Hellenistic periodThe Nike of Samothrace is considered one of the greatest mas-terpieces of Hellenistic art.The Hellenistic periodcoverstheperiodofancientGreek (Hellenic) history and Mediterranean history be-tween the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCand theemergence of the Roman Empire as signied by the Battleof Actium in 31 BC[1] and the subsequent conquest ofPtolemaic Egypt the following year.[2] At this time, Greekcultural inuence and power was at its peak in Europe,Africa and Asia,experiencing prosperity and progressin the arts, exploration, literature, theatre, architecture,music, mathematics, philosophy, and science. It is of-ten considered a period of transition, sometimes evenof decadence or degeneration,[3] compared to the bril-liance of the Greek Classical era. The Hellenistic pe-riodsawtheriseofNewComedy, Alexandrianpo-etry, the Septuagint and the philosophies of Stoicismand Epicureanism. Greek Science was advanced by theworks of the mathematician Euclid and the polymathArchimedes. The religious sphere expanded to includenew gods such as the Greco-Egyptian Serapis, easterndeities such as Attis and Cybele and the Greek adoptionof Buddhism.After Alexander the Great's ventures in the Persian Em-pire, Hellenistic kingdoms were established throughoutsouth-west Asia (Seleucid Empire, Kingdom of Perga-mon), north-east Africa (Ptolemaic Kingdom) and SouthAsia (Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, Indo-Greek Kingdom).This resulted in the export of Greek culture and languageto these new realms through Greco-Macedonian colo-nization. Equally, however, these new kingdoms were in-uenced by the indigenous cultures, adopting local prac-tices where benecial,necessary,or convenient. Hel-lenistic culture thus represents a fusion of the AncientGreek world with that of the Near East, Middle East,and Southwest Asia, and a departure from earlier Greekattitudes towards "barbarian" cultures.[4] The Hellenis-tic period was characterized by a new wave of Greekcolonization[5] (as distinguished from that occurring inthe 8th6th centuries BC) which established Greek citiesand kingdoms in Asia and Africa.[6]Those new citieswere composed of Greek colonists who came from dif-ferent parts of the Greek world, and not, as before, froma specic mother city.[6] The main cultural centers ex-panded from mainland Greece to Pergamon, Rhodes,andnewGreekcolonies suchas Seleucia, Antioch,Alexandria and Ai-Khanoum. This mixture of Greek-speakers gave birth to a common Attic-based dialect,known as Koine Greek, which became the lingua francathrough the Hellenistic world.Scholars and historians are divided as to what event sig-nals the end of the Hellenistic era. The Hellenistic pe-riod may be seen to end either with the nal conquestof the Greek heartlands by Rome in 146 BC followingthe Achean War, with the nal defeat of the PtolemaicKingdom at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, or even themove by Roman emperor Constantine the Great of thecapital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople in 330AD.[7][8] Hellenistic is distinguished from Hellenic inthat the rst encompasses the entire sphere of direct an-cient Greek inuence, while the latter refers to Greeceitself.1 EtymologySee also: Names of the GreeksThe word originated from the German termhellenis-tisch, fromAncient Greek(Hellnists,12 3 BACKGROUNDone who uses the Greek language), from (Hel-ls, Greece); as if Hellenist + -ic.The word Hellenistic is a modern word and a 19th-century concept; theideaof aHellenistic perioddidnot exist in Ancient Greece. Although related in formor meaning words, e.g. Hellenist (Ancient Greek: -, Hellnists), have been attested since ancienttimes,[9] it was J. G. Droysen in the mid-19th century,who in his classic work Geschichte des Hellenismus, i.e.History of Hellenism, coined the term Hellenistic to referto and dene the period when Greek culture spread in thenon-Greek world after Alexanders conquest.[10] Follow-ing Droysen, Hellenistic and related terms, e.g. Hellenism,have been widely used in various contexts; a notable suchuse of the terms is, following MatthewArnold, in contrastto Hebraism.[11]The major issue with the term Hellenistic lies in its con-venience, as the spread of Greek culture was not the gen-eralized phenomenon that the term implies. Some areasof the conquered world were more aected by Greek in-uences than others. The term Hellenistic also impliesthat the Greek populations were of majority in the ar-eas in which they settled, while in many cases, the Greeksettlers were actually the minority among the native pop-ulations. The Greek population and the native populationdid not always mix; the Greeks moved and brought theirown culture, but interaction did not always occur.2 SourcesWhile some fragments exist, there is no surviving his-torical work which dates to the hundred years followingAlexanders death. The works of the major Hellenis-tic historians Hieronymus of Cardia (who worked un-der Alexander, Antigonus I and other successors), Durisof Samos and Phylarchus which were used by survivingsources are all lost.[12] The earliest and most credible sur-viving source for the Hellenistic period is Polybius ofMegalopolis (c. 200-118), a statesman of the AchaeanLeague until 168 BCE when he was forced to go to Romeas a hostage.[13] His Histories eventually grew to a lengthof forty books, covering the years 220 to 167 BCE.The most important source after Polybius is DiodorusSiculus who wrote his Bibliotheca historica between 60and30BCEandreproducedsomeimportant earliersourcessuchasHieronymus, but hisaccount oftheHellenistic period breaks o after the battle of Ipsus(301). Anotherimportant source, Plutarch's(c.50c.120) Parallel Lives though more preoccupied with is-sues of personal character and morality, outlines the his-tory of important Hellenistic gures. Appian of Alexan-dria (late rst century CE-before 165 CE) wrote a historyof the Roman empire that includes information of someHellenistic kingdoms.Other sources include Justin's (2nd century CE) epitomeofPompeiusTrogus' Historiae Philipicaeandasum-mary of Arrian'sEventsafterAlexander,by Photios IofConstantinople. Lessersupplementarysourcesin-clude Curtius Rufus, Pausanias, Pliny, and the Byzantineencyclopedia theSuda. Intheeldof philosophy,Diogenes Laertius' Lives and Opinions of EminentPhilosophers is the main source.3 BackgroundAlexander ghting the Persian king Darius III. FromtheAlexander Mosaic, Naples National Archaeological Museum.See also: Philip II of Macedon, Alexander the Great andWars of Alexander the GreatAncient Greece had traditionally been a fractious col-lectionofercelyindependent city-states. AfterthePeloponnesian War (431404 BC),Greece had fallenunder a Spartan hegemony, in which Sparta was pre-eminent but not all-powerful. Spartan hegemony wassucceeded by a Theban one after the Battle of Leuctra(371 BC), but after the Battle of Mantinea (362 BC),all of Greece was so weakened that no one state couldclaim pre-eminence. It was against this backdrop, thatthe ascendancy of Macedon began, under king PhilipII. Macedon was located at the periphery of the Greekworld, and although its royal family claimed Greek de-scent, the Macedonians themselves were looked downupon as semi-barbaric by the rest of the Greeks. How-ever, Macedon had a relatively strong and centralised gov-ernment, and compared to most Greek states, directlycontrolled a large area.Philip II was a strong and expansionist king and he tookevery opportunity to expand Macedonian territory. In352 BC he annexed Thessaly and Magnesia. In 338 BC,Philip defeated a combined Theban and Athenian armyat the Battle of Chaeronea after a decade of desultoryconict. In the aftermath, Philip formed the League ofCorinth, eectively bringing the majority of Greece un-der his direct sway. He was electedHegemon of theleague, and a campaign against the Achaemenid Empire3of Persia was planned. However, while this campaign wasin its early stages, he was assassinated.[3]Alexanders empire at the time of its maximum expansion.Succeeding his father, Alexander took over the Persianwar himself. During a decade of campaigning, Alexan-der conquered the whole Persian Empire, overthrowingthe Persian king Darius III. The conquered lands includedAsia Minor, Assyria, the Levant, Egypt, Mesopotamia,Media, Persia, and parts of modern day Afghanistan,Pakistan, and the steppes of central Asia. The years ofconstant campaigning had taken their toll however, andAlexander died in 323 BC.After his death, the huge territories Alexander hadconquered became subject to a strong Greek inuence(hellenization) for the next two or three centuries, untilthe rise of Rome in the west, and of Parthia in the east.As the Greek and Levantine cultures mingled, the devel-opment of a hybrid Hellenistic culture began, and per-sisted even when isolated from the main centres of Greekculture (for instance, in the Greco-Bactrian kingdom).It can be argued that some of the changes across theMacedonian Empire after Alexanders conquests and dur-ing the rule of the Diadochi would have occurred with-out the inuence of Greek rule. As mentioned by PeterGreen, numerous factors of conquest have been mergedunder the term Hellenistic Period. Specic areas con-quered by Alexanders invading army, including Egyptand areas of Asia Minor and Mesopotamia fell willinglyto conquest and viewed Alexander as more of a liberatorthan a victor.[14]Inaddition, muchoftheareaconqueredwouldcon-tinue to be ruled by the Diadochi, Alexanders generalsand successors. Initially the whole empire was dividedamong them;however, some territories were lost rela-tively quickly, or only remained nominally under Mace-donian rule. After 200 years, only much reduced andrather degenerate states remained,[8] until the conquestof Ptolemaic Egypt by Rome.4 The DiadochiMainarticles: Diadochi, Wars of theDiadochi andPartition of BabylonWhen Alexander the Great died (June 10, 323 BC), heThe distribution of satrapies in the Macedonian Empire after theSettlement in Babylon (323 BC).left behind a huge empire which was composed of manyessentially autonomous territories called satrapies. With-out a chosen successor there were immediate disputesamong his generals as to who should be king of Macedon.These generals became known as the Diadochi (Greek:, Diadokhoi, meaning Successors).Meleager and the infantry supported the candidacyofAlexandershalf-brother, PhilipArrhidaeus, whilePerdiccas, theleadingcavalrycommander, supportedwaiting until the birth of Alexanders unborn child byRoxana. After the infantry stormedthe palace ofBabylon, a compromise was arranged Arrhidaeus (asPhilip III) should become king, and should rule jointlywith Roxanas child, assuming that it was a boy (as itwas, becoming Alexander IV). Perdiccas himself wouldbecome regent (epimeletes) of the empire, and Melea-ger his lieutenant. Soon, however, Perdiccas had Me-leager and the other infantry leaders murdered, and as-sumed full control.[15] The generals who had supportedPerdiccas were rewarded in the partition of Babylon bybecoming satraps of the various parts of the empire, butPerdiccas position was shaky, because, as Arrian writes,everyone was suspicious of him, and he of them.[16]The rst of the Diadochi wars broke out when Perdiccasplanned to marry Alexanders sister Cleopatra and be-gan to question Antigonus I Monophthalmus' leadershipin Asia Minor.Antigonus ed for Greece, and then, to-gether with Antipater and Craterus (the satrap of Ciliciawho had been in Greece ghting the Lamian war) invadedAnatolia. The rebels were supported by Lysimachus,the satrap of Thrace and Ptolemy, the satrap of Egypt.Although Eumenes, satrap of Cappadocia, defeated therebels in Asia Minor, Perdiccas himself was murdered byhis own generals Peithon, Seleucus, and Antigenes (pos-sibly with Ptolemys aid) during his invasion of Egypt (c.21 May to 19 June, 320).[17] Ptolemy came to terms withPerdiccass murderers, making Peithon and Arrhidaeusregents in his place, but soon these came to a new agree-ment with Antipater at the Treaty of Triparadisus. An-tipater was made regent of the Empire, and the two kingswere moved to Macedon. Antigonus remained in chargeof Asia minor, Ptolemy retained Egypt, Lysimachus re-tained Thrace and Seleucus I controlled Babylon.ThesecondDiadochi war beganfollowingthedeath4 4 THE DIADOCHIof Antipater in319BC. Passingover his ownson,Cassander, Antipater had declared Polyperchon his suc-cessor as Regent. Cassander roseinrevolt againstPolyperchon(whowasjoinedbyEumenes) andwassupported by Antigonus, Lysimachus and Ptolemy. In317, Cassander invaded Macedonia, attaining control ofMacedon, sentencing Olympias to death and capturingthe boy king Alexander IV, and his mother. In Asia,Eumenes was betrayed by his own men after years ofcampaign and was given up to Antigonus who had himexecuted.The Kingdoms of Antigonos and his rivals circa 303 BC.The third war of the Diadochi broke out because of thegrowing power and ambition of Antigonus. He began re-moving and appointing satraps as if he was king and alsoraided the royal treasuries in Ectabana, Persepolis andSusa, making o with 25,000 talents.[18] Seleucus wasforced to ee to Egypt and Antigonus was soon at warwith Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Cassander. He then in-vaded Phoenicia, laid siege to Tyre, stormed Gaza and be-gan building a eet. Ptolemy invaded Syria and defeatedAntigonus son, Demetrius Poliorcetes, in the Battle ofGaza of 312 BCwhich allowed Seleucus to secure controlof Babylonia, and the eastern satrapies. In 310, Cassanderhad young King Alexander IV and his mother Roxanemurdered, ending the Argead Dynasty which had ruledMacedon for several centuries.Antigonus then sent his son Demetrius to regain controlof Greece. In 307 he took Athens, expelling Demetriusof Phaleron, Cassanders governor, and proclaiming thecity free again. Demetrius now turned his attention toPtolemy, defeating his eet at the Battle of Salamis andtaking control of Cyprus. In the aftermath of this vic-tory, Antigonus took the title of king (basileus) and be-stowed it on his son Demetrius Poliorcetes, the rest of theDiadochi soon followed suit.[19] Demetrius continued hiscampaigns by laying siege to Rhodes and conquering mostof Greece in 302, creating a league against CassandersMacedon.The decisive engagement of the war came when Lysi-machus invaded and overran much of western Anatolia,but was soon isolated by Antigonus and Demetrius nearIpsus in Phrygia. Seleucus arrived in time to save Lysi-machus and utterly crushed Antigonus at the Battle of Ip-sus in 301 BCE. Seleucus war elephants proved decisive,Antigonus was killed, and Demetrius ed back to Greeceto attempt to preserve the remnants of his rule there byrecapturing a rebellious Athens. Meanwhile, Lysimachustook over Ionia, Seleucus took Cilicia, and Ptolemy cap-tured Cyprus.Kingdoms of the Diadochi after the battle of Ipsus, c. 301 BC.Kingdom of Ptolemy I SoterKingdom of CassanderKingdom of LysimachusKingdom of Seleucus I NicatorAfter Cassanders death in 298 BCE, however,Demetrius, whostill maintainedasizableloyal armyandeet, invadedMacedon, seizedtheMacedonianthrone (294) and conquered Thessaly and most ofcentral Greece (293-291).[20]He was defeated in 288BC when Lysimachus of Thrace and Pyrrhus of Epirusinvaded Macedon on two fronts, and quickly carved upthe kingdom for themselves. Demetrius ed to centralGreece with his mercenaries and began to build supportthere and in the northern Peloponnese. He once againlaid siege to Athens after they turned on him, but thenstruck a treaty with the Athenians and Ptolemy, whichallowed him to cross over to Asia minor and wage war onLysimachus holdings in Ionia, leaving his son AntigonusGonatas inGreece. After initial successes, hewasforced to surrender to Seleucus in 285 and later died incaptivity.[21] Lysimachus, who had seized Macedon andThessaly for himself, was forced into war when Seleucusinvaded his territories in Asia minor and was defeatedand killed in 281 BCE at the Battle of Corupedium, nearSardis. Seleucus then attempted to conquer LysimachusEuropean territories in Thrace and Macedon, but he wasassassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunus (the thunderbolt),who had taken refuge at the Seleucid court and then hadhimself acclaimed as king of Macedon. Ptolemy waskilled when Macedon was invaded by Gauls in 279, hishead stuck on a spear and the country fell into anarchy.Antigonus II Gonatas invaded Thrace in the summer of277 and defeated a large force of 18,000 Gauls. He wasquickly hailed as king of Macedon and went on to rulefor 35 years.[22]At this point the tripartite territorial division of the Hel-lenistic age was in place, with the main Hellenistic powersbeing Macedon under Demetriuss son Antigonus II Go-natas, the Ptolemaic kingdom under the aged Ptolemy Iand the Seleucid empire under Seleucus son Antiochus ISoter.5.1 Greece 55 Southern Europe5.1 GreeceMain article: Hellenistic GreeceDuring the Hellenistic period the importance of GreeceGreece and the Aegean World c.200 BCE.proper within the Greek-speaking world declined sharply.The great centers of Hellenistic culture were Alexandriaand Antioch, capitals of Ptolemaic Egypt and SeleucidSyria respectively. The conquests of Alexander greatlywidened the horizons of the Greek world, making theendless conicts between the cities which had marked the5th and 4th centuries BC seem petty and unimportant. Itled to a steady emigration, particularly of the young andambitious, to the new Greek empires in the east. ManyGreeks migrated to Alexandria, Antioch and the manyother new Hellenistic cities founded in Alexanders wake,as far away as modern Afghanistan and Pakistan.Independent city states were unable to compete with Hel-lenistic kingdoms and were usually forced to ally them-selves to one of them for defense, giving honors to Hel-lenistic rulers in return for protection. One example isAthens, which had been decisively defeated by Antipa-ter in the Lamian war (323-322) and had its port in thePiraeus garrisoned by Macedonian troops who supporteda conservative oligarchy.[23] After Demetrius Poliorcetescaptured Athens in 307 and restored the democracy, theAthenians honored him and his father Antigonus by plac-ing gold statues of them on the agora and granting themthe title of king. Athens later allied itself to PtolemaicEgypt to throwoMacedonian rule, eventually setting upa religious cult for the Ptolemaic kings and naming oneof the city phyles in honor of Ptolemy for his aid againstMacedon. In spite of the Ptolemaic monies and eetsbacking their endeavors, Athens and Sparta were defeatedby Antigonus II during the Chremonidean War (267-61).Athens was then occupied by Macedonian troops, and runby Macedonian ocials.Sparta remained independent, but it was no longer theleading military power in the Peloponnese. The Spar-tan king Cleomenes III (235222 BCE) staged a militarycoup against the conservative ephors and pushed throughradical social and land reforms in order to increase thesize of the shrinking Spartan citizenry able to providemilitary service and restore Spartan power.Spartas bidfor supremacy was crushed at the Battle of Sellasia (222)by the Achaean league and Macedon, who restored thepower of the ephors.Other city states formed federated states in self-defense,such as the Aetolian League (est. 370 BCE), the AchaeanLeague (est. 280 BCE), the Boeotian league, the North-ern League (Byzantium, Chalcedon, Heraclea Ponticaand Tium)[24] and the "Nesiotic League" of the Cyclades.These federations involved a central government whichcontrolled foreign policy and military aairs, while leav-ing most of the local governing to the city states, a systemtermed sympoliteia. In states such as the Achaean league,this also involved the admission of other ethnic groupsinto the federation with equal rights, in this case, non-Achaeans.[25] The Achean league was able to drive outthe Macedonians from the Peloponnese and free Corinth,which duly joined the league.The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the ancientworld.One of the few city states who managed to maintain fullindependence from the control of any Hellenistic king-dom was Rhodes. With a skilled navy to protect its tradeeets from pirates and an ideal strategic position covering6 5 SOUTHERN EUROPEthe routes from the east into the Aegean, Rhodes pros-pered during the Hellenistic period. It became a centerof culture and commerce, its coins were widely circulatedand its philosophical schools became one of the best inthe mediterranean. After holding out for one year un-der siege by Demetrius Poliorcetes (304-305 BCE), theRhodians built the Colossus of Rhodes to commemoratetheir victory. They retained their independence by themaintenance of a powerful navy, by maintaining a care-fully neutral posture and acting to preserve the balance ofpower between the major Hellenistic kingdoms.[26]Initially Rhodes had very close ties with the Ptolemaickingdom. Rhodes later became a Roman ally againstthe Seleucids, receiving some territory in Caria for theirrole in the RomanSeleucid War (192188 BCE). Romeeventually turned on Rhodes and annexed the island as aRoman province.5.2 MacedoniaMain article: Antigonid dynastyAntigonus II, a student of Zeno of Citium, spent mostPhilip V, "the darling of Hellas", wearing the royal diadem.of his rule defending Macedon against Epirus and ce-menting Macedonian power in Greece, rst against theAthenians in the Chremonidean War, and then against theAchaean League of Aratus of Sicyon. Under the Antigo-nids, Macedonia was often short on funds, the Pangaeummines were no longer as productive as under Philip II,the wealth from Alexanders campaigns had been usedup and the countryside pillaged by the Gallic invasion.[27]A large number of the Macedonian population had alsobeen resettled abroad by Alexander or had chosen to em-igrate to the new eastern Greek cities. Up to two thirdsof the population emigrated, and the Macedonian armycould only count on a levy of 25,000 men, a signicantlysmaller force than under Philip II.[28]Antigonus II ruled until his death in 239 BC. His sonDemetrius II soon died in 229 BC, leaving a child (PhilipV) as king, with the general Antigonus Doson as regent.Doson led Macedon to victory in the war against the Spar-tan king Cleomenes III, and occupied Sparta.Philip V, who came to power when Doson died in 221BC, was the last Macedonian ruler with both the talentand the opportunity to unite Greece and preserve its in-dependence against the cloud rising in the west": theever-increasing power of Rome. He was known as thedarling of Hellas. Under his auspices the Peace of Nau-pactus (217 BC) brought the latest war between Macedonand the Greek leagues (the social war 220-217) to an end,and at this time he controlled all of Greece except Athens,Rhodes and Pergamum.In 215 BC Philip, with his eye on Illyria, formed an al-liance with Romes enemy Hannibal of Carthage, whichled to Roman alliances with the Achaean League, Rhodesand Pergamum. The First Macedonian War broke outin 212 BC, and ended inconclusively in 205 BC. Philipcontinued to wage war against Pergamon and Rhodes forcontrol of the Aegean (204-200 BCE) and ignored Ro-man demands for non-intervention in Greece by invadingAttica. In 198 BC, during the Second Macedonian WarPhilip was decisively defeated at Cynoscephalae by theRoman proconsul Titus Quinctius Flamininus and Mace-don lost all its territories in Greece proper. Greece wasnow thoroughly brought into the Roman sphere of inu-ence, though it retained nominal autonomy. The end ofAntigonid Macedon came when Philip Vs son, Perseus,was defeated and captured by the Romans in the ThirdMacedonian War (171168 BCE).5.3 BalkansThe west Balkan coast was inhabited by various Illyriantribes and kingdoms such as the kingdomof the Dalmataeand of the Ardiaei, who often engaged in piracy underQueen Teuta (reigned 231 BC to 227 BCE). Further in-land was the Illyrian Paeonian Kingdom and the tribe ofthe Agrianes which covers most of the modern republicof Macedonia. Illyrians on the coast of the Adriatic wereunder the eects and inuence of Hellenisation and sometribes adopted Greek, becoming bilingual[29][30][31] dueto their proximity to the Greek colonies in Illyria. Il-lyrians imported weapons and armor from the AncientGreeks (such as the Illyrian type helmet, originally aGreek type) and also adopted the ornamentation of An-cient Macedon on their shields[32] and their war belts[33](a single one has been found, dated 3rd century BC atmodern Selce e Poshtme part of Macedon at the time un-der Philip V of Macedon[34]).The Odrysian Kingdom was a union of Thracian tribesunderthekingsofthepowerful Odrysiantribecen-tered around the region of Thrace. Various parts ofThrace were under Macedonian rule under Philip II of5.5 Kingdom of Epirus 7PaintingofagroomandbridefromtheHellenisticThracianTomb of Kazanlak, near the ancient city of Seuthopolis, 4th cen-tury BCE.Macedon, Alexander the Great, Lysimachus, PtolemyII, and Philip V but were also often ruled by their ownkings. The Thracians and Agrianes were widely used byAlexander as peltasts and light cavalry, forming about onefth of his army.[35] The Diadochi also used Thracianmercenaries in their armies and they were also used ascolonists.The Odrysians used Greek as the language ofadministration[36] and of the nobility. The nobility alsoadopted Greek fashions in dress, ornament and militaryequipment, spreading it to the other tribes.[37] Thraciankings were among the rst to be Hellenized.[38]After 278BCtheOdrysians hadastrongcompeti-tor in the Celtic Kingdom of Tylis ruled by the kingsComontorius and Cavarus, but in 212 BC they conqueredtheir enemies and destroyed their capital.5.4 Western MediterraneanSouthern Italy (Magna Graecia) and south-eastern Sicilyhad been colonized by the Greeks during the 8th century.In 4th century Sicily the leading Greek city and hegemonwas Syracuse.During the Hellenistic period the leadinggure in Sicily was the condottiere Agathocles of Syra-cuse (361 289 BCE) who seized the city with an army ofmercenaries in 317 BCE. Agathocles extended his powerthroughout most of the Greek cities in Sicily, fought along war with the Carthaginians, at one point invadingTunisia in 310 and defeating a Carthaginian army there.This was the rst time a European force had invadedthe region. After this war he controlled most of south-east Sicily and had himself proclaimed king, in imitationof the Hellenistic monarchs of the east.[39] Agathoclesthen invaded Italy (c. 300 BCE) in defense of Tarentumagainst the Bruttians and Romans, but was unsuccessful.Gallo-Greekinscription: Segomaros, sonofUill, citizen[40](toutious) of Namausos, dedicated this sanctuary to BelesamaGreeks in pre-Roman Gaul were mostly limited to theMediterranean coast of Provence. The rst Greek colonyin the region was Massalia,which became one of thelargest trading ports of Mediterranean by the 4th cen-tury BCE with 6,000 inhabitants.Massalia was also thelocal hegemon, controlling various coastal Greek citieslike Nice and Agde.The coins minted in Massalia havebeen found in all parts of Ligurian-Celtic Gaul. Celticcoinage was inuenced by Greek designs,[41] and Greekletters can be found on various Celtic coins, especiallythose of Southern France.[42] Traders from Massalia ven-tured inland deep into France on the Rivers Durance andRhne, and established overland trade routes deep intoGaul, and to Switzerland and Burgundy. The Hellenis-tic period saw the Greek alphabet spread into southernGaul from Massalia (3rd and 2nd centuries BCE) and ac-cording to Strabo, Massalia was also a center of educa-tion were Celts went to learn Greek.[43] A staunch ally ofRome, Massalia retained its independence until it sidedwith Pompey in 49 BCE and was then taken by Caesarsforces.5.5 Kingdom of EpirusMain article: Epirus (ancient state)Epirus was a northwestern Greek kingdomin the westernBalkans ruled by the Molossian Aeacidae dynasty. Epiruswas an ally of Macedon during the reigns of Philip II andAlexander.In 281 Pyrrhus (nicknamed the eagle,aetos) invadedsouthern Italy to aid the city state of Tarentum. Pyrrhusdefeated the Romans in the Battle of Heraclea and at theBattle of Asculum. Though victorious, he was forced toretreat due to heavy losses, hence the term "Pyrrhic vic-tory". Pyrrhus then turned south and invaded Sicily but8 6 HELLENISTIC MIDDLE EASTPyrrhus and his elephants.was unsuccessful and returned to Italy. After the Battle ofBeneventum (275 BCE) Pyrrhus lost all his Italian hold-ings and left for Epirus.Pyrrhus then went to war with Macedonia in 275, depos-ing Antigonus II Gonatas and briey ruling over Mace-donia and Thessaly until 285. Afterwards he invadedsouthern Greece, and was killed in battle against Argos in272 BCE. After the death of Pyrrhus, Epirus remained aminor power. In 233 BCE the Aeacid royal family wasdeposed an a federal state was set up called the EpiroteLeague. The league was conquered by Rome in the ThirdMacedonian War (171168 BCE).6 Hellenistic Middle eastThe Hellenistic states of Asia and Egypt were run by anoccupying imperial elite of Greco-Macedonian admin-istrators and governors propped up by a standing armyof mercenaries and a small core of Greco-Macedoniansettlers.[44] Promotion of immigration from Greece wasimportant in the establishment of this system. Hellenisticmonarchs ran their kingdoms as royal estates and most ofthe heavy tax revenues went into the military and paramil-itary forces which preserved their rule from any kind ofrevolution. Macedonian and Hellenistic monarchs wereexpected to lead their armies on the eld, along with agroup of privileged aristocratic companions or friends(hetairoi, philoi) which dined and drank with the king andacted as his advisory council.[45] Another role that wasexpected the monarch ll was that of charitable patronof his people, this public philanthropy could mean build-ing projects and handing out gifts but also promotion ofGreek culture and religion.6.1 The Ptolemaic kingdomBust of Ptolemy I Soter wearing a diadem, a symbol of Hellenistickingship, Louvre Museum.Main article: Ptolemaic kingdomPtolemy, a somatophylax, one of the seven bodyguardswho served as Alexander the Great's generals anddeputies, was appointed satrap of Egypt after Alexan-ders death in 323 BC. In 305 BC, he declared himselfKing Ptolemy I, later known as Soter (saviour) for hisrole in helping the Rhodians during the siege of Rhodes.Ptolemy built new cities such as Ptolemais Hermiou inupper Egypt and settled his veterans throughout the coun-try, especially in the region of the Faiyum. Alexandria, amajor center of Greek culture and trade, became his cap-ital city. As Egypts rst port city, it was the main grainexporter in the Mediterranean.6.2 The Seleucid Empire 9The Egyptians begrudgingly accepted the Ptolemies asthe successors to the pharaohs of independent Egypt,though the kingdom went through several native revolts.The Ptolemies took on the traditions of the EgyptianPharaohs, such as marrying their siblings (Ptolemy II wasthe rst to adopt this custom), having themselves por-trayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress,and participating in Egyptian religious life. The Ptole-maic ruler cult portrayed the Ptolemies as gods, and tem-ples to the Ptolemies were erected throughout the king-dom. Ptolemy I even created a new god, Serapis, whowas combination of two Egyptian gods: Apis and Osiris,with attributes of Greek gods. Ptolemaic administrationwas, like the Ancient Egyptian bureaucracy, highly cen-tralized and focused on squeezing as much revenue outof the population as possible though taris, excise du-ties, nes, taxes and so forth. A whole class of petty of-cials, tax farmers, clerks and overseers made this possi-ble. The Egyptian countryside was directly administeredby this royal bureaucracy.[46] External possessions such asCyprus and Cyrene were run by strategoi, military com-manders appointed by the crown.Ring of Ptolemy VI Philometor as Egyptian pharaoh. LouvreMuseum.Under Ptolemy II, Callimachus, Apollonius of Rhodes,Theocritus and a host of other poets made the city acenter of Hellenistic literature. Ptolemy himself was ea-ger to patronise the library, scientic research and indi-vidual scholars who lived on the grounds of the library.He and his successors also fought a series of wars withthe Seleucids,known as the Syrian wars,over the re-gion of Coele-Syria. Ptolemy IV won the great battleof Raphia (217 BCE) against the Seleucids, using nativeEgyptians trained as phalangites. However these Egyp-tian soldiers revolted, eventually setting up a native break-away Egyptian state in the Thebaid between 205-186/5BCE, severely weakening the Ptolemaic state.[47]Ptolemys family ruled Egypt until the Roman conquestof 30 BC. All the male rulers of the dynasty took thename Ptolemy. Ptolemaic queens, some of whom werethe sisters of their husbands, were usually called Cleopa-tra, Arsinoe or Berenice. The most famous member ofthe line was the last queen, Cleopatra VII, known for herrole in the Roman political battles between Julius Cae-sar and Pompey, and later between Octavian and MarkAntony. Her suicide at the conquest by Rome marked theend of Ptolemaic rule in Egypt though Hellenistic culturecontinued to thrive in Egypt throughout the Roman andByzantine periods until the Muslim conquest.6.2 The Seleucid EmpireSeleucus I Nicator.Main article: Seleucid EmpireFollowingdivisionofAlexander'sempire, SeleucusINicator received Babylonia. From there, he created anew empire which expanded to include much of Alexan-ders near eastern territories.[48][49][50][51] At the heightof its power,it included central Anatolia,the Levant,Mesopotamia, Persia, todays Turkmenistan, Pamir, andparts of Pakistan. It included a diverse population esti-mated at fty to sixty million people.[52] Under AntiochusI (c. 324/3 261 BC), however, the unwieldy empire was10 6 HELLENISTIC MIDDLE EASTalready beginning to shed territories. Pergamum brokeaway under Eumenes I who defeated a Seleucid army sentagainst him. The kingdoms of Cappadocia, Bithynia andPontus were all practically independent by this time aswell. Like the Ptolemies, Antiochus I established a dynas-tic religious cult, deifying his father Seleucus I. Seleucus,ocially said to be descended from Apollo, had his ownpriests and monthly sacrices. The erosion of the empirecontinued under Seleucus II, who was forced to ght acivil war (239-236) against his brother Antiochus Hieraxand was unable to keep Bactria, Sogdiana and Parthiafrom breaking away. Hierax carved o most of Seleu-cid Anatolia for himself, but was defeated, along with hisGalatian allies, by Attalus I of Pergamon who now alsoclaimed kingship.The Hellenistic world c. 200 BCE.The vast Seleucid Empire was, like Egypt, mostly domi-nated by a Greco-Macedonian political elite.[51][53][54][55]TheGreekpopulationof thecities whoformedthedominant elite were reinforced by emigration fromGreece.[51][53]These cities included newly foundedcolonies such as Antioch, the other cities of the Syriantetrapolis, Seleucia (north of Babylon) and Dura-Europoson the Euphrates. These cities retained traditional Greekcity state institutions such as assemblies, councils andelected magistrates, but this was a facade for they werealways controlled by the royal Seleucid ocials. Apartfromthesecities, therewerealsoalargenumberofSeleucid garrisons (choria), military colonies (katoikiai)and Greek villages (komai) which the Seleucids plantedthroughout the empire to cement their rule. This 'Greco-Macedonian' population (which also included the sons ofsettlers who had married local women) could make upa phalanx of 35,000 men (out of a total Seleucid armyof 80,000) during the reign of Antiochos III. The restof the army was made up of native troops.[56] AntiochusIII the great conducted several vigorous campaigns to re-take all the lost provinces of the empire since the deathofSeleucusI. AfterbeingdefeatedbyPtolemyIV'sforces at Raphia (217), Antiochus III led a long cam-paign to the east to subdue the far eastern breakawayprovinces (212-205) including Bactria, Parthia, Ariana,Sogdiana, Gedrosia and Drangiana. He was successful,bringing back most of these provinces into at least nom-inal vassalage and receiving tribute from their rulers.[57]After the death of Ptolemy IV (204), Antiochus took ad-vantage of the weakness of Egypt to conquer Coele-Syriain the fth Syrian war (202-195).[58] He then began ex-panding his inuence into Pergamene territory in Asiaand crossed into Europe, fortifying Lysimachia on thehellespont, but his expansion into Anatolia and Greecewas abruptly halted after a decisive defeat at the Battleof Magnesia (190 BCE). In the Treaty of Apamea whichended the war, Antiochus lost all of his territories in Ana-tolia west of the Taurus and was forced to pay a large in-demnity of 15,000 talents.[59]Much of the eastern part of the empire was then con-quered by the Parthians under Mithridates I of Parthia inthe mid-2nd century BC, yet the Seleucid kings contin-ued to rule a rump state from Syria until the invasion bythe Armenian king Tigranes the Great and their ultimateoverthrow by the Roman general Pompey.6.3 Attalid PergamumMain article: PergamumAfter thedeathof Lysimachus, oneof his ocers,Philetaerus, took control of the city of Pergamum in 282BCalong with Lysimachus war chest of 9,000 talents anddeclared himself loyal to Seleucus I while remaining defacto independent. His descendant, Attalus I, defeatedthe invading Galatians and proclaimed himself an inde-pendent king. Attalus I (241197BC), was a staunch allyof Rome against Philip Vof Macedon during the rst andsecond Macedonian Wars. For his support against theSeleucids in 190 BCE, Eumenes II was rewarded with allthe former Seleucid domains in Asia Minor. Eumenes IIturned Pergamon into a centre of culture and science byestablishing the library of Pergamumwhich was said to besecond only to the library of Alexandria[61] with 200,000volumes according to Plutarch. It included a readingroom and a collection of paintings. Eumenes II also con-structed the Pergamum Altar with friezes depicting theGigantomachy on the acropolis of the city. Pergamumwas also a center of parchment (charta pergamena) pro-duction. The Attalids ruled Pergamon until Attalus IIIbequeathed the kingdom to the Roman Republic in 133BC[62] to avoid a likely succession crisis.6.4 GalatiaMain article: GalatiaThe Celts who settled in Galatia came through Thraceunder the leadership of Leotarios and Leonnorios circa270 BC. They were defeated by Seleucus I in the 'bat-tle of the Elephants,but were still able to establish aCeltic territory in central Anatolia. The Galatians werewell respected as warriors and were widely used as mer-cenaries in the armies of the successor states. They con-tinued to attack neighboring kingdoms such as Bithyniaand Pergamon, plundering and extracting tribute. Thiscame to an end when they sided with the renegade Seleu-6.6 Cappadocia 11The Dying Gaul is a Roman marble copy of a Hellenistic workof the late 3rd century BC. Capitoline Museums, Rome.cid prince Antiochus Hierax who tried to defeat Attalus,the ruler of Pergamon (241197 BC). Attalus severely de-feated the Gauls, forcing them to conne themselves toGalatia. The theme of the Dying Gaul (a famous statuedisplayed in Pergamon)remained a favorite in Hellenisticart for a generation signifying the victory of the Greeksover a noble enemy. In the early 2nd century BC, theGalatians became allies of Antiochus the Great, the lastSeleucid king trying to regain suzerainty over Asia Mi-nor. In 189 BC, Rome sent Gnaeus Manlius Vulso on anexpedition against the Galatians. Galatia was henceforthdominated by Rome through regional rulers from189 BConward.After their defeats by Pergamon and Rome the Galatiansslowly became hellenized and they were called Gallo-Graeci by the historian Justin[63] as well as - (Hellnogaltai) by Diodorus Siculus in his Biblio-theca historica v.32.5, who wrote that they were calledHelleno-Galatians because of their connection with theGreeks.[64]6.5 BithyniaMain article: BithyniaThe Bithynians were a Thracian people living in north-west Anatolia. After Alexanders conquests the regionof Bithynia came under the rule of the native king Bas,who defeated Calas, a general of Alexander the Great,and maintained the independence of Bithynia. His son,Zipoetes I of Bithynia maintained this autonomy againstLysimachus and Seleucus I, and assumed the title of king(basileus) in 297 BCE. His son and successor, NicomedesI, founded Nicomedia, which soon rose to great prosper-ity, and during his long reign (c. 278 c. 255 BCE), aswell as those of his successors, the kingdom of Bithyniaheld a considerable place among the minor monarchiesof Anatolia. Nicomedes also invited the Celtic Galatiansinto Anatolia as mercenaries, and they later turned on hisson Prusias I, who defeated themin battle. Their last king,Nicomedes IV, was unable to maintain himself againstMithridates VI of Pontus, and, after being restored to histhrone by the Roman Senate, he bequeathed his kingdomby will to the Roman republic (74 BCE).6.6 CappadociaMain article: CappadociaCappadocia, a mountainous region situated between Pon-tus and the Taurus mountains, was ruled by an Iraniandynasty. Ariarathes I (332322 BCE) was the satrap ofCappadocia under the Persians and after the conquests ofAlexander he retained his post. After Alexanders deathhe was defeated by Eumenes and crucied in 322 BCE,but his son, Ariarathes II managed to regain the throneand maintain his autonomy against the warring Diadochi.In 255 B.C., Ariarathes III took the title of king and mar-ried Stratonice, a daughter of Antiochus II, remaining anally of the Seleucid kingdom. Under Ariarathes IV, Cap-padocia came into relations with Rome, rst as a foe es-pousing the cause of Antiochus the Great, then as an allyagainst Perseus of Macedon and nally in a war againstthe Seleucids. Ariarathes V also waged war with Romeagainst Aristonicus, a claimant to the throne of Perga-mon, and their forces were annihilated in 130 BCE. Thisdefeat allowed Pontus to invade and conquer the king-dom.6.7 The Kingdom of PontusMain article: Kingdom of PontusThe Kingdom of Pontus was a Hellenistic kingdom onthe southern coast of the Black Sea. It was foundedbyMithridatesIin291BCandlasteduntil itscon-quest by the Roman Republic in 63 BC. Despite beingruled by a dynasty which was a descendant of the PersianAchaemenid Empire it became hellenized due to the in-uence of the Greek cities on the Black Sea and its neigh-boring kingdoms. Pontic culture was a mix of Greekand Iranian elements, the most hellenized parts of thekingdom were on the coast, populated by Greek coloniessuch as Trapezus and Sinope, which became the capitalof the kingdom. Epigraphic evidence also shows exten-sive Hellenistic inuence in the interior. During the reignof Mithridates II, Pontus was allied with the Seleucidsthrough dynastic marriages. By the time of MithridatesVI Eupator, Greek was the ocial language of the king-dom though Anatolian languages continued to be spoken.The kingdom grew to its largest extent under MithridatesVI, who conquered Colchis, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia,Bithynia, Lesser Armenia, the Bosporan Kingdom, theGreek colonies of the Tauric Chersonesos and for a brieftime the Roman province of Asia. Mithridates VI, him-self of mixed Persian and Greek ancestry, presented him-12 6 HELLENISTIC MIDDLE EASTBust of Mithridates VI sporting a lion pelt headdress, a symbolof Herakles.self as the protector of the Greeks against the 'barbar-ians of Rome styling himself as King Mithridates Eu-pator Dionysus.[65] and as the great liberator. Mithri-dates also depicted himself with the anastole hairstyle ofAlexander and used the symbolismof Herakles whomtheMacedonian kings claimed descend from. After a longstruggle with Rome in the Mithridatic wars, Pontus wasdefeated, part of it was incorporated into the Roman Re-public as the province Bithynia and Pontus and the easternhalf survived as a client kingdom.6.8 ArmeniaMain article: Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)Orontid Armenia formally passed to empire of Alexan-der the Great following his conquest of Persia. Alexanderappointed an Orontid named Mithranes to govern Arme-nia. Armenia later became a vassal state of the SeleucidEmpire, but it maintained a considerable degree of au-tonomy, retaining its native rulers. Towards the end 212BC the country was divided into two kingdoms, GreaterArmenia and Armenia Sophene including Commagene orArmenia Minor. The kingdoms became so independentfrom Seleucid control that Antiochus III the Great wagedwar on them during his reign and replaced their rulers.After the Seleucid defeat at the Battle of Magnesia in190 BC, the kings of Sophene and Greater Armenia re-volted and declared their independence, with Artaxias be-coming the rst king of the Artaxiad dynasty of Arme-Tigranes the Greats Armenian Empirenia in 188. During the reign of the Artaxiads, Armeniawent through a period of hellenization. Numismatic evi-dence shows Greek artistic styles and the use of the Greeklanguage. Some coins describe the Armenian kings as"Philhellenes". During the reign of Tigranes the Great(9555 BC), the kingdom of Armenia reached its great-est extent,containing many Greek cities including theentire Syrian tetrapolis. Cleopatra, the wife of Tigranesthe Great, invited Greeks such as the rhetor Amphicratesand the historian Metrodorus of Scepsis to the Arme-nian court, and - according to Plutarch - when the Ro-man general Lucullus seized the Armenian capital Tigra-nocerta, he found a troupe of Greek actors who had ar-rived to perform plays for Tigranes.[66] Tigranes succes-sor Artavasdes II even composed Greek tragedies him-self.6.9 ParthiaMain article: Parthian EmpireParthia was a north-easternIraniansatrapy of theCoinofPhraatesIVwithHellenistictitlessuchasEuergetes,Epiphanes and Philhellene (admirer of the Greeks)Achaemenid empire which later passed on to Alexan-ders empire. Under the Seleucids, Parthia was gov-ernedbyvariousGreeksatrapssuchasNicanorand6.11 Judea 13Philip(satrap). In247BC, followingthedeathofAntiochusIITheos, Andragoras, theSeleucidgover-nor of Parthia, proclaimed his independence and beganminting coins showing himself wearing a royal diademand claiming kingship. He ruled until 238 BCE whenArsaces, the leader of the Parni tribe conquered Parthia,killing Andragoras and inaugurating the Arsacid Dynasty.Antiochus III recaptured Arsacid controlled territory in209 BC from Arsaces II. Arsaces II sued for peace be-came a vassal of the Seleucids and it was not until thereign of Phraates I (168165 BCE), that the Arsacidswould again begin to assert their independence.[67]During the reign of Mithridates I of Parthia, Arsacid con-trol expanded to include Herat (in 167 BC), Babylonia(in 144 BC), Media (in 141 BC) and Persia (in 139 BC).The SeleucidParthian wars continued as the Seleucidsinvaded Mesopotamia under Antiochus VII Sidetes (r.138129 BC), but he was eventually killed by a Parthiancounterattack. After the fall of the Seleucid dynasty, theParthians fought against Rome in the RomanParthianWars (66 BC 217 AD). Traces of Hellenism continuedunder the Parthian empire. The Parthians used Greek aswell as their own Parthian language as languages of ad-ministration and also used Greek drachmas as coinage.They enjoyed Greek theater and Greek art inuencedParthian art. The Parthians continued worhipping GreekgodssyncretizedtogetherwithIraniandeities. Theirrulers established ruler cults in the manner of Hellenis-tic kings and often used Hellenistic royal epithets.6.10 Nabatean KingdomMain article: Nabatean KingdomThe Nabatean Kingdom was an Arab state located be-tween the Sinai Peninsula and the Arabian Peninsula.Itscapital wasthecityofPetra, animportant trad-ing city on the incense route. The Nabateans resistedthe attacks of Antigonous and were allies of the Has-moneans in their struggle against the Seleucids, but laterfought against Herod the great.The hellenization of theNabateans accured relatively late in comparison to thesurrounding regions. Nabatean material culture does notshow any Greek inuence until the reign of Aretas IIIPhilhellene in the 1st century BCE.[68] Aretas capturedDamascus and built the Petra pool complex and gardensin the Hellenistic style. Though the Nabateans origi-nally worshipped their traditional gods in symbolic formsuch as stone blocks or pillars, during the Hellenistic pe-riod they began to identify their gods with Greek godsand depict them in gurative forms inuenced by Greeksculpture.[69] Nabatean art shows Greek inuences andpaintings have been found depicting Dionysian scenes.[70]They also slowly adopted Greek as a language of com-merce along with Aramaic and Arabic.The Al Khazneh in Petra shows the Hellenistic inuences on theNabatean Capital city6.11 JudeaMain articles: Hellenistic Judaismand HasmoneandynastyDuring the Hellenistic period, Judea became a frontier re-gion between the Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Egyptand therefore was often the frontline of the Syrian wars,changing hands several times during these conicts.[71]Under the Hellenistic kingdoms, Judea was ruled by thehereditary oce of the High Priest of Israel as a Hellenis-tic vassal. This period also saw the rise of a HellenisticJudaism, which rst developed in the Jewish diaspora ofAlexandria and Antioch, and then spread to Judea. Themajor literary product of this cultural syncretism is theSeptuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible from BiblicalHebrew and Biblical Aramaic to Koin Greek. The rea-son for the production of this translation seems to be thatmany of the Alexandrian Jews had lost the ability to speakHebrew and Aramaic.[72]Between 301 and 219 BCE the Ptolemies ruled Judea inrelative peace, and Jews often found themselves work-ing in the Ptolemaic administration and army, which ledto the rise of a Hellenized Jewish elite class (e.g. theTobiads). The wars of Antiochus III brought the regioninto the Seleucid empire; Jerusalem fell to his controlin 198 and the Temple was repaired and provided withmoney and tribute.[73] Antiochus IV Epiphanes sackedJerusalem and looted the Temple in 169 BCE after dis-turbances in Judea during his abortive invasion of Egypt.Antiochus then banned key Jewish religious rites and tra-14 7 THE GRECO-BACTRIANSditions in Judea. He may have been attempting to Hel-lenize the region and unify his empire and the Jewishresistance to this eventually led to an escalation of vi-olence. Whatever the case,tensions between pro andanti-Seleucid Jewish factions led to the 174135 BCEMaccabean Revolt of Judas Maccabeus (whose victoryis celebrated in the Jewish festival of Hanukkah).Model of Herods Temple (renovation of the Second Temple) inthe Israel Museum.Modern interpretations see this period as a civil war be-tween Hellenized and orthodox forms of Judaism.[74][75]Out of this revolt was formed an independent Jewishkingdomknownas theHasmonaeanDynasty, whichlastedfrom165BCEto63BCE. The HasmoneanDynasty eventually disintegrated in a civil war, whichcoincided with civil wars in Rome. The last Hasmoneanruler, Antigonus II Mattathias, was captured by Herodand executed in 37 BCE. In spite of originally being a re-volt against Greek overlordship, the Hasmonean kingdomand also the Herodian kingdom which followed gradu-ally became more and more hellenized. From 37 BCEto6CE, theHerodiandynasty, Jewish-Romanclientkings,ruled Judea. Herod the Great considerably en-larged the Temple (see Herods Temple), making it oneof the largest religious structures in the world. The styleof the enlarged temple and other Herodian architectureshows signicant Hellenistic architectural inuence.7 The Greco-BactriansMain article: Greco-Bactrian kingdomThe Greek kingdom of Bactria began as a breakawaysatrapy of the Seleucid empire, which, because of thesize of the empire,had signicant freedom from cen-tral control. Between 255-246 BCE, the governor ofBactria, Sogdiana and Margiana (most of present dayAfghanistan), one Diodotus, took this process to its log-ical extreme and declared himself king. Diodotus II,son of Diodotus, was overthrown in about 230 BC byEuthydemus, possibly the satrap of Sogdiana, who thenstarted his own dynasty. In c. 210 BC,the Greco-The Greco-Bactrian kingdom at its maximum extent (c. 180 BC).Silver coin depicting Demetrius I of Bactria (reigned c. 200180BC), wearing an elephant scalp, symbol of his conquests in India.Bactrian kingdom was invaded by a resurgent Seleucidempire under Antiochus III. While victorious in the eld,it seems Antiochus came to realise that there were ad-vantages in the status quo (perhaps sensing that Bac-tria could not be governed from Syria), and married oneof his daughters to Euthydemuss son, thus legitimisingthe Greco-Bactria dynasty. Soon afterwards the Greco-Bactrian kingdom seems to have expanded, possibly tak-ing advantage of the defeat of the Parthian king ArsacesII by Antiochus.According to Strabo, the Greco-Bactrians seem to havehadcontactswithChinathroughthesilkroadtraderoutes (Strabo, XI.XI.I). Indian sources also maintain re-ligious contact between Buddhist monks and the Greeks,andsomeGreco-Bactrians didconvert toBuddhism.Demetrius, son and successor of Euthydemus, invadednorth-western India in 180 BC, after the destruction ofthe Mauryan empire there; the Mauryans were probablyallies of the Bactrians (and Seleucids). The exact jus-tication for the invasion remains unclear, but by about175 BC, the Greeks ruled over parts of north-western15India. This period also marks the beginning of the ob-fuscation of Greco-Bactrian history. Demetrius possi-bly died about 180 BC; numismatic evidence suggest theexistence of several other kings shortly thereafter. It isprobable that at this point that the Greco-Bactrian king-dom split into several semi-independent regions for someyears, often warring amongst themselves. Heliocles wasthe last Greek to clearly rule Bactria, his power collaps-ing in the face of central Asian tribal invasions (Scythianand Yuezhi), by about 130 BCE. However, Greek ur-ban civilisation seems to have continued in Bactria af-ter the fall of the kingdom, having a hellenising eect onthe tribes which had displaced Greek-rule. The Kushanempire which followed continued to use Greek on theircoinage and Greeks continued being inuential in the em-pire.8 The Indo-Greek kingdomsMain article: Indo-GreeksThe separation of the Indo-Greek kingdom from theIndo-Greek territory, with known campaigns andbattles.[76][77][78]Greco-Bactrian kingdom resulted in an even more iso-lated position, and thus the details of the Indo-Greekkingdom are even more obscure than for Bactria.Manysupposed kings in India are known only because of coinsbearing their name. The numismatic evidence togetherwith archaeological nds and the scant historical recordssuggest that the fusion of eastern and western culturesreached its peak in the Indo-Greek kingdom.After Demetrius death, civil wars between Bactrian kingsin India allowed Apollodotus I (from c. 180/175 BCE)Heracles as Buddha protector Vajrapani, 2nd century Gandhara.to make himself independent as the rst proper Indo-Greekking(whodidnot rulefromBactria). Largenumbers of his coins have been found in India, and heseems to have reigned in Gandhara as well as westernPunjab. Apollodotus I was succeeded by or ruled along-side Antimachus II, likely the son of the Bactrian kingAntimachus I.[79] In about 155 (or 165) BC he seemsto have been succeeded by the most successful of theIndo-Greek kings, Menander I. Menander converted toBuddhism, and seems to have been a great patron of thereligion; he is remembered in some Buddhist texts as'Milinda'. He also expanded the kingdomfurther east intoPunjab, though these conquests were rather ephemeral.After the death of Menander (c. 130 BC), the Kingdomappears to have fragmented, with several 'kings attestedcontemporaneously in dierent regions. This inevitablyweakenedtheGreekposition, andterritoryseemstohave been lost progressively. Around 70 BC, the west-ern regions of Arachosia and Paropamisadae were lostto tribal invasions, presumably by those tribes responsi-ble for the end of the Bactrian kingdom. The resultingIndo-Scythian kingdom seems to have gradually pushedthe remaining Indo-Greek kingdomtowards the east. TheIndo-Greek kingdomappears to have lingered on in west-ern Punjab until about 10 AD when nally ended by theIndo-Scythians.After conquering the Indo-Greeks, the Kushan empiretook over Greco-Buddhism, the Greek language, Greekscript, Greek coinage and artistic styles.Greeks contin-ued being an important part of cultural world of Indiafor generations. The depictions of the Buddha appear tohave been inuenced by Greek culture: Buddha repre-sentations in the Ghandara period often showed Buddhaunder the protection of Herakles.[80]16 9 OTHER STATES AND HELLENISTIC INFLUENCESSeveral references in Indian literature praise the knowl-edge of the Yavanas or the Greeks. The Mahabharatacompliments them as the all-knowing Yavanas (sar-vajnaayavanaa)i.e. TheYavanas, Oking, areall-knowing; the Suras are particularly so. The mlecchasare wedded to the creations of their own fancy.[81] andthe creators of ying machines that are generally calledvimanas.[12] The Brihat-Samhita of the mathemati-cian Varahamihira says: The Greeks, though impure,must be honored since they were trained in sciences andtherein, excelled others..... .[82]9 OtherstatesandHellenisticin-uencesGreco-Scythian golden comb, from Solokha, early 4th century,Hermitage Museum[83]Hellenistic culture was at its height of world inuence inthe Hellenistic period. Hellenismor at least Philhellenismreached most regions on the frontiers of the Hellenistickingdoms. Though some of these regions were not ruledby Greeks or even Greek speaking elites, certain Hel-lenistic inuences can be seen in the historical record andmaterial culture of these regions. Other regions had es-tablished contact with Greek colonies before this period,and simply saw a continued process of Hellenization andintermixing.Before the Hellenistic period, Greek colonies had beenestablishedonthecoast oftheCrimeanandTamanpeninsulas. The Bosporan Kingdom was a multi-ethnickingdom of Greek city states and local tribal peoplessuch as the Maeotians, Thracians, Crimean Scythiansand Cimmerians under the Spartocid dynasty (438110BCE). The Spartocids were a hellenized Thracian fam-ily from Panticapaeum. The Bosporans had long lastingtrade contacts with the Scythian peoples of the Pontic-Caspian steppe, and Hellenistic inuence can be seen inthe Scythian settlements of the Crimea, such as in theScythian Neapolis. Scythian pressure on the Bosporankingdom under Paerisades V led to its eventual vassalageunder the Pontic king Mithradates VI for protection, circa107 BCE. It later became a Roman client state. OtherScythians on the steppes of Central Asia came into con-tact with Hellenistic culture through the Greeks of Bac-tria. Many Scythian elites purchased Greek products andsome Scythian art shows Greek inuences. At least someScythians seem to have become Hellenized, because weknow of conicts between the elites of the Scythian king-dom over the adoption of Greek ways. These HellenizedScythians were known as the young Scythians.[84] Thepeoples around Pontic Olbia, known as theCallipidae,were intermixed and Hellenized Greco-Scythians.[85]Statuette of Nike, Greek goddess of victory, from Vani, Georgia(country)The Greek colonies on the west coast of the Black sea,such as Istros, Tomi and Callatis traded with the ThracianGetae who occupied modern day Dobruja. From thesixth century BCE on, the multiethnic people in this re-gion gradually intermixed with each other, creating aGreco-Getic populace.[86]Numismatic evidence showsthat Hellenic inuence penetrated further inland. Getaein Wallachia and Moldavia coined Getic tetradrachms,Getic imitations of Macedonian coinage.[87]The ancient Georgian kingdoms had trade relations withthe Greek city states on the Black sea coast such as Poti17and Sukhumi.The kingdom of Colchis, which later be-came a Roman client state, received Hellenistic inuencesfrom the Black sea Greek colonies.In Arabia, Bahrain, which was referred to by the Greeksas Tylos, the centre of pearl trading, when Nearchus cameto discover it serving under Alexander the Great.[88] TheGreek admiral Nearchus is believed to have been the rstof Alexanders commanders to visit these islands. It is notknown whether Bahrain was part of the Seleucid Empire,although the archaeological site at Qalat Al Bahrain hasbeen proposed as a Seleucid base in the Persian Gulf.[89]Alexander had planned to settle the eastern shores of thePersian Gulf with Greek colonists, and although it is notclear that this happened on the scale he envisaged, Tyloswas very much part of the Hellenised world: the languageof the upper classes was Greek (although Aramaic was ineveryday use), while Zeus was worshipped in the form ofthe Arabian sun-god Shams.[90] Tylos even became thesite of Greek athletic contests.[91]Carthaginian hoplite (Sacred Band, end of the 4th century BC)Carthage was a Phoeneciancolonyonthe coast ofTunisia. Carthaginian culture came into contact withthe Greeks through Punic colonies in Sicily and throughtheir widespread Mediterranean trade network. Whilethe Carthaginians retained their Punic culture and lan-guage, they did adopt some Hellenistic ways, one of themost prominent of which was their military practices. In550 BCE, Mago I of Carthage began a series of militaryreforms which included copying the army of Timoleon,Tyrant of Syracuse.[92] The core of Carthages militarywas the Greek-style phalanx formed by citizen hoplitespearmen who had been conscripted into service, thoughtheir armies also included large numbers of mercenaries.After their defeat in the rst Punic war, Carthage hireda Spartan mercenary captain, Xanthippus of Carthage toreform their military forces. Xanthippus reformed theCarthaginian military along Macedonian army lines.By the second century BCE, the kingdom of Numidiaalso began to see Hellenistic culture inuence its art andarchitecture. The Numidian royal monument at Chemtouis one example of Numidian Hellenized architecture. Re-liefs on the monument also shows the Numidians hadadopted Greco-Macedonian type armor and shields fortheir soldiers.[93]Ptolemaic Egypt was the center of Hellenistic inuencein Africa and Greek colonies also thrived in the region ofCyrene, Libya. The kingdom of Mero was in constantcontact with Ptolemaic Egypt and Hellenistic inuencescan be seen in their art and archeology. There was a tem-ple to Serapis, the Greco-Egyptian god.10 Rise of RomeEastern hemisphere at the end of the 2nd century BC.Widespread Roman interference in the Greek world wasprobably inevitable given the general manner of the as-cendency of the Roman Republic. This Roman-Greek in-teraction began as a consequence of the Greek city-stateslocated along the coast of southern Italy. Rome had cometo dominate the Italian peninsula, and desired the submis-sion of the Greek cities to its rule. Although they initiallyresisted, allying themselves with Pyrrhus of Epirus, anddefeating the Romans at several battles, the Greek citieswere unable to maintain this position and were absorbedby the Roman republic. Shortly afterwards, Rome be-came involved in Sicily, ghting against the Carthaginiansin the First Punic War. The end result was the com-plete conquest of Sicily, including its previously powerfulGreek cities, by the Romans.Roman entanglement in the Balkans began when Illyr-ian piratical raids on Roman merchants led to invasionsof Illyria (the First and, Second Illyrian Wars). Tensionbetween Macedon and Rome increased when the young18 10 RISE OF ROMEking of Macedon, Philip V harbored one of the chief pi-rates, Demetrius of Pharos[94] (a former client of Rome).As a result,in an attempt to reduce Roman inuencein the Balkans, Philip allied himself with Carthage af-ter Hannibal had dealt the Romans a massive defeat atthe Battle of Cannae (216 BC) during the Second PunicWar. Forcing the Romans to ght on another front whenthey were at a nadir of manpower gained Philip the last-ing enmity of the Romans; the only real result from thesomewhat insubstantial First Macedonian War (215202BC).Once the Second Punic War had been resolved, and theRomans had begun to regather their strength, they lookedto re-assert their inuence in the Balkans, and to curb theexpansion of Philip. A pretext for war was provided byPhilips refusal to end his war with Attalid Pergamum,and Rhodes, both Roman allies.[95] The Romans, also al-lied with the Aetolian League of Greek city-states (whichresented Philips power), thus declared war on Mace-don in 200 BC, starting the Second Macedonian War.This ended with a decisive Roman victory at the Battleof Cynoscephalae (197 BC). Like most Roman peacetreaties of the period, the resultant 'Peace of Flaminiuswas designed utterly to crush the power of the defeatedparty; a massive indemnity was levied, Philips eet wassurrendered to Rome, and Macedon was eectively re-turned to its ancient boundaries, losing inuence over thecity-states of southern Greece, and land in Thrace andAsia Minor. The result was the end of Macedon as a ma-jor power in the Mediterranean.As a result of the confusion in Greece at the end ofthe Second Macedonian War, the Seleucid Empire alsobecame entangledwiththe Romans. The SeleucidAntiochus III had allied with Philip V of Macedon in203 BC, agreeing that they should jointly conquer thelands of the boy-king of Egypt, Ptolemy V. After de-feating Ptolemy in the Fifth Syrian War, Antiochus con-centrated on occupying the Ptolemaic possessions in AsiaMinor. However,this brought Antiochus into conictwith Rhodes and Pergamum, two important Roman al-lies, and began a 'cold war' between Rome and Antiochus(not helped by the presence of Hannibal at the Seleucidcourt).[3] Meanwhile, in mainland Greece, the AetolianLeague, which had sided with Rome against Macedon,now grew to resent the Roman presence in Greece. Thispresented Antiochus III with a pretext to invade Greeceand 'liberate' it from Roman inuence, thus starting theRoman-Syrian War (192188 BC). In 191 BC, the Ro-mans under Manius Acilius Glabrio routed him at Ther-mopylae and obliged him to withdraw to Asia. Duringthe course of this war Roman troops moved into Asia forthe rst time, where they defeated Antiochus again at theBattle of Magnesia (190 BC). A crippling treaty was im-posed on Antiochus, with Seleucid possessions in AsiaMinor removed and given to Rhodes and Pergamum, thesize of the Seleucid navy reduced, and a massive war in-demnity invoked.Perseus of Macedon surrenders to Paullus. Painting by Jean-Franois Pierre Peyronfrom1802. MuseumofFine Arts,Budapest.Thus, in less than twenty years, Rome had destroyedthe power of one of the successor states, crippled an-other, and rmly entrenched its inuence over Greece.This was primarily a result of the over-ambition of theMacedonian kings, and their unintended provocation ofRome; though Rome was quick to exploit the situation.In another twenty years, the Macedonian kingdom wasno more. Seeking to re-assert Macedonian power andGreek independence, Philip Vs son Perseus incurred thewrath of the Romans,resulting in the Third Macedo-nian War (171168 BC). Victorious, the Romans abol-ished the Macedonian kingdom, replacing it with fourpuppet republics; these lasted a further twenty years be-fore Macedon was formally annexed as a Roman province(146 BC) after yet another rebellion under Andriscus.Rome now demanded that the Achaean League, the laststronghold of Greek independence, be dissolved. TheAchaeans refused and declared war on Rome. Most ofthe Greek cities rallied to the Achaeans side, even slaveswere freed to ght for Greek independence. The Ro-man consul Lucius Mummius advanced from Macedoniaand defeated the Greeks at Corinth, which was razed tothe ground. In 146 BC, the Greek peninsula, though notthe islands, became a Roman protectorate. Roman taxeswere imposed, except in Athens and Sparta, and all thecities had to accept rule by Romes local allies.The Attalid dynasty of Pergamum lasted little longer; aRoman ally until the end, its nal king Attalus III diedin 133 BC without an heir,and taking the alliance toits natural conclusion, willed Pergamum to the RomanRepublic.[96] The nal Greek resistance came in 88 BC,when King Mithridates of Pontus rebelled against Rome,capturedRomanheldAnatolia, andmassacredupto100,000 Romans and Roman allies across Asia Minor.Many Greek cities, including Athens, overthrewtheir Ro-man puppet rulers and joined himin the Mithridatic wars.When he was driven out of Greece by the Roman gen-eral Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who laid siege to Athens andrazed the city. Mithridates was nally defeated by GnaeusPompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) in 65 BC. Fur-19ther ruin was brought to Greece by the Roman civil wars,which were partly fought in Greece. Finally, in 27 BC,Augustus directly annexed Greece to the newRoman Em-pire as the province of Achaea. The struggles with Romehad left Greece depopulated and demoralised. Neverthe-less, Roman rule at least brought an end to warfare, andcities such as Athens, Corinth, Thessaloniki and Patrassoon recovered their prosperity.Contrarily, having so rmly entrenched themselves intoGreek aairs, the Romans now completely ignored therapidly disintegrating Seleucid empire (perhaps becauseit posed no threat); and left the Ptolemaic kingdom todecline quietly, while acting as a protector of sorts, inas much as to stop other powers taking Egypt over (in-cluding the famous line-in-the-sand incident when the Se-leucid Antiochus IV Epiphanes tried to invade Egypt).[3]Eventually, instability in the near east resulting from thepower vacuum left by the collapse of the Seleucid empirecaused the Roman proconsul Pompey the Great to abol-ish the Seleucid rump state, absorbing much of Syria intothe Roman republic.[96] Famously, the end of PtolemaicEgypt came as the nal act in the republican civil war be-tween the Roman triumvirs Mark Anthony and AugustusCaesar. After the defeat of Anthony and his lover, thelast Ptolemaic monarch, Cleopatra VII at the Battle ofActium, Augustus invaded Egypt and took it as his ownpersonal efdom.[96] He thereby completed both the de-struction of the Hellenistic kingdoms and the Roman re-public, and ended (in hindsight) the Hellenistic era.11 CultureThe LibraryofAlexandriainthe Ptolemaic Kingdom, hereshown in an artists impression, was the largest and most signi-cant library of the ancient world.[97]In some elds Hellenistic culture thrived, particularly inThe Rosetta Stone, a trilingual Ptolemaic decree establishing thereligious cult of Ptolemy V.its preservation of the past. The states of the Hellenisticperiod were deeply xated with the past and its seeminglylost glories.[98] The preservation of many classical and ar-chaic works of art and literature (including the works ofthe three great classical tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles,and Euripides) are due to the eorts of the HellenisticGreeks. The museum and library of Alexandria was thecenter of this conservationist activity. With the supportof royal stipends, Alexandrian scholars collected, trans-lated,copied,classied and critiqued every book theycould nd.Most of the great literary gures of the Hel-lenistic period studied at Alexandria and conducted re-search there. They were scholar poets, writing not onlypoetry but treatises on Homer and other archaic and clas-sical Greek literature.[99]Athens retained its position as the most prestigious seat ofhigher education, especially in the domains of philosophyand rhetoric, with considerable libraries and philosophi-cal schools.[100] Alexandria had the monumental Museum(i.e. research center) and Library of Alexandria whichwas estimated to have had 700,000 volumes.[100] The cityof Pergamon also had a large library and became a ma-jor center of book production.[100] The island of Rhodeshad a library and also boasted a famous nishing schoolfor politics and diplomacy. Libraries were also present inAntioch, Pella, and Kos. Cicero was educated in Athensand Mark Antony in Rhodes.[100] Antioch was foundedas a metropolis and center of Greek learning which re-tained its status into the era of Christianity.[100] Seleuciareplaced Babylon as the metropolis of the lower Tigris.The spread of Greek culture and language throughout theNear East and Asia owed much to the development of20 11 CULTUREnewly founded cities and deliberate colonization policiesby the successor states, which in turn was necessary formaintaining their military forces. Settlements such as Ai-Khanoum, situated on trade routes, allowed Greek cul-ture to mix and spread. The language of Philip IIs andAlexanders court and army (which was made up of var-ious Greek and non-Greek speaking peoples) was a ver-sion of Attic Greek, and over time this language devel-oped into Koine, the lingua franca of the successor states.The identication of local gods with similar Greekdeities, a practice termed 'Interpretatio graeca', facili-tated the building of Greek-style temples, and the Greekculture in the cities also meant that buildings such asgymnasia and theaters became common. Many citiesmaintained nominal autonomy while under the rule ofthe local king or satrap, and often had Greek-style in-stitutions. Greek dedications, statues, architecture andinscriptions have all been found. However, local cultureswere not replaced, and mostly went on as before, but nowwith a new Greco-Macedonian or otherwise Hellenizedelite. An example that shows the spread of Greek theateris Plutarch's story of the death of Crassus, in which hishead was taken to the Parthian court and used as a propin a performance of The Bacchae. Theaters have alsobeen found: for example, in Ai-Khanoum on the edge ofBactria, the theater has 35 rows larger than the theaterin Babylon.The spread of Greek inuence and language is also shownthrough Ancient Greek coinage. Portraits became morerealistic, and the obverse of the coin was often used todisplay a propaganda image, commemorating an event ordisplaying the image of a favored god. The use of Greek-style portraits and Greek language continued under theRoman, Parthian and Kushan empires, even as the use ofGreek was in decline.11.1 Hellenization and acculturationFurther information: HellenizationTheconcept of Hellenization, meaningtheadoptionGreek culture in non-Greek regions, has long been con-troversial. UndoubtedlyGreekinuencedidspreadthrough the Hellenistic realms, but to what extent, andwhether this was a deliberate policy or mere cultural dif-fusion, have been hotly debated.It seems likely that Alexander himself pursued policieswhich led Hellenization, such as the foundations of newcities and Greek colonies. While it may have been a delib-erate attempt to spread Greek culture (or as Arrian says,to civilise the natives), it is more likely that it was a se-ries of pragmatic measures designed to aid in the rule ofhis enormous empire.[101] Cities and colonies were cen-ters of administrative control and Macedonian power ina newly conquered region. Alexander also seems to haveattempted to create a mixed Greco-Persian elite class asOne of the rst representations of the Buddha, and an exampleof Greco-Buddhist art, 1st-2nd century AD, Gandhara: StandingBuddha (Tokyo National Museum).shown by the Susa weddings and his adoption of someforms of Persian dress and court culture. He also broughtin Persian and other non-Greek peoples into his mili-tary and even the elite cavalry units of the companioncavalry. Again, it is probably better to see these poli-cies as a pragmatic response to the demands of ruling alarge empire[101] than to any idealized attempt to bringingGreek culture to the 'barbarians'. This approach was bit-terly resented by the Macedonians and discarded by mostof the Diadochi after Alexanders death. These policiescan also be interpreted as the result of Alexanders possi-ble megalomania[102] during his later years.After Alexanders death in 323BC, the inux of Greekcolonists into the new realms continued to spread Greekculture into Asia. The founding of newcities and militarycolonies continued to be a major part of the Successorsstruggle for control of any particular region, and thesecontinued to be centers of cultural diusion. The spreadof Greek culture under the Successors seems mostly tohave occurred with the spreading of Greeks themselves,rather than as an active policy.Throughout the Hellenistic world, these Greco-Macedonian colonists considered themselves by and11.2 Religion 21large superior to the native barbarians and excludedmost non-Greeksfromtheupperechelonsofcourtlyand government life. Most of the native population wasnot Hellenized, had little access to Greek culture andoftenfoundthemselvesdiscriminatedagainst bytheirHellenicoverlords.[103]Gymnasiums andtheir Greekeducation, for example, were for Greeks only. Greekcities and colonies may have exported Greek artandarchitecture as far as the Indus, but these were mostlyenclavesofGreekcultureforthetransplantedGreekelite. The degree of inuence that Greek culture hadthroughout the Hellenistic kingdoms was therefore highlylocalized and based mostly on a few great cities likeAlexandria and Antioch. Some natives did learn Greekand adopt Greek ways, but this was mostly limited to afew local elites who were allowed to retain their posts bythe Diadochi and also to a small number of mid-leveladministrators who acted as intermediaries between theGreek speaking upper class and their subjects. In theSeleucid empire for example, this group amounted toonly 2.5 percent of the ocial class.[104]Despite their initial reluctance, the Successors seem tohave later deliberately naturalized themselves to their dif-ferent regions, presumably in order to help maintain con-trol of the population.[105] In the Ptolemaic kingdom, wend some Egyptianized Greeks by the 2nd century on-wards. The Indo-Greek kingdom, we nd kings who wereconverts to Buddhism (e.g. Menander). The Greeks inthe regions therefore gradually become 'localized', adopt-ing local customs as appropriate. In this way, hybrid 'Hel-lenistic' cultures naturally emerged, at least among the up-per echelons of society.The trends of Hellenization were therefore accompaniedby Greeks adopting native ways over time, but this waswidely varied by place and by social class. The fartheraway from the Mediterranean and the lower in social sta-tus, the more likely that a colonist was to adopt local ways,while the Greco-Macedonian elites and Royal families,usually remained thoroughly Greek and viewed most non-Greeks with disdain. It is only until Cleopatra VII, that aPtolemaic ruler bothered to learn the Egyptian languageof their subjects.11.2 ReligionMain article: Hellenistic religionIn the Hellenistic period, there was much continuity inGreek religion: the Greek gods continued to be wor-shiped, and the same rites were practiced as before. How-ever the socio-political changes brought on by the con-quest of the Persian empire and Greek emigration abroadmeant that change also came to religious practices. Thisvaried greatly on location, Athens, Sparta and most citiesin the Greek mainland did not see much religious changeor new gods (with the exception of the Egyptian Isis inAthens),[106] while the multi-ethnic Alexandria had a veryvaried group of gods and religious practices, includingBust ofZeus-Ammon, adeitywithattributesfromGreekandEgyptian gods.Egyptian, Jewish and Greek. Greek emigres brought theirGreek religion everywhere they went, even as far as In-dia and Afghanistan. Non-Greeks also had more freedomto travel and trade throughout the Mediterranean and inthis period we can see Egyptian gods such as Serapis, andthe Syrian gods Atargatis and Hadad, as well as a Jewishsynagogue, all coexisting on the island of Delos along-side classical Greek deities.[107] A common practice wasto identify Greek gods with native gods that had simi-lar characteristics and this created new fusions like Zeus-Ammon, Aphrodite Hagne (a Hellenized Atargatis) andIsis-Demeter. Greek emigres faced individual religiouschoices they had not faced on their home cities, wherethe gods they worshiped were dictated by tradition.Hellenistic monarchies were closely associated with thereligious life of the kingdoms they ruled. This had al-readybeenafeatureofMacedoniankingship, whichhadpriestlyduties.[108]Hellenestickingsadoptedpa-tron deities as protectors of their house and sometimesclaimed descent from them. The Seleucids for exampletook on Apollo as patron, the Antigonids had Herakles,and the Ptolemies claimed Dionysus among others.[109]The worship of dynastic ruler cults was also a feature ofthis period, most notably in Egypt, where the Ptolemiesadopted earlier Pharaonic practice, and established them-selves as god-kings. These cults were usually associ-ated with a specic temple in honor of the ruler suchas the Ptolemaieia at Alexandria and had their own fes-tivals and theatrical performances. The setting up ofruler cults was more based on the systematized honorsoered to the kings (sacrice, proskynesis, statues, al-tars, hymns) which put them on par with the gods (isothe-22 11 CULTURECybele, a Phrygian mother Goddess, enthroned, with lion,cornucopia and Mural crown.ism) than on actual belief of their divine nature. Ac-cording to Peter Green, these cults did not produce gen-uine belief of the divinity of rulers among the Greeksand Macedonians.[110] The worship of Alexander was alsopopular, as in the long lived cult at Erythrae and of course,at Alexandria, where his tomb was located.The Hellenistic age also saw a rise in the disillusionmentwith traditional religion.[111] The rise of philosophy andthe sciences had removed the gods from many of theirtraditional domains such as their role in the movement ofthe heavenly bodies and natural disasters. The Sophistsproclaimed the centrality of humanity and agnosticism;the belief in Euhemerism (the view that the gods weresimply ancient kings and heroes), became popular. Thepopular philosopher Epicurus promoted a view of disin-terested gods living far away from the human realm inmetakosmia. The apotheosis of rulers also brought theidea of divinity down to earth. While there does seemto have been a substantial decline in religiosity, this wasmostly reserved for the educated classes.[112]Magic was practiced widely, and these too, were a con-tinuation from earlier times.Throughout the Hellenisticworld, people would consult oracles, and use charms andgurines to deter misfortune or to cast spells. Also de-veloped in this era was the complex system of astrology,which sought to determine a persons character and futurein the movements of the sun, moon, and planets. Astrol-ogy was widely associated with the cult of Tyche (luck,fortune), which grew in popularity during this period.11.3 LiteratureRelief with Menander and New Comedy Masks (Roman, AD 40-60) - the masks show three New Comedy stock characters: youth,false maiden, old man. Collection of Princeton Art Museum.The Hellenistic period saw the rise of New Comedy, theonly few surviving representative texts being those ofMenander (born 342/1 BCE). Only one play, Dyskolos,survives in its entirety. The plots of this new Hellenisticcomedy of manners were more domestic and formulaic,stereotypical low born characters such as slaves becamemore important, the language was colloquial and majormotifs included escapism, marriage, romance and luck(Tyche).[113] Though no Hellenistic tragedy remains in-tact, they were still widely produced during the period,yet it seems that there was no major breakthrough in style,remaining within the classical model. The SupplementumHellenisticum, a modern collection of extant fragments,contains the fragments of 150 authors.[114]Hellenistic poets now sought patronage from kings, andwrote works in their honor. The scholars at the libraries inAlexandria and Pergamon focused on the collection, cata-loging, and literary criticism of classical Athenian worksand ancient Greek myths. The poet-critic Callimachus,a staunch elitist, wrote hymns equating Ptolemy II toZeus and Apollo. He promoted short poetic forms suchas the epigram, epyllion and the iambic and attackedepic as base and common (big book, big evil was hisdoctrine).[115]He also wrote a massive catalog of theholdings of the library of Alexandria, the famous Pinakes.Callimachus was extremely inuential in his time and alsofor the development of Augustan poetry. Another poet,Apollonius of Rhodes, attempted to revive the epic forthe Hellenistic world with his Argonautica. He had beena student of Callimachus and later became chief librar-ian (prostates) of the library of Alexandria, Apolloniusand Callimachus spent much of their careers feuding witheach other. Pastoral poetry also thrived during the Hel-11.5 Sciences 23lenistic era, Theocritus was a major poet who popularizedthe genre.This period also saw the rise of the Ancient Greek novellike Daphnis and Chloe and the Ephesian Tale.Around 240 BCE Livius Andronicus, a Greek slave fromsouthern Italy,translated Homers Odyssey into Latin.Greek literature would have a dominant eect of the de-velopment of the Latin literature of the Romans. Thepoetry of Virgil, Horace and Ovid were all based on Hel-lenistic styles.11.4 PhilosophyZeno of Citium founded Stoic philosophy.Main article: Hellenistic philosophyDuring the Hellenistic period, many dierent schools ofthought developed. Athens, with its multiple philosophi-cal schools, continued to remain the center of philosoph-ical thought. However Athens had now lost her polit-ical freedom and Hellenistic philosophy is a reectionof this new dicult period. In this political climate,Hellenisticphilosopherswent insearchofgoalssuchas ataraxia (un-disturbedness), autarky (self-suciency)and apatheia (freedom from suering), which would al-low them to wrest well-being or eudaimonia out of themost dicult turns of fortune. This occupation with theinner life, with personal inner liberty and with the pur-suit of eudaimonia is what all Hellenistic philosophicalschools have in common.[116]The Epicureans and the Cynics rejected public ocesand civic service, which amounted to a rejection of thepolis itself, the dening institution of the Greek world.Epicurus promoted atomism and an asceticism based onfreedom from pain as its ultimate goal. Cynics suchas Diogenes of Sinope rejected all material possessionsand social conventions (nomos) as unnatural and useless.The Cyrenaics meanwhile, embraced hedonism, arguingthat pleasure was the only true good.Stoicism, foundedby Zeno of Citium, taught that virtue was sucient foreudaimonia as it would allow one to live in accordancewith Nature or Logos. Zeno became extremely popular,the Athenians set up a gold statue of him and AntigonusII Gonatas invited him to the Macedonian court. Thephilosophical schools of Aristotle (the Peripatetics of theLyceum) and Plato (Platonism at the Academy) also re-mained inuential. The academy would eventually turnto Academic Skepticism under Arcesilaus until it was re-jected by Antiochus of Ascalon (c. 90 BCE) in favorof Neoplatonism. Hellenistic philosophy, had a signif-icant inuence on the Greek ruling elite. Examples in-clude Athenian statesman Demetrius of Phaleron, whohad studied in the lyceum; the Spartan king Cleomenes IIIwho was a student of the Stoic Sphairos of Borysthenesand Antigonus II who was also a well known Stoic. Thiscan also be said of the Roman upper classes, were Sto-icismwas dominant, as seen in the Meditations of the Ro-man emperor Marcus Aurelius and the works of Cicero.The spread of Christianity throughout the Roman world,followed by the spread of Islam, ushered in the end ofHellenistic philosophy and the beginnings of Medievalphilosophy (often forcefully, as under Justinian I), whichwas dominated by the three Abrahamic traditions: Jewishphilosophy, Christian philosophy, and early Islamic phi-losophy. In spite of this shift, Hellenistic philosophy con-tinued to inuence these three religious traditions and therenaissance thought which followed them.11.5 SciencesFurther information: Hellenistic astronomy, Hellenisticmathematics and Hellenistic geographyHellenistic culture produced seats of learning through-out the Mediterranean. Hellenistic science diered fromGreek science in at least two ways: rst, it beneted24 11 CULTUREEratosthenes method for determining the radius and circumfer-ence of the Earth.Oneoftheoldest survivingfragments ofEuclidsElements,found at Oxyrhynchus and dated to circa AD 100 (P. Oxy. 29).The diagram accompanies Book II, Proposition 5.[117]from the cross-fertilization of Greek ideas with thosethat had developed in the larger Hellenistic world; sec-ondly, to some extent, it was supported by royalpa-trons in the kingdoms founded by Alexanders succes-sors. Especially important to Hellenistic science was thecity of Alexandria in Egypt, which became a major cen-ter of scientic research in the 3rd century BC. Hellenis-tic scholars frequently employed the principles developedin earlier Greek thought: the application of mathemat-ics and deliberate empirical research, in their scienticinvestigations.[118]Hellenistic Geometers such as Archimedes (c. 287 212 BC), Apollonius of Perga (c. 262 c. 190 BC),and Euclid (c. 325 265 BC),whoseElements be-came the most important textbook in mathematics un-til the 19th century, built upon the work of the Hel-lenic era Pythagoreans. Euclid developed proofs for thePythagorean Theorem, for the innitude of primes, andworked on the ve Platonic solids.[119] Eratosthenes usedhis knowledge of geometry to measure the circumferenceof the Earth. His calculation was remarkably accurate.He was also the rst to calculate the tilt of the Earths axis