Alexander and the Greeks

Alexander inherited not only his kingdom from his father but also a complex web of connections to the Greeks whom Philip had defeated at Chaeroneia in 338/7. These relationships are examined by Elisabetta Poddighe, looking at a very specific dimension of these relationships. As Philip planned his attack on the Persian empire, he established an alliance and league, what we now know as the Corinthian League, to create stability and order in Greece while campaigning. Leadership of this fell to Alexander, inheriting his father’s title as hegemon. Poddighe examines the sometimes sensitive dealings between king and League, arguing that Alexander mostly maintained a diplomatically proper relationship with the Greeks. This changed somewhat upon his return to Babylon in 324, especially for Athens which disputed the king’s call for “freedom” in Greece which for Athens meant loss of the island of Samos as its exiled population would now return home.