The Hellenistic Kingdoms, 323-30 B.C.E.

I. The Hellenistic Kingdoms

A. Creating New Kingdoms

1. The Death of Alexander the Great--Alexander's heir, Alexander IV, was not yet born when Alexander died in 323 B.C.E. Alexander's mother, Olympia, tried to protect her grandson, but Alexander's former commanders executed her in 316 B.C.E.; the murder of Alexander's son and wife Roxane followed shortly after.

2. Three Rival Kingdoms--Three of Alexander's former commanders--Antigonus (c. 382-301 B.C.E.), Selecus (c. 358-281 B.C.E.), and Ptolemy (c. 367-282 B.C.E.) emerged to lead their respective kingdoms. Antigonus laid claim to Anatolia, the Near East, Macedonia, and Greece; Selecus seized control of Babylonia and the East as far as India, and Ptolemy grabbed Egypt. In the beginning, the three kingdoms' greatest threat was from each other, but by the middle of the third century B.C.E. (that is, around 250 B.C.E.), the borders of the three kingdoms had become relatively stable. The Antigonid Kingdom had shrunk to a slightly enlarged Macedonia, although they compelled the Greek city-states to follow their lead in foreign policy. The Seleucid Kingdom remained in contol of only Syria and Mesopotamia. Only Ptolemic Egypt remained relatively stable, although all three kingdoms continued to compete with one another for territory.

3. Minor Hellenistic Kingdoms--this competition among the three larger kindoms created the opportunity for others to create smaller kingdoms.

a. Attalid Kingdom--in western Anatolia, centered in Pergarum, a long-established trading center.

b. Bactrian Kingdom--originally settled by Greek colonizes moved to the region by Alexander the Great, the Bactrians were able to break free from the Seleucids, and enrich themselves acting as brokers for trade between Asia (mainly India and China) and the Mediterranean.

B. The Structure of the Hellenistic Kingdoms--the Hellenistic Kingdoms imposed Macedonian kings and queens on indigenous population, but incorporated local traditions into their rule to build legitimacy with the people they ruled over. They also sought to impose a system of law and justice in the areas they controlled, which also helped to build legitimacy. But rule could no be maintained simply with carots; there also had to be the threat of the stick.

1. Royal military forces--Royal armies and navies provided security against both internal and external threats. Professional soldiers provided the personnel for these forces. Initially, the three kingdoms utilized Macedonians and Greeks who were enticed to emigrate to serve in the army with the promise of free land; when these sources dried up, the three kingdoms had to recruit from the local population. They had to not only pay for these soldiers, but also for the equipment they used: huge catapaults, war elephants, and ever-larger ships, now manned with crews in excess of 200.

2. Royal administration--The larger military committment meant a larger, more efficient government administration, to collect taxes. Initially, the Hellenic kingdoms recruited mostly Greeks and Macedonians for upper administration posts--who in turn recruited local collectors who could speak the local language, and thus better collect revenues. It was adventageous, obviously, for a local official to learn to speak Greek, since that was the easiest way to advance in the system was to learn to speak and write Greek. In many ways, the Hellenistic royal administrations resembled those of earlier Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Empires, in that the administrators' role was to maintain order and to direct the kingdoms' tax system.

3. Cities--Cities were the economic and social hub of Hellenistic kingdoms. Many Greeks and Macedonians lived in the new cities in Egypt and the Near East that had been founded by Alexander. Hellenistic kings promoted living in these new cities by building the expected Greek amenities in these new cities--theaters, gymnasiums, and other civic buildings. The cities also develop some of the polticial institutions usually found in mainland city-states, but these councils had no power to develop foreign policy for their locality. As in other Greek city-states, the economic elite had the responsibility to fund civic celebrations and public works like theaters and temples, and to ensure that there was a reliable source of grain to feed the city's residents.

C. Layers of Hellenistic Society--Hellenistic monarchy reinforced social hierarchy. At the top of Hellenistic society were the royal family and the king's friends. Ranked next were the Greek and Macedonian elites of the major cities, local elites, local lords of rural areas, merchants, artisans, laborers, and at the bottom were slaves.

1. The Poor--Made up the majority of the population, and made their living by the sweat of their brow and the load on their backs. Although a significant number lived in cities, most worked in rural areas. Some poor farmers owned the land they tilled, but most worked as early tenant farmers, owing much of what they raised as payment to those who actually owned the land they worked. Although they could not be bought and sold like slaves, their economic situation was very similar; they often experienced hunger even as they raised the food that fed everyone else.

2. Women--the lives of women depended very much on their economic situation in life; those women whose families were well-off financially were treated quite well, whereas women from poor families were treated quite poorly. Generally speaking, economically advantaged women were treated better than women had been in Classical Age Greece. Hellenic women in ruling families often acted as co-rulers with their husbands. Girls were often treated poorly, however; boys were almost never abandoned in "infant exposure," while girls even in families that were fairly well-off could suffer that fate.

3. The Wealthy--following the lead of the royal families, the wealthy in Hellenistic cities willingly funded many philanthropic institutions, paid for festivals, public buildings, and in many places schools and doctors. In return, the wealthy were paid respect and honor. Because the many poor had no political power, and were beholden to the generosity of the rich for the very necessities of life, the poor were usually willing to sing the praises of the rich.

D. The End of the Hellenistic Kingdom--despite their successes, the suspicion with which the Hellenistic Kingdoms regarded one another left them unwilling to come to the aid of another, and in the end all of the kingdoms fell under the sway of Rome.

II. Hellenistic Culture

A. The Arts Under Royal Support--Hellenistic kings became supporters of scholarship and the arts on a vast scale, competing with one another to lure the best scholars and artists to their capitals with lavish salaries.

1. Literature--a flowering of poetry--by both men and women--played a major part of the prominent place poetry had in Hellenic society. Hellenic comedies stayed away from the barbed observations that had personified Golden Age poetry, in part because of the prominent role the rich and the powerful had in providing artists with a living.

2. Emotion in sculpture--for Hellenic sculptures, it was no longer enough to portray life-like characters of beauty; Hellenic sculpting conveyed much of the emotion of everyday life.

B. Philosophy for a New Age--New philosophies arose in the Hellenistic period, all asking the same question: What is the best way to live? Hellenistic philosophers concetrated upon materialism, rejecting Plato's metaphyiscal concept of the soul.

1. Epicureanism--Epicurus sought to help men and women achieve a life of true pleasure, which to Epicurus meant the "absence of disturbance." Epicurus believed that all matter was made up of irreducible pieces called "atoms" in random movement, and death merely allowed these things to finally separate painlessly from the body. Epicurus' followers sought to live their lives soberly, shut off from turmoil and the cares of the world.

2. Stoicism--Stoics believed that fate controls people's lives but individuals should still make the pursuit of excellence--virtue--their goal. While Stoics believed fate ruled all, men should struggle against fate will accepting the pain that setbacks caused.

3. Skepticism

4. Cynicism

C. Scientific Innovation--Scientific investigation was separated from philosophy during the Hellenistic period, which greatly benefited science. Scientific innovation flourished because Alexander's expeditions opened the door to increased curiosity and knowledge about the world's diversity.

1. Advance in Geometry and Mathematics--the age of both Euclid and Archimedes

2. Discoveries in Science and Medicine--the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the Ancient Seven Wonders of the World) used mirrors to refract and reflect light, creating a powerful beam from a rather tepid source of light.

D. Religious Transformation--Traditional Greek cults remained popular, but new cults, especially those deifying kings, reflected changing political and social conditions. Preexisting cults that previously had only local significance gained adherents all over the Hellenistic world. Because most people were polytheists, they had no problem worshiping gods from both old and new cults.

1. Religious themes--the main theme of Hellenistic thought was the concern about the relationship between man and chance. Particularly since advances in astronomy had furthered earlier Mesopotamian science on the mathematical precision of the universe's heavenly bodies, people sought to explain why such shapeless chaos was a part of life on earth.

2. Being protected from chance--many people of the time turned to ruler cults to protect themselves from the vagaries of chance, appealing to the ruler as a deity to protect them from chance. This development helped spread the idea that someone could be both human and a god at the same time--an important development for the spread of Christianity.

3. Healing divinities--people also often turned to gods to heal illnesses and deformities, patronizing shrines in the hope that the god would heal them.

4. Hellenistic Judaism--the cultural interaction between Greeks and Jews produced important changes in Judaism during this period. Ptolemy II made the Hebrew Bible widely available by having it transcribed in Greek. Many Jews, particularly those who had grown up in Hellenistic cities outside their homeland, began to speak Greek. This eventually created a schism within Judaism, briefly resolved by the successful result of the rebellion led by Judah the Maccabee, which re-claimed the Temple in Jerusalem for traditional Jewish services.

III. Conclusion.