Hellenistic civilization
The term
Hellenistic (derived from
Héll"n, the
Greeks' traditional self-described ethnic name) was established by the
German historian Johann Gustav Droysen to refer to the spreading of
Greek culture over the non-Greek peoples that were conquered by
Alexander the Great. According to Droysen, the Hellenistic civilization was a fusion of Greek and Middle-Eastern cultures. The main cultural centers expanded from mainland Greece, to
Pergamon,
Rhodes,
Antioch and
Alexandria.
Modern historians see the death of
Alexander the Great in
323 BC as the beginning of the Hellenistic period. Alexander's armies conquered the eastern Mediterranean,
Egypt,
Mesopotamia, and the
Iranian plateau,
Central Asia, and parts of
India. Following Alexander's death, there was a struggle for the succession, known as the wars of the
Diadochi (Greek for
successors). The struggle ended in
281 BC with the establishment of four large territorial states.
* The
Ptolemaic dynasty in
Egypt based at
Alexandria;
* The
Seleucid dynasty in
Syria and
Mesopotamia based at
Antioch;
* The
Antigonid dynasty in
Macedon and central Greece;
* The
Attalid dynasty in
Anatolia based at
Pergamum.
legend: MAHARAJA TRATASA MENADRASA "Saviour King Menander".
Athena advancing right, with thunderbolt and shield.
Taxila mint mark.]]His successors held on to the territory west of the
Tigris for some time and controlled the eastern Mediterranean until the
Roman Republic took control in the
2nd and
1st centuries BC. Most of the east was eventually overrun by the
Parthians, but Hellenistic culture held on in distant locations, like the
Greco-Bactrian kingdom in
Bactria, or the
Indo-Greek kingdom in northern
India, or the
Cimmerian Bosporus. Hellenistic culture remained dominant in the Eastern part of the
Roman Empire until its Christianisation and transition to the
Byzantine Empire.
Hellenism made considerable inroads also in
monarchies governed by kings of Persian, Armenian or Thracian origin, as was the case with
Armenia,
Bithynia,
Cappadocia and
Pontus.
The end of the Hellenistic period is generally seen as
31 BC, when the kingdom of
Ptolemaic Egypt was utterly defeated by the Romans at the
Battle of Actium. As a result, Egypt's last ruler,
Cleopatra, committed suicide and her kingdom was annexed by
Octavian.
*
Hellenistic Greece*
Diadochi*
Hellenization* Sir
William Tarn:
Hellenistic civilisation.
