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The Hellenistic Age, the three extraordinary centuries from the death of Alexander in 323 B. C. to Octavian's final defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium, has offered a rich and variegated field of exploration for historians, philosophers, economists, and literary critics. Yet few scholars have attempted the daunting task of seeing the period whole, of refracting its achievements and reception through the lens of a single critical mind. Alexander to Actium was conceived and written to fill that gap.
In this monumental work, Peter Green—noted scholar, writer, and critic—breaks with the traditional practice of dividing the Hellenistic world into discrete, repetitious studies of Seleucids, Ptolemies, Antigonids, and Attalids. He instead treats these successor kingdoms as a single, evolving, interrelated continuum. The result clarifies the political picture as never before. With the help of over 200 illustrations, Green surveys every significant aspect of Hellenistic cultural development, from mathematics to medicine, from philosophy to religion, from literature to the visual arts.
Green offers a particularly trenchant analysis of what has been seen as the conscious dissemination in the East of Hellenistic culture, and finds it largely a myth fueled by Victorian scholars seeking justification for a no longer morally respectable imperialism. His work leaves us with a final impression of the Hellenistic Age as a world with haunting and disturbing resemblances to our own. This lively, personal survey of a period as colorful as it is complex will fascinate the general reader no less than students and scholars.
- Sales Rank: #663006 in Books
- Published on: 1993-10-19
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 10.00" h x 1.70" w x 7.00" l, 4.52 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 970 pages
Review
"A welcome addition to the study of Hellenistic history, which has been notoriously overlooked. Green's text is supplied with the most complete indexing, chronologies, and genealogies that I have ever encountered in a history survey."--M. Johnston, "The Classical Outlook
About the Author
Peter Green is Dougherty Centennial Professor of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin. A novelist and translator as well as a scholar, he is the author of many books, including The Laughter of Aphrodite: A Novel about Sappho of Lesbos (California, 1993).
Most helpful customer reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
Brilliant
By Anonymous
I was a student of Green's Greek Civilization 3-semester sequence at the University of Texas. This work is clearly related to his lecture style and thorough style of documentation.
One comment by the other readers concerns me. In my view, based on my background in the sciences and his own comments, Green is, above all, a scientist, believing that every item in historical analysis is subject to criticism and refutation. There's little in this text (and it IS a text--not casual reading) that suggests it is in any way "subjective." He was also, in my mind, a great teacher, providing a last gasp of academic brilliance into what's become a polytechnic degree mill.
Green is a master of the discipline, and this tome represents a lifetime of work. I doubt if it's meant to be "enjoyed." It is meant to be read and to be understood, and hopefully to serve as a reference for further investigation.
He's certainly written other books that are far more succinct and accessible. This one is for true students of Hellenistic Greece.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
A stunning work
By James C. Rogers
Having known very little about the Hellenistic period beyond what I picked up from Will Durant (who I still love, in spite of his ill repute among professional historians), I must say Mr. Green has pretty much filled in all the gaps with his exhaustive history. Yes, you have to battle your way through a host of historical figures and the innumerable power plays of the post-Alexander disentegration. And yes, I needed to pull out my dictionary on occasion. (Although my Webster's New World Dictionary doesn't include 'protreptics'.) Also, Mr. Green is way too fond of certain words and phrases, such as 'inter alia' and (especially) 'banausic'. But these are very minor complaints from a non-scholar. Frankly, I wish I knew this much. Had this much culture. Mr. Green is as familiar with modern poetry as with the ancient classics, and often draws comparisons. This is history as I like it: opinionated. Not biased, however. There's a difference. Mr. Green tells you in detail about the Cynics and Epicureans, and then follows that with his opinion. But you are given plenty of information with which to make up your own mind. (I get the impression he doesn't think much of the Cynics, thinks a little better of Epicurus, and thinks even better of the Stoics, though with major reservations.) I don't know if Mr. Green has a 'circular' view of history, but this is the kind of book that (for me at least) reinforces that view. Plus ça change... This isn't the easiest of books to read, especially when wading through the names of so many unfamiliar characters. But stick with it. Your brain will feel better in the end. A most excellent volume.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
A magnificent Kulturgeschichte of the Hellenistic Empires
By Robert J. Crawford
This is a massive, endlessly fascinating, 360-degree view of the empires that sprung up in the wake of Alexander the Great's premature death. As the foundational period of Greco-Roman culture, not only is it essential to know, but Green writes with a literary elegance and subtlety that are a constant pleasure. That being said, it is not a book for beginners: the reader should be well versed in Roman and Greek Classical history, e.g., if you know who Sulla and Mithridates are, you will be able to revel in Green's interpretations and references to them and many others. The book is also peppered with foreign words, from French to Latin and ancient Greek, which annoys many American readers but is pretty mainstream in Europe.
The book begins with the sudden absence of a truly over-powering personality, Alexander. At the moment of his death, he had smashed the remnants of the autonomous Greek city states (polis) and carved out the largest empire that had then been known. Unfortunately, he had left neither a clear idea of what direction his empire should go nor named a successor in any provable way. As a result, about 6 of his top Macedonian generals began to compete in the "funeral games" to take over from him. Ptolemy, the only one shrewd enough to see that it was better to retreat to a defensible and self-sufficient chunk of the empire - he chose Egypt - was to establish the most lasting dynasty of these men. Nonetheless, Antigonous wound up with the old Greek mainland and Macedonia and Seleucis took the ill-defined, amorphous Asian Minor expanses; for the next centuries, their heirs would fight a desperate, defensive battle to keep their territories intact from encroachments by barbarians. Only the Ptolemies would operate in near safety (which led them to epically nasty intriguing against each other, but that is a long story).
In political science terms, all three of the new empires were run as the privately owned fiefs of their kings, simple despotic autocracies for their pleasures. This marked the end of a fabulous period of experimentation in modes of government as well as culture, i.e. the brief, beautiful flourishing of classical Greek culture was gone forever. As the polis died, so did many of the communal ideals of their citizens. Rather than contribute to the glory of the city, they withdrew under the authority of far away kings into their own private worlds, seeking to amass wealth and keep their privileges but fearing Tyche, or the unpredictable God of Fortune. As a result, much artistic culture became stultified into copies of past masterpieces or took on a more personal, realist cast of identifiable individuals rather than the ideal types and Gods of the past. This was true, too, for the philosophies (e.g. stoicism, cynicism, epicurianism) that emerged: they concentrated on finding freedom from anxiety and pain rather than contribute to the betterment of society. Interestingly, the 3 dynasties maintained a relative isolation from the local cultures, absorbing aspects of them only very, very slowly.
One of the most interesting topics covered is the failure of the Greeks to develop experimental science. First, the Greeks (and later the Romans) scorned "lower" professions that involved physical exertion, so get-your-hands-dirty experimentation was out; they also lacked precision instruments, any idea of statistical variance in observations, and failed to record the observations they did make in verifiable and communicable records. Anything practical, such as the military devices that Archimedes invented to protect Syracuse from the Romans, were products of necessity and otherwise little valued. Second, they preferred to speculate on and build over-arching theoretical systems, which were largely sterile without independent experimental verification by peers. It was not until the Enlightenment that all of these strands came together as the modern scientific method. Third, in this period the elites became deeply interested in astrology, divination, and mystery cults at the expense of the schools of rationality associated with Plato and Aristotle. Fourth, with a static, slave-based economy, innovations that saved labor - liberating people to have more time and energy to think - were viewed as disruptive and hence, under-valued. Nonetheless, there were many advances in this period, such as the founding of the libraries of Alexandria and certain medical innovations that the Arabs would discover and develop. Though also rather sterile, they are signs that Hellenistic culture was not completely decadent. That being said, there are many, many more topics like this that are covered in the book, including philosophy, the slave economy, and autocratic governance - anyone can find absorbing historical detail on what interests them here.
The concentration on this cultural period filled a significant gap in my perception of classical civilization. It was at this time that the uncultured Romans - they were too busy perfecting a military machine that would enable them to conquer and manage the known world for over 400 years - became impressed with Greek culture and sought to adopt it. With the Romans on the book's periphery, rising as they were, I got a very different (and highly detailed) view on the decline and absorption of this incredible civilization into a more brutish empire. The book is chock full of amazing characters and cultures, from the Jews to Cleopatra. Though this is not a narrative history and it is better to know the traditional stories, Green alludes to these people with vivid images and many wonderful illustrations (and excellent maps).
A word of warning to the general reader. This is an advanced text, at the high undergraduate level or beyond, and solidly academic. While it is not a thesis-turned-book that seeks to argue dull academic proofs and the like, it strives to present a comprehensive picture in a scholarly manner - over 1/4 of the book is footnotes and references. This will put many people off, as will the foreign words that frequently pop up. However, for those familiar with this world, this book is an indispenable masterpiece that will define scholarship on this period for many generations to come.
This is personal, but I found the book to be an utterly spell-binding intellectual adventure, putting it in a class by itself. Green often makes observations that are profound, even beautiful. For example, on an extended discussion of the slave economy, he mentions that we were unable to finally eliminate it until industrialization liberated us from menial tasks. There are many instances of this kind of philosophical observation that will speak to each reader personally. I also loved Green's writing style. Recommended with the greatest enthusiasm. This is a great book, a classic.
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