Hellenistic period

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The Nike of Samothrace is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of Hellenistic art.

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The Hellenistic period covers the period of Mediterranean history between

the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman
Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 31 BC[1] and the conquest of Ptolemaic
Egypt the following year.[2] The period of Greece prior to the Hellenistic era is known
as Classical Greece, while the period afterwards is known as Roman Greece.
The Ancient Greek word Hellas (Ἑλλάς, Ellás) was originally the widely
recognized name of Greece, from which the word Hellenistic was derived.
[3]
 "Hellenistic" is distinguished from "Hellenic" in that the first encompasses all
territories under direct ancient Greek influence, while the latter refers to Greece
itself.
During the Hellenistic period Greek cultural influence and power reached the peak of
its geographical expansion, being dominant in the Mediterranean world and most of
West and Central Asia, even in parts of the Indian subcontinent, experiencing
prosperity and progress in
the arts, exploration, literature, theatre, architecture, music, mathematics, philosophy
, and science. Despite this, it is often considered a period of transition, sometimes
even of decadence or degeneration,[4] compared to the enlightenment of the Greek
Classical era. The Hellenistic period saw the rise of New Comedy, Alexandrian
poetry, the Septuagint and the philosophies of Stoicism, Epicureanism,
and Pyrrhonism. Greek science was advanced by the works of the
mathematician Euclid and the polymath Archimedes. The religious sphere expanded
to include new gods such as the Greco-Egyptian Serapis, eastern deities such
as Attis and Cybele and a syncretism between Hellenistic culture and
Buddhism in Bactria and Northwest India.

Hellenistic period. Dionysus sculpture from the Ancient Art Collection at Yale.

After Alexander the Great's invasion of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BC and its

disintegration shortly after, the Hellenistic kingdoms were established
throughout south-west Asia (Seleucid Empire, Kingdom of Pergamon), north-east
Africa (Ptolemaic Kingdom) and South Asia (Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, Indo-Greek
Kingdom). The Hellenistic period was characterized by a new wave of Greek
colonization[5] which established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa.[6] This
resulted in the export of Greek culture and language to these new realms, spanning
as far as modern-day India. These new kingdoms were also influenced by the
indigenous cultures, adopting local practices where beneficial, necessary, or
convenient. Hellenistic culture thus represents a fusion of the ancient Greek world
with that of Western Asian, Northeastern African and Southwestern Asian. [7] This
mixture gave rise to a common Attic-based Greek dialect, known as Koine Greek,
which became the lingua franca through the Hellenistic world.
Scholars and historians are divided as to which event signals the end of the
Hellenistic era. The Hellenistic period may be seen to end either with the final
conquest of the Greek heartlands by Rome in 146 BC following the Achaean War,
with the final defeat of the Ptolemaic Kingdom at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, or
even the move by Roman emperor Constantine the Great of the capital of
the Roman Empire to Constantinople in AD 330.[8][9] Angelos Chaniotis ends the
Hellenistic period with the death of Hadrian in 138 AD, who integrated the Greeks
fully into the Roman Empire;[10] and a range from c. 321 BC to 256 AD may also be
given.[11]