began to sharply criticize Alexander's adoption of Persian customs, with special scorn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander The Great's Conquest Of Persia
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to the throne in 336 BC at the age of 20, and spent most of his ruling years conducting a lengthy military campaign throughout Western Asia and Egypt. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires in history, stretching from Greece to northwestern India. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered to be one of history's greatest and most successful military commanders. Until the age of 16, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle. In 335 BC, shortly after his assumption of kingship over Macedon, he campaigned in the Balkans and reasserted control over Thrace and Illyria before marching on the city of Thebes, which was subsequently destroyed in battle. Alexander then led the League of Corinth, and used his authority to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander The Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to the throne in 336 BC at the age of 20, and spent most of his ruling years conducting a lengthy military campaign throughout Western Asia and Egypt. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires in history, stretching from Greece to northwestern India. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered to be one of history's greatest and most successful military commanders. Until the age of 16, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle. In 335 BC, shortly after his assumption of kingship over Macedon, he campaigned in the Balkans and reasserted control over Thrace and Illyria before marching on the city of Thebes, which was subsequently destroyed in battle. Alexander then led the League of Corinth, and used his author ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proskynesis
Proskynesis or proscynesis , or proskinesis (Greek , ''proskýnēsis''; Latin adoratio) is a solemn gesture of respect for the gods and people; among the Persians, it referred to a man prostrating himself and kissing the earth, or the limbs of a respected person. Proskynesis (''adoratio'') was one of the religious rites of the Greeks and Romans. In the Byzantine ceremonial, it is a common gesture of supplication or reverence. The physical act ranged from full prostration to a genuflection, bow, or simple greeting that concretized the relative positions of performer and beneficiary within a hierarchical order (''taxis''). Etymology The Greek word is derived from the verb προσκυνέω, ''proskyneo'', itself formed from the compound words πρός, ''pros'' (towards) and κυνέω, ''kyneo'' ( kiss). It describes an attitude of humbling, submission, or worship adoration – particularly towards a sovereign ruler, God or the gods. Practice According to Herodotus in hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hermolaus Of Macedon
Hermolaus of Macedon ( el, Ἑρμόλαος) was a page to Alexander the Great in 327 BC, who was executed for planning regicide. Early life The son of hipparch Sopolis of Macedon, Hermolaus was one of the Macedonian youths drawn from sons of the aristocracy who, according to a custom instituted by Philip II of Macedon, attended Alexander the Great as pages. Conspirator It was during the residence of the king at Bactra in the spring of 327 BC, that a circumstance occurred which led him, in conjunction with some of his fellow pages, to form a conspiracy against the life of Alexander. Among the duties of the pages, who were in almost constant attendance on the king's person, was that of accompanying him when hunting, and it was one of these occasions that Hermolaus gave offence by slaying a wild boar without waiting to allow Alexander the first blow. Highly incensed at this breach of discipline, the king ordered him to be chastised with stripes, and further punished by bein ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theophrastus
Theophrastus (; grc-gre, Θεόφραστος ; c. 371c. 287 BC), a Greek philosopher and the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He was a native of Eresos in Lesbos.Gavin Hardy and Laurence Totelin, ''Ancient Botany'', Routledge, 2015, p. 8. His given name was Tyrtamus (); his nickname (or 'godly phrased') was given by Aristotle, his teacher, for his "divine style of expression". He came to Athens at a young age and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death, he attached himself to Aristotle who took to Theophrastus in his writings. When Aristotle fled Athens, Theophrastus took over as head of the Lyceum. Theophrastus presided over the Peripatetic school for thirty-six years, during which time the school flourished greatly. He is often considered the father of botany for his works on plants. After his death, the Athenians honoured him with a public funeral. His successor as head of the school was Strato of Lampsacus. The interests of Theophr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polybius
Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail. Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed constitution or the separation of powers in government, his in-depth discussion of checks and balances to limit power, and his introduction of "the people", which influenced Montesquieu's '' The Spirit of the Laws'', John Locke's ''Two Treatises of Government'', and the framers of the United States Constitution. The leading expert on Polybius for nearly a century was F. W. Walbank (1909–2008), who published studies related to him for 50 years, including a long commentary of his ''Histories'' and a biography. Early life Polybius was born around 200 BC in Megalopolis, Arcadia, when it was an active member of the Achaean League. The town was revived, along with other Achaean states, a century before he was born. Polybius' father, L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthaginians and Romans, among others. Crucifixion has been used in parts of the world as recently as the twentieth century. The crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth is central to Christianity, and the Christian cross, cross (sometimes crucifix, depicting Jesus nailed to it) is the main religious symbol for many Christian churches. Terminology Ancient Greek has two verbs for crucify: (), from (which in today's Greek only means "cross" but which in antiquity was used of any kind of wooden pole, pointed or blunt, bare or with attachments) and () "crucify on a plank", together with ( "impale"). In earlier pre-Roman Greek texts usually means "impale". The Greek used in the Christian New Testament uses four verbs, three of them based upon (), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proxenus Of Atarneus
Proxenus of Atarneus ( el, Πρόξενος ὁ Ἀταρνεύς) is most famous for being Aristotle's guardian after the death of his parents. Proxenus educated Aristotle for a couple of years before sending him to Athens to Plato's Academy. He lived in Atarneus, a city in Asia Minor. Proxenus had married Aristotle's older sister Arimneste, whereby they had a daughter Hero and a son Nicanor. Hero's own son, Callisthenes, would later become a student and collaborator with his great-uncle Aristotle. Nicanor eventually married Aristotle's daughter, Pythias. References *Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Ancient Greece, Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a ..., ''Life of Aristotle''. ''Translated bC.D. Yonge'. * Eduard Zeller, ''Aristotle and the Earlier Peripatetics'' (1897). 4th-century BC Athenia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macedon
Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal Argead dynasty, which was followed by the Antipatrid and Antigonid dynasties. Home to the ancient Macedonians, the earliest kingdom was centered on the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula,. and bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south. Before the 4th century BC, Macedonia was a small kingdom outside of the area dominated by the great city-states of Athens, Sparta and Thebes, and briefly subordinate to Achaemenid Persia. During the reign of the Argead king PhilipII (359–336 BC), Macedonia subdued mainland Greece and the Thracian Odrysian kingdom through conquest and diplomacy. With a reformed army containing phalanxes wielding the '' sarissa'' pi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ptolemaic Dynasty
The Ptolemaic dynasty (; grc, Πτολεμαῖοι, ''Ptolemaioi''), sometimes referred to as the Lagid dynasty (Λαγίδαι, ''Lagidae;'' after Ptolemy I's father, Lagus), was a Macedonian Greek royal dynasty which ruled the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Ancient Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Their rule lasted for 275 years, from 305 to 30 BC. The Ptolemaic was the last dynasty of ancient Egypt. Ptolemy, one of the seven somatophylakes (bodyguard companions), a general and possible half-brother of Alexander the Great, was appointed satrap of Egypt after Alexander's death in 323 BC. In 305 BC, he declared himself Pharaoh Ptolemy I, later known as ''Sōter'' "Saviour". The Egyptians soon accepted the Ptolemies as the successors to the pharaohs of independent Egypt. Ptolemy's family ruled Egypt until the Roman conquest of 30 BC. Like the earlier dynasties of ancient Egypt, the Ptolemaic dynasty practiced inbreeding including sibling marriage, but this did not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius
Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius ( AD) was a translator of the Greek '' Alexander Romance'', a romantic history of Alexander the Great, into Latin under the title ''Res gestae Alexandri Macedonis''. The work is in three books on his birth, acts and death. The work is important in connection with the transmission of the Alexander story in the Middle Ages. Polemius is tentatively identified by historians with one of the Roman consuls for the year 338. The appointment was unusual, as the emperor Constantine I had died the previous year, and custom prescribed that a new emperor – in this case, Constantine's sons – assumed the consulship in the year following his accession. This led Timothy Barnes to suggest that Polemius, who was probably a general, played a leading role in the purge which killed many members of the imperial family in 337, securing the succession of Constantine's sons, and that he received the consulship as a belated reward for this service. In 345, the same Pole ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aesopus (historian)
Aesopus ( Gr. ) was a Greek historian who wrote a life of Alexander the Great. The original is lost, but there is a Latin translation of it by Julius Valerius, of which Franciscus Juretus had, he says, a manuscript. It was first published, however, by A. Mai from a manuscript in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan in 1817. The title is ''Itinerarium ad Constantinum Atigustum, etc. : accedunt Julii Valerii Res gestae Alexandri Macedonis,'' etc. The time when Aesopus lived is uncertain, and even his existence has been doubted. Mai, in the preface to his edition, contended that the work was written before 389 AD, because the temple of Serapis at Alexandria, which was destroyed by order of Theodosius I, is spoken of in the ''translation'' as still standing. But serious objections to this inference have been raised by Letronne, who refers it to the 7th or 8th century, which the weight of internal evidence would rather point to. The book contains many factual errors, and is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
