Statue Alexander der Große; Pixabay Lizenz, © papazachariasa

But back to the beginning: In the Peleponnesian War of 431-404 B.C., the city-states of the Aegean, but also of Sicily and Asia Minor, fought each other for almost a generation. Sparta ultimately emerged victorious, breaking Athens’ former supremacy. By the fourth century B.C., the heyday of Attic democracy and the golden age of classical Greece were finally over. Sparta’s supremacy also dwindled again, and the Greek world’s hopes for general peace and freedom were to remain unfulfilled for decades. In this chaos and power vacuum, King Philip II. (382-336 BC) was able to lead his homeland Macedonia to new supremacy in Greece. He reformed his army, insisted against the Illyrians and Thracians in the north and united the Greek states and cities into the Corinthian League, whose hegemon he had himself elected. He was already planning a campaign against the old enemy Persia in the east, but was murdered by his bodyguard in the summer of 336 BC. His young and ambitious son Alexander now ascended the Macedonian throne.

By this time, Greek culture had become widespread in the Mediterranean region, but the dominant power – especially in the eastern Mediterranean – continued to be the great Persian empire. However, the giant empire in the east began to show its first weaknesses: Revolts and throne disputes shook the internal politics, the kings hoarded wealth and thus weakened the economy, while the satraps, i.e. the governors of the many provinces, acted arbitrarily and likewise only increased their wealth. After Alexander had put down attempts at rebellion in Greece, he moved with 35,000 soldiers to Asia Minor and defeated a similarly large but inept Persian army. A year later, in 333 B.C., there was the famous battle of Issos on the Anatolian-Syrian border. Again the Persians lost, this time led by Great King Darius III. Alexander did not pursue the ruler at first, but turned south, where he conquered the Levant and eventually Egypt. In 331 BC, he finally defeated the Persians at the Battle of Gaugamela. In the following two years, he brought the entire east of the Persian Empire under his control, entering Babylon and Persepolis, and Darius, who had fled once again, was finally assassinated as well. Alexander moved his army as far as India, but mutinous soldiers eventually forced him to turn back. In 323 B.C., Alexander died after a lavish feast in Babylon. His ambitions can only be called cosmopolitan. Through city foundations and the mass wedding of Susa, he wanted to merge Greek and Eastern cultures and overcome the old antagonisms. But his followers did not share his ideas and soon after his death the huge empire disintegrated into several so-called Diadochian empires (Greek for successor), each ruled by former generals of Alexander.

In addition to the Diadochi empires, however, there were numerous other dominions in the Mediterranean region. On the Hindu Kush, the Greco-Bactrian kingdom broke away from the Seleucids; in Asia Minor, several small territorial states developed, such as Bithynia, Pergamon, and Pontos; and in Sicily, monarchies established themselves, such as the kingdom of Syracuse. Italy was characterized by the continuous wars of conquest of the regional power Rome, which gradually brought the peninsula into dependence. In the third century B.C., the Punic or Phoenician trading city of Carthage in what is now Libya became the richest metropolis in the Mediterranean. Its sphere of power included many coasts of North Africa, southern Spain, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily. The Romans first gained supremacy over Italy during Hellenism, then defeated their great rival Carthage in the three Punic Wars and increasingly claimed extra-Italian territories. Soon their gaze also fell to the East: little by little they brought the Diadochi kingdoms into their dependence, conquered them when necessary, and gradually annexed the regions as Roman provinces into their ever-growing empire. When, after long civil wars and battles, Octavian, better known as Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire, finally conquered Ptolemaic Egypt – the last existing diadochic empire – in 30 BC, the age of Hellenism ended.