V.

The Transformation of Greece

The Greek city-states tried to reclaim their independence when Alexander died, but his Macedonian generals proved too strong, although no general had the charisma or the strength to reunite the empire.

A.

Hellenistic Greece (323-31 bc)

The Hellenistic (“Greek-like”) Period gets its name from the greater knowledge of Greek language and culture brought to the Middle East through Alexander’s conquests and from the kingdoms established by his generals after his death. Antigonus I (382?-301 bc) founded a kingdom encompassing parts of Asia Minor, the Middle East, Macedonia, and Greece; Seleucus I (358?-281 bc) established rule over Babylonia and over land as far east as India; and Ptolemy I (367?-283? bc) took Egypt.

Referred to as 'successor kings' (the Diadochi), these rulers had to create their own form of kingship because they did not inherit their positions legitimately. They were self-proclaimed monarchs with no special claim to any particular territory. They ruled with unlimited authority in theory, but in practice they needed the Greek city-states to support them with money and soldiers. Therefore, they usually let city-states keep their internal freedom so long as they followed the kings’ foreign policies. Whenever possible, the kings incorporated local traditions into their rule. For the Seleucids, this meant combining Macedonian with Middle Eastern royal customs; for the Ptolemies, Macedonian with Egyptian. Still, Greeks and Macedonians ranked higher than the local populations, who became second-class subjects.

The kings frequently fought each other over territory. The Ptolemaic and Seleucid armies, for example, periodically engaged in a violent tug-of-war over the region along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean known as the Levant, which had been a crossroads of trade for thousands of years. These struggles left openings for smaller, regional kingdoms to establish themselves. The most famous was the kingdom of the Attalids in Asia Minor, which held power from about 250 to 133 bc, with the wealthy city of Pergamum as its capital. In Bactria, a region of Central Asia, Greek leaders broke from the Seleucid kingdom in about 250 bc and formed one of their own, which flourished on the trade in luxury goods between India and China and the Mediterranean world.

In the Hellenistic kingdoms, foreigners—kings and queens of Greek and Macedonian descent—had unrestricted rule over local populations. This kind of rule disturbed Greeks, who remembered their history of freedom. Therefore, in the 2nd century bc when the kingdoms had been weakened by war, some mainland Greeks appealed for help from the region’s growing superpower, Rome.

The Romans had already taken over the areas in Italy and the western Mediterranean where Greeks had lived for centuries and saw the appeal for help as a chance to increase their power further. They intervened against the kingdoms and told the Greeks they were once again free, but the Romans meant that the city-states were free to govern themselves so long as they did what Rome wanted. The Greeks rebelled and a Roman army destroyed the city of Corinth in 146 bc. Thereafter Roman governors presided over mainland Greece. Within about a hundred years, Rome conquered the remaining Hellenistic kingdoms and their Greek cities. Egypt, under Queen Cleopatra, was the last to fall, in 31 bc.

B.

Roman Greece (31 bc-ad 395)

All the areas where Greeks lived were already Roman provinces by the time Augustus (63 bc-ad 14) established the Roman Empire in 27 bc. Greek cities generally retained their traditional political organization, while Roman colonies in mainland Greece founded by Augustus and his predecessor, Julius Caesar, mimicked the political system of Rome. Greeks resented the Romans, who taxed the Greeks and forced them to relocate from areas where Rome wished to establish colonies.

In time, however, Greece became reconciled to Roman rule. Emperors increasingly honored leading Greeks by choosing them for the Roman senate and presenting lavish gifts to the cities, such as a panhellenic festival created by the emperor Hadrian in ad 131. This attention increased tourism to Greece’s famous sites and religious shrines. Students from abroad flocked to its distinguished universities, especially in Athens. The peace created by the empire gave people more time for cultural activities, and Roman interest in Greek culture peaked in the 2nd century ad. Greek writers such as Plutarch and Lucian wrote new types of imaginative literature, including in-depth biography, social satire, and science fiction.

Greece’s reputation as a cultural center changed its economy. Many people moved from the country to the cities to work in the tourist industry. Places that attracted tourists prospered. The Greeks’ prosperity ended when civil war, earthquakes, and epidemic disease crippled the empire in the 3rd century ad. Germanic raiders, the Heruli, plundered Greece from 267 to 270, severely damaging Athens. The emperors Diocletian (ruled 284-305) and Constantine the Great (ruled 306-337) restored order, but the Roman Empire remained unstable. In 330 Constantine created a new capital for the Roman Empire. The new capital, named Constantinople, was built on the site of Byzantium (modern İstanbul), a Greek city reduced to a village in 195 after it had supported a failed rebellion.

C.

Byzantine Greece (395-1453)

In 395 the Roman Empire split in two because protecting its vast territory against Germanic and Persian raiders became impossible for a single ruler. The dividing line fell between present-day Italy and mainland Greece. The Greeks in the west dwindled away, suffering along with their non-Greek neighbors as Germanic invaders gradually took over that part of the empire. In the eastern half, called the Byzantine Empire, Greeks maintained their language and culture. Christianity became their faith, after Constantine’s religious conversion in 312.

The Byzantine emperors found it difficult to defend mainland Greece. Around 395 the Visigoths under King Alaric I sacked Corinth, Árgos, and Sparta. Archaeology shows that the region recovered some prosperity in the 5th and 6th centuries, and the thriving population spent money to construct many churches. This interlude ended with Slav invasions beginning in 582. When these disorganized raiders settled in Greece, the economy faltered. There was not complete collapse, but the absence of copper coins and fine pottery in archaeological excavations shows that times were hard from the 7th century onward. Only a few cities remained strong, such as Pátrai (Patras) and Thessaloníki. Most communities withered as inhabitants withdrew in small bands to seek refuge in hilltop fortresses. Northerners continued to move in, adopting the cultural traditions they found in place. Romanized and Christianized, these newcomers joined the locals as part of the population of Byzantine Greece. Weakened by successive invasions by the Seljuk Turks and the Crusaders, and unable to muster a strong defense, the Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453.