The Hellenistic Kingdoms, 323–30 B.C.E.

New kingdoms arose when Alexander’s empire fragmented after his death. The time from Alexander’s death in 323 B.C.E. to the death of Cleopatra VII, the last Macedonian queen of Egypt, in 30 B.C.E. is the Hellenistic Age. The term Hellenistic (“Greek-like”) conveys the most significant characteristic of this period: the emergence in the eastern Mediterranean world of a mixture of Near Eastern and Greek traditions generating innovations in politics, literature, art, philosophy, and religion. War stirred up this cultural mixing, and tension persisted between conquerors and subjects.

The Hellenistic period reintroduced monarchy into Greek culture for the first time in a thousand years. Commanders from Alexander’s army created the kingdoms by seizing portions of his empire and proclaiming themselves kings. This process of state formation took more than fifty years of war. The self-proclaimed kings—called Alexander’s successors—had to transform their families into dynasties and accumulate enough power to force the Greek city-states to obey them. Eventually, wars with the Romans ended the Hellenistic kingdoms.