The term Hellenistic (derived from Ἕλλην Héllēn, the Greeks' traditional self-described ethnic name) was established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen to refer to the spreading of Greek culture over the non-Greek peoples that were conquered by Alexander the Great. According to Droysen, the Hellenistic civilisation was a fusion of Greek and Oriental culture that eventually gave Christianity the opportunity to flourish. The main cultural centers expanded from mainland Greece, to Pergamon, Rhodes, Antioch and Alexandria. A historian is a person who studies history. ... Johann Gustav Droysen (July 6, 1808 - June 10, 1884), was a German historian. ... Greece is often referred to as the cradle of Western civilisation and ancient Athens was considered to be its center. ... Alexander the Great fighting Persian king Darius (not in frame) (Pompeii mosaic, from a 3rd century BC original Greek painting, now lost). ... Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life, teachings, and actions of Jesus as recounted in the New Testament. ... Pergamon or Pergamum (modern day Bergama in Turkey) was a Greek city, in northwestern Anatolia, 16 miles from the Aegean Sea, located on a promontory on the north side of the river Caicus (modern day Bakir), that became an important kingdom during the Hellenistic period, under the Attalid dynasty, 282... Main entrance to the medieval city of Rhodes Rhodes, Greek Ρόδος (pron. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Antiquity and modernity stand cheek-by-jowl in Egypts chief Mediterranean seaport Located on the Mediterranean Sea coast, Alexandria Αλεξάνδρεια (in Arabic, الإسكندرية, transliterated al-ʼIskandariyyah) is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that countrys second largest city, and the capital of the Al Iskandariyah governate. ...

Modern historians see the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC as the beginning of the Hellenistic period. Alexander's armies conquered the eastern Mediterranean, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Iranian plateau, Central Asia, and parts of India. Following Alexander's death, there was a struggle for the succession, known as the wars of the Diadochi (Greek for successors). These ended in 281 BC with the establishment of four large territorial states: Alexander the Great fighting Persian king Darius (not in frame) (Pompeii mosaic, from a 3rd century BC original Greek painting, now lost). ... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC - 320s BC - 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC 270s BC 328 BC 327 BC 326 BC 325 BC 324 BC - 323 BC - 322 BC 321 BC 320... Sumerian list of gods in cuneiform script, ca. ... The Iranian plateau is major geologic formation in the Middle East and the southern Eurasian Plate. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... In general, the word Diadochi means successors in Greek, such that the neoplatonic refounders of Platos Academy in Late Antiquity referred to themselves as diadochi (of Plato). ... Centuries: 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC Decades: 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC - 280s BC - 270s BC 260s BC 250s BC 240s BC 230s BC 286 BC 285 BC 284 BC 283 BC 282 BC 281 BC 280 BC 279 BC 278...

• The Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt based at Alexandria;
• The Seleucid dynasty in Syria and Mesopotamia based at Antioch;
• The Antigonid dynasty in Macedon and central Greece;
• The Attalid dynasty in Anatolia based at Pergamum.

Silver drachm of the Indo-Greek king Menander I (155-130 BC).
Obv: Greek legend, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΡΩΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ "[coin] of Saviour King Menander".
Rev: Kharosthi legend: MAHARAJA TRATASA MENADRASA "Saviour King Menander". Athena advancing right, with thunderbolt and shield. Taxila mint mark.

His successors held on to the territory west of the Tigris for some time and controlled the eastern Mediterranean until the Roman Republic took control in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. Most of the east was eventually overrun by the Parthians, but Hellenistic culture held on in distant locations, like the Greco-Bactrian kingdom in Bactria, or the Indo-Greek kingdom in northern India, or the Cimmerian Bosporus. Hellenistic culture remained dominant on the Eastern part of the Roman Empire until its Christianization and transition onto the Byzantine civilization. The Ptolemaic dynasty was a Greek royal family which ruled over Egypt for nearly 300 years, from 305 BC to 30 BC. Ptolemy, a Macedonian and one of Alexander the Greats generals, was appointed satrap of Egypt after Alexanders death in 323 BC. In 305 BC he declared... Antiquity and modernity stand cheek-by-jowl in Egypts chief Mediterranean seaport Located on the Mediterranean Sea coast, Alexandria Αλεξάνδρεια (in Arabic, الإسكندرية, transliterated al-ʼIskandariyyah) is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that countrys second largest city, and the capital of the Al Iskandariyah governate. ... After the death of Alexander the Great in the afternoon of 11 June 323 BC, his empire was divided by his generals, the Diadochi(successors). ... Sumerian list of gods in cuneiform script, ca. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Antigonid dynasty was a dynasty of Macedonian kings descended from Alexander the Greats general Antigonus I Monophthalmus (the One-eyed). Antigonus himself ruled mostly over Asia Minor and northern Syria. ... The Vergina Sun, a symbol associated with the Macedonian kingdom Macedon or Macedonia (from Greek ; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was the name of an ancient kingdom located in the northern-most part of ancient Greece, bordering the kingdom of Epirus on the west and the region... The Attalid dynasty was a Greek dynasty that ruled the city of Pergamon after the death of Lysimachus, a general of Alexander the Great. ... Asia Minor lies east of the Bosporus, between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. ... Pergamon or Pergamum (modern day Bergama in Turkey) was a Greek city, in northwestern Anatolia, 16 miles from the Aegean Sea, located on a promontory on the north side of the river Caicus (modern day Bakir), that became an important kingdom during the Hellenistic period, under the Attalid dynasty, 282... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Drachma, pl. ... Maximum extent of Indo-Greek territory circa 175 BCE. The Indo-Greeks (or sometimes Greco-Indians) designate a series of Greek kings, who invaded and controlled parts of northwest and northern India from 180 BCE to around 10 BCE. They are the continuation of the Greco-Bactrian dynasty of Greek... Tetradrachm of Menander I in Greco-Bactrian style (Alexandria-Kapisa mint). ... The Kharoṣṭhī script, also known as the Gāndhārī script, is an ancient alphabetic script used by the Gandhara culture of historic northwest India to write the Gandhari and Sanskrit languages (the Gandhara kingdom was located along the present-day border between Afghanistan and Pakistan between the Indus River and the... Athena from the east pediment of the Afea temple in Aegina After a sculpture of Athena at the Louvre. ... Taxila (Sanskrit: Takshashîlâ/तक्षशीला) is an archaeological site, located in the Punjab province of Pakistan, west of the Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi, on the border of the Punjab and North West Frontier Province and just off the Grand Trunk Road. ... Tigris River in Mosul, Iraq The Tigris (Kurdish: Tîj / Tûj / Tîr , Old Persian: Tigrā-, Pahlavi: Tigr, Syriac: ܕܩܠܬ; Deqlath, Arabic: دجلة; Dijla, Turkish: Dicle, Hebrew: חדקל; ḥiddeqel) is the eastern member of the pair of great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of... See also Roman Republic (18th century) and Roman Republic (19th century). ... (3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - other centuries) (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium AD) // Events 175 BCE - Antiochus IV Epiphanes, took possession of the Syrian throne, at the murder of his brother Seleucus IV Philopator, which rightly belonged to his nephew Demetrius I Soter. ... (2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century - other centuries) The 1st century BC starts on January 1, 100 BC and ends on December 31, 1 BC. An alternative name for this century is the last century BC. (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium) // Events The Roman Republic... Parthian Empire at its greatest extent, c60 BCE. Parthia, or known in their native Iranian language as Ashkâniân [2] (also called the Arsacid Empire) was the dominating force on the Iranian plateau beginning in the late 3rd century BCE, and intermittently controlled Mesopotamia between ca 190 BCE and... Approximate extent of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom circa 220 BCE. The Greco-Bactrians were a dynasty of Greek kings who controlled Bactria and Sogdiana, an area comprising todays northern Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia, the easternmost area of the Hellenistic world, from 250 to 125 BCE. Their expansion... Bactria (Bactriana) was the ancient Greek name of the country between the range of the Hindu Kush (Caucasus Indicus) and the Amu Darya (Oxus); its capital, Bactra (now Balkh), was located in what is now northern Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. ...     The Indo-Greek Kingdom (or sometimes Greco-Indian Kingdom) covered various parts of northwest and northern India from 180 BCE to around 10 CE, and was ruled by a succession of more than thirty Greek kings, often in conflict with each other. ... The Cimmerian Bosphorus of Antiquity, shown on a map printed in London, ca 1770 The Cimmerian Bosporus (Bosporus Cimmerius) was the ancient name for the Strait of Kerch that connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. ... For other uses, see Roman Empire (disambiguation). ... Byzantine Empire (Greek: Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων) is the term conventionally used since the 19th century to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. ...

It must also be added that Hellenism made considerable inroads also in monarchies governed by kings of Persian or Thracian origin, as was the case with Bithynia, Cappadocia and Pontus. This article contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... Cappadocia in 188 BC In ancient geography, Cappadocia (spelled Kapadokya in Turkish) (Greek: Καππαδοκία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was an extensive inland district of Asia Minor (modern Turkey). ... After the colonisation of the Anatolian shores by the Ionian Greeks, Pontus soon became a name which was applied, in ancient times, to extensive tracts of country in the northeast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) bordering on the Euxine (Black Sea), which was often called simply Pontos (the Main), by...

The end of the Hellenistic period is generally seen as 31 BC, when the kingdom of Ptolemaic Egypt was utterly defeated by the Romans at the Battle of Actium. As a result, Egypt's last ruler, Cleopatra, committed suicide and her kingdom was annexed by Caesar Augustus. Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 80s BC 70s BC 60s BC 50s BC 40s BC - 30s BC - 20s BC 10s BC 0s 10s 20s Years: 36 BC 35 BC 34 BC 33 BC 32 BC 31 BC 30 BC 29 BC 28 BC 27 BC... The conquests of Alexander the Great brought Egypt within the orbit of the Greek world for the next 900 years. ... Combatants Octavian Mark Antony, Cleopatra VII of Egypt Commanders Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa Mark Antony Strength 260 warships, mostly liburnian vessels 220 warships, mostly quinqueremes and 60 egyptian warships Casualties Unknown Almost all of Antonys fleet {{{notes}}} The Battle of Actium was a naval battle of the Roman Civil War... Egyptian statue of Cleopatra VII Cleopatra VII Philopator (January 69 BC – August 12, 30 BC) was queen of ancient Egypt, the last member of the Ptolemaic dynasty and hence the last Hellenistic ruler of Egypt. ... The famous statue of Octavian at the Prima Porta Caesar Augustus (Latin:IMP·CAESAR·DIVI·F·AVGVSTVS) ¹ (23 September 63 BC–19 August AD 14), known to modern historians as Octavian for the period of his life prior to 27 BC, is considered the first and one of the most...

See also

• Hellenistic Greece
• Diadochi

The Hellenistic period 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... In general, the word Diadochi means successors in Greek, such that the neoplatonic refounders of Platos Academy in Late Antiquity referred to themselves as diadochi (of Plato). ...

Reference

• Sir William Tarn: Hellenistic civilisation.