Alexander and the Greeks
by Elisabetta Poddighe
Abstract: During Alexander’s reign relations between the Greeks and the Macedonian kingdom were regulated by the charter of the “Corinthian League.” This modern expression refers to the political and military pact between Philip II and the Greeks ratified at Corinth after the defeat of the allied Greeks at Chaeroneia, and then renewed by Alexander in 336. The pact set the seal on a design for establishing Macedonian hegemony that would insure control over Greece and unite it in a war against Persia. It achieved its purpose because Alexander, in his relations with the Greeks, constantly sought to emphasize the legitimacy of his leadership: on the basis of traditional Greek hegemonic practice, Alexander regulated his political activity in Greece and used key themes of Greek propaganda as a catalyst against his opponents, and by turning their opposition to tyranny and their concern for freedom to his own advantage.
Chapter in Alexander the Great: a new history, eds W. Heckel and L. A. Tritle, Blackwell, Chichester and Malden, MA 2009, pp. 99-120.
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