The Intertwining of Persia, Greece and Macedon: The Beginning

Alexander’s position and importance in history was largely determined by the events of the prior
150 years of back and forth diplomacy, skirmishes and turbulence that occurred between the Greek and Persian empires. Through the turbulence, Greek cities along the Aegean coastline in Anatolia had experienced rule under the Lydian kings of Sardis, up until the point where Lydia succumbed to Persia as it rose to a superpower status in the ancient world. For the most part, Persian rule was reputed to be similar to Lydian rule in that they ruled mildly over the masses, refraining from the tyrannical, but it was in 499 BC that they experienced tyranny under the Persian kings Darius and Xerxes in exchange for rebelling against the Persian empire with the assistance of the Greek mainland. In 490 BC and 480 BC two unsuccessful retaliatory incursions from the Persians into these cities were executed, much to the Persians detriment.

While Greece managed to successfully repel the Persian incursions, what followed was the eruption of the protracted Peloponnesian war between Sparta and Athens that lasted well over two decades, beginning in 431 and ending in 404 BC, riddled with constant peripety regarding alliances and confrontations, took a heavy toll on the Greek nation. Much to the Persians dismay, after the death of Xerxes in 464 BC saw the Persian empire lack military strength as a result of this power vacuum, and subsequently failed to utilize the opportunity that presented itself in invading a now vulnerable and weak Greece. The successor to Xerxes’s throne – Artaxerxes the 1st, possessed the ability for stalwart diplomatic prowess, but faltered when it came to military leadership, as Persia lost control of Egypt in 404 BC. Artaxerxes the 3rd managed to regain control of Egypt in 343 BC, with the assistance of the Greek mercenary leader Mentor.

Near the end of the Peloponnesian war, the Persian satraps of Anatolia, which were a form of
provincial governor in the Persian empire, would often provide assistance either to Athens or
Sparta in a calculated manner with the hopes that the war would continue to go on, that the balance of power favored either one or the other Greek state, and continue to exhaust and weaken each state respectively, as both Athens and Sparta chipped away at each other. The Spartan admiral Lysander was able to secure a victory over Athens in 404 BC due to money given by the Persians as aid to buy equipment and for the upkeep of the Spartan fleet.

The fact that Sparta won suddenly disparaged the Persians, who formed an alliance with the
Athenians and engaged the Spartans in a naval battle in 396 BC at Cnidos. While this was occurring, a Greek army of some 10,000 soldiers had aided the Persian Prince Cyrus against his brother Artaxerxes the Second. The army’s plan was to penetrate deep into Mesopotamia and withdraw into the warm bosom of the Black Sea coast. This heroic feat gained recognition in the Greek mainland, and further plans were spun to conjoin other Greek cities based in Anatolia in the orgy of this Spartan army in devouring the Persian satraps and their rule over uncharted territory deep into the mouth of Asia where the rest of the Persian empire’s territorial shaft stretched into. Despite this, in 386 BC, where the Persians admitted the right of the Greeks to rule over their own cities in Anatolia, in a cynical move so did the Athenians and Spartans declare the right of Persia to rule these very same cities. Despite this ceasing of hostilities, mainland Greece could not remain peaceful, the tension burst and shortly thereafter blew up in it’s own face a paste of civil strife. During this time war erupted in a long line stretching from the neck of Europe to the foot of Asia, seemingly for no good political reason, but out of habit death waved it’s big sickle once again.