Hellenistic civilization

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The term Hellenistic (derived from Ἕλλην Héllēn, the Greeks' traditional self-described ethnic name) was established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen to refer to the spreading of Greek culture and colonization over the non-Greek lands that were conquered by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. The Hellenistic age marks the unification of the Greek world, sharing a common culture based on that of 5th and 4th century BC Athens, along with a fusion of Near Eastern cultures. The period is characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which established Greek cities and Kingdoms in Asia and Africa. Those new cities were composed by Greek colonists who came from different parts of the Greek world, and not from a specific "mother city" (metropolis) as before. The main cultural centers expanded from mainland Greece, to Pergamon, Rhodes, as well as to new Greek colonies such as Antioch and Alexandria. This mixture of Greek-speakers gave birth to a common Attic-based dialect, known as Hellenistic Greek, which came to absorb and replace all idioms of the Greek language.

History

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 long struggle for the succession, known as the wars of the Diadochi (Greek for successors). The bitter struggle was more or less settled in 281 BC with the establishment of four rough 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.

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 Christianization and eventual transformation into the Byzantine Empire.

Hellenism made considerable inroads and in monarchies governed by kings of Persian, Armenian or Thracian origin, as was the case with Armenia, Bithynia and Cappadocia.

The political organization of the Hellenistic states began to fray at the edges by the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, especially in light of the growing political and military might of the Roman Republic. The end of the Hellenistic period is generally seen as 31 BC, when Marc Antony was utterly defeated by Octavian (who, at this point, had yet to be renamed Augustus) at the Battle of Actium. As a result, Marc Antony's lover and Egypt's last ruler, Cleopatra, (circa 30 BC) committed suicide and her kingdom was annexed by Octavian.

Culture

The city of Pergamum became a major centre of book production, possessing a library of some 200,000 volumes, second only to the Library of Alexandria. Athens retained its position as the most prestigious seat of higher education, especially in the domains of philosophy and rhetoric, with considerable libraries in her possession. The island of Rhodes boasted a famous finishing school for politics and diplomacy. Famous alumni of Athens and Rhodes were the Romans Cicero and Mark Antony respectively. Alexandria was arguably the second most important centre of Greek learning, boasting a Great Library with 700,000 volumes and a Small Library with 42,800. Antioch as well was founded as a metropolis and centre of Greek learning which retained its status into the Christian era.

Hellenistic rulers

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