Hellenistic World

Hellenistic Culture

During the Hellenistic period Greek culture spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean world. Many colonies were set up in Asia Minor and Syria by the Seleucids, and there was major immigration of Greeks to Egypt. These Greeks lost their parochial identity, adopted a new dialect (the koine or "common" dialect). This was based on Attic, the language of the Macedonian chancery and Athenian literature, with a few Attic peculiarities removed. Eventually this dialect drove out all the local dialects in Greece (with one small exception) and modern Greek is derived from the koine (which is the variety of Greek used in the New Testament). The colonies set up were new poleis, often named after the monarch who set them up. Now the polis was the center of Greek cultural life, not so much political.
This new broad world leads to two seemingly opposite but related changes in the Greek outlook. Now people saw the world as being larger than their own little community and there was a sense that a civilized world (oikoumene) existed. At the same time, people became more introverted. Whereas Classical art portrayed people as exemplars of human excellence rather than individuals and the Classical philosophers like Plato and Aristotle tried to give theoretical justification to life in the polis, in the Hellenistic period there was a more personal, subjective examination of human life in the broader perspective. Art portrayed individuals in a personal setting, and philosophy examined how the individual should live his own life.

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Hellenistic Philosophy
There were two earlier schools of philosophy that were born in the age of the city state.
The Academy was the school of thought set up by Plato. It examined the moral life within the context of the polis.
The Peripatetic school was set up by Aristotle, who tried to give a rationalizing basis to morality, again in the context of the polis.
Two particularly Hellenistic schools of philosophy arose.

Epicureanism
This school of thought was founded on the teachings of Epicurus (342-271). Epicurus wished people to live for their own pleasure as judged by their senses and to withdraw from life. He denied the existence of the gods as direct actors in the world, and thought that the pleasure or pain of an action was the sole gauge of its goodness. In his own understanding, he strove to minimize emotional disturbance and thus to satisfy the physical needs as simply as possible (eat just enough to end hunger). Taken to an extreme his teaching seemed to suggest physical excess, and that's what "Epicurean" means in English. His philosophy represents a turning away from the public world of the city state to the private world of the individual.

The Stoics
The Stoic school was based on the teachings of Zeno (335-263), who taught in the Painted Stoa ("portico") at Athens (hence the name). He taught that the world was animated from and created by reason (logos). Reason permeates all things. God, the soul of Zeus, fate, divine providence and divine law are all the same thing. The role of the wise man is to use his reason to figure out this divine reason and to determine the couse of action which is in accordance with divine reason. All manner of personal suffering is irrelevant (hence modern sense of "stoic"). Stoicism is thus a natural outcome of the Hellenistic experience. The world is not divided up into little city states, but a cultural unity, and so is the universe.
Both Epicureanism and Stoicism represent efforts for the individual to find a place in the new huge Hellenistic world.

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When Alexander The Great died in 333 B.C., the beginning of the Hellenistic World began, the Hellenistic teaching was in the world empire. When the Roman Empire conquered the Greek Empire, the Hellenistic teaching was then part of the world empire under Rome. But the Roman Empire included Greek gods and language of the Greeks in the empire. The world was filled with gods and the Hellenistic teaching. Satan was well on his way of dominating the earth.

Definition: Seleucid Empire - created out of part of Macedonian Empire after death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.E.) and, at its height, extended from southern coast of modern Turkey south through Palestine and east to India's border; spanned period 312 - 64 B.C.E

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Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age

Philip's son, Alexander (356-323 BC), known to us as Alexander the Great, proved that he was as brave as any hero of legend, when he led the charge of cavalry at the battle of Chaeronea. When Philip was assassinated in 336 BC, Alexander III want to carry out his father's plan of conquering the Persian Empire, ruled by Darius III. At first, Alexander was confronted by rebellion from Thrace, Illyria and Thebes in Boeotia, with the rest of Greece also stirring. Alexander was quick to respond to the threats, defeating the Thracians and Illyrians in quick raids. With Thebes, Alexander was ruthless, capturing and razing the city and enslaving the entire city population. Only the house of Pindar, the early 5th century BC poet, was spared from the destruction in Thebes. This quelled any thoughts of rebellions from the other city-states, including Athens.

With a mixture of Macedonian forces and Greek mercenaries, Alexander entered the Persian Empire. Alexander crossed the Hellespont with his army, and made a pilgrim to Troy. Alexander claimed to be a direct descendant of Achilles through Neoptolemus. Alexander then confronted the Persian massive army at Granicus, which he decisively defeated, but received a wound. Most satrapies (or provinces) in Asia Minor submitted to Alexander, because they hailed him as Liberator, but the Macedonian army had to lay siege to Miletus. Instead of defeating the Persian fleet in naval battles, Alexander's strategy was to capture the cities with harbours, so that the Persian had no base.

From Cilica, the Macedonian army entered into Syria, where a new battle was fought at Issus, in 333 BC. This time, Darius himself commanded the Persian army. Unlike Alexander, Darius didn't take part in the fighting. So when Darius sensed that he was facing defeat, the Great King abandoned his army and took flight. Among those captured, were Darius' mother, wife and children, whom Alexander treated with utmost respect of a royal family.

Most of Syria submitted to Alexander, except for two cities, the Phoenican city of Tyre, and further south in Palestine, called Gaza. These two cities were captured after ruthless sieges. Alexander then moved to Egypt, where he was welcomed. Here, Alexander founded a new city, called Alexandria (332 BC), north west coast of Egypt. Not only that the Egyptian priests had hailed him as the son of the god Ammon!

Alexander spent the winter in Egypt before heading east. In 331 BC, Alexander defeated the Persian army in the Battle of Gaugamela. Babylonia and Persia submitted to Alexander. Darius had again escaped and fled further east, into Bactria in Central Asia, with Alexander in hot pursuit, and the Persian emperor sought refuge with Bessus, Darius governor. Instead Bessus had Darius assassinated, where the Great King was stabbed to death. Alexander then pursued and captured Bessus, whom Alexander had executed, for murdering Darius III.

The Macedonian army then campaign in harsh landscape of Central Asia, against Scythia (Causcasus), Bactria and Sogdiana (modern Afghanistan). When he captured the fortress on Sogdian Rock in a hazardous rock climbing at night, he met Roxane, daughter of Oxyartes, whom he married. Some Macedonians, including his officers, were resentful when Alexander adopted the Oriental customs of Eastern despot among the Persian ministers.

However, at the same time, Alexander had brought with him Greek civilisation and culture to the East, including the Greek language. A new Greek dialect was developed, known as Koine, where it was universally used in the later Hellenistic kingdoms and it had outlast these kingdoms. Koine continued to be used when the Romans annexed the kingdoms in the East into their empire.

The Macedonian army then moved to the Hindu-Kush, before descending down to Indian great river, Indus. Alexander's campaign in India, climaxed with the Battle of the Hydaspes (326 BC). No long, after the battle, Alexander's men refused to advance eastward. So Alexander was forced to undertake a long trek back to Babylon. Alexander sailed part of the way along the southern coast, but made the rest of journey on foot, while his admiral Nearchus sailed up the Persian Gulf.

Back at Babylon in 323 BC, Alexander was preparing another expedition, this time to Arabian peninsula, but fell seriously ill. Alexander the Great died on June 13, 323 BC.

Some of his generals, like Ptolemy and Artistobulus, wrote memoirs of Alexander's campaigns. They were the main sources for later historians. Some of Alexander's adventure became romanticised, and was more legendary than historically true.

With Alexander's death, his empire didn't last. The empire was fractured into several large kingdoms, which included Macedonia (Cassander), Thrace (Lysimachus), the kingdom of Antigonus, which included Asia Minor and Syria, the kingdom of Selecus (Babylon, Persia and the entire kingdoms), and Ptolemy ruled Egypt and Libya. The Successors to Alexander's empire fought one another over the succeeding generations.

In Greece, two leagues were formed to oppose the Macedonian overlordship – Aetolian League and Achaean League (with its capital in Corinth).

In Egypt, Alexandria was Egypt's new capital, where Ptolemy and his successors ruled. A great library was built in Alexandria, at the beginning of 3rd century BC. Alexandria became a new centre of learning. Apollonius of Rhodes had worked in this library, and he wrote Jason's quest of the Golden Fleece, which was titled Argonautica. The Bible's Old Testament, was translated to Greek, known as Septuagint.

Macedonia and Greece fell to the Romans in early 2nd century BC, with the Roman army sacking Corinth in 146 BC. Greece and Macedonia became Roman provinces. Rome then proceeded to conquer other Hellenistic kingdoms. Egypt was the last great kingdom to fall to Rome. Her last ruler was Cleopatra, who committed suicide after losing control to the Roman general Octavian in 31 BC, who would later become Augustus, the first emperor of Rome.

Despite the warfare, literature in Greek continued to be written, and the Greek language continued to be used in the eastern half of the Roman Empire. When Roman Empire was in declined during the 4th century AD, the empire of Rome was divided into East and West (AD 394). The West was governed by Rome (and then later in Ravenna), but the capital in the East was at Constantiople, the old Greek city of Byzantium. Around 5th century AD, the Eastern empire ceased to be called a Roman Empire, and was generally referred to Byzantine Empire (or as a Greek empire), which outlasted Rome, and survived for a 1000 years. Constantiople finally fell to Ottoman Turks in 1453.

http://www.uwm.edu/Course/mythology/0100/ancient.htm


Greek Art : The Hellenistic Period

The Hellenistic period is usually said to begin with the conquests of Alexander the Great, around 330 B.C., during which time Greek art and culture spread to other lands. The sculptures of Hellenistic times tends to be much more active and intense, often in groups engaged in violent activity. One of the best examples of this style is the sculptural decorations of the Great Altar of Zeus at Pergamum. The first image shows the goddess Athena gripping a rebellious Giant by the hair; the second shows a close-up of Artemis' dog biting another giant.

Another well-known Hellenistic scupture is the Winged Victory of Samothrace, now in the Louvre, Paris. Although headless and armless, her rippling garment conveys a real sense of movement.

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