The resulting Indo-Scythian kingdom seems to have gradually pushed the remaining Indo-Greek kingdom towards the east. During this period, sculptors pursued and perfected naturalism —an artistic interest that Greek artists had been developing over hundreds of years. Hellenist (Ancient Greek: Ἑλληνιστής, Hellēnistēs), have been attested since ancient times,[12] it was Johann Gustav Droysen in the mid-19th century, who in his classic work Geschichte des Hellenismus (History of Hellenism), coined the term Hellenistic to refer to and define the period when Greek culture spread in the non-Greek world after Alexander's conquest. Pyrrhus then went to war with Macedonia in 275 BC, deposing Antigonus II Gonatas and briefly ruling over Macedonia and Thessaly until 272. Hellenistic Athens also saw the rise of New Comedy and the Hellenistic schools of philosophy such as Stoicism and Epicureanism. [2] The Greek-language word Hellas (Ἑλλάς, Ellás) was originally the widely recognized name of Greece, from which the word Hellenistic was derived.[3]. The language of Philip II's and Alexander's court and army (which was made up of various Greek and non-Greek speaking peoples) was a version of Attic Greek, and over time this language developed into Koine, the lingua franca of the successor states. Classical city states such as Athens and Ephesus grew and even thrived in this period. Hellenistic art is the art of the Hellenistic period generally taken to begin with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and end with the conquest of the Greek world by the Romans, a process well underway by 146 BCE, when the Greek mainland was taken, and essentially ending in 30 BCE with the conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt following the Battle of Actium. Walbank, Frank W., Alan E. Astin, Martin W. Frederiksen, and Robert M. Ogilvie, editors. Numismatic evidence shows Greek artistic styles and the use of the Greek language. The Odrysians used Greek as the language of administration[38] and of the nobility. The rest of the army was made up of native troops. After this war he controlled most of south-east Sicily and had himself proclaimed king, in imitation of the Hellenistic monarchs of the east. Eumenes II also constructed the Pergamum Altar with friezes depicting the Gigantomachy on the acropolis of the city. Roman taxes were imposed, except in Athens and Sparta, and all the cities had to accept rule by Rome's local allies. Ptolemaic queens, some of whom were the sisters of their husbands, were usually called Cleopatra, Arsinoe, or Berenice. Afterwards he invaded southern Greece, and was killed in battle against Argos in 272 BC. After his death, the huge territories Alexander had conquered became subject to a strong Greek influence (Hellenization) for the next two or three centuries, until the rise of Rome in the west, and of Parthia in the east. The Mahabharata compliments them as "the all-knowing Yavanas" (sarvajñā yavanā); e.g., "The Yavanas, O king, are all-knowing; the Suras are particularly so. [37] The Diadochi also used Thracian mercenaries in their armies and they were also used as colonists. After 278 BC the Odrysians had a strong competitor in the Celtic Kingdom of Tylis ruled by the kings Comontorius and Cavarus, but in 212 BC they conquered their enemies and destroyed their capital. There has been a trend in writing the history of this period to depict Hellenistic art as a decadent style, following the Golden Age of Classical Athens. Alexander appointed an Orontid named Mithranes to govern Armenia. [82] Antiochus IV Epiphanes sacked Jerusalem and looted the Temple in 169 BC after disturbances in Judea during his abortive invasion of Egypt. The depictions of the Buddha appear to have been influenced by Greek culture: Buddha representations in the Ghandara period often showed Buddha under the protection of Herakles. The second Diadochi war began following the death of Antipater in 319 BC. The philosophical schools of Aristotle (the Peripatetics of the Lyceum) and Plato (Platonism at the Academy) also remained influential. Hellenistic Greece In 336 B.C., Alexander the Great became the leader of the Greek kingdom of Macedonia. The kingdoms of Cappadocia, Bithynia and Pontus were all practically independent by this time as well. [59][61][62][63] The Greek population of the cities who formed the dominant elite were reinforced by emigration from Greece. Between 301 and 219 BC the Ptolemies ruled Judea in relative peace, and Jews often found themselves working in the Ptolemaic administration and army, which led to the rise of a Hellenized Jewish elite class (e.g. Throughout the Hellenistic world, these Greco-Macedonian colonists considered themselves by and large superior to the native "barbarians" and excluded most non-Greeks from the upper echelons of courtly and government life. An unknown engineer developed the torsion-spring catapult (c. 360 BC) and Dionysios of Alexandria designed a repeating ballista, the Polybolos. Epigraphic evidence also shows extensive Hellenistic influence in the interior. The importance of Athens gradually declined, and cultural centers rose at Pergamum, Rhodes, and Alexandria. Ancient Greece Hellenistic. In the aftermath, Philip formed the League of Corinth, effectively bringing the majority of Greece under his direct sway. The third era of ancient Greek history was the Hellenistic Age when the Greek language and culture spread throughout the Mediterranean world. Ancient Greece had traditionally been a fractious collection of fiercely independent city-states. 300 BC - Euclid, a Greek mathematician, writes Elements. [13] Following Droysen, Hellenistic and related terms, e.g. 323 BC-31BC), was comprised of gold. The King of Macedonia brought extreme and remote regions under one vast umbrella. Not just in one field, but in everything they set their minds to...As subjects of a tyrant, what had they accomplished?...Held down like slaves they had shirked and slacked; once they had won their freedom, not a citizen but he could feel like he was labouring for himself"[147]. Antigonus's son Demetrius II died in 229 BC, leaving a child (Philip V) as king, with the general Antigonus Doson as regent. Lesser supplementary sources include Curtius Rufus, Pausanias, Pliny, and the Byzantine encyclopedia the Suda. The Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period Polybius asked: "Who is so thoughtless and lazy that he does not want to know in what way and with what kind of government the Romans in less than 53 years conquered the entire inhabited world and brought it under their rule- … Luckily for the Greeks, Flamininus was a moderate man and an admirer of Greek culture. The Hellenistic age also saw a rise in the disillusionment with traditional religion. The Hellenic Age is significantly different from the Hellenistic Age. [17] The generals who had supported Perdiccas were rewarded in the partition of Babylon by becoming satraps of the various parts of the empire, but Perdiccas' position was shaky, because, as Arrian writes, "everyone was suspicious of him, and he of them".[18]. This period also saw the adoption of new weapons and troop types such as Thureophoroi and the Thorakitai who used the oval Thureos shield and fought with javelins and the machaira sword. Hellenism, have been widely used in various contexts; a notable such use is in Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold, where Hellenism is used in contrast with Hebraism.[14]. Following division of Alexander's empire, Seleucus I Nicator received Babylonia. Greece in the Hellenistic Age. Under the leadership of an adventurer called Andriscus, Macedon rebelled against Roman rule in 149 BC: as a result it was directly annexed the following year and became a Roman province, the first of the Greek states to suffer this fate. Artists such as Peiraikos chose mundane and lower class subjects for his paintings. A pretext for war was provided by Philip's refusal to end his war with Attalid Pergamum and Rhodes, both Roman allies. Ptolemy himself was eager to patronise the library, scientific research and individual scholars who lived on the grounds of the library. This culminated at the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC, a crushing Roman victory in the Peloponnese that led to the destruction of Corinth and ushered in the period of Roman Greece. However, local cultures were not replaced, and mostly went on as before, but now with a new Greco-Macedonian or otherwise Hellenized elite. A crippling treaty was imposed on Antiochus, with Seleucid possessions in Asia Minor removed and given to Rhodes and Pergamum, the size of the Seleucid navy reduced, and a massive war indemnity invoked. Rather, some Greeks came to Alexandria to learn and share knowledge. Stoicism, founded by Zeno of Citium, taught that virtue was sufficient for eudaimonia as it would allow one to live in accordance with Nature or Logos. Southern Greece was now thoroughly brought into the Roman sphere of influence, though it retained nominal autonomy. 323 BC – 27 BC. In Asia, Eumenes was betrayed by his own men after years of campaign and was given up to Antigonus who had him executed. The Ptolemaic ruler cult portrayed the Ptolemies as gods, and temples to the Ptolemies were erected throughout the kingdom. The Hellenistic period began with the wars of the Diadochi, armed contests among the former generals of Alexander the Great to carve up his empire in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. [53] The monarch was also expected to serve as a charitable patron of the people; this public philanthropy could mean building projects and handing out gifts but also promotion of Greek culture and religion. Further ruin was brought to Greece by the Roman civil wars, which were partly fought in Greece. The Seleucid Antiochus III had allied with Philip V of Macedon in 203 BC, agreeing that they should jointly conquer the lands of the boy-king of Egypt, Ptolemy V. After defeating Ptolemy in the Fifth Syrian War, Antiochus concentrated on occupying the Ptolemaic possessions in Asia Minor. Pastoral poetry also thrived during the Hellenistic era, Theocritus was a major poet who popularized the genre. Finally, in 27 BC, Augustus directly annexed Greece to the new Roman Empire as the province of Achaea. The rebels were supported by Lysimachus, the satrap of Thrace and Ptolemy, the satrap of Egypt. They enjoyed Greek theater, and Greek art influenced Parthian art. [94], The Greek colonies on the west coast of the Black sea, such as Istros, Tomi and Callatis traded with the Thracian Getae who occupied modern-day Dobruja. Indian sources also maintain religious contact between Buddhist monks and the Greeks, and some Greco-Bactrians did convert to Buddhism. The Hellenistic period was a good time for the Greeks – until the Romans conquered them in the 100s BC. With the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek art entered its last great phase, the Hellenistic period (see Hellenistic civilization. After Alexander's conquests the region of 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. Celtic coinage was influenced by Greek designs,[43] and Greek letters can be found on various Celtic coins, especially those of Southern France. Hellenistic scholars frequently employed the principles developed in earlier Greek thought: the application of mathematics and deliberate empirical research, in their scientific investigations.[128]. In 310 BC, Cassander had young King Alexander IV and his mother Roxana murdered, ending the Argead Dynasty which had ruled Macedon for several centuries. --though this end-point is often debated, and can range from 146BC to 330AD. Hellenistic age, in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, the period between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 bce and the conquest of Egypt by Rome in 30 bce. J.-C. Webber, Christopher; Odyrsian arms equipment and tactics. [6] This resulted in the export of Greek culture and language to these new realms, spanning as far as modern-day India. The city of Emporion (modern Empúries), originally founded by Archaic-period settlers from Phocaea and Massalia in the 6th century BC near the village of Sant Martí d'Empúries (located on an offshore island that forms part of L'Escala, Catalonia, Spain),[46] was reestablished in the 5th century BC with a new city (neapolis) on the Iberian mainland. 5.5 Hellenistic Period (323 – 30 BCE) • Begins after the death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE); lasts through the defeat of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony by the Romans at the Battle of Actium (30 BCE) • Relate the influence on Greek architecture as a result of the expansion of the Greek world. [79] They also slowly adopted Greek as a language of commerce along with Aramaic and Arabic. It is this diversity that characterizes the era of Hellenistic Greek art, the period of eclecticism. Hellenistic Culture is the blending of Greek, Persian, Indian, and Egyptian elements. Rome now demanded that the Achaean League, the last stronghold of Greek independence, be dissolved. nearly all of the Hellenistic territory passed under Roman rule. Tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play were the three dramatic genres to emerge there. Further inland was the Illyrian Paeonian Kingdom and the tribe of the Agrianes. Cassander's power was challenged by Antigonus, ruler of Anatolia, who promised the Greek cities that he would restore their freedom if they supported him. However the socio-political changes brought on by the conquest of the Persian empire and Greek emigration abroad meant that change also came to religious practices. During the Hellenistic period, many different schools of thought developed, and these schools of Hellenistic philosophy had a significant influence on the Greek and Roman ruling elite. Under his auspices the Peace of Naupactus (217 BC) brought conflict between Macedon and the Greek leagues to an end, and at this time he controlled all of Greece except Athens, Rhodes and Pergamum. In 192 BC, war broke out between Rome and the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III. 300 BC - Euclid, a Greek mathematician, writes Elements. Antigonus II Gonatas invaded Thrace in the summer of 277 and defeated a large force of 18,000 Gauls. Macedon was no match for this army, and Perseus was unable to rally the other Greek states to his aid. Galatia was henceforth dominated by Rome through regional rulers from 189 BC onward. Epirus was a northwestern Greek kingdom in the western Balkans ruled by the Molossian Aeacidae dynasty. In spite of their decreased political power and autonomy, the Greek city state or polis continued to be the basic form of political and social organization in Greece. [98] Alexander had planned to settle the eastern shores of the Persian Gulf with Greek colonists, and although it is not clear that this happened on the scale he envisaged, Tylos was very much part of the Hellenised world: the language of the upper classes was Greek (although Aramaic was in everyday use), while Zeus was worshipped in the form of the Arabian sun-god Shams. The ancient Georgian kingdoms had trade relations with the Greek city-states on the Black Sea coast such as Poti and Sukhumi. Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. The Kushan Empire which followed continued to use Greek on their coinage and Greeks continued being influential in the empire. During the reign of Mithridates I of Parthia, Arsacid control expanded to include Herat (in 167 BC), Babylonia (in 144 BC), Media (in 141 BC), Persia (in 139 BC), and large parts of Syria (in the 110s BC). [109] Antioch was founded as a metropolis and center of Greek learning which retained its status into the era of Christianity. Orontid Armenia formally passed to the empire of Alexander the Great following his conquest of Persia. (Massalia is a classic example, often forgotten, of the durability of the Greek city-state in the Hellenistic age; even in 121 bce, when the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis was established, Massalia was still an equal ally of the Roman Republic.) John Boardman, "The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity", Princeton University Press, 1993, p.130: "The Indian king's grandson, Asoka, was a convert to Buddhism. 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