1. -Key Concepts- “oikoumene” “cosmopolis”
The Hellenistic Age
-Key Concepts-
“oikoumene”
“cosmopolis”

2. I. Peloponnesian War (430-404 BCE)
Very costly and drawn out
The defeat of Athens
Persia was the big winner
Greek city-states commit political suicide
Recognition of what had been lost produces a fourth-century intellectual crisis

3. II. Intellectual Crisis and Responses
Plato ( BCE)
--Rule of a “Philosopher-King”
--Plato’s Academy
--Doctrine of Ideas or Forms
--Concept of Dualism
--The “Demiurge”
--The political philosophy of The Republic

4. II. Intellectual Crisis and Responses (cont)
Aristotle ( BCE)
--More empirical approach than Plato
--Multiple systems of government will work as long as rulers have arete
--Aristotle’s background
--His school, the Lyceum
--Wanted to synthesize all knowledge

5. II. Intellectual Crisis and Responses (cont)
Aristotle ( BCE)
--invented the word metaphysics
--his understanding of the universe
--earliest formal logician
--contemplative life is the best life
--elitist view of women and “barbarians”
--the power of the passions

6. II. Intellectual Crisis and Responses (cont)
Isocrates ( BCE)
--Background
--Advocate of Pan-Hellenism and the rule of Philip II
--His emphasis on the value of rhetoric
--Redefined what it meant to be Greek
--paideia

7. III. The Roots of “Oikoumene”

8. A. Military and Political Unity
Harshness of Macedonian life
The nature of Macedonian monarchy
The relationship of the Macedonians to the Greeks
The rise of Philip II to the Macedonian throne
His plan to force the Greek city-states into submission

9. A. Military and Political Unity (cont)
The rise of Alexander the Great to power ( BCE)
Conquest of Greece and Persia
Alexander’s presence in battle
Cuts the Gordion know
Introduction of new military technology

10. A. Military and Political Unity (cont)
Founding of Alexandria and burning of Persepolis
Campaign as far as India
Rules as a divine, absolute monarch
Alexander’s goals and his sense of history
The death of Alexander the Great

11. A. Military and Political Unity (cont)
The Successor Kingdoms
Constant warfare between these kingdoms
The desire for Greek soldiers
The Hellenistic “shadow” polis
Hellenistic cities were economic and social hubs
Hellenistic view of women
Philanthropy in Hellenistic city life

12. B. Cultural Unity Process of cultural intermingling
Creation of a professional Greek administrative corps
Use of Greeks in professional armies and navies
Imitation of Greek culture by non-Greeks
--Koine Greek

13. B. Cultural Unity (cont)
The role of the city in the Hellenistic empire
Employment of Greek writers, artists and architects
The Library of Alexandria
--Museum
Hellenistic poets and comics
--Theocritus

14. B. Cultural Unity (cont)
Hellenistic sculpture
Hellenistic art
Spread of Greek culture was wider than it was deep
Treatment of the Jews in Hellenistic cities
--Hanukkah
--Septuagint (LXX)

15. C. Commercial Unity East and West linked in a broad commercial network
Uniformity in coinage, weights, and measures
Exchange of commercial customs
Most trade was sea borne
Regional specialization
Hellenistic slave trade

16. D. Philosophical Unity Reasons for the popularity of Greek philosophy
Basic question of Hellenistic philosophy:
What is the best way for humans to live?
Epicureanism

17. D. Philosophical Unity (cont)
Stoicism
--Zeno ( BCE)
--Logos
--unified and orderly nature
--basic unity of all human beings
--everything that happened was fated

18. D. Philosophical Unity (cont)
Skeptics
--Pyrrho ( BCE)
Cynics
--Diogenes
--Antisthenes
--artificiality of the polis
--citizens of the “cosmopolis”

19. E. Religious Unity The sterility of Greek religious cults
The power of Tyche
Greeks do not try to spread their religion
The growth of “mystery religions”
Rites of initiation that united devotee with a risen god

20. E. Religious Unity (cont)
Egyptian cult of Serapis
--Asclepius
The Egyptian cult of Isis
Tendencies toward religious universalism and personal immortality

21. IV. Achievements of Hellenistic Culture
The “Golden Age” of Science
Euclid and his advances in mathematics
The practical and theoretical discoveries of Archimedes
Aristarchus and his model of the solar system
Eratosthenes and mathematical geography

22. IV. Achievements of Hellenistic Culture (cont)
Theophrastus and the study of botany
Practical technological application
Significant medical advances
--The Hellenistic practice of vivisection
Doctors faced a reputation of quakery
Hellenistic cures and potions