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Hellenistic Greece is the historical period ofAncient Greece followingClassical Greece and between the death ofAlexander the Great in 323 BC and the annexation of the classical GreekAchaean League heartlands by theRoman Republic. This culminated at theBattle of Corinth in 146 BC, a crushing Roman victory in thePeloponnese that led to the destruction ofCorinth and ushered in the period ofRoman Greece. Hellenistic Greece's definitive end was with theBattle of Actium in 31 BC, whenOctavian defeatedPtolemaic queenCleopatra VII andMark Antony, the next year taking overAlexandria, the last great center of Hellenistic Greece.[1]
TheHellenistic period began with thewars of the Diadochi, armed contests among the former generals of Alexander the Great to carve uphis empire in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The wars lasted until 275 BC, witnessing the fall of both theArgead andAntipatrid dynasties ofMacedonia in favor of theAntigonid dynasty. The era was also marked by successive wars between theKingdom of Macedonia, the kingdom ofEpirus, theAetolian League,Achaean League,Sparta,Rhodes,kingdom of Pergamum as well as theSeleucid andPtolemaic empires.
During the reign ofPhilip V of Macedon (r. 221–179 BC), the Macedonians not only lost theCretan War (205–200 BC) to an alliance led byRhodes, but theirerstwhile alliance withHannibal ofCarthage also entangled them in theFirst andSecond Macedonian War withancient Rome. The perceived weakness of Macedonia in the aftermath of these conflicts encouragedAntiochus III the Great of the Seleucid Empire to invademainland Greece, yet his defeat by the Romans atThermopylae in 191 BC andMagnesia in 190 BC secured Rome's position as the leading military power in the region. Within roughly two decades after conqueringMacedonia in 168 BC andEpirus in 167 BC, the Romans would eventually control the whole of Greece.
During the Hellenistic period the importance of Greece proper within the Greek-speaking world declined sharply. The great centers ofHellenistic culture wereAlexandria andAntioch, capitals ofPtolemaic andSeleucid Kingdoms respectively. Cities such asPergamon,Ephesus,Rhodes andSeleucia were also important, and increasing urbanisation of the Eastern Mediterranean was characteristic of the time.
The quests ofAlexander 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 nowAfghanistan andPakistan, where theGreco-Bactrian Kingdom and theIndo-Greek Kingdom survived until the end of the 1st century BC.
The defeat of the Greek city-states byPhilip and Alexander also taught them that they could never again be powers in their own right, and that the hegemony ofMacedon 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 toCassander, son of Alexander's leading generalAntipater, who after several years of warfare made himself master of most of the rest of Greece. He founded a new Macedonian capital atThessaloniki and was generally a constructive ruler.
Cassander's power was challenged byAntigonus, 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 sonDemetrius capturedAthens 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 theBattle 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 the kingLysimachusof Thrace. Lysimachus was in turn defeated and killed in 280 BC. The Macedonian throne then passed to Demetrius's sonAntigonus II, who also defeated aninvasion of the Greek lands by theGauls, who at this time were living in the Balkans. The battle against the Gauls united theAntigonids of Macedon and theSeleucids of Asia, an alliance which was also directed against the wealthiest Hellenistic power, thePtolemies of Egypt. TheEpirote kingPyrrhus is known to have madeEpirus a powerful state in the wider Hellenistic world (during 297–272 BC) that was comparable to the likes of Macedon andAncient Rome. Pyrrhus' armies also attempted an assault against the state of Ancient Rome during their unsuccessful campaign in what is now modern-dayItaly in 280-275 BC. Pyrrhus died in 272 BC leaving Antigonus Gonatas' Macedon the stronger power in Greece.
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 atCorinth, the strategic centre of Greece, butRhodes,Pergamum,Achaean League andAetolian League and other Greek states retained substantial independence.Sparta also remained independent and generally refused to join any league.
In 267 BC,Ptolemy II persuaded the Greek cities to revolt against Antigonus, in what became theChremonidean War, after the Athenian leaderChremonides. The cities were defeated and Athens lost her independence and her democratic institutions. The Aetolian League was restricted to thePeloponnese, but on being allowed to gain control ofThebes 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 Ptolemaic fleet atCos and brought theAegean islands, except Rhodes, under his rule as well.
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In spite of their decreased political power and autonomy, the Greek city state orpolis continued to be the basic form of political and social organization in Greece. Classical city states such asAthens andEphesus grew and even thrived in this period. While warfare between Greek cities continued, the cities responded to the threat of the post Alexandrian Hellenistic states by banding together into alliances or becoming allies of a strong Hellenistic state which could come to its defense therefore making itasylos or inviolate to attack by other cities.
The Aetolians and the Achaeans developed strong federal states or leagues (koinon), which were governed by councils of city representatives and assemblies of league citizens. Initially ethnic leagues, these leagues later began to include cities outside of their traditional regions.[2] TheAchaean League eventually included all of thePeloponnese exceptSparta, while theAetolian League expanded intoPhocis. During the third century BCE these leagues were able to defend themselves againstMacedon and the Aetolian league defeated aCeltic invasion of Greece at Delphi.
After Alexander's death,Athens had been defeated byAntipater in theLamian War and its port in thePiraeus housed a Macedonian garrison. To counter the power of Macedon under Cassander, Athens courted alliances with other Hellenistic rulers such asAntigonus I Monophthalmus, and in 307 Antigonus sent his sonDemetrius to capture the city. After Demetrius captured Macedon, Athens became allied with Ptolemaic Egypt in an effort to gain its independence from Demetrius, and with Ptolemaic troops they managed to rebel and defeat Macedon in 287, though the Piraeus remained garrisoned. Athens fought more unsuccessful wars against Macedon with Ptolemaic aid such as theChremonidean War. The Ptolemaic kingdom was now the city's main ally, supporting it with troops, monies and material in multiple conflicts. Athens rewarded thePtolemaic Kingdom in 224/223 BC by naming the 13thphyle Ptolemais and establishing a religious cult called the Ptolemaia. Hellenistic Athens also saw the rise ofNew Comedy and the Hellenistic schools of philosophy such asStoicism andEpicureanism. By the turn of the century, theAttalids inPergamon became patrons and protectors of Athens as the Ptolemaic empire weakened. Athens would later also establish a cult for the Pergamene kingAttalos I.
Antigonus II died in 239 BC. His death saw another revolt of the city-states of theAchaean League, whose dominant figure wasAratus of Sicyon. Antigonus's sonDemetrius II died in 229 BC, leaving a child (Philip V) as king, with the generalAntigonus 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 kingCleomenes 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 Macedonian 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 enemyCarthage, 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 inAsia Minor. TheFirst 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 BC, theSecond Macedonian War broke out for obscure reasons, but very likely 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 theCynoscephalae by the Roman proconsulTitus 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 theIsthmian Games in 196 BC, Flamininus declared all the Greek cities free, although Roman garrisons were placed at Corinth andChalcis. 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.
In 192 BC, war broke out between Rome and the Seleucid rulerAntiochus III. Antiochus invaded Greece with a 10,000 man army, and was elected the commander in chief of the Aetolians. Some Greek cities now thought of Antiochus as their saviour from Roman rule, but Macedon threw its lot in with Rome. In 191 BC, the Romans under Manius Acilius Glabrio routed him at Thermopylae and obliged him to withdraw to Asia. During the course of this war Roman troops moved into Asia for the first time, where they defeated Antiochus again atMagnesia on the Sipylum (190 BC). Greece now lay across Rome's line of communications with the east, and Roman soldiers 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 sonPerseus, 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 allyEumenes II ofPergamum persuaded Rome that Perseus was a potential threat to Rome's position.
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 sentLucius Aemilius Paullus to Greece, and atPydna 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 calledAndriscus, Macedon rebelled against Roman rule in 149 BC: as a result it was directly annexed the following year and became aRoman 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. Many Greek cities rallied to the Achaeans' side, while even slaves were freed to fight for Greek independence. The Roman consulLucius Mummius advanced from Macedonia and defeated the Greeks atCorinth, 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.
The final downfall of Greece came in 88 BC, when KingMithridatesof Pontus rebelled against Rome, and massacred up to 100,000 Romans and Roman allies across Asia Minor. Some Greek cities, more importantlyAthens among them, overthrew their Roman puppet rulers and joined him. When he was driven out of Greece by the Roman generalLucius Cornelius Sulla, Roman vengeance fell upon the Greek cities allied to him. Mithridates was finally defeated byGnaeus 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 newRoman Empire as theprovince of Achaea. The struggles with Rome had left certain areas of Greece depopulated and demoralised. Nevertheless, Roman rule at least brought an end to warfare, and cities such as Athens, Corinth,Thessaloniki andPatras soon recovered their prosperity.
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