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HELLENISM (from Or. EAXspiL'sty, to i...
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See also:HELLENISM (from Or. EAXspiL'See also:sty, to imitate the Greeks, who were known as "EAAi7ves, after "EAA17v, the son of See also:Deucalion)
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The See also:term " See also:Hellenism " is ambiguous
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It may be used to denote See also:ancient See also:Greek culture in all its phases, and even those elements in See also:modern See also:civilization which are Greek in origin or in spirit; but, while See also:Matthew See also:Arnold made the term popular in the latter connexion as the See also:antithesis of " Hebraism," the See also:German historian
For the microscopical characters and for figures of transverse sections of the rhizome, see See also:Lanessan, Hist. See also:des drogues, i
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6 (1878)
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See also:Droysen introduced the See also:fashion (1836) of using it to describe particularly the latter phases of Greek culture from the conquests of See also: When Hellenism came to stand in the world for something See also:concrete and organic, it was, of course, no See also:mere abstract principle, but embodied in a See also:language, a literature, an See also:artistic tradition . In the earliest existing See also:monument of the Hellenic See also:genius, the Homeric poems, one may already observe that regulative sense of See also:form and proportion, which shaped the later achievements of the See also:race in the intellectual and artistic See also:spheres . It was not till the See also:great colonizing See also:epoch of the 8th and 7th centuries B.C., when the name " Hellene " came into use as the antithesis of " See also:barbarian," that the Greek race came to be conscious of itself as a See also:peculiar people; it was yet some three centuries more before Hellenism stood fully declared in See also:art and literature, in politics and in thought . There was now a new thing in the world, and to see how the world was affected by it is our immediate concern . I . THE EXPANSION OF HELLENISM BEFORE ALEXANDER: III the 5th See also:century B.C . Greek cities dotted the coasts of the Mediterranean and the See also:Black See also:Sea from See also:Spain to See also:Egypt and the See also:Caucasus, and already Greek culture was beginning to pass beyond the limits of the Greek race . Already in the 7th century B.C., when Iellenism was still in a rudimentary See also:stage, the citizens of the Greek See also:city-states had been known to the courts of See also:Babylon and Egypt as admirable soldiers, combining hardihood with discipline, and Greek mercenaries came to be in See also:request through-out the Nearer See also:East . But as Hellenism developed, its social and intellectual life began to exercise a See also:power of attraction . The proud old civilizations of the See also:Euphrates and the See also:Nile might ignore it, but the ruder barbarian peoples in East and See also:West, on whose coasts the Greek colonies had been planted, came in various degrees under its spell . In some cases an outlying See also:colony would coalesce with a native See also:population, and a See also:fusion of Hellenism with barbarian customs take See also:place, as at Emporiam in Spain (See also:Strabo iii. p . 16o) and at See also:Locri in S . See also:Italy (Polyb. xii..5. so) . See also:Perinthus included a Thracian See also:phyle . The stories of See also:Anacharsis and Scylas (See also:Herod. iv . 76-8o) show how the leading men of the tribes in contact with the Greek colonies in the Black Sea might be fascinated by the See also:appeal which the See also:exotic culture made to. mind and to See also:eye . The great developments of the century and a See also:half before Alexander set the Greek people in a very different light before the world . In the See also:sphere of material power the repulse of See also:Xerxes and the See also:extension of Athenian or Spartan supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean were large facts patent to the most obtuse . The See also:kings of the East leant more than ever upon Greek mercenaries, whose superiority to barbarian levies was sensibly brought See also:home to them by the expedition of See also:Cyrus . But the developments within the Hellenic sphere itself were also of great consequence for its expansion outwards . The See also:political disunion of the Greeks was to some extent neutralized by the rise of See also:Athens to a leading position in art, in literature and in See also:philosophy . In Athens the Hellenic genius was focussed, its tendencies See also:drawn together and combined; nor was it a circumstance of small moment that the See also:Attic See also:dialect attained, for See also:prose, a classical authority; for if Hellenism was to be propagated in the world at large, it was obviously convenient that it should have some one definite form of speech to be its See also:medium . r . The Persians.—The ruling race of the East, the See also:Persian, was but little open to the influences of the new culture .
The military qualities of the Greeks were appreciated, and so, too, was Greek See also:science, where it touched the immediately useful; a Greek See also:captain was entrusted by See also:Darius with the exploration of the See also:Indus; a Greek architect bridged the See also:Bosporus for him; Greek physicians (e.g
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Democedes, See also:Ctesias) were retained for enormous fees at the Persian See also:court
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The brisk See also:diplomatic intercourse between the Great See also: The Phoenicians.—As See also:early as the first half of the 4th century we find communities of Phoenician traders established in the See also:Peiraeus (C.I.A. ii . 86) . In See also:Cyprus, on the frontier between the Greek and Semitic worlds, a struggle for ascendancy went on . The Phoenician See also:element seems to have been dominant in the See also:island when See also:Evagoras made himself king of See also:Salamis in 412, and restored Hellenism with a strong See also:hand . The words of Isocrates (even allowing for their rhetorical See also:colour) give us a vivid insight into what such a See also:process meant . " Before Evagoras established his See also:rule, they were so hostile and exclusive, that those of their rulers were actually held to be the best who were the fiercest adversaries of the Greeks; but now such a See also:change has taken place, that it is a See also:matter of emulation who shall show himself the most ardent phil-hellen, that for the mothers of their See also:children most of them choose wives from amongst us, and that they take See also:pride in having Greek things about rather than native, in following the Greek fashion of life, whilst our masters of the See also:fine arts and other branches of culture now resort to them in greater See also:numbers than were once to be found in those quarters they specially frequented " (Isoc . 199= Evag . §§ 49, 50) . Even into the original seats of the Phoenicians Hellenism began to intrude . Evagoras at one See also:time (about 386) made himself See also:master of See also:Tyre (Isoc . Evag . § 62; Diod. xv . 2, 4) . His See also:grandson Evagoras II. is found as See also:governor of See also:Sidon for the Persian king 349–346 . (Babelon, Perses Achemenides, p. cxxii.; cf . Diod. xvi . 46, 3) . Abdashtart, king of Sidon (374–362 B.C.), called Straton by the Greeks, had already entered into See also:close relations with the Greek states, and imitated the Hellenic princes of Cyprus (Athen. xii . J31; C.I.A. ii . 86; Corp. inscr . Semit. i . 114) . The Phoenician colonists in See also:Sardinia See also:purchased or imitated the work of Greek artists (Furtwangler, Antike Gemmen, 109) . 3 . The Carians and Lycians.—The seats of the Greeks in the East touched peoples more or less nearly related to the Hellenic stock, with native traditions not so far remote from those of the Greeks in a more See also:primitive age, the Carians and the Lycians . It came about in the last century preceding Alexander that the first of these peoples was organized as a strong See also:state under native princes, the See also:line founded by Hecatomnus of Mylasa . Hecatomnus made himself master of See also:Caria in the first See also:decade of the 4th century, but it was under his son See also:Mausolus, who succeeded him in 377–376 that the See also:house See also:rose to its See also:zenith . These Carian princes ruled as satraps for the Great King, but they modelled themselves upon the See also:pattern of the Greek See also:tyrant . The See also:capital of Mausolus was a Greek city, See also:Halicarnassus, and all that we can still trace of his great See also:works of construction and adornment shows conformity to the pure Hellenic type . His famous See also:sepulchre, the See also:Mausoleum (the remains of it are now in the See also:British Museum), was a monument upon which the most eminent Greek sculptors of the time worked in rivalry (Plin . N.H. See also:xxxvi . 5, § 30; Vitruv. vii . 13) . His court gave a welcome to the vagrant Greek philosopher (Diog . Laert. viii . 8, § 87) . Even the Carian See also:town of Mylasa now shows the forms of a Greek city and records its public decrees in Greek (C.I.G . 2691 c,d,e=See also:Michel 471) . In See also:Lycia, which in spite of " the son of Harpagus " and King See also:Pericles, had never been brought under one man's rule, the Greek influence is more limited . Here, for the most part in the See also:inscriptions, the native language maintains itself against Greek . The proper names are (if not native) mainly Persian . But the Greek language makes an occasional See also:appearance; Greek names are See also:borne by others beside Pericles . The coins are Greek in type . And above all the monumental remains of Lycia show strong Greek influence, especially the well-known " Nereid Monument in the British Museum, whose date is held to go back to the 5th century (See also:Gardner, Handbook of Gk . Scuip. p . 344) . 4 . See also:South See also:Russia.—Hellenic influences continued to penetrate the Scythian peoples from the Greek colonies of the Black Sea, at any See also:rate in the matter of artistic fabrication . Our See also:evidence is the actual See also:objects recovered from the See also:soil . (See See also:SCYTHIA.) 5 . Egypt.—From the time of See also:Psammetichus (d . 610 n.c.) Greek mercenaries had been used to prop See also:Pharaoh's See also:throne . At the same time Greek merchants had begun to find their way up the Nile and even to the Oases . A Greek city See also:Naucratis (q.v.) was allowed to arise at the Bolbitinic mouth of the Nile . But the racial repugnance to the Greek, which forbade an See also:Egyptian even to eat an See also:animal which had been carved with a Greek's See also:knife (Hdt. ii . 41), probably kept the soul of the people more shut against Hellenic influences than was that of the other races of the East . 6 . See also:Macedonia.—In Macedonia the native chiefs had been attracted by the See also:rich Hellenic life at any rate from the beginning of the 5th century, when Alexander I., surnamed " Phil-hellen," persuaded the See also:judges at See also:Olympia that the Temenid house was of See also:good Argive descent (Hdt. v . 22) . And, although their enemies might stigmatize them as barbarians, the Macedonian kings maintained that they were not Macedonians, but Greeks (cf .
&zn p "EXX v See also:Mai e.bbvicev ulrapxos, Hdt. v
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20)
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It was not probably till the reorganization of the See also:kingdom by See also:Archelaus (413–399) that Greek culture found any abundant entrance into Macedonia
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Now all that was most brilliant in Greek literature and Greek art was concentrated in the court of Aegae; the See also:palace was decorated by Zeuxis; See also:Euripides spent there the end of his days
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From that time, no doubt, a certain degree of See also:literary culture was See also:general among the Macedonian See also:nobility; their names in the days of See also: 283 f . ; O . See also:Hoffmann, Die Makedonen, ihre Sprache u. ihr Volkstum (1go6) . 7 . In the West: the Native Races of See also:Sicily.—Italy and the south of See also:Gaul had not remained unaffected by the neighbourhood of the Greek colonies . Under the rule of the See also:elder and younger See also:Dionysius in the 4th century, the hellenization of the Sicels in the interior of Sicily seems to have become See also:complete (See also:Freeman, History of Sicily, ii . 387, 388, 422-424; Beloch, Griech . Gesch. iii . [i.] 261) . The alphabets used by the various See also:Italian races from the 5th century were directly or indirectly learnt from the Greeks . The peoples of the south (Lucanians, Bruttians, Mamertines) show a Greek principle of nomenclature (See also:Mommsen, Unterital . Dialekt, p . 240 f.) . The See also:Pythagorean philosophy, whose seat was in See also:southern Italy, won adherents among the native chiefs (Cic . De senec . 12, cf . Dio Chrys . Orat . See also:Car . 37, § 24) . From the Greeks of southern Gaul Hellenic influences penetrated the See also:Celtic races so far that imitations of Greek coins were struck even on the coasts of the See also:Atlantic . IT . AFTER ALEXANDER THE GREAT.—When we See also:review generally the extent to which Hellenism had penetrated the See also:outer world in the See also:middle of the 4th century B.C., it must be admitted that it had not seriously affected any but the more primitive races which dwelt upon the See also:borders of the Hellenic lands, and here it would seem, with the doubtful exception of the Macedonians, to have been an affair rather of the courts than of the life of the people . On the other hand it must be taken into See also:account that Hellenism had as yet only been a very See also:short while in the world . What would have happened had it continued to depend upon its spiritual force only for See also:propagation we cannot say . Everything was changed when by the conquests of Alexander (334–323) it suddenly rose to material supremacy in all the East as far as See also:India, and when cities of Greek speech and constitution were planted by the might of kings at all the See also:cardinal points of intercourse within those lands . The values honoured by the rulers of the world must naturally impress themselves upon the subject multitudes . The Macedonian chiefs found their pride in being champions of Hellenism . Of Alexander there is no need to speak . The courts of his successors in Asia Minor, See also:Syria and Egypt were Greek in language and See also:atmosphere . All kings liked to win the good word of the Greeks by munificence bestowed upon Greek cities and Greek institutions . All of them in some degree patronized Greek art and letters, and some sought fame for themselves as authors . Even the barbarian courts, their neighbours or vassals, were swayed by the dominant fashion to See also:imitation . But by the courts alone Hellenism could never have been propagated far . Greek culture had been the product of the city-state, and Hellenism could not be dissevered from the city . It was upon the See also:system of Greek and Macedonian cities, planted by Alexander and his successors, that their work rested, and though their dynasties crumbled, their work remained . See also:Rome, when it stepped into their place, did no more than safeguard its continuance; in the East Rome acted as a Hellenistic power, and if, when the legions had thundered past, the brooding East " plunged in thought again," that thought was largely directed by the Greek schoolmaster who followed in the legions' See also:train . From our See also:present point of view we may therefore regard this work of Hellenism as one continuous process, initiated by the Macedonians and carried on under See also:Roman See also:protection, and ask in the first place what the institution of a Greek city implied . The See also:Character of the New Greek Cities.—The See also:citizen bodies at the outset were really of Greek or Macedonian blood—soldiers who had served in the royal armies, or men attracted from the older Greek cities to the new lands thrown open to See also:commerce . To See also:fix their See also:European soldiery upon the new soil was an obvious See also:necessity for the Macedonian chiefs who had set up kingdoms among the barbarians, and the lots of the veterans (except in Egypt) were naturally attached to various See also:urban centres . The cities, of course, See also:drew in numbers beside of the people of the See also:land; Alexander is specially said to have incorporated large bodies of natives in some of the new cities of the Eastern provinces (Arr. iv . 4, I; Diod. xvii . 83, 2; See also:Curtius ix . 10, 7) . It may generally be taken for granted that the See also:lower strata of the city-populations' was mainly native; to be included in the city population was not, however, to be included in the citizen body, and it remains a question how far the latter admitted members of other than European origin (Beloch iii . [i.] 414) . The statements, for instance, of See also:Josephus that the See also:Jews were given full citizen rights in the new See also:foundations are probably false (Willrich, Juden and Griechen vor der makkabdischen Erhebung, 1895, p . 19 f.) . The social organization of the citizen-body conformed to the See also:regular Hellenic type with a See also:division into phylae and, in Egypt, at any rate, into demi (Liban . Or. xix . 62; Satyrus, frag . 21=F.H.G. iii . 164; See also:Sir W . M . See also:Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics, i . 6o; See also:Kenyon, Archiv f . Papyr. ii . 74; Jonguet, See also:Bull. corr. See also:hell. xxi., 1897, 184 f.; Liebenam, Stddteverwaltung, 220 f.) . The cities appear equally Hellenic in their political See also:organs and functions with See also:boule and demos and popularly elected magistrates . Life was filled with the universal Hellenic interests, which centred in the gymnasium and the religious festivals, these last including, of course, not only athletic contests but performances of the classical dramas or later imitations of them . The wandering sophist and rhetorician would find a See also:hearing no less than the musical artist . The language of the upper classes was Greek; and the material background of See also:building and decoration, of See also:dress and See also:furniture, was of Greek See also:design . A greater regularity in the See also:street-plans seems to have distinguished the new cities from the older slowly grown cities of the Greek lands, just as it distinguishes the cities of the New World to-See also:day from those of Europe . See also:Alexandria and See also:Antioch were both traversed from end to end by one See also:long straight street, crossed by shorter ones at right angles; See also:Nicaea was a square from the centre of which all the four See also:gates could be seen at the ends of the intersecting thoroughfares (Strabo xii . 565); similar characteristics are noted in the rebuilt See also:Smyrna (ib. xiv . 646) . Sometimes the Greek city was not an absolutely new See also:foundation, but an old See also:Oriental city, re-colonized and transformed . And in such cases the old name was often replaced by a Greek one . Thus See also:Celaenae in See also:Phrygia became See also:Apamea; Haleb (See also:Aleppo) in Syria became Beroea; See also:Nisibis in See also:Mesopotamia, Antioch; Rhagae (Rai) in See also:Media, Europus . In some cases the old name was See also:left unchallenged, e.g . Thyatira, See also:Damascus and See also:Samaria . Even where there was no new foundation the older cities of See also:Phoenicia and Syria became transformed from the overwhelming See also:prestige of Hellenic culture . In Tyre and Sidon, no less than in Antioch or Alexandria, Greek literature and philosophy were seriously cultivated, as we may see by the great names which they contributed . The process by which Hellenism thus leavened an older city we may trace with peculiar vividness in the See also:case of See also:Jerusalem; we see there the younger See also:generation captivated by its ideals, the appearance of gymnasium and See also:theatre, the eager See also:adoption of Greek political forms (1 Macc . I . 13 f.; 2 Macc . 4., 10 f.) . A . Characteristics of Hellenism after Alexander.—To the number of Greek city-states existing before Alexander were now therefore added those which extended Hellas as far as India . With the enormous extension of Greek territory a great shifting took place in the old centres of gravity . What changes in the character of Greek culture did the new conditions of the world bring about ? Hellenism had been the product of the See also:free life of the Greek city-state, and after Chaeronea the great days of the city-state were past . Not that all See also:liberty was everywhere extinguished . Under Alexander himself the Greek states were restive, and See also:Aetolia unsubdued; and, with the break-up of the empire at Alexander's See also:death, there was once more See also:scope for the See also:action of the individual cities among the See also:rival great See also:powers .
In the history of the next two or three centuries the cities are by no means ciphers
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See also:Rhodes takes a great part in Weltpolitik, as a See also:sovereign ally of one or other of the royal courts
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In See also:Greece itself the overlordship to which the Macedonian king aspires is imperfect in extent and only maintained to that extent by continual See also:wars
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The Greek states on their side show that they are capable even of progressive
See also:Government
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political development, the needs of the time being met by the mere material, now came to be used in profusion for adornment. federal system, by larger unions of equal members than the
leading cities of the past would have tolerated, with their extreme unwillingness to forego the least shred of sovereign See also:independence
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The Achaean and Aetolian Leagues are See also:independent powers, which the Macedonian can indeed check by garrisons in See also:Corinth, See also:Chalcis and elsewhere, but which keep a See also: At Pergamum indeed and (at any rate after Antiochus IV.) at Antioch, forms of self-government subsisted upon which, of course, the court had its hand, whilst at Alexandria even such forms were wanting . Between the two extremes there was variation not only between city and city, but, no doubt, in one and the same city at different times . In Syria the independent action of the cities greatly increased during the last weakness of the Seleucid See also:monarchy . With the extension of the single strong rule of Rome over this Hellenistic world, the conditions were changed . Just as the Macedonian See also:conquest, whilst increasing the domain of Greek culture, had straitened Greek liberty, so Rome, whilst bringing Hellenism finally into secure See also:possession of the nearer East, extinguished Greek freedom altogether . Even now the old forms were long religiously respected . Formally, the most illustrious Greek states, Athens, for instance, or See also:Marseilles, or Rhodes, were not subjects of Rome, but free See also:allies . Even in the case of civilates stipendiariae (See also:tribute-paying states), municipal See also:autonomy, subject indeed to interference on the part of the Roman governor, was allowed to go on . Boule and demos long continued to See also: |