Hellenistic Greek Research Paper

Jacob Redmon

Professor Robert Wade 09/17/2015

Hellenistic Greece

The Hellenistic period, whose beginning was marked by the death of Alexander the Great, lasted from 323 BCE until 31 BCE with the death of Anthony and Cleopatra in Egypt marking its end. This period saw Greek influence spread throughout Mediterranean Europe and the Near East.

During the turbulent, chaotic times following the Classical era Alexander the Great lead the kingdom of Macedonia on a conquest that established an empire ranging from the Mediterranean all the way into the Indus Valley. After his death, there was a period of conflict that lead to the establishment of three dynasties. The Antigonid dynasty which consisted of Greece and Macedonia, the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, and the Seleucid dynasty in the Near East. Despite this fragmentation of the empire, Greek art, language, and philosophy still spread to conquered lands and permeated everyday life.

The Greek language being used far and wide allowed people within the kingdoms to travel abroad and still be able to communicate with one another, which in turn allowed Greek philosophical teachings (like those of the Stoics) to spread beyond the Mediterranean. There also saw a shift in art and literature from the idealistic to the realistic, which placed more emphasis on

individual humans rather than focusing on idealized portrayals of gods. Hellenistic art was so influential that it continued to have inspirational effects during the reign of the Roman Empire, and even had noticeable effects on culture centuries later during the Renaissance.
The Hellenistic period also saw many architectural and scientific achievements.

The library of Alexandria, which stored much of the known world’s written history up to that point, is probably one of the most important buildings to be erected during this period. Unfortunately, the Library of Alexandria was destroyed centuries later during one of mankind’s numerous conflicts, and much of the information stored within it was lost to time. However, many scientific advances survived, such as Eratosthenes’ surprisingly accurate calculation of the Earth’s circumference and tilt of its axis, or the many works of Archimedes, who is especially well known for calculating

pi.
Though the Hellenistic period was a time of cultural and scientific advances, it also marked a period of strife. Throughout this time period, Hellenistic kingdoms would face many internal and external threats, until the last decades of Hellenistic Greece’s existence where the emerging Roman civilization would ultimately chip away at the remaining Hellenistic kingdoms until we saw the end of Greece’s dominance over the Mediterranean and its lands in the Near East. The final remnants of Hellenistic Greece’s influence ended with the defeat and death of Anthony and Cleopatra in Egypt at the battle of Actium, when Roman civilization became the new focus of western civilization and marked the beginning of a new era.
The Hellenistic period was probably one of the most important eras in the ancient world, second only to the Roman era’s vast accomplishments. We still see the influence of its greatest artists and scientists to this day, and without the cultural and scientific advances made during this time, western civilization most likely wouldn’t have had a strong enough foundation to build upon itself and become one of the most advanced human civilizations in the modern world.