Chapter 12 bare outline

Chapter 12 Outline/IDs
The New World of the Hellenistic Period

Spans 3 centuries 323 BC to 30 BC

Struggle for succession
Perdiccas: chief minister; organized regency
Eumenes: Cappadocia
Ptolemy I: Egypt
Lysimachus: Thrace
Antigonus the One-Eyed: western Anatolia; Asia
(Demetrius: son; defeated by Ptolemy at Gaza; liberated Athens from Cassander (strategos in Europe)
and restored democracy)
Issued Greek freedom: rivals recognize all Greek states as free, shrewd attempt to build Greek support
Peace of 311: admitted attempt to control of empire failed; division stayed the same as before

301: Seleucus and Lysimachus defeated Anti and Deme

Ptolemy II son of Pto I married to Lysi daughter
Seleucus allied with Demetrius who had a sea-empire; Deme later surrendered to Sel
Sele then invaded Lysi’s kingdom
Lysi won but then assassinated by an exiled son of Ptolemy who fell defending Macedon against Gauls; then beat by Antigonus (became king of Macedon) and the Aetolians- became the preeminent power in central Greece

The Polis in the Hellenistic World
Strong federal states: alliances of cities governed by councils of city representatives, assemblies of League Citizens
Aetolian League: organization of city-states northwest of Greece; reached all the way to the borders of Attica

Achaean League: most of the Peloponnesus except Sparta
Aristocratic oligarchies increasingly managed affairs; made generous gifts to their cities
eventually beat by Romans

Menander: pg.341 New Comedy- lighter genre replaced grand tragedies and biting political comedies
Tyche- divinity- luck
Epicureanism: founded by Epicurus; universe created by chance combinations; gods had little role; happiness on earth as the purpose of life

Stoicism: founded by Zeno
Earth center; Zeus and monarchy divine; revolution bad; duty to community, humanitarianism and public service

The Macedonian Kingdoms

1) kingdom and population belonged to the king
2) king’s business took precedence over all other considerations
Ptolemaic Egypt
Autocracy; farming; state monopolies
Theocritus: court poet; described Egypt as a land of opportunity for immigrants and characterized Ptolemy II as a “good paymaster”

Callimachus: scholar and poet; catalogued the Alexandrian Library (created by Ptolemy I) thereby laying the foundation for the history of greek literature

scholarship and science: Eratosthenes: established the principles of scientific cartography; mathematician, geographer; calculated circumference of the earth

Sarapis: god, patron deity of Alexandria; synthesis of Egyptian and Greek elements
Traditional greek practice of identifying their own gods with those of other people’s (syncretism)