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Hellenistic Greece

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Ancient History,
Classical History and Mythology

   This article is part of the series on:

   History of Greece
   Prehistory of Greece
   Cycladic Civilization
   Minoan Civilization
   Mycenaean Civilization
   Greek Dark Ages
   Ancient Greece
   Ancient Greece
   Hellenistic Greece
   Roman Greece
   Medieval Greece
   Byzantine Empire
   Ottoman Greece
   Modern Greece
   Greek War of Independence
   Kingdom of Greece
   Axis Occupation of Greece
   Greek Civil War
   Military Junta
   The Hellenic Republic

   The Hellenistic period or "Greek like" of Greek history was the period
   between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the annexation
   of the Greek peninsula and islands by Rome in 146 BC. Although the
   establishment of Roman rule did not break the continuity of Hellenistic
   society and culture, which remained essentially unchanged until the
   advent of Christianity, it did mark the end of Greek political
   independence.

   During the Hellenistic period the importance of "Greece proper" (that
   is, the territory of modern Greece) within the Greek-speaking world
   declined sharply. The great centers of Hellenistic culture were
   Alexandria and Antioch, capitals of Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria
   respectively. See Hellenistic civilization for the history of Greek
   culture outside of Greece in this period.

Macedonian dominance

   Silver coin depicting Demetrius I founder of the Indo-Greek kingdom.
   Silver coin depicting Demetrius I founder of the Indo-Greek kingdom.

   The conquests of Alexander had a number of consequences for the Greek
   city-states. It greatly widened the horizons of the Greeks, making the
   endless conflicts between the cities which had marked the 5th and 4th
   centuries BC seem petty and unimportant. It led to a steady emigration,
   particularly of the young and ambitious, to the new Greek empires in
   the east. Many Greeks migrated to Alexandria, Antioch and the many
   other new Hellenistic cities founded in Alexander's wake, as far away
   as what are now Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Greco-Bactrian
   Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdom survived until the end of the 1st
   century BC.

   The defeat of the Greek cities by Philip and Alexander also taught the
   Greeks that their city-states could never again be powers in their own
   right, and that the hegemony of Macedon and its successor states could
   not be challenged unless the city states united, or at least federated.
   The Greeks valued their local independence too much to consider actual
   unification, but they made several attempts to form federations through
   which they could hope to reassert their independence.

   Following Alexander's death a struggle for power broke out among his
   generals, which resulted in the break-up of his empire and the
   establishment of a number of new kingdoms. Macedon fell to Cassander,
   son of Alexander's leading general Antipater, who after several years
   of warfare made himself master of most of Greece. He founded a new
   Macedonian capital at Thessaloniki and was generally a constructive
   ruler.

   Cassander's power was challenged by Antigonus, ruler of Anatolia, who
   promised the Greek cities that he would restore their freedom if they
   supported him. This led to successful revolts against Cassander's local
   rulers. In 307 BC Antigonus's son Demetrius captured Athens and
   restored its democratic system, which had been suppressed by Alexander.
   But in 301 BC a coalition of Cassander and the other Hellenistic kings
   defeated Antigonus at the Battle of Ipsus, ending his challenge.

   After Cassander's death in 298 BC, however, Demetrius seized the
   Macedonian throne and gained control of most of Greece. He was defeated
   by a second coalition of Greek rulers in 285 BC, and mastery of Greece
   passed to Lysimachus, king of Thrace. Lysimachus was in turn defeated
   and killed in 280 BC. The Macedonian throne then passed to Demetrius's
   son Antigonus II, who also defeated an invasion of the Greek lands by
   the Gauls, who at this time were living in the Balkans. The battle
   against the Gauls united the Antigonids of Macedon and the Seleucids of
   Antioch, an alliance which was also directed against the wealthiest
   Hellenistic power, the Ptolemies of Egypt.

   Antigonus II ruled until his death in 239 BC, and his family retained
   the Macedonian throne until it was abolished by the Romans in 146 BC.
   Their control over the Greek city states was intermittent, however,
   since other rulers, particularly the Ptolemies, subsidised
   anti-Macedonian parties in Greece to undermine the Antigonids' power.
   Antigonus placed a garrison at Corinth, the strategic centre of Greece,
   but Athens, Rhodes, Pergamum and other Greek states retained
   substantial independence, and formed the Aetolian League as a means of
   defending it. Sparta also remained independent, but generally refused
   to join any league.

   In 267 BC Ptolemy II persuaded the Greek cities to revolt against
   Antigonus, in what became the Chremonidian War, after the Athenian
   leader Chremonides. The cities were defeated and Athens lost her
   independence and her democratic institutions. The Aetolian League was
   restricted to the Peloponnese, but on being allowed to gain control of
   Thebes in 245 BC became a Macedonian ally. This marked the end of
   Athens as a political actor, although it remained the largest,
   wealthiest and most cultivated city in Greece. In 255 BC Antigonus
   defeated the Egyptian fleet at Cos and brought the Aegean islands,
   except Rhodes, under his rule as well.

Philip V

   Philip V of Macedon, "the darling of Hellas", wearing the royal diadem
   Philip V of Macedon, "the darling of Hellas", wearing the royal diadem

   Antigonus II died in 239 BC. His death saw another revolt of the
   city-states of the Achaean League, whose dominant figure was Aratus of
   Sicyon. Antigonus's son Demetrius II died in 229 BC, leaving a child (
   Philip V) as king, with the general Antigonus Doson as regent. The
   Achaeans, while nominally subject to Ptolemy, were in effect
   independent, and controlled most of southern Greece. Athens remained
   aloof from this conflict by common consent.

   Sparta remained hostile to the Achaeans, and in 227 BC Sparta's king
   Cleomenes III invaded Achaea and seized control of the League. Aratus
   preferred distant Macedon to nearby Sparta, and allied himself with
   Doson, who in 222 BC defeated the Spartans and annexed their city – the
   first time Sparta had ever been occupied by a foreign power.

   Philip V, who came to power when Doson died in 221 BC, was the last
   Greek ruler with both the talent and the opportunity to unite Greece
   and preserve its independence against the "cloud rising in the west":
   the ever-increasing power of Rome. He was known as "the darling of
   Hellas". Under his auspices the Peace of Naupactus ( 217 BC) brought
   conflict between Macedon and the Greek leagues to an end, and at this
   time he controlled all of Greece except Athens, Rhodes and Pergamum.

   In 215 BC, however, Philip formed an alliance with Rome's enemy
   Carthage, which drew Rome directly into Greek affairs for the first
   time. Rome promptly lured the Achaean cities away from their nominal
   loyalty to Philip, and formed alliances with Rhodes and Pergamum, now
   the strongest power in Asia Minor. The First Macedonian War broke out
   in 212 BC, and ended inconclusively in 205 BC, but Macedon was now
   marked as an enemy of Rome. Rome's ally Rhodes gained control of the
   Aegean islands.

   In 202 BC Rome defeated Carthage, and was free to turn her attention
   eastwards, urged on by her Greek allies, Rhodes and Pergamum. In 198
   the Second Macedonian War broke out for obscure reasons, but basically
   because Rome saw Macedon as a potential ally of the Seleucids, the
   greatest power in the east. Philip's allies in Greece deserted him and
   in 197 BC he was decisively defeated at the Cynoscephalae by the Roman
   proconsul Titus Quinctius Flamininus.

   Luckily for the Greeks, Flamininus was a moderate man and an admirer of
   Greek culture. Philip had to surrender his fleet and become a Roman
   ally, but was otherwise spared. At the Isthmian Games in 196 BC,
   Flamininus declared all the Greek cities free, although Roman garrisons
   were placed at Corinth and Chalcis. But the freedom promised by Rome
   was an illusion. All the cities except Rhodes were enrolled in a new
   League which Rome ultimately controlled, and democracies were replaced
   by aristocratic regimes allied to Rome.

The rise of Rome

   In 192 BC war broke out between Rome and the Seleucid ruler Antiochus
   III. Some Greek cities now saw Antiochus as their saviour from Roman
   rule, but Macedon threw its lot in with Rome, and Antiochus was
   defeated at Thermopylae in 191 BC. During the course of this war Roman
   troops crossed into Asia for the first time, where they defeated
   Antiochus again at Magnesia on the Sipylum ( 190 BC). Greece now lay
   across Rome's line of communications with the east, and Roman troops
   became a permanent presence. The Peace of Apamaea ( 188 BC) left Rome
   in a dominant position throughout Greece.

   During the following years Rome was drawn deeper into Greek politics,
   since the defeated party in any dispute appealed to Rome for help.
   Macedon was still independent, though nominally a Roman ally. When
   Philip V died in 179 BC he was succeeded by his son Perseus, who like
   all the Macedonian kings dreamed of uniting the Greeks under Macedonian
   rule. Macedon was now too weak to achieve this objective, but Rome's
   ally Eumenes II of Pergamum persuaded Rome that Perseus was a threat to
   Rome's position.

The end of Greek independence

   As a result of Eumenes's intrigues Rome declared war on Macedon in 171
   BC, bringing 100,000 troops into Greece. Macedon was no match for this
   army, and Perseus was unable to rally the other Greek states to his
   aid. Poor generalship by the Romans enabled him to hold out for three
   years, but in 168 BC the Romans sent Lucius Aemilius Paullus to Greece,
   and at Pydna the Macedonians were crushingly defeated. Perseus was
   captured and taken to Rome, the Macedonian kingdom was broken up into
   four smaller states, and all the Greek cities who aided her, even
   rhetorically, were punished. Even Rome's allies Rhodes and Pergamum
   effectively lost their independence.

   Under the leadership of an adventurer called Andriscus, Macedon
   rebelled against Roman rule in 149 BC: as a result it was directly
   annexed the following year and became a Roman province, the first of
   the Greek states to suffer this fate. Rome now demanded that the
   Achaean League, the last stronghold of Greek independence, be
   dissolved. The Achaeans refused and, feeling that they might as well
   die fighting, declared war on Rome. Most of the Greek cities rallied to
   the Achaeans' side, even slaves were freed to fight for Greek
   independence. The Roman consul Lucius Mummius advanced from Macedonia
   and defeated the Greeks at Corinth, which was razed to the ground.

   In 146 BC the Greek peninsula, though not the islands, became a Roman
   protectorate. Roman taxes were imposed, except in Athens and Sparta,
   and all the cities had to accept rule by Rome's local allies. In 133 BC
   the last king of Pergamum died and left his kingdom to Rome: this
   brought most of the Aegean peninsula under direct Roman rule as part of
   the province of Asia.
   Hellenistic soldiers of the Egyptian Ptolemaic kingdom, 100 BCE, detail
   of the Nile mosaic of Palestrina.
   Hellenistic soldiers of the Egyptian Ptolemaic kingdom, 100 BCE, detail
   of the Nile mosaic of Palestrina.

   The final downfall of Greece came in 88 BC, when King Mithridates of
   Pontus rebelled against Rome, and massacred up to 100,000 Romans and
   Roman allies across Asia Minor. Although Mithridates was not Greek,
   many Greek cities, including Athens, overthrew their Roman puppet
   rulers and joined him. When he was driven out of Greece by the Roman
   general Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Roman vengeance fell upon Greece again,
   and the Greek cities never recovered. Mithridates was finally defeated
   by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) in 65 BC.

   Further ruin was brought to Greece by the Roman civil wars, which were
   partly fought in Greece. Finally, in 27 BC, Augustus directly annexed
   Greece to the new Roman Empire as the province of Achaea. The struggles
   with Rome had left Greece depopulated and demoralised. Nevertheless,
   Roman rule at least brought an end to warfare, and cities such as
   Athens, Corinth, Thessaloniki and Patras soon recovered their
   prosperity.

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