Consequences of The Hellenistic Period

 Over a span of thirteen years Alexander the Great had led many great empire-building campaigns that sent ripples throughout the many great civilizations at that time. Shortly after the Greek culture and influence slowly spread to India and later on towards other countries, thus this age finally came to be an known as the ‘Hellenistic age’. The word Hellenistic is derived from the Greek work ‘Hellas’ which was the original name of Greece. The term in simpler words means speaking the Greek language or identifying with the Greek culture or ideals. The Hellenistic Era started with the death of Alexander in 323 BCE and ended with the defeat of Romans of lands of last in Hellenistic age in 31 B CE. The Alexander Empire was a fairly weak one where it couldn’t solidify itself within the thirteen years of Alexander’s rule and which was shortly divided into three parts after his death. The empire was additionally divided into three different kingdoms by Alexander Diadochi (who was Alexander’s successor) these three kingdoms were, ‘The Macedom’, ‘The Seleucid’, and ‘The Ptolemaic’ Empire. These three territories would no longer remain as just one kingdom anymore but it still had maintained few common Greek characteristic.

The three Hellenistic states represented the centre of the Hellenistic age. Unlike most Greek cities these states were not governed by the people, instead of adopting a democratic system they chose to become absolute monarchies. The new rulers focused their entirety for the well-being of the kingdom and brought great social, political and economic change. Even than the main high interest of these new rulers was to adopt a good commercial and trade relationship throughout the old Alexandrian empire. Soon enough a new age of trade and commerce developed with arise of Hellenistic age. Even when the three kingdoms were separated the people of these kingdoms were joined together because of the common tongue known as the ‘Koine’, this form allowed the Greeks to be stayed together and united as they travelled freely between the new territories. Nonetheless, there were some people who weren’t really happy with their respective new life-style and change as they used to take part in public decisions which used to be about the welfare of people, but they were suddenly thrown under the rule of just one authoritative figure and new bureauocratic system.

The alienation of people from the society and the government itself could be seen as the result of the Hellenistic age. This change could also be seen in artists as scholars, artists and philosophers started to reject the collective ideas and intead focused on the idea of the cult of individual. Sculptures were no longer made of gods and deities instead they focused on individual’s pleasures and happiness. The cult of Isis was also formed during this time when they hid the secrets of immortality and decided to give it to only those people who really sought it for themselves.