Hellenistic period

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Venus of Milo. It is one of the most representative works of the Hellenistic period. Milo is an island of Greece, south of the Aegean Sea.

It is called the Hellenistic period, Hellenism or Alexandrian period (after Alexander the Great; Ἑλληνισμός in classical Greek; Ελληνιστική περίοδος in modern Greek; Hellenismus in Latin) to a historical stage of Antiquity whose chronological limits are marked by two important political events: the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) and the suicide of the last Hellenistic sovereign, Cleopatra VII of Egypt, and her lover Mark Antony, after their defeat at the Battle of Actium (31 BC). It is the inheritance of the Hellenic culture of classical Greece that the Greek world receives through the hegemony and supremacy of Macedonia, first with the person of Alexander the Great and after his death with the diadochi (διάδοχοι) or successors, kings who founded the three great dynasties that would predominate at the time: Ptolemaic, Seleucid and Antigonid. These sovereigns knew how to preserve and encourage the Greek spirit, both in the arts and in the sciences. Among the educated and aristocratic people, "the Greek" was the important thing, and in this concept they educated their children. The rest of the population of the kingdoms located in Egypt and Asia did not participate in Hellenism and continued their customs, their language and their religions. The Greek city-states (Athens, Sparta and Thebes, among others) declined and were replaced in importance by the modern cities of Alexandria, Pergamum and Antioch, whose urban planning and construction had nothing to do with the previous ones. In all of them Greek was spoken in its variant called koiné (κoινή), a Greek adjective meaning "common". That is to say, the common or panhellenic language, the main vehicle of culture. This was used a lot at that time.

It is considered a transition period between the decline of classical Greek times and the rise of Roman power. However, the splendor of cities such as Alexandria, Antioch or Pergamum, the importance of economic changes, the cultural mix and the dominant role of the Greek language and its diffusion are factors that profoundly modified the ancient Middle East at this stage. This cultural heritage will be assimilated by the Roman world, thus emerging with the fusion of these two cultures what is called "classical culture", the foundation of Western civilization.

The term «Hellenistic» was used for the first time by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen in Geschichte des Hellenismus (1836 and 1843), based on a linguistic and cultural criterion, that is, the diffusion of the culture of the regions where Greek was spoken (ἑλληνίζειν – hellênizein), or directly related to Hellas through the language itself, a phenomenon encouraged by the ruling classes of Hellenic origin of those territories that never had a direct relationship with Greece, as could be the case of Egypt, Bactria or the territories of the Seleucid Empire. This process of Hellenization of the oriental peoples, and the fusion or assimilation of oriental and Greek cultural traits, continued, as mentioned, under the Roman Empire.

Recent archaeological and historical work leads to a reassessment of this period and, in particular, to two characteristic aspects of the period: the importance of the great kingdoms led by dynasties of Greek or Macedonian origin (Lagids, Seleucids, Antigonids, Atalidas, etc.), together with the determining role of dozens of cities whose importance was greater than the commonly accepted idea for a long time.

After the Peloponnesian Wars, the Greek polis continued to fight each other. This situation was taken advantage of by the Kingdom of Macedonia, located in northern Greece. His king Philip II subdued the Greek cities.

The political evolution of the Hellenistic world

The conquest of Alexander the Great, 4th century BC. C

Main article: Alexander the Great

With Alexander the Great, the hellenistic period began (sixteenth century)IVa. C.). Bust found in Alexandria, Egypt.

In the year 336 B.C. C., at 20 years of age, the son of Philip II was proclaimed king of Macedonia as Alexander III, being recognized as the ruler of all Hellas after his overwhelming victory over Thebes two years later. During his brief reign, which lasted just 13 years until 323 B.C. C., he made the fastest and most spectacular conquest of all Antiquity. The small Balkan kingdom, in alliance with some Greek polis, unexpectedly became the largest empire of the time, after subjugating the Persian Empire of Darius III. This Achaemenid ruler was defeated in four years (334–330) after three battles: on the Granicus River, at Issos, and on the Gaugamela plain. For the next four years (until 327 BC) Alexander dedicated himself to the slow and difficult conquest of the satrapies of Central Asia, in addition to ensuring, in 325 B.C. C., the Macedonian domination in the valley of the Indus river. At that time Alexander, pressured by his exhausted troops, had to give up continuing his epic, returning to what had become the nucleus of his empire, Babylon. At that time his domains stretched from the Danube to the Indus and from Egypt to the Sir Darya.

In order to secure his power throughout the territory, he tried to associate the ruling class of the former Achaemenid Empire with the Macedonian administrative structure. He tried to create a monarchy that would assume both the Macedonian and Greek heritage and, on the other, the Persian heritage and, in general terms, the Asian heritage. The unexpected death of the king, probably a victim of malaria at the age of 32, put an end to this original attempt, which was highly criticized by the sovereign's Macedonian entourage.

The period of the Diadochi, 323–281 B.C. C

Main article: Damage

Alexander's untimely death meant that his direct heirs were not old enough to face the task of ruling the empire. Of Alexander's two sons, Heracles (son of Barsine) was 4 years old, while Alexander (son of the Bactrian princess Roxana) had not yet been born at the time of his father's death.

In this way, the so-called Diadochi, Alexander's generals and officers throughout the Persian campaign, were the ones who fought for control of the empire for 40 years, until the year 281 BC. C. The successive wars in which Perdiccas, Ptolemy, Cassander, Lysimachus, Antigonus and Seleucus fought, to name the most relevant, ended both the cohesion of the empire (finally divided among the victors) and Alexander's relatives: his mother Olimpia, his sister Thessalonica, and their two sons.

The Hellenistic world to the death of Alexander the Great.

The regions of Greece, Macedonia and Asia Minor were the most deeply affected by the incessant military campaigns that faced the Diadochi, while the eastern part of the empire quickly broke away, creating several Greek kingdoms in Bactria. The generals paid little attention to the loss of the eastern territories, since what was essential for them was to gain full control of the empire by fighting their rivals. The exception was Ptolemy, one of Alexander's childhood companions, of whom some authors venture that he was an illegitimate son of Philip II. He cleverly seized Egypt at once and hastened to create a lasting state, giving up imperial ambitions that he considered unrealistic. He was one of the main opponents of the imperial cause, thus becoming one of the founders of the Hellenistic world.

However, Antigonus and his son Demetrius fought the hardest to re-establish the Macedonian Empire, coming to control Anatolia and the Mediterranean Levant before being defeated by a coalition of the rest of the Diadochi (except Ptolemy) at the Battle of Ipso (301 BC). With Antigonus dead, Demetrius fled to Europe, where he managed to temporarily seize Macedonia, before being defeated and ending his days miserably as a prisoner of Seleucus. The eldest son of Ptolemy I, Ptolemy Cerauno, was expelled from Egypt by his father, taking refuge in the house of his brother-in-law Lysimachus in Thrace, and seizing his kingdom and Macedonia, after which he came to assassinate Seleucus, who was facing he. The Middle East was, therefore, dominated by the ambitions of these generals, who quickly crowned themselves kings, supported by their troops, generally made up of Greek and Macedonian mercenaries.

The balance of the 3rd century B.C. C

Ptolemy I Soter, friend and general of Alexander the Great, inherited Egypt and completed the planned, especially in Alexandria. His reign and descendants are known as Ptolemaic dynasty, whose last reign was Cleopatra (falling before Rome). I'm looking at the Louvre Museum.

In this form, it was established in the III century BCE. C. a precarious balance between the three dynasties descendants of the diadocos, (the so-called epigones —επιγονος—, 'those born after' or 'successors') that Territories were distributed in an inhomogeneous and even forced manner. Macedonia and mainland Greece was ruled by the descendants of Antigonus (the Antigonids); Egypt, Cyprus and Cilicia by the Lágidas; and Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, and western Persia made up the loose Seleucid Empire.

Next to the three main monarchies, other smaller kingdoms coexisted, but they played a prominent role, such as the kingdom of Pergamum, controlled by the Attalids; the kingdom of Epirus, in present-day Albania; the kingdoms of Pontus and Bithynia, in Anatolia; or the one founded by Hiero II in Syracuse, in Magna Graecia.

It is also necessary to add the confederations of cities that opposed the interests of other larger kingdoms, especially Macedonia, such as the Achaean League and the Aetolian League, which played an important role in the Aegean area until the Roman conquest. Some of these cities even managed to fully preserve their independence and maintain relations on an equal footing with the Hellenistic kingdoms, as is the case with Rhodes.

The political end of Hellenism and the rise of the Romans, 2nd century BC. C

At the end of the II century a. C., and after 150 years of confrontations and weakening of all the cities, Greece finally fell under Roman domination. It was at the beginning of the II century B.C. C. when Rome really intervened in the East. At first he confronted the Antigonids militarily, specifically Antiochus III Megas, the most important of the Hellenistic sovereigns before Mithridates and Cleopatra. The defeat of Antiochus was decisive in the loss of political influence of the Seleucids in Central Asia, in Persia and, finally, in Mesopotamia. Antiochus III was the last Seleucid king who still had the means to lead an expedition to the limits of India. During the reign of his son, the Seleucids failed to dominate the insurrection of the Hasmoneans in Palestine, who managed to establish an independent Jewish kingdom. The irruption of the Parthians accelerated political decomposition and, at the beginning of the century I a. C., the Seleucid sovereigns only ruled in Syria.

After its victory over the Seleucids, Rome promoted a slow and complex process of attrition over the Hellenistic kingdoms, with the complicity of several Greek cities and the kingdom of Pergamum, ensuring after two centuries complete control of the eastern Mediterranean. The final act of this conquest was the fight that pitted Octavian (César Augusto) against Marco Antonio and his ally, the last sovereign of Egypt, Cleopatra VII. After being defeated at Actium, both committed suicide before the imminent victory of Octavian (30 BC).

Nevertheless, the Roman penetration of the Hellenistic East did not come without resistance, and it took the Romans no less than three wars to subdue the king of Pontus, Mithridates VI, in the I a. C. The general Cneo Pompeyo Magno suppressed in 63 a. C. the weakened Seleucid kingdom, reduced to the territory of Syria, reorganizing the East, according to the Roman order. Since then, the Hellenistic world has become the battlefield where the ambitions of the various generals of the Roman Republic were defined, as happened in Pharsalia, Philippi or Accio, where Octavian finally prevailed.

The Hellenistic Monarchy

The Hellenistic monarchy was personal, which meant that anyone who, through their conduct, merits or military actions, could claim the title of basileus, could become a sovereign. Consequently, military victory was, most of the time, the act that legitimized access to the throne, thus allowing reign over a province or a state. Seleucus I used the occupation of Babylon in 312 BC. C. to legitimize his presence in Mesopotamia, or his victory in 281 a. C. on Lysimachus to justify his claims on the Bosporus and Thrace. Likewise, the kings of Bithynia profited from the victory in 277 B.C. C. of Nicomedes I on the Galatians to affirm their territorial claims.

This personal monarchy had no precise rules of succession, so incessant feuds and assassinations among the many aspirants were frequent. There were also no fundamental laws or texts that determined the powers of the sovereign, but it was the sovereign himself who determined the scope of his power. This absolute and personal character was, at the same time, the strength and weakness of these Hellenistic monarchies, depending on the characteristics and personality of the sovereign. Therefore, it was necessary to create ideologies that would justify the domination of the dynasties of Macedonian origin and Greek culture over the totally ignorant people of this civilization. The lágidas happened, in this way, to be pharaohs before the Egyptians and had the right to ally themselves with the autochthonous clergy, granting splendid donations to the temples.

As for the peoples of Greek and Macedonian origin who also governed, the Hellenistic sovereigns had to show the image of a just king, who ensured the peace and well-being of their peoples, thus existing the notion of evergetes, the king as benefactor of his subjects. One of the consequences, which already occurred in the reign of Alexander the Great, was the divinization of the sovereign, to whom the subjects and the autonomous or independent cities that had been favored by the king paid honour, which made it possible to reinforce the cohesion of each kingdom in around the ruling dynasty.

The fragility of the power of the Hellenistic sovereigns forced them to incessant activity. In the first place, it was necessary to defeat their adversaries militarily, so the period was characterized by a series of conflicts between the Hellenistic sovereigns themselves or against other external adversaries, such as the Parthians or the incipient Rome. The sovereigns were forced to travel constantly in order to install garrisons, while they erected cities that better controlled the administrative divisions of their kingdoms, Antiochus III being undoubtedly the Hellenistic monarch who traveled the most between Greece, Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and the borders of India and Asia Minor, before dying near the city of Susa in 187 BC. C. In order to maintain their armies and finance the construction of cities, it was essential for the sovereigns to develop a solid administration and taxation. The Hellenistic kingdoms thus became gigantic structures of fiscal exploitation, establishing themselves as direct heirs of the Achaemenid Empire. This exhausting work, to which were added the incessant complaints and recriminations (since the king was also a judge for his subjects) made Seleucus I exclaim:

If people knew how much work it entails writing and reading all the letters, no one would want to occupy a diadem, even if it crawled down the floor.
Plutarco, Moralia“If politics is the work of the elders”, II

Around these sovereigns gravitated a court in which the role of favorites gradually became preponderant. As a rule, it was the Greeks and Macedonians who almost always held the title of friends of the king (philoi). Alexander the Great's desire to associate Asian elites with power was abandoned, so this Greco-Macedonian political domination took on, in many respects, the appearance of colonial domination. In order to obtain faithful and effective collaborators, the king had to enrich them with donations and domains belonging to the royal domain, which did not prevent some favorites from maintaining a dubious fidelity, and on occasions, especially in the case of a royal minority, effectively exercising the power. These are the cases of Hermias, whom Antiochus III could not easily get rid of, or Sosibius in Egypt, to whom Polybius attributed a sinister reputation.

These kings had absolute power, but were subject to multiple obligations, such as securing their borders, defeating their enemies, and testing their royal nature through their behavior, legitimizing their role by deifying their person. In classical times, the model of the monarchy, rejected by the Greek philosophers, was Asian; in Hellenistic times it was Greek.

Worship of the King

The Hellenistic monarchy was supported by an aristocracy created by the king himself and developed a particularly cosmopolitan character, far removed from the previous ancestral nobility. Henceforth the king would not be freely chosen by his citizens. The Hellenistic kings and their nobles were chosen by the king himself, but in order to carry out such a system successfully and before the people, they insisted on the idea of divinity, that is, the king had the right to govern and select the nobility because his Power he had obtained through his divine lineage and because he himself was in some way a god. The next step was to start the cult of the king.

This system of divinization was political rather than religious and had its antecedents in earlier Greek thought with examples of hero worship and other mortal characters who became deities after death, such as Asclepius and other figures minors who had been military chiefs or founders of cities. The living deification or apotheosis of Hellenistic kings was never or almost never a purely religious or spiritual matter; no one went to pray or ask for special thanks to any of these characters. However, it was necessary to establish political power in beings considered by their subjects as gods.

The cult of the king had already begun in the figure of Alexander the Great who was recognized as a mortal performer of great feats and a descendant of Heracles, confirmed in the oracle of Siwa as the son of Zeus-Amun himself. The deification of Alexander during his lifetime served him on many occasions as approval and legal recognition of his royal power. Alexander himself took his deification very seriously. After his death, many of the Hellenistic cities followed this process, deifying some of his Diadochi, such as Demetrius Poliorcetes, Antigonus II Gonatas, Lysimachus of Thrace, Cassander of Macedonia, Seleucus I Nicator, and Ptolemy I.

Deification of the Ptolemies

Ptolemy I never asked for divine honours, but his son Ptolemy II organized the apotheosis ceremony for his father and mother Berenice, with the title of Savior Gods (Soter). Later, around the year 270, Ptolemy II and his wife Arsinoe were deified while still alive with the title of Brother Gods (Philadelphus). It is known that they were worshiped at the surviving sanctuary of Alexander the Great, where his diadocus Ptolemy I had deposited the body (the whereabouts of this sanctuary are now a mystery).

Ptolemy II's successor kings and queens were deified immediately after his accession, with apotheosis ceremonies showing the influence of Egyptian religion and tradition. In Hellenistic Egypt the cult of the king was a fusion between the Greek traditions for political deification and the Egyptian traditions, with a great religious charge.

Queen's Vessels

They are glazed ceramic jugs, manufactured in series, that were used in the festivals that were held for the worship of kings. Provisional altars were erected where offerings were made. Wine libations were deposited in these special jugs that were usually decorated with the portrait of the queen who was sitting on the throne at the time. In the artistic environment they are called vessels of the queen because the queen is always represented, with a cornucopia in her left hand and a libation dish in her right, with an altar and a sacred pillar. The described reliefs were accompanied by inscriptions that served to identify the represented queen. Some of these jugs or glasses have appeared in different tombs. These specimens can be dated from Ptolemy II to 116 B.C. C. The dress of the queens is fundamentally Greek: they wear a sleeveless chiton and a himation wrapped around the waist and gathered over the left arm.

Deification of the Seleucids

On the death of Seleucus I his son Antiochus I Soter prepared the ceremony for his apotheosis. Later a specialized priesthood was founded for the worship of the living monarch and his ancestors. The kings of Pergamum claimed to be descendants of the god Dionysus. These kings were venerated while alive, but only after their deaths did they receive the title of theos. Antiochus III in 193 B.C. C. created a community of priestesses who would be in charge of the cult of his wife Laódice. One of the rules dictated by this king for these priestesses was that in their clothing they had to wear a gold crown decorated with portraits of the queen.

Greece during Hellenistic times

Mainland Greece

Apparently, some cities of independent Greece, such as Athens and Corinth, retained their autonomy, their institutions, and their traditions. The social problems that were emerging, plus the gradual impoverishment made this classical Greece, not belonging to the Hellenistic states, suffer one crisis after another until the intervention of Rome.

In Athens, lost the democratic spirit, there was a decline in trade after the end of the clerks (lands to the poor) and the port of El Pireo as a strategic scale of trade routes. The last economic crisis came from the looting of the city by the Sila army in 86 BC, which led to the decline in wages, the abandonment of crops and the limited exports of items such as wine, oil and some luxury products at very low prices. The logical consequences of the situation were the impoverishment of the people and the decline of birth. These circumstances favored mercenary, banditry and piracy as livelihoods.

However, a certain intellectual air came up with the help of the feasts, especially the diones and the Eleusian Mysteries, during which new comedies were represented, and to which the Hellenistic kings and rulers of Asia and Egypt came. Philosophical schools also did not lose their appeal and remained the most brilliant in the known world. In Roman times, Athens would become the equivalent of a university city.

In Esparta there was a resurgence of the archaic times, a revolutionary attempt to start a new state, a movement led by the kings Agis IV and Clement III. Debts were abolished, new classes of citizens were created, land was distributed and a new militia was organized and some successes were achieved until they were defeated in 222 a. C. for the Aquea League. Cleomens was succeeded by King Nabis, who was the last until the intervention of Rome.

Insular Greece

The Greek islands maintained a certain prosperity thanks to the important routes created for the exchange between Asia, Egypt and the West. They counted, however, on the constant insecurity caused by pirates from regions such as Illyria, Crete and Cilicia.

Regarding Cos, his economy was based on the production of wine, on the manufacture of ceramics and on the manufacture of the pumpicine, a special silk that were made of purple. On this island was a recognized medical school in all Hellenistic states.
Rhodes was able to maintain in full hellenistic period its polys status. It was regarded as a republic of merchants who behaved with intelligence with those foreigners who helped increase their economic position. The three ports of Rhodes, built with large dams and good arsenals, and strategically located in front of Alexandria and the Asian Aegean coast, developed the role that El Pireo once played. The Roman republic also possessed an important warship that knew to keep the pirates firm, and ruled by the so-called Lex Rhodia (hellenistic order of Mediterranean trade), thus becoming a vital place for the rest of the Mediterranean cities.

At the cultural level, arts and sciences shined in Rhodes. A great cultural focus was organized where young Roman disciples of the aristocracy came mainly. He had great rhetoric teachers, starting with Esquines (the enemy of Demosstenes), sciences like Posidonio de Apamea and very good sculptors who created school.

As for Delos, he gained his independence in 314 BC Athens, being governed by a democratic constitution. However, in the year 166 a. C. the intervention of Rome returned the island to Athens, who turned it into a clerk. From this moment on his prosperity was increasing, being declared port francto which goods came from everywhere, through Alexandria and the Syrian and Phoenician ports.

Delos also had enormous riches kept in their temples, which is why the priests soon became real bankers, aware of elaborate economic techniques. They adopted as one of the main activities the change and interest rates, generally at 10 percent. The use of the lyrics of change, the check and transfers was common practice. Another source of income was the gigantic slave market, in which 10,000 per day could be sold, as Estrabón mentioned.

Under this prosperity and greatness, the population changed radically: all the natives were deported to Achaia, where the settlers of Athens, the Mediterranean, italics, orientals, merchants and bankers from all over the known world remained. All of them formed well-differentiated groups in terms of customs and religion, but they maintained good relations among themselves. It was a merchant bourgeoisie, whose houses were luxuriously decorated and where hellenistic art could be contemplated in all its apogee. Such prosperity elongated to the centuryI of our era, even the looting and massacres committed by Menofanes, General of Mitidrates IV of Partia, who ordered his soldiers to kill all the Greeks, without their age. The inhabitants who were not Greeks left the island, leaving it deserted, which accelerated its ruin.

The Koinah

The koiná (κoινά, plural of koinón, κoινόν) were the federal states, also called leagues, made up of smaller cities. These confederations arose as a form of protection and resistance against the rulers of Macedonia, the hegemonic power of this period, and which only these federal leagues faced. There were two most influential during the Hellenistic period, the Koinón Etolio (or Aetolian League) and the Koinón Aqueo (or Achaean League).

Koinón Etolio became a very large federal state, grouping Acarnania, Western Lócrida and Tesalia. All the citizens of each allied city were grouped in the assemblies, holding two meetings a year, choosing the head or strategist for an annual mandate. The etollium koinon constantly demonstrated a great hostility towards the power of Macedonia. The etollium decline began at the same time as Roman progress, until in 189 B.C. they finally lost their independence.
The Koinón Aqueo was the rival of the Koinón Etolio. After taking over Corinto, he gradually annexed the whole Peloponnese, also absorbing the city of Esparta. At first this koinon was allied with Rome, which never trusted this league. In 146 B.C., enemies of Rome were openly declared, who dragged Corinth in response, leaving the league dissolved. Like his rival etollium, his main enemy was the kingdom of Macedonia. It had an assembly to which all the citizens of the confederation could attend, with four sessions a year in the sanctuary of Zeus, located in the nome of Aigio (called Egio until 1991). His boss or strategist was also appointed annually.

Cities

Alexander's successors were careful to follow the spirit that their great general had instilled in them: to Hellenize the East and bring to the conquered borders the Greek civilization which they considered the best (if not the only) for man. During the classical Greek stage, the large urban centers were called polis (Athens, Syracuse, Corinth), which were true independent states. The new cities of the Hellenistic world had legal and financial autonomy, they were governed by magistrates, but it was no longer the independent State, but all of them depended on a governor appointed by the king, called epistates. On the other hand, the kings of the Hellenistic territories participated personally with their fortune in the beautification and enlargement of many of these cities, being the main patrons of the construction of public buildings or the reconstruction or restoration. All these cities with their regime of life and their reformed politics to a great extent favored the economic boom and as a consequence, the royal treasury.

Although basically the administrative policy was almost the same in the Hellenistic kingdoms, and the desire to preserve and extend Greek culture was a bond of union, each kingdom endowed its cities with its own and different style. The founding of these cities did not always start from nothing. The founding concept can include a simple renaming of an existing city (with additions and improvements) or the transformation of a small indigenous town into a prosperous city.

The layout of the cities was the consequence of a rather serious study. In addition to beauty and practicality, many more details were taken into account than are known today thanks to the inscriptions of municipal regulations discovered in archaeological sites. Standards were given for the width of the streets, for the distance between houses, for the construction of aqueducts, garbage collection, etc.

Seleucid cities

The first of the kings, Seleucus I Nicator founded 16 cities to which he gave the name of Antioch in memory of his father named Antiochus. And with other diverse names he came to found up to 60. His son, Antiochus I Soter, continued to multiply the foundation of cities and later, in the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, there was another great construction impulse.

The foundation of a new city, from an urban point of view, followed the rules spread by the Greek philosopher and architect Hippodamus of Miletus around the year 480 B.C. C. and who advise a quadrilateral project with streets cut at an angle, with areas that can be occupied by services, official buildings, temples and with other areas dedicated to housing. The best Seleucid cities are those built in Syria and of all of them the best known and studied are Antioch (on the left bank of the Orontes River, navigable to the sea) and Apamea, located further north of Antioch.

In ancient Mesopotamia, areas of great urban activity arose where Antioch-Edessa, Antioch-Nisibis, Dura Europos, Seleucia del Tigris and Babylon appeared.

Ptolemaic cities

Alexandria was the capital city of the Ptolemies and the most important city during the Hellenistic period. Founded by Alexander the Great himself, it was for many centuries the reference to grandeur and economic activity as well as the great center for the study of science and the arts.

Ptolemy I Soter founded Náucratis and Ptolemaida, but Alexandria continued to be the city par excellence.

Atalid cities

The capital of the Attalids was Pergamum, a city that wanted to be the Athens of classical times. It had a large library and a sculpture museum where it is said that art criticism was born. In Pergamum, the architects followed the same rules as Hippodomus of Miletus, but the enclave offered by the land made the builders shine by building a totally different city, with the acropolis on top and the urban perimeter divided into three terraces, each one with its temples, which were linked together by an original zigzag path with large stairs.

Public buildings

As in previous times, public buildings were an important chapter in these Hellenistic cities, adapting them to the needs of the times, but always following the Greek model that they admired so much.

The Agora

Great attention was paid to this public space that in previous times had been limited to being a simple market square. The porticos came to configure this space, favoring its appearance, giving it a new and better appearance. The agora began to be built according to a hypodamic plan (streets drawn at right angles), that is, a rectangular space with porticoes on several sides was delimited. They were agoras designed with amplitude, where the commercial activity that could enjoy a sufficient and comfortable space met. Each city had at least one, according to its needs. In Delos several agoras were built in the vicinity of the port. In Athens, this space was also modified and embellished with three new porticoes, one of them offered to Attalus II.

The porticos

The construction of porticos was a fashion that spread in an amazing way throughout all the cities. The sensation of magnitude and sumptuousness that these great works offered made the cities that had a portico the most beautiful and harmonious. But they were also considered very useful as shelter in the hours of much sun or on rainy days. The monumental porticoes of the important cities immediately attracted the attention of the Romans when they came into contact with them in their conquests of the East. Many historians and art critics, such as José Pijoán, believe that it was within sight of these porticos that the Romans developed a taste for Greek art. Many times a portico was built on a whim to beautify a sanctuary, the corner of a city or to delimit an agora.

Theatres

Theaters also multiplied. They were built in the old-fashioned way, generally attached to the side of a hill or elevation of land. At this time they had a modification that gave rise to the permanent stage where the actors performed. Previously these were located on a platform that was placed at the time of the performance in front of the proscenium. One of the theaters that can give more information about it is that of Priene from the year 150 B.C. c.

Gyms

This was the most widespread architectural complex in the Hellenistic world. There was no city or town, no matter how humble it was, that did not have its gymnasium built. The taste for physical exercises (inherited from the Greeks) was general in this period and was part of the education of young people. In addition, in the gymnastic complex not only physical exercises were carried out, but various teachings were given, conferences, and what would today be called "cultural events" were organized. The buildings used to be surrounded by large gardens with beautiful and pleasant walks where the disciples listened to the talks of their philosopher teachers. Nor did they forget the religious theme, so that the gyms were protected and dedicated to a god or in some cases to a hero like Hermes or Heracles.

These centers were of great help in the education of the natives, especially in Asia. They came to them with great enthusiasm and a desire to learn. They came to form associations that were generally called apo tou gymanasiou ('those who leave the gym').

Business

The world of merchants and businesses also needed special enclaves. Buildings comparable to the chambers of commerce and other less important, but equally necessary as warehouses and offices were built. The excavations in Delos have provided abundant information about these buildings, especially about the group of Posidoneists from Bertos, present-day Beirut, who owned an important complex made up of a luxurious residence full of works of art, and on the other set of Italic Negotiatiores with a particular agora, shops, offices and other rooms. The Romans would imitate it in imperial times in Ostia with the Corporation Square.

Religion and philosophy

Illustration of the Tique de Antioquía de Eutíquides, circa 300 a. C.

Main article: Hellenistic religion

Religion consisted of a kind of syncretism between the classical pantheon, the local gods and the deities of the ancient East. Among the divinities typical of this period, the goddess Tyche (Τύχη) and the Greco-Egyptian god Serapis (Σέραπις) stand out. Likewise, the cults of Isis, Dionysus and Cibeles gained great relevance.

Main article: Hellenistic philosophy

Philosophy, which in previous times encompassed all knowledge, gradually dismembered from the empirical sciences and remained as a science of thought whose concern was more inclined to individual problems than to the very nature of the world. In this period several sects and philosophical schools arose, among which it is worth mentioning:

Cynics
Cirenaics
Epicurities
Skeptics
Stoics
Megáricos

Schools and academies

Most of the schools of the IV century survived in Hellenistic times. Plato's school continued the philosophical work and the Academy survived into the I century BCE. C., receiving different names at different stages.

Ancient Academy

Its characteristic is to remain faithful to the master Plato. After this philosopher, the directors of the Academy were: his nephew Speusippus (407–339 BC) for eight years, his disciple Xenocrates (c. 395–314 BC) who was director until his death, Polemon (351–270 BC) who commanded from 314 until his death and the Theban Crates.

Middle Academy

It is characterized by the introduction of skepticism and its directors were the skeptical Arcesilaus of Pitane in Aeolia (c. 315–240 B.C.) (he was a teacher of Eratosthenes), Carnéades of Cyrene (214–129 B.C.) who had studied at the Academy with Hegesino, Clitomachus of Carthage, a Carthaginian philosopher who was a disciple of the former and Metrodorus of Stratonicea.

New Academy

Its philosophers focus more on eclecticism, abandoning the theories of skepticism. His director was Philo of Larisa (150-83 BC) who taught him in Rome and had Cicero as a disciple, on whom he had a great influence; His disciple Antiochus of Ascalon was his rival in the direction of the Academy. Later the Neoplatonism of Plotinus took place whose greatest exponent was Proclus.

Peripatetic School

The school of Aristotle was enlarged with the great impetus given to it by the orator Arcesilao, founder of the New Academy. His doctrine rejected the dogmatism of the Stoics and tried to show that the most important thing was to search for and discover the most plausible or probable.

Theophrastus of Éresus (370–287 BC), a student of Aristotle and a collaborator, was also his successor in the peripatetic school, which underwent great development from his entry and collaboration.

School of Skepticism

Skepticism developed to a large extent during the Hellenistic period, although there was no authentic figure to represent it, but the school remained very active even after the Roman conquest, being the case that its best representatives are from the time imperial: Aenesidemus of Knossus (in Crete), teacher in Alexandria and Empiric Sextus, also belonging to the empirical medical school.

School of Epicureanism

Epicurus (341–270) bought a house with an orchard or garden in Athens that became the meeting place for his students, who ended up calling the place “The Garden”. One of the purposes that led Epicurus to use this new venue was to oppose the influence of the Academy, which inherited Plato's teachings. Epicureanism tried to solve the problem of happiness. The Epicureans sought peace with themselves, for which they developed a method that sought to combat sadness, anguish, boredom and useless concerns that came to distress human beings.

School of Stoicism

Its creator was Zeno of Citium (335–263), a merchant Semite who chose to devote himself to philosophy. His doctrine was also called the portico doctrine, stoa in Greek, from which the name stoicism comes. It was the Porch of Poecile in Athens, the place where his disciples met. At his death, the school was directed by Cleanthes of Aso (city of Tróade) and Chrysippus of Solos who coordinated and ordered his theories. These three philosophers taught what has since been called ancient stoicism or ancient stoicism. In the II century theories were renewed with the name of middle stoicism being one of their best representatives Diogenes of Babylon, born in Seleucia del Tigris, followed by his disciple Crates de Mallos and later Blosio de Cumas who was a teacher of Tiberius Gracchus. In the second half of the II century a. C. Two great thinkers and teachers of Middle Stoicism stand out: Panecio de Rhodes (180-110 B.C.) and Posidonius of Apamea de Orontes (155-51 B.C.).

Hellenistic culture

The sage and science

During the Hellenistic period, the sciences as we understand them today became independent from philosophy, a concept that in antiquity included all knowledge. They were constituted in autonomous subjects, being favored for their development by the patronage thanks to which research classrooms and museums such as the one in Alexandria were created, which included observatories, botanical and zoological gardens, medicine and dissection rooms, etc. The expansion of the known world also contributed to this development.

The study of mathematics, especially in Alexandria, had enormous importance, not only because of the subject itself, but also as an application to knowledge of the Universe. In the museum of Alexandria they studied, investigated and taught great scholars such as Euclid (who was requested by Ptolemy I Soter), who knew how to organize all the previous investigations and add his own, applying a systematic method based on basic principles. Euclid laid the foundations of mathematical knowledge from which this subject evolved through the centuries until reaching the recent invention of the new mathematics.

In geometry the great teacher in Pergamum and Alexandria was Apollonius of Perge. He offered the first rational definition of conic sections. Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC) was a great mathematician, interested in the number π to which he gave the value of 3.1416. He was also interested in the sphere, the cylinder and founded rational mechanics and hydrostatics. He studied practical mechanics by inventing war machines, levers, and mechanical toys. His best practical invention of immediate use was the endless screw, used in Egypt for irrigation. Sóstrato de Cnido, engineer and archaeologist, was considered another of the great wise men. He was the builder of the Alexandria lighthouse.

The study of mathematics favored the knowledge of astronomy. A new scientific interest was awakened in knowing the Earth, its shape, its situation, its movement in space. Eratosthenes of Cyrene, librarian of Alexandria, created mathematical geography and was able to measure the length of the terrestrial meridian. Aristarchus of Samos (310–230 BC) was a mathematician and astronomer who determined the dimensions of the Sun and the Moon and their respective distances from Earth. He assured that the Sun was still and that it was the Earth that moved around it. He is considered to be the first ancestor of Copernicus.

Hipparchus of Nicaea was endowed with a great gift of observation and from his Rhodes observatory he was able to draw up a large map of the sky with more than 800 stars cataloged and studied by him. Great connoisseur of the theories of the Chaldeans, he compared his studies with those, discovering the precession of the equinoxes. Hipparco laid the foundations of trigonometry by establishing the division of the angle in 360 degrees, which he divided into minutes and seconds.

Posidonius of Apamea, in addition to devoting himself to philosophy, was a great scientist. He studied the hitherto mystery of the tides, scientifically explaining their existence and their relationship with the moon.

Some shortcomings

The number notation system was made with the help of the alphabet, so α was equal to 1, ι was equal to 10, ρ equaled 100. If they wrote ρια, they were writing the number 111. This system made it very difficult to handle mathematics. In the III century B.C. C. Diofanto contributed an algebraic notation that was good, but that still was insufficient. Another deficiency was the great lack of observation instruments for the natural sciences. Despite all this, humanity reached the Renaissance using and making use of the great inventions and discoveries of the Hellenistic sages, especially those from Alexandria, Pergamum and Rhodes.

Biology and Medicine

The figure of the doctor came to replace the magician or sorcerer who used miracles. He was a respected and esteemed character, he was considered a great sage who could be trusted not only for physical help, but also for psychological help. The Hellenistic places where medicine mainly flourished were:

Alexandria, where there was already a certain scientific knowledge because of the tradition of mummification and the respect and study of mortal spoils.
Cos, birthplace of Hippocrates (centuryVa. C.) the famous doctor and writer, considered the father of medicine. Cos maintained a medical tradition. The same happened in those cities where there was an ancient sanctuary of Asclepio, such as Cnido, Epidauro and Pergam.

Herophilus of Chalcedon learned a lot about anatomy in Alexandria, practicing with the dissection of corpses and even with the vivisection of human beings (convicted criminals). He discovered the nervous system and explained its functioning and explained that of the spinal cord and the brain and studied the eye and the optic nerve. He was naming objects that he believed to be similar in shape to the parts of anatomy that he was studying and discovering. This sage was a pioneer of human anatomy. His studies and discoveries were transmitted thanks to the work of the medical school that he founded and which lasted about 200 years.

Erasistratus of Ceos (315–240 BC) worked and researched in Alexandria following the work of Herophilus. He also founded a medical school. He is considered the father of physiology. He devoted himself above all to the study of the circulation of the blood, whose discoveries were not surpassed until the appearance of Miguel Servetus or William Harvey.

Hellenistic Judaism

Laocoonte and her children, representative sculptural group of Hellenistic period.

At the beginning of the century I a. C. the Hellenistic diaspora takes place, that is, the dispersion of the Jewish people through the Alexandrian world. From then on, a large part of the Jews—especially those who lived in Egypt, Cyrenaica, and Syria—began to use Greek to understand each other and also in the synagogues. In this way, a distinction began to be made between the "Hellenistic Jews" (or Hellenized) and the "Hebrews" (or Judaizers), who were those who opposed and resisted Greek influence. Saint Luke wrote about this topic in the Acts of the Apostles 6:1 and 11:20. This is how the term "Hellenistic" came to designate human groups that, although they did not have Greek blood, followed and adopted the Greek culture and language.

In this period also took place the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint or Bible of the Seventy, as it is believed to have been made by a group of seventy-two Alexandrian wise men.

Among the most prominent Hellenized Jews, we can mention the philosopher Philo of Alexandria and the historian Flavius Josephus.

Decline and end

The wars of the Diadochi (heirs to the empire of Alexander the Great), which lasted approximately 150 years, ended up weakening all the Greek and non-Hellenistic polis. Rome supported the causes of one and the other, officiating as a mediator and contributing armies to the service of these polis. Until finally he takes Athens, Sparta and the kingdom of Macedonia, becoming these Roman provinces, with the exception of Alexandria, which was finally occupied in the year 30 BC. C. With the arrival of the Romans and their hegemony over all these ancient peoples, the Hellenistic period came to an end, in theory; although the truth is that Rome, after a few years and as a consequence of the contact and knowledge of Greek art spread throughout all its colonies and provinces, took over and it can be said that it was the continuation of Hellenistic culture, starting with the language itself. The upper class took pride in speaking Greek and their children were educated in this culture. The great Roman politicians, no matter how important they held an important position, would always be looked down on by the rest if they were not able to understand each other in the Greek language.

Timeline (400 BC–AD 100)

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