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    The Hellenistic Age
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    The Hellenistic Age
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    The Hellenistic Age
    Ebook310 pages3 hours

    The Hellenistic Age

    By Peter Green

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The Hellenistic era witnessed the overlap of antiquity’s two great Western civilizations, the Greek and the Roman. This was the epoch of Alexander’s vast expansion of the Greco-Macedonian world, the rise and fall of his successors’ major dynasties in Egypt and Asia, and, ultimately, the establishment of Rome as the first Mediterranean superpower.

    The Hellenistic Age chronicles the years 336 to 30 BCE, from the days of Philip and Alexander of Macedon to the death of Cleopatra and the final triumph of Caesar’s heir, the young Augustus. Peter Green’s remarkably far-ranging study covers the prevalent themes and events of those centuries: the Hellenization of an immense swath of the known world–from Egypt to India–by Alexander’s conquests; the lengthy and chaotic partition of this empire by rival Macedonian marshals after Alexander’s death; the decline of the polis (city state) as the predominant political institution; and, finally, Rome’s moment of transition from republican to imperial rule.

    Predictably, this is a story of war and power-politics, and of the developing fortunes of art, science, and statecraft in the areas where Alexander’s coming disseminated Hellenic culture. It is a rich narrative tapestry of warlords, libertines, philosophers, courtesans and courtiers, dramatists, historians, scientists, merchants, mercenaries, and provocateurs of every stripe, spun by an accomplished classicist with an uncanny knack for infusing life into the distant past, and applying fresh insights that make ancient history seem alarmingly relevant to our own times.

    To consider the three centuries prior to the dawn of the common era in a single short volume demands a scholar with a great command of both subject and narrative line. The Hellenistic Age is that rare book that manages to coalesce a broad spectrum of events, persons, and themes into one brief, indispensable, and amazingly accessible survey.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateMay 13, 2008
    ISBN9781588367068
    Unavailable
    The Hellenistic Age
    Author

    Peter Green

    Peter Green is Dougherty Centennial Professor of Classics at the University of Texas, Austin. Novelist and scholar, his recent books include Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C. (California, 1991), Alexander to Actium (California, 1990), and The Laughter of Aphrodite (California, 1993).

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    • 4/5
      This 130 page overview of the Hellenistic Age is part of the Modern Library's Chronicles series; most of the books in the series are authored by leading historians for each period. At its best, that means you get a summary of a period developed over several decades of the author's career and then pared down to fit into the length limit imposed by the series. As a downside, if the historian's thinking or research hasn't continued to develop late into their career, you get a vision that's already becoming obsolete. I'm not an expert in the Hellenistic era, but there are some clues in his introduction that Peter Green's theories of the period remain flexible and open to new information, avoiding this pitfall. The Hellenistic Age provides a fairly detailed chronological arc of the period, with occasional breaks to discuss cultural and economic trends and developments in political institutions. The litany of names of kings and consorts and cities sometimes becomes overwhelming; I found it helped at points to stop trying to remember individual names and just let the flow of events wash past me. The book includes maps, helpful genealogical charts, suggestions for further reading, bibliography, scant endnotes, and a thorough index. This book is probably a great place to start before diving into more focused topics within the period. Substantively, the volume paints a picture of the era as one of episodic violent tumult, in the course of which democratic institutions were generally undermined; disparities of wealth increased radically; and fortunes were made primarily not through innovation or increases in productivity, but by privatizing formerly public resources (especially human freedom with the rapid expansion of slavery). It's a grim trajectory.