Hellenistic Period 323-168 B.C.
With the death of Alexander the Great, his kingdom was split into three by his
generals. The Antigonid dynasty controlled mainland Greece. The Seleucids governed the
entire eastern empire, which was the largest portion of the territory, and the Ptolemies
ruled the land of ancient Egypt. Disagreements arising from this division resulted in a
series of wars form 322 to 275 B.C., most of which took place in Greece.
The Hellenistic period was an international, cosmopolitan age with widespread
commercial contacts and multicultural urban centers became popular in the Hellenized
world. The Hellenistic period marked the deterioration of the Greek city-states as
political entities and the gradual decline of Greek political independence. Yet the same
period was a triumph of Greece as the center of culture, and its way of life was adopted
throughout the ancient world. Hellenistic culture became one of the most important
elements in early Christianity.
The Achaean League
In 290 BC the city-states of central Greece began to join the Aetolian League, a
military confederation that had originally been organized during the reign of Philip II by
the cities of Aetolia for mutual protection. By 280 BC, a second and similar organization,
known as the Achaean League, became the supreme confederation of the cities in the
northern Peloponnesus.
Both alliances were dedicated to freeing Greece from domination by Macedonia. The
Achaean League became much more powerful than the Aetolian League and tried to control of
all Greece by starting a conflict with Sparta, which had joined neither alliance. In the
war between the Achaeans and Sparta, the league was at first defeated. Abandonning
its orignial purpose, it called on Macedonia for military aid, enabling it to defeat
Spart, but placing it under the domination of Macedonia.
The Rise of Rome
With the 3rd century B.C. came the rise of ancient Rome. After conquering most of the
Italic peninsula, Rome fought with the Carthaginians for control of Sicily, Spain and the
other regions of Punic domination in what became known as the Punic Wars. Gradually the
former empire of Alexander was taken into Roman hands. Corinth was destroyed in 146 B.C.,
Athens captured in 86 B.C., and Cleopatra and Mark Antony defeated at the Battle of Actium
in 31 B.C.. Their defeat marks the end of the Hellenistic Age.
Key Cultural Points of the Hellenistic Era
- Advances were made in various fields of scientific inquiry, including engineering,
physics, astronomy and mathematics.
- Great libraries were founded in Alexandria, Athens and the independent kingdom of
Pergamum
- The capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, Alexandria, developed into a center of Greek learning
rivaling and occasionally surpassing Athens
- Mmathematicians: Euclid and Archimedes
- Philosophers: Epicurus and Zeno
- Poets: Apollonius of Rhodes and Theocritus
- The old beliefs in Olympian gods were infused with foreign elements, especially from
the east; "Oriental" ecstatic cults, such as those of Cybele, Isis, and Mithras
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