Alexander left no adult heir, and his generals, known as the Successors, fought for decades over his empire. By around 275 BC three great dynasties had emerged: the Ptolemies in Egypt, the Seleucids in Syria and Mesopotamia, and the Antigonids in Macedon. Smaller kingdoms such as Pergamon and Bactria flourished at the edges.
A Greek-speaking world
For the first time Greek became an international language. A common dialect, the koine, was spoken from Sicily to Afghanistan, and cities planned on the Greek model, with theatres, gymnasia and agoras, appeared across the Near East. Greek settlers, soldiers and officials lived alongside Egyptians, Persians, Jews and many others, and their beliefs and arts blended in new ways.
Alexandria and the life of the mind
Alexandria in Egypt became the intellectual capital of the age. Its Library and Museum attracted scholars from everywhere: Euclid set out the foundations of geometry, Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the Earth with remarkable accuracy, and Aristarchus suggested that the Earth moves around the Sun. In Syracuse, Archimedes worked on mathematics and machines, while in Athens new schools of philosophy, the Stoics and the Epicureans, taught people how to live well in an uncertain world.
Art with emotion
Hellenistic sculptors favoured drama and realism: the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo and the anguished Laocoön group all belong to this age. Meanwhile Rome was rising in the west, and one by one the kingdoms fell under its control. The defeat of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony at Actium in 31 BC is usually taken as the end of the period.
