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Dr.
Richard Baldwin, Gulf Coast State College.
This page last updated 3/17/12
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HELLENISTIC PERIOD (323-146 BC)
I. Division of Alexander's empire
After having united Greece and having built an empire from Greece to the
Punjab of India, Alexander died of fever in Babylon at 32 in 323 BC.
His generals could not agree on a single successor to the Macedonian
Empire with the result that three major kingdoms emerged by 275 BC which would
be at odds until Rome conquered them all by 30 BC.
These kingdoms had a succession of different kings as generals warred for
control; and since these rulers
were foreigners, their kingdoms had to be held together by mercenaries:
1. Egypt: Ptolemy (Alexander’s former personal staff member and
bodyguard) set up the Ptolemies who ruled Egypt as
2. Syria and Asia Minor: Seleucus
I (c.358-2880 BC), who commanded Alexanders's infantry, began the reign
of the Seleucids
3. Macedonia and Greece: Antigonus
I (382-301), who once saved Alexander's life, was the general who began the rule
NOTE: Eventually a fourth kingdom would emerge when Attalus I
secured the independence of Pergamum from the II.
Effect of Kingdoms on people
1. anxiety and uncertainty: decline
of polis: Unable to stand up to these kingdoms, the poleis lose their
long-standing
2. prosperity and the rise of middle class
This new era of Greek colonization finally ends the economic depression
after
3. cosmopolitanism and the exchange of culture:
Greek cities are founded in the East by the Seleucids resulted in the
III. Age of
Scholarship: Alexandria
A number of important centers of learning emerged in the Hellenistic
Period, including Antioch (the capitol of Syria) and Pergamon in Asia Minor, but
Alexandria in Egypt became the greatest of all centers of Greek learning.
It was founded by Alexander the Great when he conquered Egypt, and it was
a main commercial center exporting wheat, linen, papyrus, glass and jewelry.
Within 50 years it had a population of 300,000 and by the beginning of
the Christian era had a population of a million, including Egyptians, Persians,
Macedonians, Greeks, Jews, Syrians, and Arabs.
Ptolemy planned a large institute for scholarship known as the Temple of
the Muses (Museum): it attracted
poets, philosophers, astronomers, and mathematicians.
It included 1) a library containing everything of importance ever written
in Greek (ca. 700,000 works)—the destruction
of this library is considered one of the greatest intellectual disasters in the history
of Western culture, 2) botanical gardens and 3) an observatory.
Much important preservation of and scholarship on Greek literature will
be accomplished by these Alexandrian scholars. IV.
Age of Literature Besides being an age
of scholarship, the Hellenistic Period is one of great new literature.
Menander (c.342-291 BC)
writes in the style of New Comedy (comedies about private life with stock
characters—the comedy of manners--as opposed to the satirical, nasty,
political Old Comedy written during the democracy).
Apollonius (3rd-2nd c. BC) of Rhodes writes a new
epic, Argonautica, celebrating a new kind of hero in Jason.
1. Theocritus (c.315-250 BC) writes a new kind of lyric poetry,
pastoral
poems
known as Idylls, poems depicting peasants,
2. Polybius (c200-120 BC) writes a history of the rise of Rome from a
city-state to a world conqueror; one of the great
V. Age of Philosophy
“The small, tight-knit community of the fiercely independent polis
had disappeared. In its place
people found themselves in huge empires, whose populations were counted in
hundreds of thousands. How could
any one person matter in these vast numbers?
So there developed an interest in individuals, their psychology, their
variety, their importance, which can be seen in many spheres—in religion, in
art, in philosophy, in literature, in social life” (Lang 199).
New emphases in philosophy are particularly illustrative
of this new trend.
In the Hellenic Period, the starting point of philosophy was citizen’s
relationship to the city; in the Hellenistic Period, the starting point is the
solitary individual’s relationship to humanity, his personal destiny in a
larger and more complex world. “[M]an
was no longer merely a part of his city; he was an individual, and as such
needed new guidance” (Tarn 327). New
philosophies arose aiming “not at the discovery of truth, but at the
satisfaction of practical needs….The aim of philosophy was the happiness of
the individual; and what mattered was conduct” (Tarn 327-8).
Thus these new philosophies are concerned with alleviating the spiritual
uneasiness and loss of security that followed the decline of the polis.
Ataraxia “inner tranquility” is the goal of the Hellenistic
Period. 1.
Epicureanism Epicurus
(342-270) founded a school at Athens at the end of the 4th c. BC.
In 306 he bought a house with a large garden in Athens.
He taught that happiness would be achieved by freeing the body from pain
and the mind from fear. Pleasure
was a goal, but not hedonism; pleasure should always be ruled by moderation,
avoiding bodily excesses (incl. Sensual pleasure).
Freedom from anxiety depends on knowledge, so the finest pleasure is
intellectual. If you know how the
universe works, you won’t fear unforeseen catastrophes.
The universe is mechanical and material, composed of atoms.
The Epicureans accept the atomism of Democritus, the haphazard collision
and conjunction of tiny particles (chance).
There is no afterlife, no future reward or punishment, and therefore
nothing to fear from death or the gods. The
soul and even the gods, if they exist, are also material.
The goal in life is disengagement, passivity and withdrawal from public
affairs, because power, wealth and fame result in anxiety. De Rerum Natura
“on the Nature of Things” is an attempt by Lucretius to explain Epicureanism
to a Roman audience. 2.
Stoicism Zeno
(335-263), a Phoenician not a Greek, taught in the Stoa Poikile “Painted
Porch” of the Athenian agora, founding a school in Athens a little later than
Epicurus. He taught that one could
achieve happiness by entering into harmony with the Divine Logos, Universal
Reason, i.e., by obeying natural law (law of reason). The universe came into being out of Divine Fire (cf.
Heraclitus) and will be re-consumed in a cosmic conflagration with repeated
identical cycles forever. “The
soul is the only important thing, because it is ‘a spark of the divine
fire’. So the condition of the
body is insignificant, and the wise man accepts whatever fate allots him—hence
our word ‘stoical’. This
self-sufficiency is achieved by virtue, by leading a good and honorable life”
(Lang 201). This would lead to two
important concepts: the brotherhood
of man and world citizenship. Even
a slave can enjoy freedom by leading a good and honorable life. The goal is engagement; cultivating virtue, accepting duty,
maintaining human dignity in the face of adversity. One of the last great works of Stoicism to survive antiquity
is Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. 3.
Skepticism Founded
by Pyrrhon of Elis (c.365-275) who took part in Alexander’s expedition,
Skepticism attacks the belief of the Stoics and Epicureans that there was a
definite avenue to happiness. One
Skeptic was Carneades of Cyrene (213-129).
Happiness (or at least spiritual comfort) was attained by recognizing
that none of the beliefs people lived by were true or could bring happiness.
He pointed out the limitations of ideas and disputed and refuted
theories. “Since there was never
any certainty, only probability, morality should not derive from dogma but from
practical experience” (Perry 105). Since
one could not know anything about the universe for sure, the Skeptics
concentrated on the problem of reason, whether or not it could arrive at truth.
The goal in life is reduced to “follow the crowd,” conformity while
suspending judgment and recognizing the inability to understand. 4.
Cynicism Though
founded by Antisthenes (b. ca. 440 BC) who thought virtue was the sole basis
of happiness and could be sought in freedom from wants and desires,
Diogenes (4th BC) who lived in a huge clay pot and said intellectual studies
were a waste of time, is the most famous. Believing
that happiness was extreme and total freedom from any responsibility, the goal
is self-sufficiency. Cynics
attempted to free themselves from all hindrances, such as laws, public opinion,
private property, employment, wives and children.
They were extreme individualists, the original back-to-nature hippies,
rebelling against the establishment (all values and conventions).
They cultivated idleness, indifference and apathy.
They displayed bad language, bad manners and wandered around shoeless, in
rags, dirty, with scraggly beards with no loyalty to family, city, religion,
etc. VI.
Age of Science The influence of
Aristotle and Alexander on the Hellenistic Period comes when Alexander’s staff
collects huge amounts of data in botany, zoology, geography and astronomy.
This stimulates a rational analysis of nature which results in a number
of developments: 1) research, 2) the organization of knowledge, 3) development
of mathematical proofs, 4) separation of medicine from magic, 5) the development
of the theory of experiment, 6) the application of scientific principles to
mechanical devices. Some leading
Hellenistic scientists include:
1. Theophrastus, Aristotle’s pupil, first systematized the knowledge of
botony.
2. Aristarchus (310-230) of Samos was the Alexandrian astronomer who
first put forward the view that the sun was the
3. Euclid (c. 300 BC) was an Alexandrian who systematized plane and solid
geometry in his famous work Elements.
4. Eratosthenes (c.275-195) of Cyrene was the Alexandrian geographer who succeeded
Zenodotus as head of the
5. Archimedes was killed in 212 BC when the Romans under Marcellus
captured Syracuse. He invented hydrostatics, the VII. Three Great Ideas
1. individualism
2. realism
3. empiricism |
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