Modern Historians about Macedonia - Samouel Eddy

Samuel Eddy “The King Is Dead - Studies in the Near Eastern Resistance to Hellenism, 334-31 B. C.”

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Opposition to the Greek king [Alexander], then, sometimes came from economic motives, but sometimes, too, from the belief that he was simply a foreign interloper

Page 329

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Society and therefore morality were more complex outside of Persis, and so were better equipped to resist in more complicated ways the policies of the Hellenic kings

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The Orientals themselves were not conscious of pan-Easternism, except possibly in Persis, as some Greeks like Euthydemos or Antiochos III or IV were conscious of pan-Hellenism.

Page 334

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. In the East, religious resistance against alien domination was not new in 334 B.C., and the reaction of Babylonians or Egyptians to their Persian overlords was the prototype of the resistance offered their Hellenic conquerors.

Page 335

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The East frequently had to respond to Greco-Makedonian imperialism with spiritual weapons as well as by warfare. This was due to two reasons. First, kingship was explained in theological terms. This was simply a fact of Eastern culture. But spiritual resistance was also necessary because Eastern societies at first could not stand up to Greek armies. The usual suppression of revolt in Asia and Egypt shows this. Even Persis did not become finally independent until around 160 B.C., when it had received considerable indirect help from the growth of the Parthian state, which so sapped the strength of the then divided Seleukid Empire. But generally, the Greeks were able to put down Oriental risings until well into the second century B.C. Therefore the Oriental could express his hatred of the Greek only in a spiritual way, and hence there was created the oracular opposition. It is no coincidence that most of our propaganda comes from the third century and the fourth, and that most of our militant resistance comes from the second and first centuries. By the later time the East was learning how to fight Greek-style.

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The East, after all, had known centuries of self-inflicted oppression, and nothing that the Greek kings did along such lines was new

Page 341

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More importantly, occasional easy victories over Persian forces served to create a contempt for Oriental strength and fighting power which remained part of the climate of opinion during the years when a Greco-Makedonian regime replaced the Achaemenids

Page 5

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It would be a mistake to assume that all Greeks regarded the Asiatics as fair game. Alexander himself had Kleandros and Polymachos and their accomplices executed when he returned from India. He knew that the empire he was preparing to consolidate could be ruled in peace only if such arrogance was ruthlessly forbidden.

Page 7

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But to the rank and file of the Greco-Makedonian forces all this mixing seemed senseless

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This process involved him, as well as his successors, in a series of wars against other Greco-Makedonian kingdoms rising in the Oriental part of Alexander’s empire

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In Daniel 7, the prophet has a nightmare. He sees four horrendous monsters coming out of the sea one after another. These are interpreted to be four kings ( vii. 17) of which the last is a Greek

Page 20

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The progression of empire in Daniel 2 and 7 is nowadays interpreted to refer to the successive rule of the Assyrians, Medes, Persians, and Greeks in the Near East. But if these two chapters were native Jewish, it would be difficult to explain why the Median kingdom would appear. The Jews themselves had never experienced Median rule. The historical progression was Assyria, Chaldea, Persia, and Greece

Page 21

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Dareios is made to say that the Greeks are madmen struck with frenzy whom the gods of the Persian Empire are about to defeat, and that Alexander is like a wild beast rushing upon destruction

Page 31

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Hellenic customs did come into Iran with Greek settlers, armies, and government officials, and were practiced alongside the older Iranian customs

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When the Makedonian satrap of Media, Nikanor, was sent by Antigonos to undo Seleukos’ occupation of Babylon, the former’s forces included a contingent of Persians. They deserted to Seleukos when their commanding officer Evagoras, satrap of Areia, was killed, because they objected to Antigonos’ regime in Iran. This episode shows that some Persians were at least willing to cooperate with whatever Greek power seemed least likely to be a burden to Persis

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