Portraits, Classical

Philip of Macedon, who in 345 BCE must again deal with the Illyrians, incurs a bad leg wound in the process.

The seventeen-year-old Alexander, left in charge of Macedonia in 340 during Philip's attack on Byzantium, meanwhile defeats the Maedi, a Thracian people of northern Macedonia.

The portraits of Alexander the Great by artists such as Lysippus and Apelles inaugurate a tradition of heroic-ruler imagery.

A finely sculpted head of Aristotle (the first certain example of true portraiture), attributed to Lysippus and executed in Greece in the 320s BCE or possibly earlier, gives the impression not only of a convincing sense of physical reality but an intangible feeling of personality as well.

Alexander now occupies Babylon, city and province; the cultural influence of this rich provincial capital extends far beyond Mesopotamia.

Mazaeus, who surrenders it, is reappointed as satrap in conjunction with Macedonians to supervise the garrison and the finances, and quite exceptionally is granted the right to coin.

As in Egypt, the local priesthood is encouraged.

An Athenian court finally hears the case of Aeschines versus Ctesiphon in 330, nearly six years after the original charges were filed.

Demosthenes is of course the real target, for Aeschines had accused Ctesiphon of making a false statement when he praised the orator's patriotism and public service.

In Demosthenes’ brilliant speech (On the Crown), he speaks so eloquently in Ctesiphon's defense that his lifelong rival loses the suit and is required to pay damages.

The discredited Aeschines leaves Athens for Rhodes, where he is said to have taught rhetoric.

Aristotle around 330 writes the Rhetoric, in which he treats the subject in a more systematic and theoretical fashion while employing traditional rhetorical methods.

He assigns priority to the orator's ability to invent arguments, to determine what is plausible in a given case; only then does he examine the strategy and verbal form of the plea.

Aristotle identifies three types of persuasive oratory: the oratory of the courtroom, of the public forum, and of the ceremony.

He then defines three means of persuasion: the appeal to reason (logos), the appeal to emotion (pathos), and the appeal of the speaker’s character (ethos).

The animal fables of Aesop begin to be collected in Greece.

Aristotle describes Aesop’s use of the tale of the fox and the hedgehog to defend a corrupt politician: a hedgehog asked a fox, ridden with fleas, if he could remove them.

“No,” replied the fox, “these fleas are full and will not suck much blood.

Remove them, and new, hungry fleas will replace them.”

Aesop supposedly appended the tale with an appeal to the jury: “So, gentlemen, should you put my wealthy client to death, others not rich will come along and rob you completely.”

Antigonus had been confirmed as the ruler of Phrygia, Lycaonia, Pamphylia, and Lycia, which he already rules.

He receives the troops that had before been assigned to Perdiccas, and the care and custody of the king's person, with order to prosecute the war against Eumenes, who is collecting an army in Cilicia.

Ptolemy, confirmed in possession of Egypt and Cyrene, further strengthens his position by marrying Eurydice, the third daughter of Antipater, as part of a political agreement with her father.

He has found it necessary from the outset to pursue a conciliatory policy toward the Egyptians, since Egyptians must be recruited for his army, which initially numbered only four thousand men.

Ptolemy has won over the Egyptians through the establishment in Memphis of the Serapis cult, which fuses the Egyptian and Greek religions; through restoration of the temples of the pharaohs, which had been destroyed by the Persians; and through gifts to the ancient Egyptian gods and patronage of the Egyptian nobility and priesthood.

Seleucus founds the city of Europos on the Euphrates River in Syria in 303 BCE.

The new city controls the river crossing on the route between his newly founded cities of Antioch and Seleucia on the Tigris.

Seleucus embarks in 305 BCE on an expansion of his kingdom throughout the Iranian east (the upper satrapies) as far as India, intent on recovering Alexander’s Indian province.

but his advance is eventually halted by Chandragupta (Greek Sandrokottos), the founder of the Maurya dynasty of India.

In a pact concluded by the two potentates, Seleucus agrees to territorial concessions in exchange for five hundred elephants.

By this time, Chandragupta controls the Indus and Ganges plains as well as far northwestern portions of the Indian subcontinent.

Cassander, the eldest son of the late regent Antipater and from 305 king of Macedon, has proven to be a diplomat.

He has founded two great cities, Cassandreia, built upon the ruins of Potidea, and …