Summary
The term Hellenistic was established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen to refer to the shift from a culture dominated by ethnic Greeks to a culture dominated by Greek-speakers of various ethnicities, and from the political dominance of the city-state to that of larger monarchies. In this period the traditional Greek culture was changed by strong Eastern influences, especially Persian, in aspects of religion and government. Cultural centers shifted away from mainland Greece, to Pergamon, Rhodes, Antioch and Alexandria.
Modern historians see the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC as the beginning of the Hellenistic period. Alexander and the Macedonians conquered the eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, and the Iranian plateau, and invaded India. Following Alexander's death, there was a struggle for the succession, known as the wars of the Diadochi, Greek for successors. These ended in 281 BC with the establishment of three large territorial states:
- the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt based at Alexandria
- the Seleucid dynasty in Syria based at Antioch
- the Antigonid dynasty in Macedonia and the mainland of Greece
The end of the Hellenistic period is generally seen as 31 BC, when the power of Ptolemaic Egypt was smashed by the Romans at the Battle of Actium. Shortly thereafter, the independence of the Ptolemies was at an end with the suicide of Cleopatra and the annexation of Egypt by Caesar Augustus. [This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on Hellenistic Greece.]
Books
Please browse our Amazon list of titles about Hellenistic Sculpture. For rare and hard to find works we recommend our Alibris list of titles about Hellenistic Sculpture.
ResearchPowerpoint Presentation: Greek Art
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