Hellenistic world summary. Second and third Hellenistic periods (281-30 BC). State of affairs in Greece

In the architecture of the Hellenistic era, there is a violation of the strict style, resulting in eclecticism.

If the art of classical Greece pursued mainly cult goals, then Hellenistic art had decorative goals.

During the Hellenistic period, the people were eliminated by the monarchs from participating in state affairs, and this led to fundamental changes in the field of ideology, and in particular in literature. The growth of individualism, the weakening of civic feelings caused a refinement of the problems of literature. The gap between citizen and society is becoming ever more tangible. The man of the Hellenistic era felt lonely and helpless, he was lost in the vast world that opened before him, he was excluded from the public life of new vast state formations. He was left with a sphere personal life, your closed world.

Less popular during the Hellenistic period was the philosophy of the skeptics, who declared all truth relative and all knowledge unreliable. Fighting the superstitions of the Stoics, the skeptics at the same time, like them and the Epicureans, preached "serenity" and "freedom from affects."

All these philosophical systems are characteristic of the Hellenistic era in that they lack local patriotism and contain concern for the happiness of the individual, more or less free from duties to the state.

The heyday of Hellenistic literature was the 3rd century BC. BC e. This literature was greatly influenced by those written at the end of the 4th century. BC e. "Characters" of Theophrastus, student of Aristotle. This work depicted types of people who are distinguished by a certain combination of features (flatterer, miser, chatterer, drunkard, shameless, superstitious, arrogant, etc.). In line with the "Characters" the so-called new (or "new Attic") comedy developed, which is sometimes called "comedy of characters".

1. Alexander the Great's vision of a world empire. Hellenic states

Struck by the dagger of Pausanias, in 336 BC. Philip dies, and his twenty-year-old son Alexander becomes the head of Hellas. Brought up by Aristotle on the models of high Hellenic culture, Alexander knew Herodotus, Euripides, Pipdar and was convinced that he descended from Hercules on the paternal side, and from Achilles on the maternal side. And therefore everything is allowed to him, for he is responsible for everything.
Having quickly and vigorously dealt with his opponents and pretenders to the throne, Alexander crushed the rebellion in the Balkans, destroyed Thebes, and then, having created a huge army, he set off to conquer Asia less than two years after taking the throne.
Historians have repeatedly tried to explain the reasons for the invasion of Alexander's troops in Asia. Some suggest that he was fascinated by the idea of ​​liberating Anatolian Greece from the barbarians and revenge for the troubles caused to Greece during the Greco-Persian wars, others believe that he was concerned about the spread of Hellenic culture to the east.
Alexander conquers almost all of Asia Minor. Having mastered Anatolia, he reaches Syria and at Issus in 333 BC. defeats the “great king” Darius III himself, who was the first to flee from the battlefield, leaving his mother, wife and convoy to the mercy of fate and giving the army a sign to a disorderly flight. However, having recovered a little, the Persian king found it possible to start negotiations with Alexander, offering him a ransom for his loved ones, to which the winner replied that Darius should submit to him completely.
Having crushed the power of Persia at sea, having defeated Tyre, Gaza, Alexander entered Egypt, where he was greeted as a liberator. Here he founded Alexandria.
In the spring of 331 BC. Alexander finally defeats Darius. The capitals of the Persian Empire surrendered one after another - Babylon, Susa, Persepolis, Ecbatana, Parthia, Hyrcania. He established the border of his empire along the Syr Darya - the Hindu Kush. To the inheritance left to Alexander by his father (the kingdom of Macedonia), he added the territory of many countries. At the same time, the insignificance of the fighting force with which the world was conquered is striking: about 40 thousand soldiers during the landing in Asia, 120 thousand - in India, 80 thousand - at the end of his life. The greatest of all the great commanders, a formidable ruler, Alexander proves himself to be a brilliant organizer. The empire rested on one person, and he possessed superhuman capacity for work.
With almost no taxation from Macedonia and no taxes at all from Greece, in Asia Alexander created a rather complex fiscal structure: each satrapy had a specific taxation system (customs, labor service, poll tax, real estate tax), which brought large incomes. He appoints representatives of the indigenous population to the positions of local government, since only they understood the intricacies of traditions and languages.
Alexander sought not to destroy the conquered peoples, but to merge them with the Greeks into a single whole. The best way achieve this goal the king saw in mixed marriages. He himself set an example - he married Roxana, the daughter of one of the rulers of Sogdiana, and then three Persian princesses. Upon their return from India, most of his commanders and 10,000 soldiers solemnly married local girls on the same day (“wedding in Susa”).
Alexander built 34 cities, naming them after himself. These cities spread Greek culture and Greek language. He ordered 30,000 Iranian children to be raised in Greek culture. However, he strictly respected foreign religion and culture, contributed to the resettlement of people, built roads, canals, docks, ships.
Following his ingenious intuition, Alexander introduced a single monetary unit in the empire - Macedonian coins minted according to the Attic weight standard, which replaced heavy "darics" in Asia.
Alexander established the cult of the king, which grew up on the search for Greek philosophical thought and the monarchical traditions of the East. He died suddenly - from malaria, after twelve and a half years (336 - 323 BC) of the reign. His ideal of the unity of mankind, which denied the difference between Greeks and barbarians, his great innovations are a brilliant confirmation of Plutarch's idea that history sometimes depends on one great man. Alexander the Great was admired by Pyrrhus and Caesar. Having lived to be only thirty-three years old, Alexander managed to create a new world.
The era called the Hellenic began with the death of Alexander and ended with the Roman conquests. Much more documents from this era have come down to us than from previous civilizations. A special place among them is occupied by papyri - sheets made from plant fibers intertwined in a special way. They are written in Egyptian (Demotic script), in Greek, later in Latin. Papyri brought to us a wide variety of documents: letters of the kings (business and personal correspondence), school notebooks, notarial archives. Among them, the most interesting are the laws on state fees and the archive of Zeno.
After the devastating wars, the borders of the empire created by Alexander the Great changed, three big states: Egyptian (led by Ptolemy II, son of Ptolemy I), Seleucid (ruled by Antiochus I) and Macedonian (reigned by Antigonus II Gonath). In Greece itself, several policies remained, primarily Athens and Corinth. The dismemberment of Alexander's empire confirmed the significance of a great political innovation - the institution of the monarchy: small and large kingdoms began to appear everywhere.
The followers of Alexander built many cities everywhere, concentrating the greatest culture and art.

2. Hellenistic science, culture and art

Paradoxically, a person, apparently, can develop his individuality only in a collective: individualism, which began to develop at the end of the 5th century BC, the craving for individual philosophy did not take root. Poets gathered in societies, traditions art schools played a paramount role in the development of the visual arts, philosophy and science flourished in schools with a clear organizational structure.
The first two Ptolemies donated the Musaeum and the Library to their capital. Musei (literally, "sanctuary of the Muses") became a research center. Scientists were fully provided with the generosity of the monarch and had everything necessary for work - collections, tools, botanical and zoological gardens. The funds of the Library grew all the time, it included the purchased library of Aristotle and 700,000 scrolls from the time of Caesar. Libraries appeared in Syracuse, Tarento, Pergamon.
Gradually develops a taste for highly intellectual literature. Tragedy was dying, it was being replaced by comedy. A new comedy that appeared after the 4th century. BC, strove for a more accurate depiction of life, intrigues of slaves, boasting of fanfaron soldiers, parodies, etc. appeared in it. Thus, in Menander's comedies Self Punishing, Arbitration Court, Grump, the main themes were love, old age, family affection, relations between rich and poor, slavery, superstition and religion.
Hellenistic poetry is traditionally called "Alexandrian", since most of the famous poets lived in Alexandria at the court. Hence the unbridled praise of the monarch. A native of Syracuse, Theocritus perfectly conveys the charms of the Sicilian landscape in the poems "The Syracusan Woman" and "The Sorceress"; Callimachus, a scholar, author of Causes, Elegies, and Hymns, remained a librarian in Alexandria. Arpat in "Phenomena" outlined the astronomical system of Eudoxus of Cnidus in verse and showed that the highest philosophy can be compatible with poetry. This poetry will become a natural model for those who throughout the ages will strive for art for art's sake.
In the Hellenistic period, the works of great historians were created (III century BC). They have come down to us only in fragments, and their authors differ greatly in the method of presenting historical material, as well as in talent. So, Jerome from Kardia served with the Macedonian kings and came face to face with events. Therefore, his works "History of the Diadochi" and "History of the Epigones" are the most significant of what was written about the fifty years following the death of Alexander. These works were widely used by Plutarch.
"History of Greece" and "History of Macedonia" by Duris of Samos describe events from 370 to 280 BC, and Philarchus brings the story to 220 BC. Philarch's works attract with figurativeness and dynamism of presentation. The largest historian of the III century. BC. — Timaeus of Tauromenaeus, author of the History of Sicily. On original documents, having shown the unprecedented power of the critical mind, Timaeus brings the dates of the calendar systems of Athens, Sparta, Olympia, Argos into a single system.
But the true glory went to Polybius (210-125 BC), who simply made a revolution in history. Driven by various feelings - curiosity, love of reason, passion for accuracy and thoroughness, faith in science - he creates a work of "History" unsurpassed in accuracy. Onsam visited all the places where the events took place, studied all the private archives, read the works of philosophers, historians, geographers.
At this time, philosophy becomes a profession. Athens became the largest center of philosophical thought. The most peculiar school of philosophers was the school of "cynics" - complete materialism and rejection of generally accepted rules of conduct.
The school of Plato and the Platonic Academy (from 268 to 241 BC) were famous. Plato was a brilliant orator who devoted himself to the oral teaching of the theory of probability. In the II century. BC. Carneades systematized the doctrine, believing that there is no way to distinguish truth from error, it is necessary to pave the way between the absolute doubt of the skeptics and the great hypotheses of the Stoics.
In the 1st century BC. The Academy was represented by two great philosophers - Philo and Antiochus, whose teachings Cicero comprehended as a listener.
Skeptics (literally "considering") already declared themselves by Pyrrol (end of the 4th century BC), a major thinker who rebelled against the dogmatism of the Stoics. The school of skeptics would flourish even after the Roman conquests.

Epicurism

Philosophical schools paid much attention to the problems of morality. In Hellenistic times, philosophy became, as it were, a conviction for a person who had suffered a collapse of hopes, who had lost the meaning of life. In two teachings of the end of the 4th c. BC. - epicurism and stoicism - people found support; philosophical schools taught that happiness lies in mastering one's soul, freeing itself from everything accidental, reaching a state of indifference, in which nothing can hurt it. The basis of this state was deep asceticism.
Epicurus, a native of Athens, spent his young years on Samos, and then settled in Athens. There, retiring to his famous garden, he lived surrounded by disciples who, together with him, sought peace in their souls using the method psychological treatment directed against sadness, anxiety, vain fuss, boredom. Epicurus, the sage, left his main work "Treatise on Nature" in 37 books, but all of them were lost, only a number of his written thoughts and only three program letters have come down to us.
Epicurus perceived the atomic teachings of Democritus and Leucippus. These two philosophers of the 5th century BC. believed that matter consists of indivisible, infinite particles, between which there are no differences other than size, shape and location. In the total void where these atoms move, the vortex motion will create aggregates in a double combination of density that pushes out the lightest of them, and the forms are a combination of complementary particles.
This theory is amazing not only because its creators are the distant predecessors of modern atomism, but also because people have received an explanation of the structure of the universe.
According to the Epicureans, the gods exist, but they are absolutely indifferent to people. As far as death is concerned, it is a phantom, since the soul, which is composed of highly volatile material atoms, decomposes at the time of death and thus cannot be punished in hell.
According to Epicurus, the main thing in life is, first of all, the absence of suffering, it is good mood which is rooted in the mastery of instincts, and not in their satisfaction. Man must have free will, he does not take part in political life, he avoids her by "retreating to his ivory tower".
Epicurism acquired such a large scale that it reached the widest sections of the population, including slaves. Cicero noted that he also touched the barbarians.
This doctrine is most fully expounded by the poet Lucretius in his poem On the Nature of Things. The poem is a wonderful response to the teachings of the sage, for whom brotherly feelings, human dignity are combined with the philosophy of an intellectual.
Ancient Stoya

Stoicism,

philosophical school in Athens, where it was founded by Zeno and where his students gathered. Stoicism was born out of a need for peace and certainty in one of the most troubled periods Greek history.
Zeno, a merchant in Cyprus, devoted himself to philosophy. His success in Athens was enormous. They tried to bring him closer to the Macedonian court, and after his death, the demos honored Zenon with a golden crown. The school that he created and of which he was the head from 322 to 264 is commonly called the Ancient Stoya.
Stoicism was based on a broad vision of the world, in which the leading place was occupied by logic based on physics (natural philosophy). The magnificent order of the world proves that it is controlled by the mind. This mind, God, is immanent in the world, it is dissolved in matter. He is a fire, an inspiring and creative fire, penetrating into matter and imparting to it all sensuous qualities; in its pure form, it exists in a sphere that limits the cosmos. After the expiration of the "big year", lasting 10 thousand years, it completely absorbs the world and renews it in a world fire ("ekpyrosis").
The world is set in motion by a hierarchy of deities, starting with Zeus, identified with fire, and ending with genii and demons, through the astral gods that Greece borrowed from the East.
It remains for a person to live in a world determined by physical laws, in accordance with nature, to obey the world order, merging with God. The soul of those who seek agreement with the world will retain its individuality until the world fire, while the souls of all the rest disappear after death.
Average standing
Stoicism is transformed in the second century. BC. The most famous Stoic of this time is Diogenes, and in the second half of the 2nd - early 1st centuries. BC. two new thinkers led the Middle Stoa: Panetius (180-110 BC) and Posidonius (135-51 BC).
Panetius is an innovator who rejected the idea of ​​a world order. He saw the duality of man in nature, so living in accordance with nature is the main thing for man.
Posidonius is the teacher of Cicero. Like Aristotle, Posidonius accumulated a lot of information in various fields of science. He was the first to explain the cause of the tides and designed the planetarium, which Cicero admired. A very capable mathematician, he argued that geometry is part of physics.
In the Middle Stoya, ethics became one of the most beautiful creations of the human mind in ancient era. Ethics inspired such great personalities as the Spartan king Cleomenes and Tiberius Gracchus. Stoic ethics were recognized and highly valued in Rome by its aristocracy. She inspired the impulses of the wisest rulers.
During this period, the most important philosophers are trying to create a theory of happiness. But happiness is possible only with the indifference of the soul, which, through asceticism, breaks away from the bustle of the world. A new ideal emerges: the hero of ancient times has been replaced by a sage.
Hellenism finally leans towards individualism, since only consciousness opposes fate, although it does not leave hope for the transformation of social relations. The thinkers of the Hellenistic era believed that all people are brothers.
The apogee of the development of Greek science and art
Science in Hellenistic times becomes completely independent of philosophy, and no other scientist could, like Aristotle, cover almost the entire volume of human knowledge. Separate scientific disciplines were formed.
The main condition for the development of science was philanthropy, which created real research institutes such as the Musaeum in Alexandria with its anatomical theatres, observatories, zoos and botanical gardens.
Mathematics retained its primacy among the sciences, its progress was undeniable. At the same time, it more and more served the knowledge of the world.
Euclid, invited to Alexandria by Ptolemy I Soter, made up there around 300 BC. e. 15 books of his "Beginnings". He systematized all the research done before him, to which he added his own (in particular, he gave a definition of the fifth postulate, which retained his name). Euclid takes a systematic approach, moving from the simple to the complex through a long series of proofs based on fundamental principles. Historical meaning Euclid's work should not be underestimated, for it represented the basis of all human knowledge in this area until the recent discovery of new mathematics.
Apollonius of Pergamon (262-200 BC) circa 200 BC e. taught in Alexandria and Pergamon and earned the nickname "great geometer". His work concerns mainly the determination of the value of pi and conic sections, which he was the first to give a rational definition.
Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BC) was also interested in mathematics, and in particular in the number "pi" (whose value he determined as 3.1416); sphere, proving that its volume is equal to a third of the volume of the circumscribed cylinder; cylinder and conic sections.
He was the founder of rational mechanics of hydrostatics. But along with this magnificent theoretical work Archimedes showed his genius in the field of practical mechanics, invented the lever, mechanical toys, siege machines; his name also sounds in the name of the screw, adapted in Egypt for the needs of artificial irrigation. In all this, he demonstrates a new inclination for invention, manifested in Alexandria by a whole galaxy of remarkable engineers, one of whom, Sostratus of Cnidus, was the architect of the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
Progress in the field of mathematics has served astronomy in good stead. Pushing limits known world aroused interest in the earth, its form and place in the universe, movement. Eratosthenes of Cyrene (librarian in Alexandria under Ptolemy Euergetes) created scientific geography. He calculated the length of the earth's meridian quite in a simple way. Siena and Alexandria are approximately on the same meridian; on the day of the summer solstice in Syene, the sun's rays fall vertically, while in Alexandria they form an angle of 7 ° with the vertical. Knowing the distance between the two cities, he calculated the length of the meridian - 252,000 stadia (39,690 kilometers), a result whose accuracy is admirable. He also made maps of the earth's surface with longitudes and latitudes; taking Rhodes as the center of his coordinates, he calculated the longitudes from the difference in time, and the latitudes from the deviation of the sun from the vertical on the day of the solstice.
Eratosthenes also created a scientific chronology, establishing dates from the time of the capture of Troy to the death of Alexander. Aristarchus of Samos (early 111 BC) determined the size of the Sun and Moon and their distance from the Earth. But he really became famous for defending the theory of the immobility of the Sun and the rotation of the Earth around it. Although he envisaged circular orbits for the Earth, Moon and other planets (Greek philosophy considers the circle as the only perfect curve), he can be considered the first predecessor of Copernicus (the heliocentric theory was developed by Seleucus of Babylon).
This hypothesis created a real scandal, and the greatest of its adherents, Hipparchus of Nicaea, managed to "preserve appearances" and improve the geocentric system by improving the theory of eccentrics and epicycles.
The essence of the latter, very complex, theory is that the stars do not rotate around the Earth itself, but around a certain point, which, in turn, rotates around the Earth - this made it possible to explain the apparent irregularity in the motion of the planets, their stops, reverse movement. A gifted observer, in his observatory on Rhodes he draws up a map of the firmament, on which he marks more than 800 fixed stars, and, comparing his results with those of the Chaldeans, discovers the precession of the equinoxes. It calculates with great accuracy the inclination of the ecliptic, the distance to the Moon (with an error of less than 5%), the duration of the solar year (365 days 5 hours 55 minutes; the correct result is 48 minutes). At the same time, he laid the foundations of trigonometry, in particular by dividing the circle into 360°, subdivided in turn into minutes and seconds.
Posidonius of Apamea, the great Stoic philosopher, also had a penchant for scientific research. He was interested in measurements (the length of the meridian, the thickness of the atmospheric layer, the distance to the stars) and proposed the idea that tides are caused by lunar attraction.
The sciences of living organisms flourished no less magnificently in the Hellenistic era, due to this passion for accurate observations inherited from Aristotle, as well as the achievements of medicine. Alexandria is the seat of the famous school natural knowledge. It was here that corpses began to be dissected: the practice of mummification, paradoxically, made the veneration of human remains less comprehensive than in Greece. But Kos, the birthplace of Hippocrates, retains its former glory, just like Cnidus. Basically, in all the sanctuaries of Asclepius (in particular, in Epidaurus and Pergamon), miracles were replaced by the recovery of patients due to treatment.
The most glorified are the names of two contemporaries born at the end of the 4th century. BC. Herophilus of Chalcedon was one of the pioneers in anatomy. He opened nervous system and explained general principles of its functioning, revealed the role of the spinal cord and brain, studied the eye and optic nerve, developed pulse diagnostics. Erasistratus of Ceos was the true founder of physiology. He specialized in the study of blood circulation, intuitively discovered the role of capillary vessels. Despite the fact that Erasistratus believed that arteries contained air and only blood passed through the veins, his discoveries would remain unsurpassed until Harvey.
The physician remained one of the noblest social types in the Greek world. Almost uninfluenced by the East, he practiced secular, scientific medicine, the source of which was the great philosophical systems of Greece. His activity was much more than just the mechanics of healing: he had moral authority, they expected from him and psychological help. Bree royal court, in particular at the Ptolemaic court, doctors had an incomparable prestige.
The science of the Hellenistic period had limits that cannot be ignored. Despite the fact that mathematics penetrated into new areas, there was not yet a strict system for notating numbers. Units, tens, hundreds continued to be denoted by letters Greek alphabet. It was a system that satisfied the requirements of trade, but not science. Only Diophantus in the III century. And. e. outlined the most elementary beginnings of algebra. In addition, the lack of observation tools greatly affected the development of the natural sciences. Nevertheless, the successes of the Hellenistic era are amazing. “He who understands Archimedes and Apollonius,” said Leibniz, “is less admired by modern scientists.” This flowering was all the more significant because it marked the end of ancient science. The Romans were never able to equal the Greeks in this area, and mankind until the discoveries of the Renaissance will live off the scientific capital accumulated in Alexandria, Rhodes and Pergamon.
If philosophy and science take us to “serene temples”, access to which is open only to the initiated, then art brings us back to everyday life. Indeed, no era has been so demanding on artists in the art of decorating everyday life. The volume of artistic production was colossal. Construction was in full swing. Excavations have unearthed thousands of statues and figurines intended to decorate buildings. Never before have so many architects, sculptors and painters worked. This happened because, firstly, the Hellenistic world flourished and the rulers considered it their duty to surround themselves with people capable of glorifying their capitals and palaces; secondly, because the numerous and wealthy "bourgeoisie" patronized art and literature, and among them the traditions of the "evergetes" ("benefactors") received the same wide development as at court.
Art acquired a more secular character, as the largest customers were the kings and the rich sections of the population of cities. At the same time, of course, religious architecture and sculpture did not disappear: after all, the Greek policy could not do without a sanctuary. But, with rare exceptions, true belief in the gods has nothing to do with it. Temples were almost never updated, they were built using traditional patterns. In sculpture, the gods were depicted as human beings, and genre scenes often replaced religious reliefs. In addition, a lot of civil buildings were being built, they were built in beautiful, rationally planned cities. Palaces and private houses competed in luxury and convenience.
The influence of the East was almost not felt. The art of the native population declined, produced nothing new, and tended to follow Greek models. Hellenism reigned everywhere and, despite the obvious differences between schools, this process can be characterized as the development of a single artistic language. There was little new in religious architecture, a genre favored by the art of the classical era.
Many new temples were built according to traditional norms. The Doric order was used less and less. Nevertheless, in Pergamum we find good examples of it (the temples of Hera Basilea and Athena Polia), lightened under the influence of the Ionic order: lighter columns, more numerous metopes and triglyphs (three metopes between the columns instead of two), a simplified plan.
The Ionic order became most widespread, in particular in Anatolia, where architects tried to find mathematical correspondences between various elements in the tradition of Pytheas (architect of the 4th century BC, who built the temple of Athena Polia in Priene. Conceived under Alexander, but completed only in II century BC, the temple was the embodiment of the canon of proportions, to which Pytheas dedicated the book.In this temple, all elements are multiples of the side of the plinth, which carries the columns of the peristyle). At the beginning of the II century. BC e. Hermogenes, the author of a treatise on proportions, erects a temple of Dionysus on Theos and a temple of Artemis Leukofriena in Magnesia on the river Meander (Leucofriene - literally, "white-browed"). This temple of Artemis (31x58 meters) rested on a high foundation of 7 steps (there are only three in the classical temple). It was surrounded by two rows of columns.
Continued started in the IV century. BC e. reconstruction of large Ionic temples of Anatolia (Artemis in Ephesus and Cybele in Sardis). The only building founded at the beginning of the III century. BC, stands out from the general row - this is Didymeion (the oracle temple of Apollo in Didyma near Miletus), finally rebuilt after a fire at the beginning of the 5th century. BC e. This gigantic building (116x52 meters), surrounded by a peristasis of two rows of columns along the long sides and three along the facade (120 columns in total), was a real marble forest in the tradition of the majestic buildings of the Anatolian archaic. He has a very curious plan: the pronaos of 12 columns is followed by a porch that served as a hall for oracles, communicated with it only by a balcony, from where, perhaps, prophecies were proclaimed. The wide central courtyard, located 5 meters below the level of the pronaos, is accessed from one side - from the narthex along a large monumental staircase, on the other hand - from the pronaos through two tunnels that ran from both sides of the stairs. This open-air courtyard met the requirements of a canonical temple, but the size (or perhaps religious motives) prevented its overlap. At the back of the courtyard was a small Ionic temple prostilia; the tetrastyle is located next to the sacred spring with which the oracle is associated. It contained an archaic statue of Apollo Kanach, which was stolen by Xerxes and returned from Ecbatana by Seleucus. It is difficult to imagine the reasons for the construction of such an original temple: the needs of the cult or the need for renovation? Jewelry is made in the Ionic tradition with overwhelming luxury.
The attraction to the colossal, which often distinguishes the buildings of the Hellenistic period, is found in the construction of monumental altars - the altar of Hiero II at Syracuse, one stage long; the large altar of Zeus and Athena on the Acropolis in Pergamon (base dimensions 36 x 34 x 5.6 meters), known mainly for its sculptural decoration; the altar of Athena in Priene (13 x 7 meters), which was influenced by the Pergamon altar.
To these buildings, erected in accordance with Greek traditions, were added local temples, which the rulers built or restored, wanting to win the sympathy of the priesthood and the masses. Egyptian temples are especially famous, where the local religion received significant support. Let's name the temples built by the Ptolemies: in Phil - the temple of Isis (Ptolemy II); in Edfu - the temple of Horus (Ptolemy III, completed in the 1st century BC); in Esna - the temple of Khnum-Ra (Ptolemy VI); in Kom-Ombo - the temple of the crocodile god Sebek (Ptolemy VI) and the temple of the falcon god Garveris (Ptolemy VI); in Denders - the temple of Hathor (the last Ptolemies).
The building plan remains purely Egyptian: pylons, a courtyard with a portico, a pronaos, a hypostyle hall, a sanctuary surrounded by aisles. But here, too, an organizing tendency begins to appear: each part is enclosed in its own fence, and as a result, the temple complex is a series of fenced areas, one inside the other.
It is worth mentioning the search for more careful proportions and purity of lines. A new order appears and soon becomes the only one - a composite order, obviously derived from the Corinthian; floral ornaments are already arranged in tiers. In general, it cannot be denied that Greek architecture had a certain influence on these magnificent buildings.
The development of architecture was much more clearly manifested in the construction of dwellings, which became more spacious, more beautiful, and more comfortable. Changes in this area, which began in the IV century. BC, deepened. Now the man who has turned from a citizen of the polis into a private person no longer spends his time in discussions in the agora and in the popular assembly, but begins to take more and more interest in his home.
Of course, numerous slums continued to exist. In Alexandria, for example, the poor crowded into multi-story (at least four floors) tenement houses. One way or another, the emergence of a prosperous "bourgeoisie" leads to an increase in construction, as excavations at Priene and especially on Delos testify to this. These excavations complement each other, since the architecture of residential buildings is much richer in Delos than in Priene. Some written evidence also allows us to imagine the nature of the dwellings: according to Zeno's archive, the villa of the hypodioikete Diotima on the donation land of Fayum was made of local material (sun-dried brick), but painted by artists from Alexandria.
In Priene, a large hall with a vestibule decorated with columns, smaller halls and a portico are grouped around the courtyard. On both sides of the main streets, plots of land have been left, divided among individual shops.
On the island of Apollo, which has now become one of the largest centers of Mediterranean trade, excavations have uncovered both small houses attached to one another and magnificent dwellings occupying an entire block. The latter are especially numerous in the theater area. There is a vestibule behind the only entrance. The house is located around a central courtyard, most often surrounded by a peristyle (the northern facade of the portico may be higher, in which case it is called Rhodian), which includes living rooms (in particular, the oikos - the main room, located most often on the north side of the peristyle, with windows, south facing) and living quarters. In the center is a cistern covered with mosaics to collect water, so necessary on this waterless island. The plan of the house is unoriginal and is, as it were, a continuation of the existing ones, the new one is only the abundance and splendor of the decor. In the main rooms, the floor is covered with highly artistic multi-colored mosaics, the most remarkable of which is "Dionysus, stunning thyrsus." The walls are plastered, and bright colors frame the belt cornices with scenes depicted on them. Statues and figurines enliven the courtyard and living rooms, as, for example, in the "house of Hermes", a stately building of several floors with two peristyles located one above the other. In it, the architectural decoration, as it was intended, depends on the sculptural one. Marble tables and armchairs harmoniously decorate the interior. It becomes clear why the Italian merchants who settled on Delos liked to live in these cozy and at the same time spacious houses full of air.
When considering the urban ensemble, we also see clear progress. Very rarely did the development of a city occur on its own; this seems to have been the case in Delos, where the houses are piled one on top of the other in the most amazing way. Planned urban planning in the Hellenistic era became the rule, and it does not matter whether, as in Miletus or Pierce, a long-defined urban space was built up, or a city was created from scratch, as in new agglomerations. The cities that sprang up at that time throughout the East were most often built according to the Hippodamian system (which was typical for small cities, such as Philadelphia in Fayum). Alexandria and Antioch are splendid examples of the implementation of this system, which meets the laws of both aesthetics and convenience. Pergamum, with its very high acropolis, gave Attalid architects the opportunity to express themselves in a completely different way in the construction of the city, which lasted more than a century (most actively under Attalus I Soter and Eumenes II Soter). Pergamum is, as it were, a combination of three cities (each with its own temple), located one above the other, clinging to terraces connected by a winding road and giant stairs, as if extraordinary theatrical scenery, suspended from a steep hillside dominating the plain.
One way or another, whether made according to the Hippodamian system or not, the plans of the Hellenistic cities testify to a greater subtlety of the plan than it might seem at first glance. Adaptation to the surrounding landscape (from which Pergamon draws its mighty beauty) is an equally binding law for lowland cities such as Alexandria. In Alexandria, everything is centered around the port: in this close union of water and buildings, artists and mosaicists will tirelessly draw inspiration.
Hellenistic cities were by no means monotonous, as one might think of cities with elaborate layouts. And if the chaotic freedom of the old times was no longer felt in them, then there were magnificent buildings that surprised and shook with their grandeur and beauty. Towering over Alexandria is the Lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the world, built in the form of a parallelepiped, an octagon and a cylinder, stacked one on top of the other. The tent-pavilion of Ptolemy Philadelphus and the talameg (house-ship) of Ptolemy Philopator were also erected in the city. Pergamon displays a huge altar to Zeus and Athena, an altar unique both in size and beauty, worthy of the greatest of gods and his beloved daughter. At the end of the Hellenistic period, the streets, in particular in Syria and Anatolia, were already built wider and with colonnades.
The urban planners who planned these spaces organized in stone always sought to embody in them both mathematical calculation and theatrical fantasy, but at the same time they did not forget practical needs. So, from the inscriptions we know a number of instructions of the city authorities regulating the width of streets or the distance between houses. The water supplied by the aqueducts was distributed, but did not play such an important role as later in the Roman cities. Was organized a special service for the removal of waste.
The construction of public buildings received particular development in the Hellenistic era. The meeting rooms of the council most often repeated the plan of the Megapolis tersilion (the assembly hall of the Ten Thousand, built in the 4th century BC for the Arcadian Union). best example such halls are the bouleuterium of Priene (beginning of the 2nd century BC). Square in plan, it overlooks the great portico of the agora; on three sides around the altar, seats are arranged in it in an amphitheatre; columns arranged diagonally support projecting beams. The weakening of political life explains why the most beautiful buildings were designed for the pleasure and convenience of the inhabitants. The architects showed a particular inclination for porticoes, which gave monumentality to the urban ensemble, sheltered both the loafer and the philosopher from the sun and rain. The Romans would later quickly adopt this type of construction with some modifications.
The portico was often used in isolation to give the sanctuary a grander setting (the portico of Antimon Gonatas and Philip V on Delos) or to emphasize a pre-existing cityscape (the portico of Eumenes at the southern foot of the Athenian Acropolis leading to the temples of Asclepius and Dionysus). Most often, it was erected along the edges of the agora and served to limit and streamline development. The agora, which until now was just a market square, from now on, following the example of Miletus, becomes rectangular, limited by a portico. On Delos, there were several agoras near the port, where the life of the trading island was concentrated. In Corinth, Thasos, Magyesia-on-Meander had their agoras, extensive and harmonious. The Athenian agora, the most remarkable of them, was surrounded by three new porticos - Middle, South and East (the latter was a gift from Attalus II).
A more humane civilization multiplied public buildings that served entertainment. Stone theaters arose everywhere on the slopes of the hills. Of the Hellenistic theaters, the most significant are those at Delphi, Dodona, Orope, on Delos in Greece, at Priene and Pergamum in Anatolia, at Syracuse (rebuilt by Hieron II), and at Aegeet in Sicily. Mathematical research has corrected optical illusions, turning theaters into scientifically constructed compositions that fit harmoniously into the landscape. Significant modifications made to their plan made it possible to make real, permanent scenes. Previously, the actors were located on a wooden platform in front of the proskenium, which played the role of a backdrop, now they climbed onto the proskenium. This change was especially noticeable in the theater of Priene (it can be dated to 150 BC).
Gymnasiums, palestras (buildings for training wrestlers), stadiums testify to the love of physical exercise - the basis of free education. The gymnasium, where young people regularly gathered, also became the university center of the city. Teachers in the gymnasium taught literature, science, philosophy, music, visiting reciters also performed here. This function has been recorded in inscriptions since the 3rd century BC. BC, and throughout this century in Athens, grammarians, rhetoricians or sophists used to make appointments in the gymnasium. Emerging needs were met by new premises - study rooms (acroteries) and libraries; gardens were laid out around them for the walks of philosophers. To enjoy the conversation, not only young people, but also adults came to these sanctuaries of the body and spirit, which were under the special patronage of the god Hermes and the beloved Greek hero Hercules. Gymnasiums more and more fit into the urban ensemble, and if earlier they were built outside the city, now they often coexisted with the agora.
The development of large-scale trade influenced the nature of the new buildings, with which we are well acquainted through excavations on Delos. From the 3rd century BC e. a large hypostyle was erected according to a plan (undoubtedly of eastern origin) already known to the Greeks (tele-sterion in Eleusis and tersilion in Megalopolis). It can be compared with a trading exchange (a hall with five rows of columns, nine in each row, Doric on the outside, Ionic on the inside; beams not hidden by the ceiling; in the center of the room there is a light hole). In addition, brotherhoods of foreign merchants were organized there at the end of the 2nd century. BC. vast storehouses with sumptuous front rooms and small temples; they can be called real "caravanserai". The college of Poseidon worshipers from Berytus owned there a particularly luxurious building next to the sacred lake. Wonderful statues were discovered in it (a group of Aphrodite, Pan and Eros). Italian merchants had their own agora, surrounded by shops and offices, a prototype of the "Corporate Square" of Ostia of the imperial time.
Nothing so vividly testifies to the prosperity of the Greek world and the leisure of its inhabitants as these harmonious cities, where everything breathed order and beauty - in the agora, in the theater, in the palaestra, and even in the most utilitarian buildings. And is it necessary to add that the cities were decorated with a huge, amazing amount of works of art. When Philip V took Thermae, the center of the Aetolian League (but a very modest city), Polybius counted 2,000 statues in it! As in previous eras, the Greek could not imagine architectural structures without sculptural decoration.
There are few periods in history when statues and bas-reliefs were so loved as they were loved in the Hellenistic era. Of course, not all of them were of high quality: an increase in demand is inevitably accompanied by some degradation of art. Nevertheless, sculpture remained a living art, which was not limited to the continuation of old traditions.
In the art itself, apparently, two trends triumphed. On the one hand, pathos was present in all the images; sculpture seems to have taken the place of tragedy in order to inspire horror and pity in souls. The sculptors loved the bloody scenes, the sources of which were both terrible punishments from myths and modern history. Bodies writhed in convulsions, faces distorted by suffering expressed the curse of human existence. This fierce romanticism appeared in Pergamon and also in Rhodes.
On the other hand, the artists showed the same sharpness of observation that biologists and poets of the same era showed. The realistic approach was strengthened primarily in the portrait, a genre that especially spread with the development of individualism and the cult of kings. The realist approach manifested itself in an interest in the naturalistic rather than the realistic, in the most ordinary. The clearest example is the “Drunken Old Woman” (a masterpiece of Myron from Thebes): a decrepit drunkard with a withered chest, holding a goblet in his hand, or “Fisherman” - an unfortunate person with a pitiful face and protruding ribs. Sculptors no longer neglected such categories as childhood, old age, physical deformities, poverty - all that ignored the former art, imbued with the desire for ideal beauty. A style reminiscent of the Baroque appeared, in particular in small, roomy plastic or reliefs, called "painterly" (they were too quickly identified as "Alexandrian", but they were also common in Asia).
In the sculpture of Greece itself in the era of Hellenism, there were almost no innovations; here they were satisfied with the development of centuries-old sculptural traditions, rich in numerous masterpieces.
Sculptors most often imitated the great masters of the late classics, not always understanding their ideas. Themes close to the art of Praxiteles and his sons, who contributed to the preservation of the heritage of the great master, were willingly developed. These are charming young men languidly leaning on a support, countless repetitions of satyrs with flutes, erotes, young, beautiful women. The features most characteristic of the master are exaggerated: the softness of halftones with subtle transitions, the study of the face, the special care in the transfer of hair. Prak-sitel's continued success is not accidental. His charming art, the spiritual value of which is more and more forgotten, corresponded to the desire for elegance, so widespread throughout the Hellenistic world.
The master of "sad" realism Skopas, before he found his direct heirs in the sculptors of Pergamum, was widely imitated in Greece itself. As evidence, one can cite the numerous “dying Alexanders” with a pathetic expression on their faces, their gaze directed upwards, as if in ecstasy - all this resembles the heads from the pediments of the temple in Tegey. The unknown author of Nike of Samothrace was also a student of the great parodian, but his style is freer and more eclectic. The curved torso, protruding hips of the goddess breathe real life, and loose clothes, romantically fluttering by the sea wind, perfectly match them. It remains only to regret that we do not know exactly on the occasion of which battle this work was created: in honor of the victory of Demetrius Poliorcetes over Ptolemy at Salamis in Cyprus, or, more likely, in honor of the victory of Antigonus Gonatas in Kos?
Lysippus of Sicyon also created a school. The unknown author of "Hercules Farnese" retained something of his manner, but the hero seems to be crushed by his monstrous muscles of the "fair strongman", tired of his own victories. The most revered student of the famous Sikyonian is Hares of Linda, the author of the famous "Colossus of Rhodes", one of the seven wonders of the world.
This grandiose (36 meters high) statue of Helios, the patron deity of the city, stood at the entrance to the port of Rhodes, but soon collapsed during an earthquake.
Academism gradually spread. Starting from 150 BC. the neo-Attic school took samples in the past, avoiding close observation of life. This cold and prim art, obsessed with the bright successes of the sculpture of the classical era, gave the world the most faceless creations, endlessly reproducing the Athena Parthenos. It found followers in Rome, where its most prominent representative was Praxiteles (1st century BC), who devoted five books to the history of sculpture.
But Hellenistic sculpture was not limited to this traditional, quickly stagnant art. In Asia and in Alexandria, great works appeared, inspired by the spirit of the new.
Asia was once again in ferment. Of all the many innovative workshops, the most significant were in Pergamon. The Attalids arranged a museum in their palace, in which they collected even the archaic works of Bupala and Onat, and brought magnificent masters closer to themselves. It was at the Attalid court that art history arose as the new kind creativity. Some of the most remarkable creations of the era were commissioned by the Attalids.
Attalus I erected a large altar on top of the citadel near the sanctuary of Athena to avenge his victory over the Galatians, the nomadic tribes of the Gauls, who came to Asia and ravaged its cities. The whole ensemble is now difficult to restore, but some well-known fragments can be attributed to it, namely the "Dying Gladiator" from the Capitol and the "Arria and Pet" group from the Ludovisi collection, which actually depicts a dying Galatian and a Galatian who commits suicide after being killed his wife. For an unknown sculptor, this was a great opportunity to sing the glory of the ruler, demonstrating the desperation of the vanquished. Their faces express the horror of defeat and death, their bodies are disfigured by terrible wounds.
Eumenes II built a large altar to Zeus and Athena Nikephora, on the base of which there is a long frieze (130 meters) in an oriental style depicting the Gigantomachy. Inside there was another frieze, less dynamic, more classical in form, dedicated to Telephus, the son of Hercules and the mythical ancestor of the dynasty. On the one hand, giants, terrible lion-headed or snake-footed and winged monsters; on the other, the Olympians, whose movements are restrained and majestic. How much penetrating expression in the faces of monsters! What realism even in the smallest details - the skins of monsters, the scales of snakes - in the details that fill all the voids, as if the artist was afraid of empty space!
The strength of these creations is that the authors finally dared to express horror and hopelessness in the face of death or barbarism. Taste for the gloomy, painful, ugly, for what rejects the human mind and sense of proportion, admiring all this gives the right to consider these works from the point of view of psychoanalysis. The goals of the art of the Hellenistic era probably did not differ much from the tasks of classical art, but the convulsions of a restless era freed the artist from restraint and constraint: cruel, bloodstained victory of reason. The world, knowing horror and mirages, embodied itself on the high acropolis of Pergamum.
Rhodes also had a brilliant school of sculptors who followed the Asiatic style. Her works are diverse - from the triple “Hecate” in the archaic style to the “Nymph”, which very freely repeats one of the most “modernist” sculptures - “Aphrodite Doydale”. The true masterpiece is the Laocoön group (circa 50 BC), which showed a taste for pathos, very reminiscent of Pergamon, but perhaps somewhat softened due to the need to show children, who, it is true, will be strangled terrible snakes.
The same "anatomy of suffering" (Ch. Picard) we find in Trall in the huge group "Farnesian bull" (about 100 BC). The sculptors depicted the myth of Dirca's punishment by Antiope's two sons. On the top of the rock, the young men prepare the execution of Dirka, whose trembling body, tied to a wild bull, will then be thrown into the source. A huge pyramidal mass expresses the highest degree of excitement.
Two great masters worked in the north of Anatolia. Doydal of Bithynia sculpted Aphrodite squatting in a bathtub pouring water over her strong body. This is a genre scene in which the goddess is just a pretext for demonstrating a brave, virtuoso technique. Boeth of Chalcedon gave the world "The Boy with the Goose", causing a new wave of interest in childhood.
The Syrian school remained more classical. Its representatives liked to portray portly, with curvaceous models. The most characteristic work of this school - the group "Aphrodite, Pan and Eros" - was found on Delos in the premises of the college of Poseidoniasts from Berytus. According to C. Picard, the goddess is more like a fat mortal, she could be called a beauty with Levaptine grace.
Despite the richness and diversity of the Asiatic schools, the sculpture of Ptolemaic Egypt easily bore comparison with them. Sometimes it's even hard to tell them apart. The "Galat" of Fayum is very close to the Pergamon "Galat", and the portly Alexandrian "Aphrodite" vividly resembles her Syrian sisters.
The influence of Praxiteles is felt in Alexandria more than anywhere else. It manifests itself mainly in countless female images, often having only a common name with the goddess: Aphrodite Anadyomene (“coming out of the water”), loosening her hair or tying a sandal, “Aphrodite the chaste”, coquettishly covering the charms of her plump body. One of the most beautiful imitations of Praxiteles, originally from the center adjacent to Alexandria, is “Venus from Cyrene” (2nd century BC).
The artists were fascinated by the close observation of reality, and we have every reason to believe that this realism merges the Greek influence, dating back to the art of the classics, and the Egyptian influence, since local masters always indulged in a careful study of the world around them with pleasure. More and more amusing situations were depicted for their own sake, scenes of a religious nature were replaced by genre scenes, where cute, thick-cheeked cupids with sly faces and the most ordinary animals willingly frolic - the same as in the epigrams of the Anthology. Sculptors love to depict various social types, and before us passes the life of the poor - sailors, peasants, fishermen, jesters - all this is valuable evidence for study Everyday life. They did not bypass their attention and not quite ordinary ethnic types that met on the streets of cosmopolitan Alexandria - Nubians, Libyans, etc. In the picturesque relief, one of the most original creations of Alexandrian art, the sculptors placed in a modest frame a whole landscape - rural, very similar to the one that was sung in idylls, or urban.
Love for life in all its manifestations shines through in genre scenes and pictorial reliefs. It is also visible in portraits, mostly royal ones, in the best of them the result of a deep psychological analysis is visible. Before us are the wonderful busts of the first Ptolemies, the last of the queens - the great Cleopatra with her aquiline nose and imperious profile under a veil.
While the Greek art of Alexandria sought to embody life in all its elusiveness, traditional Egyptian art was dying. The sculptors continued to work according to the canons of the times of the pharaohs, proof of this is the relief “The Coronation of Ptolemy IV Philopator”, on which the ruler is depicted as a pharaoh surrounded by the goddesses of the Upper and Lower Egypt. It was a dying art in which conventionality replaced spontaneity.
Mixed art, which appeared already at the end of the 4th century, seems more attractive. to V. e. in the funerary monuments of Pet-Osiris, an Egyptian priest, heroized in the Greek manner, whose bas-reliefs show a curious mixture of local motifs and Greek types. Even more remarkable works are given to us by a round sculpture. A large green slate head believed to be Ptolemy Euergetes, kept in Copenhagen, depicts a face with Apollo features. Another green slate head, which is in the British Museum under the name "African", is a portrait of a man of a pronounced Hamitic type with slightly curly hair and a subtle expression of irony, cruelty and mystery on a bony face. This is a magnificent work in which two techniques and, one might add, two wisdoms merge. From the artist, as well as from the sculptor, the ability to excite and enchant at the same time is required. The painting of the Hellenistic period became better known thanks to the discovery of several of the rarest originals - decorations of houses on Delos and steles from the museum in Volos (from the necropolis of Demetrias, a city founded by Demetris Polyorcetes in the Pagasetic Gulf in 294 BC). We are familiar with it mainly thanks to the frescoes and mosaics of villas, in particular in Herculaneum and Pompeii, which very often copy the masterpieces of the Hellenistic school.
And again, the origins of the creative impulse must be sought outside of Greece. The schools of Propontis and Asia are remarkable for their pathos. Here are two very typical examples. Timomachus from Byzantium portrayed Medea, looking in dismay at her children, whom she would soon kill; they calmly play money on the altar, where they will be killed in the presence of their tutor. (This composition, in all likelihood, was very popular. A copy of the entire scene was found in Herculaneum, only one Medea is depicted in Pompeii.) The Pergamon artist also, although less crudely, hurts the feelings of the viewer, drawing “Telephos with the nymph Arcadia and Hercules ". The nymph's gaze is directed into the distance, as if she foresees the dynasty, the beginning of which will be laid by this child (according to the version distributed by the Attalids). Hercules looks at Telef; next to them is a large basket of fruit, next to them are Satyr and a young girl, all this symbolizes the Arcadian landscape.
The Alexandrian school is characterized by love scenes set against a bucolic landscape. Among them, the most widespread is the cycle of Aphrodite. Playful and cruel cupids with their evil tricks, from which so many mortals suffer, and the gods themselves appear in charming scenes, such as "Finding the Nest of Cupids" or "The Saleswoman of Cupids." These works are most often imbued with charm, although at times, like contemporary poetry, they descend to crude eroticism.
The undeniable progress of painting was due not only to the enrichment of technology (for example, the emergence of new colors - blue, violet, purple), but also to the deepening of emotionality. The idyllic scenes became the most numerous. Most often, famous mythological couples were depicted, a convenient pretext for gentle pastorals: a nymph gives a drink to a thirsty Satyr; Aphrodite flirts with Ares; Artemis tenderly takes Hippolyte by the chin, who looks at her in surprise; Dionysus contemplates Ariadne put to sleep by Hypnos; Adonis dies in the arms of Aphrodite.
The landscape, which served as an obligatory background for these idylls, sometimes acted as an independent genre. Particularly popular were gardens, fragrant with the freshness of "paradise" with rare plants, as well as port landscapes, it seems, inviting to travel. Artists loved to depict predatory animals and fantastic monsters. Often there are fish or game - a natural decoration of dining rooms; together with painted baskets of fruit, these images are the first still lifes in Greek art.
Along with similar canvases, designed mainly to please the eye, there were also large frescoes with many characters, the human, and often the religious idea of ​​which appeals to the mind of the viewer. "Wedding in Aldobrandina", kept in the Vatican, depicts the newlywed together with her mother, maids, she is encouraged by Aphrodite and Peyto ("Persuasion"). It is difficult to imagine anything more tender than the feelings written on the faces, and brighter than the color of the picture.
The frescoes of the "Villa of the Mysteries" in Pompeii are even more remarkable. This composition from the time of Emperor Augustus, apparently decorating the hall for initiations, raises many difficult questions: we see Dionysus leaning on Ariadne, playing the syrinx (a type of flute) Satyr, Maenad in a trance, a young girl receiving ritual scourging, another , hiding her face in horror on her friend’s chest, and a boy from the choir reading holy book. Only the general meaning is clear: the sacraments promise the initiates salvation through love for the gods. This work deserves attention both for its beauty and technical perfection, and for the intensity of the religious feeling that permeates it.
The motifs of paintings are often used in mosaics. After the first experiments in the IV century. BC, when the mosaic was made from raw stones, it progressed very quickly in expressiveness due to the use of colored, specially turned stones. Where did this change take place - in Alexandria or in Sicily? They continue to argue about this, but one thing is clear: the former secondary art comes to the fore in the decoration of palaces and houses.
Recent excavations of the palace of the Macedonian kings at Pella have unearthed remarkable mosaics (circa 300 BC) depicting Dionysus riding a leopard and hunting scenes (probably Craterus accompanying Alexander on a lion hunt).
The magnificent “Battle of Arbela” from the museum in Naples obviously copies the painting of Philoxenus of Eretria (beginning of the 3rd BC). The artist is trying to experiment with perspective: he conveys the sky, complex turns of equestrian figures. The withered tree symbolizes the landscape. The complex, multi-figure composition is balanced, however, by the agitated, despairing gesture of Darius. The mosaics of Delos are already valuable because they are genuine works of Hellenistic art, and not their Roman copies. The floors of the rooms of rich dwellings are decorated, depending on the purpose of the room, with geometric ornaments, still lifes, images of animals (most often dolphins) or mythological scenes. The most famous (we already mentioned it a little higher) and amazing of the mosaics is “Dionina, amazing thyrsus”.
Civilization manifested itself not only in large works visual arts, but just as bright in products of decorative and applied art. The Hellenistic period in this area stands out in a very special way.
Ceramic production was in decline. Vessels were decorated more often with floral ornaments, less often with images of human figures. The drawing was sometimes done on a light, sometimes on a background that imitates metal. Real painted utensils in everyday life were no longer given such an honorable place as it was in the classical era. There has been a competition between painted ceramics and dishes decorated with relief ornaments, which were rarely seen before.1. This production developed rapidly in the Hellenistic period. Cheap, "Megar" bowls, as they used to be called, bowls (now known to be made throughout the Eastern Mediterranean) reproduce the best examples of toreutics. They appeared in Athens around 250 BC. e. At first they were decorated with purely floral ornaments, and then with images of figures. "Megar" bowls in in large numbers produced in Athens until about 100 BC. e. Already from the III century. BC. the number of centers of their production increased (Pergamon, Corinth, Argos), and from the end of the II century. BC e. workshops arose even in Italy, which contributed to the appearance of terra sigillata (relief red-lacquer ceramics of the Roman period).
Metal vases were more popular than ever before. Both in Alexandria and in Pergamon, the toreuts worked on gold, silver, and bronze. Most of the things from the famous Bertouville-Bernet treasure (in Normandy) belong to the Hellenistic, and not to the Roman era. The best of them depict the sorrow and death of Achilles and tragic fate Hector, whose body was dragged around the ramparts and then hanged. Vases with similar pathetic and instructive scenes were, in all probability, made in Pergamon.
Whatever they say, Greek art in the era of Hellenism is by no means revived, because it did not die at all. It was constantly renewed, developing in a variety of ways. Its characteristic feature is the expression of the essence of man with his sorrows and joys. There are few feelings that it would not reflect: from burning passion to a gentle idyll. There are almost no subjects to which it would not refer: Greeks and barbarians, old people and children, ideal beauty and ugliness. And, despite the fact that this art was intended primarily for the elite, it often drew its inspiration from the world of poverty. There are no styles that it would not follow: from Pergamum romanticism to the baroque of some Alexandrian reliefs. And it always remained Greek, and nothing human was alien to it.

Literature
Bengston G. Rulers of the Hellenistic Epoch. - M., 1982.
Droyzen I.G. History of Hellenism. - M., 1949. T. 1-3. M., 1890-1893.
Kovalev SI. Hellenism. Rome. - L., 1936.
Ranovich A.B. Hellenism and its historical role. - M.-L., 1950.
Schachermayer F. Alexander the Great. - M., 1984.
Shofman I.Sh. The collapse of the empire of Alexander the Great. -Kazan, 1984.

Issues for discussion

1. Why did the "world empire" created by Alexander the Great turn out to be only the idea of ​​a great commander?
2. What contributed to the rapid development of science and art of the Hellenes?

The influence of Balkan Greece, which used to be the center of the origin and rapid development of the unique Greek culture and art, gradually weakened. This was facilitated by the ongoing dynastic strife, popular unrest and a significant outflow of the population. The newly formed states in the East attracted settlers with attractive opportunities: large cities were built, trade, crafts and agriculture developed rapidly.

Egypt, ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty and Syria, the Seleucid power dominated the eastern lands. These powerful Hellenistic kingdoms with a well-developed economy occupied vast territories, had a powerful military potential and exerted a strong influence on the politics of other countries.

3 periods of the Hellenistic era

The Hellenistic era is very conditionally divided into three main periods. The first period is the birth and formation of a common Hellenistic culture, which arose due to the fusion of the cultures of the conquered countries with the culture of Greece. The second period is the era of rapid development of the Hellenistic world, gradually giving way to crisis and decline in the third period.

The second period in the Hellenistic era was a time of rapid growth and prosperity in all areas of the economy, science and art due to the ongoing development eastern territories. Construction of majestic palaces, development military equipment and navigation contributed to the active development of mathematics, geometry, astronomy, mechanics, geography. The Greeks, arriving from the policies of the Balkan Greece in the hope of a better life, were able to overcome the restrictions of the policy system and quite successfully assimilate in new lands. The East gave a "breath of clean air" to the Greek people, exhausted by numerous conflicts and wars. Progress became inevitable due to the change in mentality, the expansion of people's worldview, their acceptance of new living conditions and ancient traditions of the local population, the merger of different cultures and customs.

The rulers of the Hellenistic powers wanted to see their capitals as major cultural centers. The rich treasury made it possible to generously finance musicians, poets, artists, sculptors and scientists. Manuscripts and scientific works some systematization and storage facilities were required. In Alexandria, the capital of the Egyptian kingdom, which became the heart of the spiritual and scientific life Mediterranean, under the auspices of the ruling Ptolemies, the first library is being created - the largest collection of unique ancient handwritten books. The library was part of the museum (museion - temple of the muses), in which there were auditoriums, offices, collections. The most famous scientists were engaged here in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, botany, zoology, philology and other sciences. In this museum, Euclid created his work - "Elements", and the Greek Eratosthenes discovered a way to determine the circumference of the Earth. Among other illustrious scholars who worked in the library, the most famous are Aristarchus, Apollonius of Rhodes, Archimedes, Callimachus and Euclid.

Interpenetration of Hellenic and ancient Eastern cultures

An important moment in the development of Hellenism was the interpenetration of precisely the Hellenic and ancient Eastern cultures. This process of development took place in completely new conditions and underwent even greater changes in comparison with the previous period. The unification of the ancient Eastern and Greek principles gave the most valuable results in such areas as worldview and philosophy, science and religion. The culture of the Hellenes combined all the achievements of the Greek policy and the ancient East, while occupying a dominant position.

Cultural values ​​of Hellenism and the role of the Greek language

The Greek language was universally recognized throughout the vast territory of Alexander's empire. First of all, everyone communicated on it educated people Hellenistic society, thus creating the prerequisites for the development of a new direction in the literature of the Greeks. Also, the Greek language became native for the educated social stratum of the enslaved peoples who underwent active Hellenization.

The cultural values ​​of Hellenism developed primarily thanks to its direct bearers - the Greeks and were determined by those achievements of the period of the 5th-4th centuries. BC e, which they achieved in theatrical art, urban planning, sculpture, philosophy, architecture, etc. The influence of ancient Eastern traditions on the culture of the Hellenes was expressed mainly in enriching it with completely new ideas, such as deep individualism and mysticism in philosophy, as well as new knowledge in the field of such sciences as medicine, astronomy, etc.

Philosophy and religion

General transformations in the Hellenistic world also affected religion. The cults of the ancient Greeks found their place in the East, and the Eastern ones, in turn, penetrated into Greece. By direct order of the rulers, even new cults arose, which had to be acceptable to both the indigenous and the alien population. Control in the sphere of religious life made it easier for the elite to govern the people. The philosophical outlook also underwent changes. The attitude of people has changed, the ideology of cosmopolitanism has appeared. Man began to feel himself not a part of a limited society and space, but a full-fledged member of a huge state and even the entire Hellenistic world as a whole.

Literature Literature has also changed significantly. She became much more popular among the people. Many literary creations of the Hellenistic era have survived to our times. Changes also affected literary genres. Scientific and historical works were developed, utopian novels appeared social character and bucolic comedies (idylls), which were staged in theaters available in almost all cities.

Construction and architecture

Construction and architecture in the Hellenistic period reached their peak. Large settlements began to be built according to the principles of regular urban planning. This streamlined the planning of cities. Monumental construction was developed. Such wonders of the world as the Lighthouse of Alexandria and the Colossus of Rhodes appeared precisely in the Hellenistic period. In addition, sculptural works became popular, and the network of schools for this type of art expanded.

scientific thought

The scientific thought of the Hellenistic world also did not stand still. greatest development reached natural and humanitarian sciences. Separation has begun scientific disciplines. Mathematics and mechanics, medicine and botany, astronomy and geography, philology and history were separated into separate groups.

Economy and social sphere

And of course, the economy and social sphere. Intensive trade relations developing between East and West led to the flourishing of the economy of the Hellenistic world, in addition, a clear excess of resources contributed to trade relations. The Eastern regions quickly joined the common economic space, readily accepting all the rationalism of the principles of the Greek economy.

Development and prosperity of Hellenism

As a result of all aggressive campaigns Alexander the Great, the world has come to development and prosperity, and not to destruction, as in the case of other armed conflicts. As you can see, the Hellenistic period becomes one of the most fruitful in history. ancient world, the time when humanity stepped far ahead in its development. The unification of the Eastern and Western lands contributed to the interpenetration of cultures, enriched the thousand-year experience in the development of two different worlds, and eventually led to good consequences. This is the main achievement of Hellenism.

Fall of the Hellenistic World

However, not everything was as smooth as the rulers would like. The Eastern Hellenistic states were based on conquered peoples. The Greeks were in power everywhere, and the people ruled by them belonged to another national-ethnic group. This duality, the remoteness of the ruling elite from the people was the cause of the fall and, ultimately, the collapse of the Hellenistic world.

National and religious hostility, ever growing, created an unstable situation, social tension in society and resulted in open conflicts and clashes. Internecine wars, political and dynastic strife contribute to the decline of the state. The Hellenistic states gradually fade away and by the middle of the second century BC begin to disintegrate into separate parts (the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, the state of the Seleucids).

The great powers located in the West and East (Rome and Parthia) skillfully took advantage of this situation. Against the background of the general weakening of the Hellenistic world, Rome, in a series of military operations, defeats Macedonia and the Greek states located on the Balkan Peninsula. As a result of these wars, in the 2nd century - the first half of the 1st century. BC, the Mediterranean states of the Hellenistic world, up to the Euphrates, are under the rule of Rome. Parthia, in turn, subjugates the Eastern Hellenistic states located on the territory of Central Asia, Iran, Mesopotamia. Its western borders now reach the Euphrates. In the 30s. BC, the Roman Empire conquered Egypt, and this was the final collapse of the Hellenistic world, and with it the entire Hellenistic era in ancient Greek history.

Clay and alabaster head of a Zoroastrian priest wearing a distinctive headdress of the Bactrian style, Takhti-Sangin, Tajikistan, 3rd-2nd centuries BC. BC e.

Hellenism- a period in the history of the Mediterranean, primarily the eastern one, lasting from the time of the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) until the final establishment of Roman domination in these territories, which usually dates from the fall of Hellenistic Egypt, headed by the Ptolemies (30 BC . e.) . The term originally denoted the correct use of the Greek language, especially by non-Greeks, but after the publication of the work of Johann Gustav Droysen "History of Hellenism" (- gg.), The concept entered into historical science.

The beginning of the Hellenistic era is characterized by the transition from the polis political organization to hereditary Hellenistic monarchies, the shift of centers of cultural and economic activity from Greece to Africa and Egypt.

Chronology [ | ]

The Hellenistic era spans three centuries. However, as noted, there is no consensus on the issue of periodization. So, with the filing of some, a report of its beginning can be kept from 334, that is, from the year the campaign of Alexander the Great began.
Three periods are proposed:

The term pre-Hellenism is also sometimes used.

Hellenistic states[ | ]

The conquests of Alexander the Great spread Greek culture to the East, but did not lead to the formation of a world empire. On the territory of the conquered Persian Empire, Hellenistic states were formed, led by the Diadochi and their descendants:

• The Seleucid state centered first in Babylon, and then in Antioch.
• The Greco-Bactrian kingdom separated from the Seleucid state in the 3rd century BC. BC e., whose center was in the territory of modern Afghanistan.
• The Indo-Greek kingdom separated from the Greco-Bactrian kingdom in the 2nd century BC. BC e., whose center was located on the territory of modern Pakistan.
• The Pontic kingdom was formed on the territory of modern northern Turkey.
• The Kingdom of Pergamon also existed in what is now western Turkey.
• The Kingdom of Commagene separated from the state of the Seleucids and was located on the territory of modern eastern Turkey.
• Hellenistic Egypt was formed on the territory of Egypt, headed by the Ptolemies.
• The Achaean Union existed on the territory of modern Greece.
• The Bosporus kingdom existed on the territory of the eastern Crimea and the eastern coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, at one time it was part of the Pontic kingdom.

New states are organized according to a special principle, which received the name, based on the synthesis of local despotic and Greek polises. political traditions. The polis, as an independent civil community, maintains its independence both socially and politically even within the framework of the Hellenistic monarchy. Cities such as Alexandria enjoy autonomy and their citizens enjoy special rights and privileges. At the head of the Hellenistic state is usually a king, who has all the full power of state power. Its main support was the bureaucratic apparatus, which carried out the functions of managing the entire territory of the state, with the exception of cities that had the status of policies that owned a certain autonomy.

Compared with previous periods, the situation in the Greek world has seriously changed: instead of many policies at war with each other, the Greek world now consisted of several relatively stable major powers. These states represented a common cultural and economic space, which is important for understanding the cultural and political aspects of that era. The Greek world was a very closely interconnected system, which is confirmed at least by the presence of a single financial system, as well as the scale of migration flows within the Hellenistic world (the Hellenistic era was a time of relatively large mobility of the Greek population, in particular, continental Greece, at the end of the 4th century BC. suffering from overpopulation, by the end of the 3rd century BC began to feel a lack of population).

Culture of the Hellenistic Society[ | ]

Hellenistic society is strikingly different from that of classical Greece in a number of ways. The actual departure of the polis system into the background, the development and spread of political and economic vertical (rather than horizontal) ties, the collapse of obsolete social institutions, general change cultural background caused major changes in the Greek social structure. It was a mixture of Greek and Oriental elements. Syncretism manifested itself most clearly in religion and the official practice of deifying monarchs.

They mark the departure in the III-II centuries BC. e. from the sublimely beautiful images of the Greek classics towards the individual and lyrical. In the era of Hellenism, there was a plurality of artistic movements, some of which turned out to be associated with the assertion of inner peace, others with a “severe love of rock”.

Hellenization of the East[ | ]

Historiography [ | ]

The tradition of focusing the attention of researchers on the classical period of antiquity was finally interrupted by the prominent German classical philologist Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Möllendorff, expanding the scope of the material studied by antiquity studies to include the Hellenistic era.

The history of the ancient world, in which the Greek language was used, can be divided into three periods: the period of free city-states, which was brought to an end by Philip and Alexander; the period of Macedonian domination, the last remnants of which were destroyed by the annexation of Egypt by the Romans after the death of Cleopatra, and finally the period of the Roman Empire. The first of these three periods is characterized by freedom and disorder, the second by submission and disorder, the third by submission and order.

The second of these periods is known as the Hellenistic Age. The work done during this period in the field of natural science and mathematics is the best ever done by the Greeks. In philosophy, during this period falls the foundation of the Epicurean and Stoic schools, as well as skepticism as a finally formulated doctrine; therefore, this period is still important in relation to philosophy, although not to the same extent as the period of Plato and Aristotle. After the third century BC, there is essentially nothing new in Greek philosophy until the Neoplatonists (third century BC). But meanwhile the Roman world was preparing for the victory of Christianity.

Alexander's short career suddenly transformed the Greek world. In ten years, from 334 to 324 BC, Alexander conquered Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, Samarkand, Bactria and Punjab. The Persian Empire, the greatest the world has ever known, was destroyed in three military battles. Curious Greeks got acquainted with ancient science the Babylonians, and with it their old superstitions; in the same way, they got acquainted with the dualism of Zoroaster and, to a lesser extent, with the religion of India, where Buddhism acquired paramount importance. Wherever Alexander penetrated, everywhere - even in the mountains of Afghanistan, on the banks of the Jaxarta and along the tributaries of the Indus - he founded Greek cities in which he tried to reproduce Greek institutions, with some addition of self-government. And, although his army consisted mainly of Macedonians and most of the European Greeks obeyed him only involuntarily, he considered himself primarily an apostle of Hellenism. However, gradually, along with the expansion of the conquered territories, he adopted and began to pursue a policy of encouraging a friendly merger of Greeks and barbarians.

For this, he had a variety of motives. On the one hand, it was obvious that his armies, not particularly numerous, could not keep such a vast empire by force all the time and had, in the end, to depend on the appeasement of the defeated population of the occupied territories. On the other hand, the East was accustomed to only one form of government, that of a divine king, in whose role Alexander felt well suited. Whether he himself believed in his divinity or accepted all the attributes of a deity only for political reasons is a psychological question, since historical evidence is unclear. In any case, he enjoyed that low flattery, that servility with which he was surrounded in Egypt as the successor of the pharaohs and in Persia as great king. His Macedonian generals - "companions" as they were called - behaved towards him in the same way as Western nobles towards their constitutional sovereign: they refused to prostrate before him, gave him advice and criticized even at the risk of his life, and at the decisive moment controlled his actions, for example, forced him to return home from the banks of the Indus, instead of moving forward to conquer the Ganges. The eastern population was more accommodating, as long as their religious prejudices were respected. For Alexander, this was not difficult: it was only necessary to identify Ammon or Bel with Zeus and declare himself the son of this god. Psychologists think that Alexander hated Philip and may have been involved in his murder; he would like to believe that his mother Olympia, like some noble women in Greek mythology, was the beloved of some god. Alexander's career was so miraculous that he could well believe that divine origin is the best explanation for his incredible success.

The Greeks had a highly developed sense of superiority towards the barbarians; no doubt Aristotle expressed the general opinion when he said that the northern races are bold, the southern races are cultured, but only the Greeks are both cultured and bold. Plato and Aristotle considered it wrong to enslave the Greeks, but not the barbarians. Alexander, who was not a full-blooded Greek, tried to break this sense of superiority. He himself married two princesses of the barbarian tribes and forced prominent Macedonian commanders to marry Persian women of noble birth. The innumerable Greek cities he founded may be thought to have been inhabited chiefly by male colonists, who were forced to follow Alexander's example by intermarrying with local women. The result of this policy was to bring into the minds thinking people the concept of humanity as a whole; the old allegiance to the city-states and (to a lesser extent) to the Greek race no longer seemed appropriate. In philosophy, this cosmopolitan view originates from the Stoics, but in reality it appeared earlier - starting from the time of Alexander the Great. The result was the mutual influence of the culture of the Greeks and the barbarians: the barbarians learned something of Greek science, and the Greeks shared many of the superstitions of the barbarians. Greek civilization, having embraced a wider area, became less purely Greek,

Greek civilization was mostly urban. Many Greeks, of course, were engaged in agriculture, but their contribution to what was the hallmark of Greek culture was very small. From the Milesian school onwards, those Greeks who made outstanding contributions to science, philosophy, and literature were associated with wealthy trading cities, often surrounded by barbarian populations. This type of civilization was established not by the Greeks, but by the Phoenicians. Tire, Sidon, and Carthage depended on the physical labor of slaves in their own country and on mercenaries in their wars. They did not depend, as modern metropolitan cities do, on a large rural population of the same blood and with the same equal political rights. The most appropriate modern analogy could be seen on Far East in the second half of the nineteenth century. Singapore and Hong Kong, Shanghai and other open ports of China were European islands, where whites made up the merchant aristocracy, living off the labor of the coolies. In North America, north of the Mason-Dixon line, since there was no such labor, whites were forced to work in agriculture themselves. For this reason, the position of the white man in North America is strong, while in the Far East they are already greatly shaken and can be completely destroyed. However, much of this type of culture survives, especially industrialism. This analogy will help us understand the position of the Greeks in the eastern parts of Alexander's empire.

Alexander's influence on the imagination of the peoples of Asia was great and lasting. The first book of Maccabees, written a century after his death, opens with an account of his life.

"And so it happened, Alexander, the son of Philip, a Macedonian, came from the land of Chetim (Hetton), defeated Darius, king of the Persians and the Medes, and the first of the rulers of Greece began to reign in his place, and waged many wars, and captured many fortresses, and killed kings of the earth, and went from end to end all the earth, and took prey from many peoples, so that the earth humbled itself, calmed down before him, and therefore he was lifted up in spirit, and his heart leapt. over lands and kings, and they became his tributaries. And after all this, he fell into illness and felt the approach of death. Therefore, he called his servants - those who were of noble birth and were brought up with him from his youth. And divided his kingdom between them while he himself was still alive. This is not historically true. So Alexander reigned for twelve years, and then he died." He continued to exist as a legendary hero in the Mohammedan religion, and to this day the leaders of the small tribes in the Himalayas claim to be descended from him. It is possible that this is not so, since the sons who believed this also were brought up at Eton. None of the truly historical heroes provided such a magnificent opportunity for myth-making.

After Alexander's death, an attempt was made to preserve the unity of his empire. But of his two sons, one was an infant and the other had not yet been born. Each of them had supporters, but in the subsequent civil war both have been eliminated. In the end, his empire was divided between the families of three commanders, of which one received, roughly speaking, the European, the other - the African and the third - the Asian part of Alexander's possessions. The European part ultimately went to the descendants of Antigonus; Ptolemy, who received Egypt, made Alexandria his capital; Seleucus, who after many years of wars gained Asia, was too busy with military campaigns to have a permanent capital, but later Antioch was the main city under his dynasty.

Both Ptolemy and the Seleucids (as the Seleucus dynasty was called) abandoned Alexander's attempts to merge the Greeks with the barbarians and established military tyrannies based at first on that part of the Macedonian army that was subordinate to them, reinforced by Greek mercenaries. The Ptolemies held power fairly firmly in Egypt, but in Asia the mixed dynastic wars that lasted two hundred years were brought to an end only by the Roman conquest. During these two centuries, Persia was conquered by the Parthians, and the isolation of the Bactrian Greeks became more and more.

In the second century BC (after which they rapidly declined) they had a king, Menander, whose Indian empire was vast. Translated into Chinese and partly in the Pali language, two of his dialogues with Buddhist sages survived. Dr. Tarn suggests that the first of these is based on a Greek original; the second, at the end of which Menander abdicates the throne and announces that he becomes a Buddhist saint, has no documentary evidence.

At that time, Buddhism was a religion that actively recruited proselytes. Ashoka (264-228) - the holy Buddhist king - records in an inscription that has survived to our time that he sent missionaries to all the Macedonian kings: "And this is the most important conquest, in the opinion of His Majesty, the conquest according to the Law; and this is also carried out by His Majesty both in his own dominions and in all the neighboring kingdoms for six hundred leagues in the vicinity - even where the Greek king Antiochus lives, and beyond the dominions of Antiochus, where four kings live, called differently: Ptolemy, Antigonus, Megas and Alexander... and likewise here in the dominion of the king among the Ionians" (that is, the Greeks from the Punjab). Unfortunately, no account of these missionaries has been preserved in the West.

Babylonia was under a much deeper Hellenistic influence. As we have already seen, the only one of the ancients who, following Aristarchus of Samos, supported a system similar to that of Copernicus, was Seleucus of Seleucia on the Tigris, who lived about 150 BC Tacitus speaks of Seleucia in the 1st century AD as a city that was not subjected to corruption in a barbarian spirit, but Seleucus, who remembered his founder. A king, not an astronomer. "In it three hundred citizens are chosen by wealth or wisdom to serve as a senate; the people have their share of power." Throughout Mesopotamia and further west, Greek became the language of literature and culture and remained so until the Mohammedan conquest.

Syria (with the exception of Judea) completely fell under the influence of Hellenism in terms of language and literature. But the rural population, being more conservative, retained its usual religion and language. In Asia Minor, the Greek cities on the coast influenced their barbarian neighbors for centuries. This was reinforced by the Macedonian conquest. The first conflict of Hellenism with the Jews is narrated in the book of Maccabees. It's deep interesting story, unlike anything else in the Macedonian Empire. I will deal with this story later, when I get to the origin and development of Christianity. Nowhere did Greek influence meet with such stubborn resistance.

From the point of view of Hellenistic culture, its most brilliant successes in the third century BC were associated with the city of Alexandria. Egypt was less exposed to the danger of war than the European and Asian parts of the Macedonian possessions, and Alexandria was extremely conveniently located for trade. The Ptolemies were patrons of science and attracted many to their capital. the best people that time. Mathematics became, and continued to remain until the fall of Rome, chiefly Alexandrian. True, Archimedes was a Sicilian and lived in the only part of the world where the Greek city-states (until his death in 212 BC) maintained their independence, but he also studied in Alexandria. Eratosthenes was the chief librarian of the famous Library of Alexandria. The mathematicians and natural scientists associated more or less closely with Alexandria in the third century B.C. were no less talented than the Greeks of previous centuries, and did work of equal value. But they did not deal with science in the same way as their predecessors, that is, not in all its areas, did not discuss questions of universal philosophy; they were specialists in the modern sense. Euclid, Aristarchus, Archimedes, and Apollonius were content to be mathematicians; in philosophy they did not strive for originality.

This era is characterized by specialization in all branches, not only in the world of science. In the self-governing Greek cities of the fifth and fourth centuries BC, it was believed that capable person can engage in a variety of activities. He could be, as needed, a warrior, a politician, a legislator or a philosopher. Socrates, although he did not like politics, could not stay away from political disputes. In his youth he was a warrior and (despite the denial of this fact in Plato's Apology) studied the natural sciences. Protagoras, teaching skepticism to aristocratic youth, found time for active participation V practical life, developed a set of laws for the Furies. Plato politicized, although without success. Xenophon, if he did not write about Socrates and did not act as a slave owner, was a commander in his spare time. Pythagorean mathematicians tried to achieve city government. Each had to serve on juries and perform various other public duties. In the third century BC, all this changed. True, the old city-states continued to pursue their policies, but they became narrowly limited and insignificant, since Greece was dominated by the Macedonian armies. A serious struggle for power was going on between the Macedonian warriors; it did not deal with questions of principle; it was only about the distribution of territory between adventurous rivals. In the administrative and technical fields, these more or less uneducated warriors used the Greeks as experts; in Egypt, for example, excellent drainage and irrigation work has been done. There were warriors, administrators, doctors, mathematicians, philosophers, but there was no one who was all of these together.

It was an era when a man with money and no desire for power could live a very pleasant life - provided that he did not get in the way of any marauding army. Scholars who ingratiated themselves with some prince could lead a luxurious life, but only if they were skillful flatterers and did not mind being the target of ignorant royal witticisms. But there was no such thing as security. Palace coup could displace his (learned flatterer) patron; the Galatians could destroy the rich man's villa; the hometown could be sacked, as happened in the wars of the dynasties. It is not surprising that under such circumstances people began to worship the goddess Fortune, or good luck. There seemed to be nothing rational in the arrangement of human affairs. Those who stubbornly searched for somewhere reasonable, went into themselves and decided, like Satan with Milton, that:

The mind is its own, special world. And he is in himself, inside, Able to turn heaven into hell and make heaven out of hell.

No one but self-serving adventurers had any motive to take an interest in public affairs. After the brilliant period of Alexander's conquests, the Hellenistic world fell into chaos for lack of a despot strong enough to achieve lasting supremacy, or for lack of a principle powerful enough to ensure social cohesion. The mind of the Greeks, when faced with new political problems, showed its complete inability to solve them. The Romans were certainly stupid and rude compared to the Greeks, but at least they created order. The old disorder of the days of freedom was tolerable, because every citizen enjoyed a share of this freedom; but the new, Macedonian disorder, imposed on the subjects by inept rulers, was completely intolerable, much more intolerable than the subsequent submission to Rome.

Public discontent and fear of revolution were widespread. The wages of the free laborers fell, presumably because of the competition of the labor of the Eastern slaves; meanwhile, the prices of consumer goods were rising. We see that, early in his career, Alexander found time to make pacts designed to keep the poor in subjection. "In the treaties concluded in 335 BC between Alexander and the states of the League of Corinth, it was provided that the Council of the League and the representative of Alexander were to see that in no city of the league there was any confiscation of personal property, no division of land, nor cancellation of the debt, nor the emancipation of the slaves for the purposes of the revolution." This essay is extremely interesting and contains many facts that are not easily found elsewhere. The temples in the Hellenistic world were the bankers: they owned the gold reserves and controlled the credit. At the beginning of the third century BC, the Temple of Apollo on Delosus was lending money at 10 percent; earlier the percentage was higher.

Free laborers who found wages insufficient even to meet their most basic needs, if they were young and strong, could be hired as soldiers. The life of a mercenary soldier was undoubtedly full of dangers and difficulties, but there were also great opportunities in it. There might be booty in some rich eastern city, there might be a chance for a profitable rebellion. It must have been dangerous for a commander to try to disband his army, and perhaps this danger was one of the reasons why the wars hardly stopped.

The old civic spirit was more or less preserved in the old Greek cities, but not in the new ones founded by Alexander, not excluding Alexandria. In the earliest times new town was always a colony of settlers from some old city, and remained connected with his stepfather city by bonds of feeling. This kind of feeling had great stability, as shown, for example, by the diplomatic activity of the city of Lampsacus on the Hellespont in 196 BC. This colonial city was threatened by submission to the third Seleucid king Antiochus, and he decided to turn to Rome for protection. An embassy was sent, but it did not go straight to Rome; despite the great distance, first went to Marseilles, which, like Lampsacus, was a colony of Phocaea and to which, moreover, the Romans were friendly. The citizens of Marseilles, after listening to the ambassador's speech, immediately decided to send their own diplomatic mission to Rome to support their sister city. The Gauls, who lived further inland from Marseilles, joined the Marseilles and sent a letter to their countrymen in Asia Minor, the Galatians, offering Lampsacus their friendship; Rome was naturally glad of the pretense of intervening in the affairs of Asia Minor, and thanks to the intervention of Rome, Lampsacus retained his freedom until it became inconvenient for the Romans.

In general, the rulers of Asia called themselves philhellenes and were, as far as politics and military needs allowed, on friendly terms with the old Greek cities. These cities desired and (when they could) demanded, as their right, democratic self-government, exemption from tribute and freedom from the royal garrison. It was worth taking the time to reconcile them, because they were rich, could supply mercenary soldiers, and many of them had important harbors. But if they took the side of those who were losing in the civil war, they opened the way for their complete conquest. In general, the Seleucids and other dynasties that gradually arose treated them tolerantly, but there were exceptions.

The new cities, although they had some degree of self-government, did not have the same traditions as the old cities. The citizens of these cities were not of uniform origin, but came from all parts of Greece. They were mostly adventurers like the conquistadors or settlers in Johannesburg, impious pilgrims like the early Greek colonists or New England pioneers. Consequently, no city founded by Alexander represented a strong political entity. This was a convenience royal power, but a weakness in the sense of the spread of Hellenism.

The influence of non-Greek religion and prejudice on the Hellenistic world was mostly, but not entirely, bad. This might not have happened. The Jews, the Persians, and the Buddhists had religions that were definitely on a higher level than the common Greek polytheism, and they could be usefully studied even by the best philosophers. Unfortunately, it was the Babylonians and Chaldeans who most impressed the imagination of the Greeks. First of all, their fabulous antiquity impressed; their sacred tales went back millennia and claimed to be many millennia older. There was also genuine wisdom: the Babylonians could more or less correctly predict the eclipse of the sun long before the Greeks could. But that was only the basis for perception, and astrology and magic were perceived mainly. "Astrology," says Professor Gilbert Murray, "swept the Hellenistic mind as if some new disease were sweeping the people of some distant island. The tomb of Ozymandias, as Diodorus describes it, was covered with astrological symbols; the tomb of Antiochus 1, which Commagene, is the same. It was natural for kings to believe that the stars patronize them. But everyone was ready to accept the infection." It seems that the Greeks were first taught astrology in the time of Alexander by a Chaldean named Berossus, who taught in Kos and, according to Seneca, "interpreted Belus." "This," says Professor Murray, "must mean that he translated into Greek the Eye of Bel, a seventy-tablet treatise found in the library of Assurbanipal (686-626 B.C.), but compiled for Sargon the first in the third millennium BC.

As we shall see, most of even the best philosophers have come to believe in astrology. This entailed - since astrology believed that the future could be predicted - a belief in necessity or fate, which could be contrasted with the widespread belief in fortune. Undoubtedly, most people believed in both, completely oblivious to their incompatibility.

The general confusion was to lead to the destruction of morality, even more than to intellectual relaxation. An insecurity that lasts for ages, while it can be combined with the highest degree of holiness in a few, is detrimental to the prosaic everyday virtue of respectable citizens. It seemed that there was no point in being frugal, since tomorrow all your savings could be wasted; there is no advantage in being honest, since the person towards whom you show it is sure to deceive you; there is no need to stubbornly hold on to any belief, for all beliefs have no value or chance of sustainable victory; there are no arguments in favor of veracity, since only flexible opportunism helps to save life and fortune. A person whose virtue has no other source than purely earthly caution will become an adventurer in such a world if he has courage, and if he does not have it, he will strive to remain invisible as a timid opportunist. Menander, who lived at that time, said:

I have known many cases. When people, not swindlers, Became such because of failures, but by coercion.

This sums up the moral character of the third century BC, minus a few exceptional people. Even among these few, hope gave way to fear; the purpose of life was rather to avoid misfortune than to achieve any real good.

"Metaphysics recedes into the background; now individual ethics becomes the most important. Philosophy is no longer a torch that leads a few fearless seekers of truth; rather, it is an ambulance karst, following in the wake of the struggle for existence and picking up the weak and wounded." The above quotation from Menander is from the same chapter.