Name \( \qquad \) Alexander the Great For a short time atter their victory in the Peloponnesian war, the city-stale of Sparta nued Greace. The Sparan soldiers were known for their bravery and fighting skils, so it io very surprising that Mey were conquered by a snaller amy from Thebes in 371 BC . The Theban ampy was able to accomplich the remanable feat by using a milary maneuver The soldiers anranged boer form. nto the ehape of a crescent When ine spartans a in 359 BC. Phillip II becare king of Macedonia, a large area north of Greece. It was a ruaged. mountainous county, and the people fiving there were very dilferent than but Greeks. The Gresks considered themselves Macedonians were barbarians. Philip led the Macedionians to defeat the Greek city-states and became the leader of Greece. He strengthened his army and eventually

Philip II of Macedonia reformed his military tactics to create one of the most effective armies of the ancient world. By introducing the phalanx formation—a tight-knit group armed with long spears called sarissas—he was able to outmaneuver and outsmart his opponents. This shift in tactics drastically improved the fighting capabilities of the Macedonian army, bringing them numerous victories and paving the way for his son, Alexander the Great, to expand their empire even further. After Philip's conquest of Greece, he sought to unite the city-states against a common enemy: Persia. He planned to launch a massive campaign to avenge the earlier Greek defeats by Persian forces and fulfill a pan-Hellenic ambition. However, his assassination in 336 BC cut short these plans. Alexander, just 20 years old at the time, inherited the throne and quickly took up his father's mantle, embarking on a legendary military campaign that would change the course of history and solidify his place as one of the greatest conquerors of all time.