Hellenism

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The era immediately following the Greek Classical era is called Hellenism. It begins with the campaigns of Alexander the Great in the year 334 B.C.E, and ends with the establishment of a Roman protectorate in Ptolemaic Egypt in 30 B.C.E. The Hellenism was shaped by the cultural exchange with the areas conquered by Alexander the Great, the Romans, the Carthaginians, and the Galatians and Celts from the Danube river. Bigger kingdoms and states dominated the political landscape instead of the Classical Polis. Although many Poleis were founded in the Hellenistic era, they were usually not independent, but under a protectorate of a bigger party. At the end of Hellenism, the Republic of Rome dominated the whole Mediterranean, and the formerly massive empire of Alexander the Great was no longer under Greek influence.

After his father, Philip II of Macedonia, established his dominance over the Greek states, Alexander the Great was able to start his campaign against the Persian empire. After only eleven years, the whole of Asia Minor, Persia, Egypt, and parts of Afghanistan, Arabia, and even India were brought under Macedonian control. The sudden death of Alexander created a power-vacuum, and consequently a fierce dispute erupted about his succession. His territories fell apart into various successor-kingdoms, the so called Diadochi. The following half century was shaped by the bloody struggle of the Diadochi for over the succession of Alexander. After no less than six wars of the Diadochi, the dynasties of the Ptolemies in Egypt, the Seleucids in Syria, and the Antigonids in Macedonia, established themselves. The balance of power stabilized a bit after that and each of the dynasties went to follow their own agenda. With the exception of the campaigns of Pyrrhos, and the Celtic invasion in central Greece, power struggles between Hellenistic states were dominating the third century B.C.E. The second century saw Macedonia fall under Roman control after three wars, and soon after that become a Roman province. Over the following century, the Romans were able to establish themselves as the master of all the remaining Hellenistic kingdoms.

After the death of Perdiccas of Macedon, his brother Philip II becomes King.

Philip defeats the Paoniens and Illyrians.

Philip occupies Amphipolis and controls the gold mines of Pangäon.

Philip occupies the cities Pydna and Potidaea, previously belonging to Athens.

Philip engages in the sacred war, his operations are stopped in Thessaly at Thermopylae.

Philip destroys the city of Olynthus in Chalkidiki.

Philip forces the Phocians to surrender; he inherits their votes at the Amphictyony council.

Philip sent his 13 year old son Alexander to Mieza for training and education, where he is taught by Aristotle.

Thrace is becoming a Macedonian province.

Alexander is transferred to governorship by his father for the first time.

Philip defeats the Thebans, Athenians, Corinthians, Achaeans and Phocians at the Battle of Chaironea. Alexander leads the Macedonian cavalry (Hetairoi) in this battle. Philipp is appointed to commander (Hegemon) of all the Greeks at Corinth.

Under Philip the Greek states, except Sparta, are united in the League of Corinth. Greece is in fact under the control of Macedonia.

Philip II is assassinated. His son is proclaimed as the new king Alexander III by the army assembly.

Alexander wages war in Thrace and at the Danube River; he defeats the Illyrians and crushes a revolt of the Greeks. Thebes is destroyed.

Alexander crosses the Hellespont, leaving Antipater as regent. He defeats the Persian satraps at the river Granicus. Memnon escapes and organizes the resistance in Miletus and Halicarnassus. After the conquest of Miletus he dissolves his fleet to increase its land army. In October he besieges Halicarnassus, the city is captured after a long siege. Alexander marches southward, leaving Parmenio back in Ephesus with a garrison.

Alexander joins Parmenion in Gordion. Alexander marches over the Cilician gate to Tarsus. In November, he defeats the Persian army under Darius III at Issus.

Alexander besieges and captures Tyre and Gaza. Egypt is occupied without resistance. Alexander is proclaimed pharaoh in Memphis. Foundation of Alexandria, Egypt. He consults the Oracle of Ammon in Siwa.

Alexander advances to central Persia. He defeats Darius at Gaugamela; the Persian king flees, as he did at Issus. Alexander occupies Babylon. Antipater beats the Spartans at Megalopolis.

Alexander occupies Persopolis, the city is burnt. Darius is murdered in the court of Bessus. Bessus calls himself Artaxerxes IV. Following the discovery of an assassination plan, Philotas, son of Parmenion, is executed for treason. Parmenion is murdered in Ecbatana on Alexander's orders.

In pursuit of Bessus Alexander crosses the Hindu Kush. On the Oxus Bessus is captured and executed. His successor, Spitamenes begins a guerrilla war against Alexander. The Greeks enter Maracanda.

Alexander pushes through a reform of the army and also accepts Persian soldiers. Alexander's army goes on the offense against Spitamenes, who is killed in the winter by the Scythians. In Maracanda Alexander kills his friend Cleitus in dispute.

The Eastern Sogdiana becomes part of Macedonia. The attempt to introduce the proskynesis fails by the resistance of the Macedonians. Alexander marries Roxane. In spring, the army once again crosses the Hindu Kush and is marches into India.

Alexander crosses the Indus. He beats the Indian King Poros in the Battle of the Hydaspes. The army refuses to march further east. In early November the Macedonian army travels down the Hydaspes. The Maller are subjected after heavy fighting.

In summer the Macedonians reach the city Pattala. Nearchus receives the order to sail from the Erythraic Sea to the Persian Gulf to go to the estuary of the Tigris and Euphrates. Alexander moves his troops through the gedroian desert early September under great losses.

Alexander and Nearchus meet again at Hormuz. The army reaches Susa, Alexander judges there over the corruption which took place during his absence. In Susa Alexander makes another attempt to merge the peoples with the "Wedding of the Ten Thousand." The Macedonians mutiny against Alexander's oriental policy. Under the leadership of Craterus, who will succeed Antipater as regent, some 10,000 veterans march home to Macedonia.

Alexander is back in Babylon and is preparing an expedition to Arabia. He grows ill during a symposium in late May. Almost two weeks later he dies without having named a successor. In Babylon, the Macedonian army assembly appoints two successors, his imbecile brother Arridhaios and the recent newborn son of Roxane, Alexander IV. The kingdom is divided. Perdikkas rules the Asian kingdom. Antipater and Craterus jointly rule the western areas. Ptolemy rules in Egypt.

Revolting Greeks besiege Antipater in Lamia, they are defeated by him at Crannon.

The body of Alexander is taken from Babylon to Memphis, then transferred to the Egyptian Alexandria. Perdiccas is killed by mutinous soldiers. Seleucus is becoming satrap of Babylon. Craterus is killed in a battle against Eumenes.

Antipater dies, his successor is Polysperchon. Eumenes tries to save Alexander's empire. Cassander (son of Antipater) dispels Polysperchon from Macedonia.

Eumenes is defeated by Antigonus. Kassandros conquers Macedonia and Greece.

Eumenes is betrayed and killed. Seleucus is driven out of Babylon and flees to Egypt.

The Diadochi establish an alliance against Antigonus

Polysperchon's son Alexander turns against Antigonus and Cassander in the Peloponnese. After Alexander's death in battle, Ktesipolis, his widow, precipitates a rebellion in Sicyon.

Rhodes joins forces with Antignos

Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, is beaten by Ptolemy in Gaza. Seleucus returns back to Babylon with the help of Ptolemy.

Agathocles, the tyrant of Syracuse, is beaten by the Carthaginians in Likata. Syracuse is under siege.

Agathocles successfully fights against Carthage in Africa; the Carthaginians beat the Syracusans in Sicily. The poet Theocritus is born.

Ptolemy officer Ophellas joins forces with Agathocles against the Carthaginians. Agathocles murders Ophellas and takes over his army but is still without success against Carthage.

Agathocles returns to Syracuse.

Demetrios defeats Ptolemy in the naval battle of Salamis.

Rhodes is threatened by Antigonus and Demetrius and turns to Ptolemy for help. Demetrius besieges Rhodes. Seleucus tries to recapture the Indian lands conquered by Alexander.

Demetrios gives up the siege of Rhodes. The war machines which have been left behind are used to build the Colossus of Rhodes.

Seleucus is banished from India in a treaty with Chandragupta. In Italy, Kleonymus II of Sparta comes to the aid of Taranto with his mercenaries.

Pyrrhus of Epirus is repressed by Cassander. Pyrrhus is supported by Ptolemy. Cassander allies himself with Lysimachus and Ptolemy against Antigonus.

Death of Antigonus at the Battle of Issus. Mithridates founds the kingdom of Pontus

Seleucus Nicator founds Antiochus.

Under a Thracian dynasty the independent kingdom of Bithynia is formed.

Pyrrhus rules over Epirus with Neoptolemus. Death of Cassander in Macedonia. The kingdom of Pontus is created under a Mithridatic dynasty.

Seleucus advancing with Syria and Cilicia to the Mediterranean.

Demetrios Poliorcetes is proclaimed king of Macedonia.

Demetrios controls the Greek states.

Seleucus shares his throne with his son Antiochus

Pyrrhus and Lysimachus invade Macedonia. Demetrios is expelled from Macedonia.

Antigonus II (Gonatas), the son of Demetrius, controls the Greek states. Archimedes is born in Syracuse.

Lysimachus occupies Macedonia and Thessaly. Demetrios is captured by Seleucus in Asia.

Pyrrhus is banished by Lysimachus of Macedon. Demetrius dies in captivity. Antigonus Gonatas is king of Macedonia. Death of Ptolemy I

Seleucus beats and kills Lysimachus at Corupedium. Taranto turns to Pyrrhus for help against Rome.

Pyrrhus beats the Romans at Heraclea. The Akhaian covenant is re-established.

Another victory of Pyrrhus at Asculum. The Celts invade Macedonia and Thrace. Construction of the Pharos lighthouse in Alexandria.

The Celts are defeated at Delphi in Greece. Antigonus Gonatas beats the Celts at Lysimachia in Thrace.

Pyrrhus in Sicily. Antigonus rules Macedonia.

Pyrrhus returns to Italy, but can't carry out the decisive blow against the Romans at Beneventum. Pyrrhus returns to Epirus.

Pyrrhus is killed in a street fight in Argos.

The Athenians wage war against Macedonia together with the Peloponnesians and Ptolemy II.

Eumenes I of Pergamum secedes from the Seleucid Empire.

In Sparta, King Agis IV is murdered by the ephors.

Roman interventions in Illyria.

Antiochus III. defeats the Egyptians at Panion.

Cleomenes III. of Sparta is defeated at Sellasia by the Achaean Confederation.

The Ptolemies beat Antiochus III in Palestine.

First Macedonian War, Rome declars war on Philip V

Second Macedonian War

Flaminius beats Philip V at Cynoscephalae in Thessaly.

Nabis, tyrant of Sparta, is defeated by the Romans.

Rome beats Antiochus III. at Magnesia and Thermopylae.

Third Macedonian war. Rome is at war against Perseus of Macedon

Perseus is defeated at Pydna by Aemilius Paullus. The end of the Macedonian kingdom. Revolt of the Jews against the Seleucids.

Corinth is destroyed by Rome. Achaean coalition is disbanded, Macedonia and Greece are annexed.

The Greco-Bactrian king Menander invades India and converts to Buddhism.

Nicomedes is expelled by Mithridates, King of Pontus.

First Mithridatian war

Mithridates kills 80,000 Romans in the East. Sulla besieges Athens

Sulla occupies Athens, he beats Archelaus at Chaeronea.

Defeat of Archelaus at Orchomenus. Victory of Fimbria against Mithridates. Peace of Dardanus between Sulla and Mithridates.

Second Mithridatian war

Murena is beaten in the east by Mithridates

Third Mithridatian war

Slave revolt in Italy led by the Thracian Spartacus.

Lucullus beats Mithridates and chases him away from Pontus. Mithridates flees to Armenia.

Birth of Cleopatra VII, the last queen of the Ptolemies.

Pompejius replaces Lucullus as commander against Mithridates. Mithridates is defeated but manages to escape.

Mithridates commits suicide, his son Pharnaces makes peace with the Romans.

Death of Ptolemy XII. Ptolemy XIII. and Cleopatra VII govern together

Cleopatra is deposed.

Cleopatra is the lover of Caesar. Ptolemy XIII. dies in the war against Caesar. Cleopatra reigns together with her brother Ptolemy XIV (he soon dies). Cleopatra gives birth to a son Caesar (Ptolemy Caesar).

Antony meets Cleopatra at Tarsus.

Anthony gives the areas ruled by Alexander to Cleopatra.

Octavian declares war on Cleopatra.

Battle of Actium, Antony and Cleopatra flee to Egypt.

Octavian marches into Egypt, Antony's suicide. Octavian conqueres Alexandria, Cleopatra's suicide. Ptolemy Caesar is executed by Octavian.