This latest addition to the established Cambridge companion titles focuses attention on the too frequently neglected contribution of the Hellenistic or post‐Classical world. Even today scholarly works on Greece continue to be published which suggest that Greek history ended with the death of Alexander in 323BCE and that over 1,000 attested poleis or Greek city states spread throughout the Mediterranean had vanished mysteriously overnight.
As editor Glenn Bugh points out in an interesting introductory essay to the present volume, the ancients themselves must shoulder a proportion of the blame for classifying writers of this period as decadent and inferior. The scholars of the great Library of Hellenistic Alexandria are credited with compiling canonical lists of the “greats” in various literary genres, all of whom lived in the Archaic or Classical periods. These “best” works were more likely to be copied and thus survive, and to form the basis of the educational curriculum in antiquity and beyond. Following their victories over the Hellenistic Greeks the Romans further undermined the reputation of their vanquished foes. However, Roman poet Horace reminded us in Ode that things were not entirely what they may have seemed; thus Horace wrote “Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit” (“Captured Greece captivated its fierce conqueror”).
Bugh rightly points out that the empire created as a result of Alexander's successful campaigns encompassed millions of non‐Greek‐speaking peoples from Egypt to India. Compared to the relative simplicity and accessibility of the world of Archaic and Classical Greek city‐states the new world was a vast, diffuse mix of nations. Few scholars would claim to understand more than a few of the daunting array of eastern languages necessary to decipher the primary documents for this period. Even the study of the “Greek” part of the Hellenistic world is not without its obstacles. Whilst the Archaic and Classical periods can be reconstructed through the works of the “great” historians, Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon, the Hellenistic world has no comparable historian or orator to tell its story. Fortunately what we lack in written evidence is now compensated by the growing wealth of archaeological evidence.
One further fundamental problem remains, namely the lack of consensus over the chronological boundaries of the Hellenistic world. Bugh cites eminent scholars including Cary and Walbank as examples of conflicting views on this subject. Most scholars today are inclined to fix the end of the Hellenistic period with the death of Kleopatra VII of Egypt in 30 BCE, the last in the royal line of Macedonian Ptolemaic kings and the last ruler of Alexander's successor kingdoms.
The present volume consists of 15 self‐contained essays, each of which treats a different aspect of the Hellenistic world – religion, philosophy, family, economy, and military campaigns, among other topics. The aim is to determine how far Alexander's campaigns were responsible for the creation of the Hellenistic age, its chief characteristics and how it differed from the classical world. Given their importance for subsequent Western thought special mention might be made of the chapters on art, religion, philosophy, and science and technology. Editor Glenn R. Bugh is associate professor of ancient and Byzantine history at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the State University in Blacksburg whilst individual authors are drawn from the English‐speaking academic world, all of whom have already published other works in this field. Each essay includes a bibliographical review of literature in its respective field whilst an extensive bibliography is provided at the end of the volume. There are also 14 pages of monochrome plates illustrating points in the text.
The development of techniques in archaeology and the more recent translation into English of the major authors of this period now open up a world which has hitherto allowed us only infrequent glimpses of the course of events. The significance of the era may be judged by the increasing numbers of scholars writing on this field and the numerous international conferences held in recent years on topics as diverse as economy, pottery as well as sculpture and architecture. The present volume should serve both as an introduction for the student and as a useful reference work for the more advanced scholar. In common with the rest of the series the price of £17.99 for the paperback edition (£45 hardback) should ensure that this volume receives the success it deserves.
