The Hellenistic Age
Peter Green
Random House Publishing Group
The Hellenistic era witnessed the overlap of antiquity&#8217;s two great Western civilizations, the Greek and the Roman. This was the epoch of Alexander&#8217;s vast expansion of the Greco-Macedonian world, the rise and fall of his successors&#8217; major dynasties in Egypt and Asia, and, ultimately, the establishment of Rome as the first Mediterranean superpower.<br><br><i>The Hellenistic Age</i> chronicles the years 336 to 30 BCE, from the days of Philip and Alexander of Macedon to the death of Cleopatra and the final triumph of Caesar&#8217;s heir, the young Augustus. Peter Green&#8217;s remarkably far-ranging study covers the prevalent themes and events of those centuries: the Hellenization of an immense swath of the known world&#8211;from Egypt to India&#8211;by Alexander&#8217;s conquests; the lengthy and chaotic partition of this empire by rival Macedonian marshals after Alexander&#8217;s death; the decline of the<i> </i>polis (city state) as the predominant political...