11

THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE GREEK WORLD IN THE

FOURTH CENTURY

Plato’s Bright  Ideas

Attic   Oratory in  the Fifth   and Fourth  Centuries

Philip  II  of  Macedon and the Subjugation of  Greece

Alexander   the Great   and the Conquest    of  Asia

The trial of Socrates had a profound effect on his most brilliant and creative follower, the Athenian Plato.
Plato’s philosophical outlook was inspired by Socrates’ persistent investigation of basic ethical matters,
but in the course of his career he made fundamental contributions to nearly every branch of philosophical
inquiry. He did this, not by composing a series of philosophical treatises, but in the form of dialogues,
most of which feature the figure of Socrates in fictional conversations with other intellectually committed
contemporaries. The ideas presented and discussed, however, are largely those of Plato himself, which
have been the subject of intense philosophical discussion ever since. Plato did not confine himself to
committing his philosophy to writing; he also established at Athens a school, the Academy, which
allowed him and his followers to engage in the pursuit of philosophy without the need for participating
actively in the chaotic political affairs of fourth-century Greece. Those affairs were in the hands of
political leaders and advisers who used their study of the art of rhetoric to become persuasive molders of
public opinion. The most potent fourth-century orator was the Athenian Demosthenes, who repeatedly
warned his fellow citizens of the menace to their freedom posed by the growing power of Macedon, under
the leadership of King Philip II. Demosthenes’ eloquence, however, was no match either for Philip’s
military might or for Athenian indolence and, by 338 BC, Philip effectively brought Athens and almost all
the other mainland poleis under the control of one leader for the first time in Greek history. On Philip’s
death two years later, his kingdom and control of the Greek poleis fell to his son, Alexander the Great,
who sought to unify the Greeks by leading an invasion aimed at the conquest of the Persian Empire. As a
result of the exceptional discipline and training of the Macedonian troops and, particularly, the brilliance
of Alexander’s military leadership, this invasion was entirely successful. By the time he died, apparently
of natural causes at the age of 32, Alexander had made himself sole ruler of an empire that included
Egypt, Greece, and all of Asia west of the Indus River valley. Alexander had not, however, left an heir to
his throne, and his empire was immediately divided up among his generals.

Throughout  the Archaic and Classical   periods,    Greek   civilization    had developed   within  the

context of the polis, with each polis following its own calendar of festivals, minting its own coins,
choosing its own form of government, raising its own army, and so on. In many respects, that was to
continue to be the case for centuries to come, at least for the majority of Greeks, who confined their
activities to their native polis and thought of themselves first and foremost as Corinthians or as Argives or
as Syracusans rather than as Greeks. But the Peloponnesian War had brought about a significant change of
perspective that affected nearly all the cities in Greece. Athens had sought to create an alliance that would