Hellenistic civilization

From Free net encyclopedia

The term Hellenistic (derived from Template:Polytonic Héllēn, the Greeks' traditional self-described ethnic name) was established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen to refer to the spreading of Greek culture over the non-Greek peoples that were conquered by Alexander the Great. According to Droysen, the Hellenistic civilisation was a fusion of Greek and "Oriental" culture that eventually gave Christianity the opportunity to flourish. The main cultural centers expanded from mainland Greece, to Pergamon, Rhodes, Antioch and Alexandria.

Modern historians see the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC as the beginning of the Hellenistic period. Alexander's armies conquered the eastern Mediterranean, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Iranian plateau, Central Asia, and parts of India. Following Alexander's death, there was a struggle for the succession, known as the wars of the Diadochi (Greek for successors). These ended in 281 BC with the establishment of four large territorial states:

The Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt based at Alexandria;
The Seleucid dynasty in Syria and Mesopotamia based at Antioch;
The Antigonid dynasty in Macedon and central Greece;
The Attalid dynasty in Anatolia based at Pergamum.

Image:MenanderCoin.jpg His successors held on to the territory west of the Tigris for some time and controlled the eastern Mediterranean until the Roman Republic took control in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. Most of the east was eventually overrun by the Parthians, but Hellenistic culture held on in distant locations, like the Greco-Bactrian kingdom in Bactria, or the Indo-Greek kingdom in northern India, or the Cimmerian Bosporus. Hellenistic culture remained dominant in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire until its Christianization and transition to the Byzantine Empire.

It must also be added that Hellenism made considerable inroads also in monarchies governed by kings of Persian or Thracian origin, as was the case with Bithynia, Cappadocia and Pontus.

The end of the Hellenistic period is generally seen as 31 BC, when the kingdom of Ptolemaic Egypt was utterly defeated by the Romans at the Battle of Actium. As a result, Egypt's last ruler, Cleopatra, committed suicide and her kingdom was annexed by Octavian.

[edit]