Hellenistic world · 323-281 BC

After Alexander: the generals divide the world

Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC without naming an heir. For forty years his generals fought over the empire, until three kingdoms were left. Students use the time slider to watch one empire become five, then three, and ask why nobody could hold it together.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, 323 BC to 281 BC
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC without naming an heir. For forty years his generals fought over the empire, until three kingdoms were left. Students use the time slider to watch one empire become five, then three, and ask why nobody could hold it together.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Name the three main successor kingdoms (Ptolemaic, Seleucid, Antigonid) and their founders.
  • Use the map to describe how Alexander's empire looked in 323, 301 and 281 BC.
  • Explain why the empire broke up instead of passing to one ruler.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

323 BC

One empire, no heir

Open the map in 323 BC: the Empire of Alexander in one color from Greece to the Indus. Alexander's half-brother was disabled and his son not yet born. Turn on the Cities layer and find Babylon, where he died in June. Who would you have expected to take over?

Open this view on the map
b

301 BC

Five kingdoms

Drag the slider to 301 BC. The empire is now in pieces: Ptolemy holds Egypt, Seleucus the east, Cassander Macedon, Lysimachus Thrace, and Antigonus the middle. In 301 BC the others united against Antigonus and killed him at Ipsus in Anatolia. Count the kingdoms on the map.

Open this view on the map
c

281 BC

Three are left

Jump to 281 BC. That year Seleucus beat Lysimachus and was then murdered himself. Three dynasties remained for the next 150 years: the Ptolemies in Egypt, the Seleucids in Asia and soon the Antigonids in Macedon. The map still shows the 300 BC borders; name the kingdoms that have disappeared since.

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Asked on his deathbed who should have the empire, Alexander is said to have answered "the strongest". Whether or not he said it, why would such an answer guarantee war?
  2. Alexander's mother, wife, son and half-brother were all murdered within fifteen years. Why did the generals need the royal family dead?
  3. Ptolemy hijacked Alexander's funeral procession and buried the body in Egypt. What did owning a dead king's body give a living one?
  4. The successor kings kept Greek as the language of government from Egypt to Afghanistan. How did forty years of war still spread Greek culture?
  5. Three kingdoms lasted; the attempt to keep one empire failed. Is a region better off with several medium powers or one giant?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Alexander the Great and find a ruling near the end of his life. Then ask the class: what single decision could Alexander have made in 323 BC that would have stopped the wars of his generals, and would it have worked?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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