Beginning of the Hellenistic Age The Hellenistic age is the period between the death of Alexander the Great

and the rise of the Roman Empire under Augustus---that is, from 323 B.C. to 30 B.C. During these three hundred years, Greek culture dominated much of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. The term Hellenistic is also used to distinguish this period from the Classical (or Hellenic) period, which preceded it.
The death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.. marked the beginning of a new stage in world history. Hellenic civilization, properly defined, was now at an end. The fusion of cultures and intermingling of peoples resulting from Alexander's conquests had accomplished the overthrow of most of the ideals represented by the Greeks in their prime. Gradually a new pattern of civilization emerged based upon a mixture of Greek and Oriental elements.

The Achievements of the Hellenistic Age

Because they had defeated the wealthy Persian empire, Alexander and his successors had ample amounts of wealth to spend lavishly on building projects and the arts. The Ptolemies, for example, built a huge library in Alexandria with the modest aim of gathering all the known books in the world. Attached to the library was a museum (the term which is still used today literally means "place of the muses"), where scholars would produce encyclopedias of knowledge. Tremendous achievements during this period were also made in the areas of science and art: Aristarchus of Samos put forth the theory that the earth revolves around the sun and rotates daily on its own axis; in Alexandria, Euclid summed up all the geometric knowledge of his age in the form of a textbook (a work that is still referred to to this day); Archimedes of Syracuse worked out many important theorems in mathematics. In the arts, sculpture became more realistic. Whereas sculptors during the classical period aimed at portraying an idealized version of human beings---typically with features portraying little emotion --- Hellenistic sculptors aimed at more naturalistic depictions. During this period, philosophy became accessible to a much wider audience than it had previously been. Many affluent members of the population, including women, began to study philosophy and to attend lectures of popular philosophers. The major preoccupation of philosophy during this period was focused on the problem of human happiness. No longer were people able to view participation in the life of the polis as a means of ensuring happiness. Instead they were forced to look within themselves for a tranquility that more often than not was lacking in the larger world. Into this unsettling environment, several new schools of philosophy arose: the Stoics, who believed that a life of virtue offered human beings the best chance for happiness; the Epicureans, who pursued simple pleasures that could not be taken away by chance; the Skeptics, who, by doubting everything, believed that they could attain a state of perfect tranquility; and finally the Cynics, who preached a return to nature and a rejection of conventional mores as the key to man's felicity.