His son, Zipoetes I of Bithynia maintained this autonomy against Lysimachus and Seleucus I, and assumed the title of king (basileus) in 297 BC. The Greek kingdom of Bactria began as a breakaway satrapy of the Seleucid empire, which, because of the size of the empire, had significant freedom from central control. These policies can also be interpreted as the result of Alexander's possible megalomania[112] during his later years. They were defeated by Seleucus I in the 'battle of the Elephants', but were still able to establish a Celtic territory in central Anatolia. This came to an end when they sided with the renegade Seleucid prince Antiochus Hierax who tried to defeat Attalus, the ruler of Pergamon (241–197 BC). At the same time, Callimachus substituted the epyllia for trie traditional heroic epic; the epyllia was a narrative poem of moderate length that set forth, in a conversational tone, the ancillary episodes of a heroic account. The story of a single, triune God, and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ remain absolutely untouched by Hellenism. Under the Antigonids, Macedonia was often short on funds, the Pangaeum mines were no longer as productive as under Philip II, the wealth from Alexander's campaigns had been used up and the countryside pillaged by the Gallic invasion. Ptolemaic Egypt was the center of Hellenistic influence in Africa and Greek colonies also thrived in the region of Cyrene, Libya. Epicurus, who based his doctrines on the atomistic theory of Democritus and the ethics of the Cyrenaics, began teaching in 309 B.C. Up to two thirds of the population emigrated, and the Macedonian army could only count on a levy of 25,000 men, a significantly smaller force than under Philip II.[26]. The most important source after Polybius is Diodorus Siculus who wrote his Bibliotheca historica between 60 and 30 BC and reproduced some important earlier sources such as Hieronymus, but his account of the Hellenistic period breaks off after the battle of Ipsus (301 BC). Antigonus II, a student of Zeno of Citium, spent most of his rule defending Macedon against Epirus and cementing Macedonian power in Greece, first against the Athenians in the Chremonidean War, and then against the Achaean League of Aratus of Sicyon. [25] A large number of the Macedonian population had also been resettled abroad by Alexander or had chosen to emigrate to the new eastern Greek cities. The individual structures, symmetrical in placement and in the design of their facades, were conceived as elements of a total ensemble designed to be viewed from the facade. Circa 300 B.C, Aristotle’s pupil Dicaearchus drew a map of the entire known world and attempted to ascertain the dimensions of the globe; his results were specified by Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who made valuable contributions to a wide variety of disciplines. As far as the Indian subcontinent, Hellenistic influence on Indian art was broad and far-reaching, and had effects for several centuries following the forays of Alexander the Great. The Egyptian countryside was directly administered by this royal bureaucracy. The Celts who settled in Galatia came through Thrace under the leadership of Leotarios and Leonnorios c. 270 BC. The contradictions between the political and socioeconomic development of society account for the contradictory quality of Hellenistic art, which combines rationalism and expressionism, skepticism and emotionality, an elegiac quality with a profound sense of drama, and archaism and innovation. characteristic of or relating to Greek civilization in the Mediterranean world, esp from the death of Alexander the Great (323 bc) to the defeat of Antony … Despite this, it is often considered a period of transition, sometimes even of decadence or degeneration,[4] compared to the enlightenment of the Greek Classical era. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World, 2007. p. 35. Lesser supplementary sources include Curtius Rufus, Pausanias, Pliny, and the Byzantine encyclopedia the Suda. It included a diverse population estimated at fifty to sixty million people. Heliocles was the last Greek to clearly rule Bactria, his power collapsing in the face of central Asian tribal invasions (Scythian and Yuezhi), by about 130 BC. Macedon was located at the periphery of the Greek world, and although its royal family claimed Greek descent, the Macedonians themselves were looked down upon as semi-barbaric by the rest of the Greeks. Architectural ensembles were based on rectangular floor plans, and an emphasis was placed on horizontals and verticals in the surfaces of the facades. Many supposed kings in India are known only because of coins bearing their name. Southern Italy (Magna Graecia) and south-eastern Sicily had been colonized by the Greeks during the 8th century. The worship of dynastic ruler cults was also a feature of this period, most notably in Egypt, where the Ptolemies adopted earlier Pharaonic practice, and established themselves as god-kings. The poet-critic Callimachus, a staunch elitist, wrote hymns equating Ptolemy II to Zeus and Apollo. It led to a steady emigration, particularly of the young and ambitious, to the new Greek empires in the east. 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. 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). The use of Greek-style portraits and Greek language continued under the Roman, Parthian, and Kushan empires, even as the use of Greek was in decline. However, Greek urban civilisation seems to have continued in Bactria after the fall of the kingdom, having a hellenising effect on the tribes which had displaced Greek rule. Greek literature would have a dominant effect on the development of the Latin literature of the Romans. He once again laid siege to Athens after they turned on him, but then struck a treaty with the Athenians and Ptolemy, which allowed him to cross over to Asia Minor and wage war on Lysimachus' holdings in Ionia, leaving his son Antigonus Gonatas in Greece. One of the principal cults was that of Zeus Hypsistos, the supreme god, who was identified with such gods as the Phoenician Baal, the Egyptian Ammon, the Babylonian Bel, and the Jewish Yahweh. This distinction is remarked upon in William M. Ramsay (revised by Mark W. Wilson). The forms of worship of the deities changed, and the mysteries took on a more orgiastic character. The kingdoms of Cappadocia, Bithynia and Pontus were all practically independent by this time as well. [120] The worship of Alexander was also popular, as in the long lived cult at Erythrae and of course, at Alexandria, where his tomb was located. Athens, with its multiple philosophical schools, continued to remain the center of philosophical thought. Impressive scientific innovations were made in Alexandria where the Greek Eratosthenes computed the circumference of the earth, … [2] The Greek-language word Hellas (Ἑλλάς, Ellás) was originally the widely recognized name of Greece, from which the word Hellenistic was derived.[3]. After their defeat in the First Punic War, Carthage hired a Spartan mercenary captain, Xanthippus of Carthage, to reform their military forces. Since 1870s,… See definitions of hellenistic. The most important feature of Hellenistic literature is its narrower social scope in comparison with the previous period of Greek history, the city-state period. Undoubtedly Greek influence did spread through the Hellenistic realms, but to what extent, and whether this was a deliberate policy or mere cultural diffusion, have been hotly debated. However, while this campaign was in its early stages, he was assassinated.[4]. The years of constant campaigning had taken their toll however, and Alexander died in 323 BC. The skeptics subsequently merged with Plato’s Academy, where Arcesilaus founded the Middle Academy and Carneades founded the New Academy; during the first century B.C. The exact justification for the invasion remains unclear, but by about 175 BC, the Greeks ruled over parts of northwestern India. Carthage was a Phoenician colony on the coast of Tunisia. [101] The core of Carthage's military was the Greek-style phalanx formed by citizen hoplite spearmen who had been conscripted into service, though their armies also included large numbers of mercenaries. He may have been attempting to Hellenize the region and unify his empire and the Jewish resistance to this eventually led to an escalation of violence. This had already been a feature of Macedonian kingship, which had priestly duties. The most important historian of the second century was Polybius, who wrote a history of the world from 220 to 146. Under Ptolemy II, Callimachus, Apollonius of Rhodes, Theocritus, and a host of other poets including the Alexandrian Pleiad made the city a center of Hellenistic literature. In 307 BC he took Athens, expelling Demetrius of Phaleron, Cassander's governor, and proclaiming the city free again. It is a 37-gear mechanical computer which computed the motions of the Sun and Moon, including lunar and solar eclipses predicted on the basis of astronomical periods believed to have been learned from the Babylonians. As a result, in an attempt to reduce Roman influence in the Balkans, Philip allied himself with Carthage after Hannibal had dealt the Romans a massive defeat at the Battle of Cannae (216 BC) during the Second Punic War. [59][61] These cities included newly founded colonies such as Antioch, the other cities of the Syrian tetrapolis, Seleucia (north of Babylon) and Dura-Europos on the Euphrates. This varied greatly by location. 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