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Greece - History
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The Hellenistic Age in Greece
03-03-2013 17:07The term of Hellenistic is used to describe the era of the Greek influenced world that was formed after the conquests of Alexander the Great, spanning from Greece till modern Afghanistan and Northern Africa. The main characteristic of the Hellenistic world was its linguistic and cultural unity as the common language used was Koine Greek.
Despite the linguistic commonplace, the Hellenistic political scene can only be described as chaos. The Alexander’s conquered lands were fragmented by his successors that climbed up in power. The larger and most significant kingdoms were these of Macedonia, Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucid Empire in Syria, Pergamus and Syracuse.
During the Hellenistic Era, Athens was no longer the cultural center of the Greek world. The Egyptian city of Alexandria was primarily the capital of culture and secondarily to Antioch, Pergamon, and Syracuse. All these places had rich kings who sponsored courts full of scientists and poets. A general sense of uncertainty and insecurity due to political instability encouraged a religious revival, especially focused on mystery cults such as Eleusinian Mysteries and worship of Dionysus.
The Hellenistic world was gradually absorbed by Rome in several stages. Syracuse fell to Roman siege in 211 BC and in 167 BC the Macedonian kingdom dismantled. In 133 BC the Greek cities of Asia Minor were bequeathed to the Romans and the remnants of the Seleucid kingdom and Ptolemaic Egypt were annexed by Rome in the first century BC, with the beginning of the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus in 31 BC.
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