Hellenistic Period Timeline

(323 BCE - 31 BCE)

The Hellenistic Period was an era of ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern history that began with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE and ended with Rome's annexation of Egypt in 31 BCE. During this time, Greek culture spread across a vast multicultural empire, blending with local traditions to create a vibrant, cosmopolitan civilization marked by advances in art, science, philosophy, and politics. More Less

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Greek Colonies and Culture

Greeks colonize southern Italy and Sicily

750 BC

Southern Italy (Magna Graecia) and south-eastern Sicily were colonized by the Greeks during the 8th century BC. These colonies later became important centers of Greek culture in the western Mediterranean and played significant roles during the Hellenistic period.

Image source: Magna Graecia

Founding of Massalia by Greek colonists

600 BC

Massalia (modern Marseille) was the first Greek colony in Gaul. By the 4th century BC it had become one of the largest trading ports of the Mediterranean with about 6,000 inhabitants, serving as a conduit for Greek culture into western Europe.

Image source: Massalia

Reestablishment of Emporion on the Iberian mainland

500 BC

The city of Emporion (modern Empúries), originally founded by Archaic-period settlers from Phocaea and Massalia in the 6th century BC near Sant Martí d'Empúries in Catalonia, was reestablished in the 5th century BC with a new city (neapolis) on the Iberian mainland.

Image source: Empúries

Syracuse becomes hegemon of Greek Sicily

400 BC

In 4th-century BC Sicily, Syracuse was the leading Greek city and hegemon of the island, dominating the political and cultural life of Greek Sicily during a period of intense competition among Mediterranean powers.

Image source: Syracuse, Sicily

Illyrian war belt ornamented with Macedonian motifs

300 BC - 201 BC

Illyrians imported weapons and armor from the ancient Greeks, such as the Illyrian type helmet originally a Greek type, and adopted Macedonian ornamentation on their shields and war belts; a single belt has been found dated to the 3rd century BC at modern Selcë e Poshtme, then part of Macedon under Philip V.

Image source: Illyrians

Villa of Cassander at Vergina built

300 BC - 291 BC

The royal palace (basileion) came into its own during the Hellenistic period, the first extant example being the massive 4th-century villa of Cassander at Vergina, reflecting the new grandeur of Hellenistic royal architecture.

Image source: Vergina

Greek alphabet spreads into southern Gaul from Massalia

250 BC - 101 BC

The Hellenistic period saw the Greek alphabet spread into southern Gaul from Massalia during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. According to Strabo, Massalia was also a center of education where Celts went to learn Greek.

Image source: Gaulish

Egyptianized Greeks appear in Ptolemaic kingdom

200 BC

In the Ptolemaic kingdom, we find some Egyptianized Greeks from the 2nd century onwards, showing the deepening cultural fusion between Greek settlers and native Egyptian society under Hellenistic rule.

Image source: Ptolemaic Kingdom

Nabatean culture shows Greek influence under Aretas III

100 BC

Nabatean material culture does not show any Greek influence until the reign of Aretas III Philhellene in the 1st century BC, marking the arrival of Hellenistic artistic and architectural styles in the Nabatean kingdom.

Image source: Aretas III

Poems discovered depicting eighteen equestrian wins

2001

Discoveries of poems in 2001 depicted eighteen different wins in equestrian sport, shedding light on athletic competition and elite display in the Hellenistic world.

Image source: Hellenistic Greece

Political Events

Alexander's conquests widen the horizons of the Greek world

334 BC - 323 BC

The conquests of Alexander greatly widened the horizons of the Greek world, making the endless conflicts between the cities that had marked the 5th and 4th centuries BC seem petty and unimportant, and spreading Greek culture across Asia.

Image source: Alexander the Great

Death of Alexander the Great begins Hellenistic era

323 BC

After Alexander's death, the territories he had conquered experienced sustained Greek cultural influence (Hellenisation) for the next two or three centuries, until the rise of the Roman Empire in the west and the Parthian Empire in the east.

Cassander murders Alexander IV and Roxana

310 BC

In 310 BC, Cassander had young King Alexander IV and his mother Roxana murdered, ending the Argead dynasty which had ruled Macedon for several centuries and clearing the way for the rival successor kingdoms.

Image source: Alexander IV of Macedon

Galatians ally with Antiochus the Great

200 BC - 190 BC

In the early 2nd century BC, the Galatians became allies of Antiochus the Great, the last Seleucid king trying to regain suzerainty over Asia Minor against rising Roman power.

Image source: Antiochus III the Great

Emporion loses its political independence to Rome

195 BC

Emporion lost its political independence around 195 BC with the establishment of the Roman province of Hispania Citerior, and by the 1st century BC had become fully Romanized in culture.

Image source: Hispania Citerior

Parthians conquer much of the Seleucid east

150 BC - 140 BC

Much of the eastern part of the Seleucid empire was conquered by the Parthians under Mithridates I of Parthia in the mid-2nd century BC, yet the Seleucid kings continued to rule a rump state from Syria until their ultimate overthrow.

Image source: Mithridates I of Parthia

Roman conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt ends Hellenistic period

30 BC

After about two centuries, the remaining Hellenistic successor states were much reduced, culminating in the Roman conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt, traditionally taken as the end of the Hellenistic period.

Image source: War of Actium

Science and Learning

Alexandria becomes a major center of scholarship

300 BC

The cultural competition among the Hellenistic kingdoms produced seats of learning throughout the Mediterranean, of which the most important was Alexandria in Egypt, which became a major center of scholarship in the 3rd century BC.

Image source: Alexandria

Euclid's Elements shapes Western mathematics

300 BC

Euclid, whose Elements became the most important textbook in Western mathematics until the 19th century, presented proofs for the Pythagorean theorem, for the infinitude of primes, and for the five Platonic solids.

Image source: Euclid's Elements

Farnese Atlas statue sculpted with celestial globe

150

A celestial globe based on Hipparchus' star catalog presumably sits atop the broad shoulders of a large 2nd-century Roman statue known as the Farnese Atlas, preserving evidence of Hellenistic astronomy.

Image source: Farnese Atlas

Historiography

Appian writes his history of the Roman Empire

100 - 165

Appian of Alexandria (late 1st century AD–before 165) wrote a history of the Roman Empire that includes information on some Hellenistic kingdoms, preserving valuable accounts of the period's wars and politics.

Image source: Appian

Justin epitomizes Pompeius Trogus' Historiae Philipicae

200

Justin's (2nd century AD) epitome of Pompeius Trogus' Historiae Philipicae is one of the key surviving sources for the Hellenistic period, along with Photios I of Constantinople's summary of Arrian's Events after Alexander.

Image source: Justin (historian)

Baroque and Rococo terms applied to Hellenistic art

1700 - 1800

The 18th-century terms Baroque and Rococo have sometimes been applied to the art of this complex and individual period, reflecting scholars' attempts to characterize its dramatic and ornamental qualities.

Image source: Hellenistic art

Droysen coins the term 'Hellenistic'

1836

The idea of a Hellenistic period is attributed to the 19th-century German historian Johann Gustav Droysen, who in his classic work Geschichte des Hellenismus coined the term Hellenistic to define the period when Greek culture spread in the non-Greek world after Alexander's conquest.

Image source: Johann Gustav Droysen

19th-century scholars see Hellenistic era as cultural decline

1850 - 1900

Many 19th-century scholars contended that the Hellenistic period represented a cultural decline from the brilliance of classical Greece, viewing the era through the lens of their own times—a common issue in the study of historical periods.

Cornford downplays Hellenistic science

1912

Past interpretations of Hellenistic science often downplayed its significance, as found in English classical scholar Francis Cornford, who believed that 'all the most important and original work was done in the three centuries from 600 to 300 BC'.

Image source: F. M. Cornford

Peter Green reinterprets the Hellenistic period

1990

Peter Green writes from the point of view of late-20th-century liberalism, focusing on individualism, the breakdown of convention, experiments, and a postmodern disillusionment with all institutions and political processes.

Russo claims scientific method born in 3rd century BC

1998

Recent interpretations tend to be more generous: mathematician Lucio Russo claims that the scientific method was actually born in the 3rd century BC, largely forgotten during the Roman period and only revived in full during the Renaissance.

Image source: Lucio Russo

Legacy and Influence

Al-Biruni describes geared luni-solar calculator

1000

Devices of the sort found in Hellenistic engineering are not found again until the 10th century, when a simpler eight-geared luni-solar calculator incorporated into an astrolabe was described by the Persian scholar Al-Biruni.

Image source: Al-Biruni

Al-Biruni describes geared luni-solar calculator

Hellenistic influence aids later spread of Christianity

Alexander's conquests expanded the influence of Greek culture in Asia, which many centuries later contributed to the spread of Christianity (from Greek Χρῑστῐᾱνισμός), as the Greek language and cultural networks facilitated the new religion's expansion.

Image source: Christianity

Key Facts

The Hellenistic Period began with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, after which his empire was divided among his generals (the Diadochi) into kingdoms such as Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid Empire.
Greek language and culture (Hellenism) spread widely, with Koine Greek becoming the lingua franca across much of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East.
Major centers of learning flourished, most notably Alexandria's Library and Museum, which made Alexandria the intellectual capital of the ancient world.
Hellenistic science saw remarkable advances by figures such as Euclid (geometry), Archimedes (physics), Eratosthenes (measuring Earth's circumference), and Hipparchus (astronomy).
The period ended when Octavian defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, bringing Egypt under Roman control.

Source

This Hellenistic Period timeline was generated with the help of AI, using information found on the internet.

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