Historians call the three centuries from the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) to Rome's conquest of Egypt (31-30 BC) the Hellenistic age. The name, coined in the 19th century, describes a world where Greek language and culture had spread far beyond Greece, blending with those of the East.
The successor kingdoms
When Alexander died his generals, the Diadochi, fought for decades to divide his empire. Several great kingdoms emerged:
| Kingdom | Capital | Dynasty | End |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egypt | Alexandria | Ptolemies, down to Cleopatra VII | 30 BC, Roman conquest |
| Seleucid empire | Antioch and Seleucia | Seleucids | 63 BC, Roman conquest |
| Macedon and Greece | Pella | Antigonids | 168 BC, battle of Pydna |
| Pergamon | Pergamon | Attalids | 133 BC, bequeathed to Rome |
Greek cities such as Athens and Sparta lost political weight, squeezed between the great kingdoms; they formed leagues such as the Achaean League and the Aetolian League. The island of Rhodes became a commercial and naval power, famous for its Colossus.
Alexandria
Founded by Alexander in 331 BC, Alexandria in Egypt became the largest and richest city in the Mediterranean. The Ptolemies built the Museum, a research centre where scholars paid by the king worked in every field, and the Library, which may have held hundreds of thousands of scrolls. At the harbour entrance the Lighthouse, over a hundred metres tall, was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. In Alexandria the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek: the Septuagint.
Language and culture
Across the Hellenistic world people spoke koine, the Greek "common language" based on the Attic dialect: the language of the New Testament. Cities acquired gymnasia, theatres and libraries, and local elites from Egypt to Bactria adopted Greek ways.
Science and philosophy
The Hellenistic age was a golden age for science:
- Euclid wrote the Elements, the geometry textbook used for over two thousand years.
- Archimedes of Syracuse calculated pi and discovered the principles of the lever and buoyancy.
- Eratosthenes measured the Earth's circumference with a surprisingly small error.
- Aristarchus of Samos proposed that the Earth goes round the Sun.
- Herophilus and Erasistratus studied human anatomy.
In philosophy came the Stoicism of Zeno of Citium, teaching calm acceptance of fate, and the Epicureanism of Epicurus, which sought happiness in freedom from pain and fear. See Greek philosophy.
Art
Hellenistic art loves movement, emotion and realism: twisting bodies, suffering faces, old people, children, scenes of daily life. Masterpieces include the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo (now in the Louvre), the Laocoön group (Vatican Museums) and the Pergamon Altar (Berlin). See Greek art.
The end
Rome intervened ever more in the Greek world: it defeated Macedon at Pydna in 168 BC, destroyed Corinth in 146 BC and annexed the Hellenistic kingdoms one by one. The last was Egypt: after Antony and Cleopatra's defeat at Actium (31 BC), Cleopatra took her life and Egypt became a Roman province. See Roman Greece.