Hellenistic Monarchs
down to the Roman Empire

The Hellenistic Age suffers from some of the same disabilities as Late Antiquity, i.e. it doesn't measure up to the brilliance of the Golden Age of Greece and of late Republican and early Imperial Rome. However, the Hellenistic world, although mostly not bothering with characteristic Greek experiments like democracy, is where Greece actually became a cosmopolitan culture, a sort of pre-adaptation for the Roman world. Just saying that the Bible begins with the book of Genesis, a Greek word, reflects the degree to which the older cultures of the Middle East came to express themselves in Greek. Several of the Hellenistic Kingdoms, mainly in Anatolia (Armenia, Pontus, Cappadocia, etc.), are domains of non-Greek peoples. Meanwhile, although the literature does not seem as brilliant, mathematics, science, and technology develop rapidly. Archimedes very nearly develops calculus. Eratosthenes estimates the size of the Earth with an accuracy that will not be surpassed until Modern times. Hero of Alexandria builds a kind of steam engine. This remains little more than a toy, but the same cannot be said of the immense engines, often of war, that Hellenstic technology otherwise produces. It is all inherited by the Romans, perhaps symbolically with the killing of Archimedes at Syracuse by a Roman soldier in 212 (during the Second Punic War, 218-201).

The tables and narrative are mainly based on E.J. Bickerman, Chronology of the Ancient World [Cornell University Press, 1968, 1982], Peter Green, The Hellenistic Age, A Short History [The Modern Library, 2007], Michael Grant, From Alexander to Cleopatra, The Hellenistic World [Collier Books, 1982, 1990], John Boardman, Jasper Griffin, & Oswyn Murray, Greece and the Hellenistic World, The Oxford History of the Classical World [Oxford, 1988], F.E. Peters, The Harvest of Hellenism, A History of the Near East from Alexander the Great to the Triumph of Christianity [Allen & Unwin, 1970, 1972], C. Bradford Welles, Alexander and the Hellenistic World [A.M. Hakkert Ltd., Toronto, 1970], W.W. Tarn, Hellenistic Civilization [Meridian Books, 1961, 1966], E.M. Forster, Alexandria, A History and a Guide [1922, Anchor Books, 1961, Oxford, 1986], and Bruce R. Gordon's Regnal Chronologies. The genealogies now are supplied or corrected from the Erzählende genealogische Stammtafeln zur europäischen Geschichte, Volume III, Europäiche Kaiser-, Königs- und Fürstenhäuser, Ergänzungsband [Andreas Thiele, R. G. Fischer Verlag, Second Edition, 2001], which has a section specifically of Hellenistic monarchs. The maps are original, though largely based on those in The Penguin Atlas of Ancient History, by Colon McEvedy [Penguin Books, 1967]. A reference is made to the maps of Tony Belmonte, which are used on the Rome and Romania page. Kingdoms listed under the Seleucids are those that broke away from the Asiatic part of Alexander's Empire that largely had been inherited by Seleucus, though a couple of them, like Armenia, were actually only under Seleucid control briefly.

Philosophy of History

Index

Hellenistic Philosophy, 322 BC to 235 AD

History of Philosophy

Philosophy of History

Hellenistic Monarchs

MACEDONIAN GREAT KINGS
Alexander III the Great336-323
Great King,
330-323
Defeat of Darius III at Issus, 333;
Occupation of Egypt, 332;
Defeat of Darius III at Gaugamela, 331
Death of Darius III, 330
Alexander Claims Succession
Philip III Arrhidaeus323-317
PerdiccasRegent,
323-321
Alexander IV323-c.310-(305)
AntipaterViceroy & Regent,
321-319
PolyperchonRegent,
319-317
CassanderRegent,
317-305
 
Sometimes Alexander the Great's brilliance as a general is questioned. Such criticism is usually focused on his conduct of battles. However, that is not the most important point. Simply getting a functioning army all the way from Macedonia to India, and back to Babylon, is the most extraordinary feat. Winning every battle along the way, however basic the tactics, certainly helps. The Emperor Julian, a competent general, couldn't even invade Persian Mesopotamia without getting himself into an awkward situation.

Alexander was ready to go down the Ganges for further conquests. This was territory that previously the Greeks had hardly even heard of. And it was getting a little too far from home for most of the army. The soliders were mutinous. So Alexander turned back. A nice version of this, however, is told by the Jains. The Greeks were impressed with the "naked philosophers," the homeless ascetics, they encountered in India. The Jains preserve, barely, this tradition of ascetic nudity, and now say that Alexander decided to give up further conquests after being persuaded of their futility by Jain monks. Alexander, however, did not otherwise seem to suddenly turn towards asceticism, so the explanation from the Greek historians of unrest in the ranks seems more likely.

After Alexander's untimely death, his half-witted half-brother Philip III was made King, awaiting the birth of Alexander's postumous child by Roxane. This child turned out to be a son, Alexander IV. Brother and son were thus the "Kings" in the custody of the Regents. Meanwhile, the Empire and government had been divided among Alexander the Great's Companion generals, who become the Diadochi, "Successors." Perdiccas, to whom Alexander, on his deathbed, had given his signet ring, soon was faced with a hostile alliance of Antipater, Ptolemy, Craterus, Antigonus, and Lysimachus. In 322, Ptolemy stole the body of Alexander being transported to Macedon -- it would lie in a tomb in Alexandria until disappearing from history, centuries later. While Eumenes defeated the alliance at Cardia in 321, Perdiccas himself botched an invasion of Egypt and was assassinated. Eumenes was declared an outlaw but maintained himself until forming an alliance with the subsequent Regent Polyperchon. As such, he defeated Antigonus at Gabiene in 316. However, Antigonus captured the opposing camp, and Eumenes was surrendered to Antigonus, and to his death, by his own army in exchange for their possessions. Since Eumenes was Greek, his Macedonian troops may not have felt much personal loyalty to him. This event, however, was probably the end of any control of the Regency over the Empire.

The Diadochi, Companions
SuccessorHoldingFate
PeridiccasRegentassassinated by officers, including Seleucus & Peithon, 321/0
LeonnatusLesser Phrygiakilled, Lamian War, 322
CraterusMacedon, Coregentkilled by Eumenes, Battle of Cardia, 321
AntipaterMacedon, Regentnatural death, 319
EumenesCappadocia, Lieutenant of Perdiccas & Polyperchonbetrayed to Antigonus and killed, 316
PeithonMediakilled by Antigonus, 316
PeucestasPersisremoved by Antigonus, 316
AsanderLycia & Cariad.310s?
LaomedonSyria?
StasanorBactria?
PhilotasCilicia?
MenanderLydia?
PolyperchonLieutenant of Craterus, Regent, Peloponnesusdriven from Macedon by Cassander, 317, driven from Peloponnesus, 304, disappears
The Diadochi, Kings
Antigonus MonophthalmusPhrygia, Lycia, Pamphyliakilled, Battle of Ipsus, 301
Ptolemy I SoterEgyptnatural death, 283/2
Seleucus I NicatorBabylon, driven out by Antigonus, c.315, returned, 312assassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunus, 281
LysimachusThracekilled, Battle of Corupedium, 281

The table here shows the most significant of the Diadochi. This only includes the actual Companions of Alexander and thus does not extend into the second generation, e.g. figures like Cassander and Demetrius.

Philip III ended up murdered by Alexander's mother, Olympias, in league with Polyperchon, in 317. Polyperchon was nominated Regent by the dying Antipater, who had been the Viceroy of Macedon and then Regent after Perdiccas was murdered. But Polyperchon was driven from his position by Cassander, son of Antipater. Olympias was then murdered by Cassander, who soon displayed his ambition to forget the Empire and simply become sovereign in Macedonia. Alexander IV was murdered, together with Roxane, by Cassander around 310. Alexander IV's "official" reign, and the fiction of a unified empire, was maintained for five more years, until Antigonus and Demetrius (306) and then Lysimachus, Seleucus, Ptolemy, and Cassander (305) had all proclaimed themselves Kings in their own right.

The following combined genealogy covers early Macedonia, Epirus, the Macedonian Great Kings and Regents, Magas of Cyrene, and later Macedonia. The genealogy of the Seleucids and Ptolemies is given separately below. The intermarriages here between the Diadochi are bewildering, and hard to link intuitively in just two dimensions. The Antigonids succeed to Macedon, but then only rule for four generations, with the last of the line, Perseus, already a vassal of the Romans.

This genealogy has been largely assembled from the Erzählende genealogische Stammtafeln zur europäischen Geschichte, Volume III, Europäiche Kaiser-, Königs- und Fürstenhäuser, Ergänzungsband [Andreas Thiele, R. G. Fischer Verlag, Second Edition, 2001].

KINGS OF THE
CIMMERIAN BOSPORUS
Spartocus I438/7-433/2 BC
Seleucus & Satyrus I433/2-393/2
Satyrus I433/2-389/8
Leucon I & Gorgippos389/8-349/8
Spartocus II & Parisades I349/8-344/3
Parisades I344/3-311/0
Satyrus II & Prytanis311/10-310/9
Prytanis310/9
Eumelus310/9-304/3
Spartocus III304/3-284/3
Parisades II284/3-c.245
Spartocus IVc.245-240
Leucon II240-220
Hygiaenon220-200
Spartocus V220-180
Parisades III180-150
Parisades IV150-125
Parisades V125-109
Mithridates VI
of Pontus		107-63
Roman Protection, 63
Pharnaces63-47
Asanderc.47-17
Dynamis17-16
Scribonius15?
Polemo14-8
Dynamis8 BC-7/8 AD
[unknown]7/8-10/11
Aspurgus10/11-37/8
Gepaepyris37/8-39
Mithridates39-44/5
Cotys I44/5-62?/67
Rescuporis I68/9-90
Sauromates I93/4-123/4
Cotys II123/4-132/3
Rhoemetalcus131/2-153/4
T. Iulius Eupator153/4-173?
Sauromates II 173/4-210/11
Rescuporis II210/11-226/7
Cotys III227/8-233/4
Sauromates III229/30-231/2
Rescuporis III233/4
Pharsanzes?
Ininthimaeus236
Sauromantes IV?
C. Iulius Teiranes275/6-278/9
Chedosbiusc.280
Phophorses286/7-308/9
Radamsadius308/9-318?
Rescuporis IV318/9-c.335
Conquest by Goths, c.335

KINGS OF EPIRUS
Tharypsd.385
Alcetas I385-c.370
Neoptolemus Ic.370-c.358
Alexander Ic.358-331
Aeacides319/17-c.312
Alcetas IIc.312-306
Neoptolemus II331-296
Pyrrhus I297-272
King of Macedon, 297-272, 273-272
Drives Demetrius out of Macedonia, 288; War in Italy, 281-278; Defeat of Romans, Heraclea, 280, "Pyrrhic Victory"; War in Sicily, 278-275; killed at Argos by roof tile, 272
Alexander II (Alikasudara [3])272-242
Olympias242-240
Pyrrhus II240-234
Ptolemy234-230
Monarchy overthrown, Epirus divided between Rome and Macedon

 
Independent and non-Greek, Epirus was the home of Alexander's mother Olympias, to which she returned after repudiation by Philip II and other setbacks. The most famous person from Epirus ever, however, was probably Pyrrhus I, whose adventures included the first major contact between the Greek world and Rome. Called in by Greek cities alarmed at Roman growth, Pyrrhus won some battles, but with such loss that his name has become a byeword for costly, i.e. "Pyrrhic," victory. After bouncing all over the map, and holding the throne of Macedon twice, Pyrrhus was finally killed when a woman in Argos threw a roof tile at him.

Pyrrhus's adventure in Sicily was followed shortly thereafter by the First Punic War, 264-241, by which Rome defeated Carthage, conquered Sicily, and became in consequence the Great Power of the Western Mediterranean.

Rome's First Illyrian War, 229-228, resulted in a Roman protectorate, the first Roman possession in the Balkan's, on the border of Epirus.

The Cimmerian Bosporus, in the Crimea, was a very long lived Greek and Hellenistic colonial kingdom that passed under Roman protection and survived all the way to conquest by the Goths. This span, over very different eras, all by itself makes the kingdom of great interest. Only Armenia and kingdoms in the Caucasus were more durable as Roman client states. The list is given in E.J. Bickerman, Chronology of the Ancient World [Cornell Univesity Press, 1968-1982], pp. 132-133. The obscurity of this realm is evident in the circumstance that it is not shown on any of Tony Belmonte's maps. It is, however, followed in The Penguin Atlas of Ancient History, and is shown from that source in the Animated History of Romania. The often dual dates reflect uncertainty over which Julian calendar year matches up with the Greek year, which starts in the Autumn, in question. The greatest obscurities in dates are in the third century, when the sources even for Roman history aren't all that great. The absorption of the kingdom by the Ostrogoths, who dominated the Ukraine at the time in the fourth century, is a portent for the trouble that the Empire proper was going to have with the Goths in the fifth century.

ANTIGONID KINGS
Antigonus
Monophthalmos		Satrap of
Phrygia,
334-306
King,
306-301
Demetrius I
Poliorcetes		306-285,
d.283

Antigonus Monophthalmos, an old general of Philip II, did not rule over Macedonia but was the first of Alexander the Great's generals to proclaim himself a King in his own right, in Phrygia. Ptolemy, Seleucus, Cassander, and Lysimachus soon followed suit. The magnitude of the threat posed by Antigonus led all the others to combine against him, and he was defeated and killed at the battle of Ipsus in 301. Antigonus's son, Demetrius I Poliorcetes (Poliorkêtés, "Sieger of Cities," though his greatest siege, of Rhodes, was a failure), who had also been created King by Antigonus, survived the battle and continued to control much of Greece and the Aegean. He briefly held Macedonia (294-288), before being deposed by Pyrrhus and Lysimachus, and then was captured by Seleucus I in 285 -- the effective end of his Kingship. Treated well enough by Seleucus, his health became the worse for drink, and he died in 283. His son, Antigonas II Gonatas, finally, with a great defeat of the invading Celts, installed their line in that kingdom.

A little more than twenty years after the death of Alexander, the Diadochi have all become Kings and divided things up between themselves. Antigonus Monophthalmos both holds the center and is the most ambitious. He is reasonably suspected of intending to reunite Alexander's empire under himself. All the others then combine against him, and Ipsus puts an end to his ambitions and his Kingdom. Demetrius is cut loose to seek his own fortune.

KINGS OF MACEDONIA
Antipater IViceroy,
327-319
PolyperchonRegent,
319-317
CassanderRegent,
317-305
King,
305-297
Philip IV297-296
Alexander V296-294
killed by Demetrius, 294
Antipater II296/5-294,
d.287
Demetrius I Poliorcetes294-288,
d.283
expelled by Lysimachus, & Pyrrhus, 288; surrendered to Seleucus, 285
Pyrrhus of Epirus288-283,
273-272
Lysimachus288-281
killed by Seleucus I, battle of Corupedium
Ptolemy Ceraunus281-279
assassinates Seleucus I, 281; Invasion of Gauls, Ceraunus killed, 279
Antigonus II Gonatas, (Antikini [3])285-273,
272-239
Defeats Celts, occupies Macedonia, 277; Chremonidean War, 267-262
Demetrius II Aetolicus239-229
Philip232-229
Antigonus III Doson229-221
Philip V221-179
First Macedonian War (of Rome), 214-205; Second Macedonian War, 200-196, Defeated by Rome, Cynoscephalae, 197
Perseus179-168
Third Macedonian War, 171-167; Roman rule, 167-150
Philip VI150-148
Fourth Macedonian War, 149-146,
Rome annexes Greece
& Macedonia, 146
 
Thrace experiences a very short lived notoriety as a Great Power. Lysimachus is a
KINGS OF THRACE
LysimachusSatrap
of Thrace,
323-305
King,
305-281
King of Macedon, 288;
killed by Seleucus I,
battle of Corupedium, 281
Ptolemy Ceraunus281-279
assassinates Seleucus I, 281
Invasion of Gauls, 279;
Ceraunus killed
major player among the Diadochi and is in on the overthrow of Antigonus Monophthalmos, but then Seleucus turns against him. Seleucus, however, is assassinated shortly after his fatal victory over Lysimachus. Thrace, to the extent that it remains under Hellenistic control, then becomes a piece in the struggles of Macedonia and the Seleucids.

With the removal of "the Kings," Philip III and Alexander IV, to Macedon (321), that Kingdom, replacing Alexander's Babylon, becomes the de jure capital, again, of the Macedonian Empire. However, the Kings are merely figureheads and pawns in the power struggles now developing. With both Kings murdered in turn (317, c.310), Cassander is left maintaining the fiction of Alexander's authority. It lasted rather longer than we might have expected. Antigonus Monophthalmos declares himself and his son Demetrius "Poliorcetes" Kings in 306. Then all the Diadochi, Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus, followed suit in 305. This reduced Macedon itself to the position of no more than first among equals, if that. It soon becomes the most contested of the successor Kingdoms. Demetrius displaces the sons of Cassander (294) and then is ejected by Lysimachus and Pyrrhus (288). They share Macedon until Lysimachus ejects Pyrrhus (283). Then Lysimachus is killed by Seleucus, who is killed by Ptolemy Ceraunus (281). Ptolemy is killed by invading Celts (279), which puts the Kingdom pretty much up for grabs. It is duly grabbed by Antigonus II Gonatas, son of Demetrius, who defeats the Celts (277). Things are about ready to settle down. Antigonus is briefly ejected by Pyrrhus again (273-272), but then returns to establish his dynasty for the rest of the independent history of Macedonia.

Macedonia became the first of the Hellenistic successor kingdoms to feel the wrath of Rome. This started with the Second Punic War, 218-201, when Hannibal's invasion and victories in Italy (like Cannae, 216) made it look like Rome might actually be defeated by Carthage. To Philip V, a Macedonian alliance with Carthage then seemed reasonable. When fortune turned against Carthage, a peace was patched up (205), but Roman revenge could be expected after the final and decisive defeat of Carthage (202). When revenge came (197), Macedon permanently lost its position in Greece and any real freedom of action. The final reduction of Macedonia coincided with the Third Punic War, 149-146, when Carthage itself was conquered and destroyed. Both Africa and Macedonia became Roman provinces.

As the Hellensitic Kingdoms are forming, the city of Rome has occupied most of Central Italy. The Second Samnite War (327-304) secured Roman domination. The next real contest would be with the Greek cities in the south. The Greeks derived aid from Pyrrhus of Epirus (281-278), but this was unavailing. Tarentum surrendered in 272, leaving the Romans in complete control of Southern Italy. By 270, the Roman Republic is all but coextensive with Italy. Only the Po Valley, still Celtic (and even called "Cisalpine Gaul"), is unoccupied.

After the fall of Lysimachus, the assassination of Seleucus, and the establishment of Antigonus Gonatas in Macedonia, the successor Kingdoms have shaken down to just three. This gives the form of things for a while, still pretty early in the Hellenstic Period, just fifty years after the death of Alexander. That a generation and more has passed is now conspicuous. Alexander's own generals are now gone. Antiochus' name is even today preserved in the name of the city of Antioch, though its modern name, Antakya, is in a language, Turkish, that would have been no more familiar to the Hellenistic Greeks than Navajo.

Fifty years later things don't seem all that different, but big changes are in the offing. The Romans have defeated Carthage in the First Punic War (264-241) and secured Sicily, after a long and difficult campaign. Roman victory, however, was mainly effected by the defeat of the Carthaginian navy. Carthaginian forces on Sicily thus could be isolated. Rome became the dominant naval power in the Western Mediterranean, and Carthage would never be able to seriously challenge this. Once the war was won, the Romans continued to press their advantage, occupying Sardinia and Corsica (237) and gaining a toehold in Illyrium and Epirus (228).

The Second Punic War is soon to break out. This will radically alter the balance of power, making Rome dominant in the West and inflicting a defeat on Macedon. Worse will soon follow. Meanwhile, Bactria is the first part of the Kingdom of Seleucus to become alienated and independent, though under its Greek (shortly to become Buddhist) Kings, it is still a fully Hellenistic successor Kingdom. Antiochus III has come to the throne, but he has not yet engaged in the campaigns that will earn him the epithet "the Great." Nor has he encountered the misfortune, the Romans, that will turn his achievements to nought.

While the Diadochi are the high profile players in Hellenistic history, Greece itself continued to consist of city states. Some, although occasionally subject to foreign, mainly Macedonian, control, largely preserved their independence and long continued as autonomous players. Athens and Sparta are conspicuous in this category. Leagues of cities were already familiar from Greek history, but to the extent that they represented real power, they usually reflected the dominance of one member. The League of Delos thus became the instrument of Athens. The League of Corinth was created by Philip II of Macedon to control Greece, while maintaining the fiction that the Greek cities were independent. As the Hellenistic Age developed, however, we have the new phenomenon of leagues which become politically and military important in their own right without being dominated by a particular member, much less some other power. These were the Aetolian League, mainly in the mountains north of the Gulf of Corinth, and the Achaean League, beginning along the north coast of the Peloponnesus. Neither league began near what had hitherto been centers of Greek power, and the Aetolians were in an area that had barely passed from tribal to urban organization -- though their acquisition of Delphi around 300 (or in 290) gave them one of the symbolic centers of Greek religion and identity. In the course of events, the Aetolians achieved temporary control over Boeotia and Thessaly. The Achaeans eventually annexed Sparta but then displeased Rome with its treatment. They each developed something like a federal structure, with a League Assembly and the annual election of a president or general (strategos) to lead the whole. The Achaean League especially was well led by Aratus, who was president every other year (he could not succeed himself) from 245 to 213, and was followed by Philopoemen of Megalopolis from 208 until his death in 182. The Aetolians made the mistake of allying with Antiochus III against Rome, and the Romans reduced them to a vassal status in 189. The Achaeans also eventually fell afoul of Rome, and in 146 the Romans sacked Corinth and dissolved the League. Among the hostages that Rome demanded from Achaea in 167 was the historian Polybius, who ended up observing a great deal of Roman history, like the Third Punic War (149-146). Both leagues were the only Greek precedent for the kind of federal structure of government that was attempted in the United States Constitution. The name of the Achaean League lived on in subsequent history. The name of the Roman province that included the Peloponnesus, Athens, and Boeotia was "Achaea"; and when the Crusaders divided up Romania after the Fourth Crusade, the Peloponnesus became the Principality of Achaea.

THE SELEUCIDS, MACEDONIAN KINGS OF IRAN, IRAQ, SYRIA, ETC.
Seleucus I NicatorSatrap of Babylonia, 312-305
King, 305-281
Seleucid Era Begins, 312/311; Seleucus concedes India to Chandragupta Maurya, c.303; defeats and kills Lysimachus, killed by Ptolemy Ceraunus, 281
Antiochus I Soter280-261
First Syrian War, 274-271
Antiochus II Theos (Anityoka [3])261-247
Second Syrian War, 260-253; Parthia independent, 248 Arsacid (Parthian) Era Begins, 248/247
Seleucus II Callinicus246-226
Third Syrian War, 246-241; Bactria independent, 239
Seleucus III Ceraunus ("Thunderbolt")226-223
Antiochus III the Great223-187
Fourth Syrian War, 219-217; campaign to India, 212-205; Fifth Syrian War, Palestine won from Ptolemies, 203-200; Syrian War with Rome, loss of Asia Minor, 192-188
Seleucus IV Philopator187-175
Parthians expand into eastern Iran, 185
Antiochus IV Epiphanes175-164
Sixth Syrian War, Egyptian expedition, 170-168; Jewish Revolt, 167; Maccabees occupy Jerusalem, 164
Antiochus V Eupator164-162
Demetrius I Soter162-150
[Alexander Balas]159-147
Demetrius II Nicator146-140
Maccabees uncontested in Judaea, 142 Parthians take Media, 141
Antiochus VI Ephiphanes Dionysus145-142
Antiochus VII Euergetes139-129
Parthians take Persia, 139; Antiochus killed by Parthians
Demetrius II Nicator (restored)129-126
Cleopatra Thea126
Parthians take Babylonia, 126, Seleucids left with nothing but Syria
Cleopatra Thea & Antiochus VIII Philometer Grypus125-121
Seleucus V126-125
Antiochus VIII Philometer Grypus (continued)121-96
Antiochus IX Philopator Cyzicenus116-95
Seleucus VI Epiphanes Nicator96-95
Antiochus X Eusebes Philopator95-83
Antiochus XI Epiphanes Philadelphus95
Philip I Epiphanes Philadelphus95-83
Demetrius III Philopator Soter Eucairus95-88
Antiochus XII Dionysus87-84
[Tigranes II of Armenia]83-69
Antiochus XIII Asiaticus69-64
Philip II Philorhomaeus66-63
Pompey annexes Syria to Rome, 63 BC
 
Seleucus, although at one point a refugee with Ptolemy I, returned across the desert to Babylon in 312 to ultimately appropriate the lion's share of Alexander's empire. This dramatic event, counted as Seleucus' first regal year, was continued as the Seleucid Era, the first continuous count of time in world chronology, soon to inspire the similar Arsacid Era of Parthia. The beginning of the Seleucid Era is given as 312/311 because it was not reckoned to begin at Babylon until the Babylonian New Year the following Spring.

Seleucus left India to the growing power of the Mauryas, but was about to add Thrace to his kingdom when, stepping out of the boat in Europe, he was assassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunus, whom he had taken in as a refugee. Ceraunus claimed the throne of Thrace and Macedon, while the rest of Seleucus' domain passed to his half-Iranian son Antiochus.

The capital of the kingdom, Seleucia, founded on the Tigris, began to replace Babylon as the metropolitan city of the region, but it did not achieve the historical significance and permanence of Alexandria in Egypt. Instead, it was ultimately replaced by the neighboring new capitals of the Parthians, Ctesiphon, and of the Abbasid Caliphs, Baghdâd. A more permanent city of historical importance and fame would be Antioch in Syria (now in Turkey).

While Seleucid authority was never fully established over several kingdoms in Anatolia, like Armenia and Pontus, more distant areas, like Parthia and Bactria, began to drift away. Antiochus III stopped this process and began to reverse it, marching to India and wresting Palestine from the Ptolemies, but then had the misfortune to become the first Seleucid to clash with Rome. His defeat in 190 began a steep decline for the kingdom. By 125, the Seleucids would be confined to Syria. Their last 60 years would be consumed with pointless dynastic conflict and fragmentation, and 14 years of Armenian occupation. Then Rome would pick up the pieces. Pompey "settles the East" in 63 BC with the annexation of the remaining Seleucid lands and the reduction of other local states, like Judaea, to Roman clients.

The idea of the Seven Wonders of the World is the essence of Hellenism. A wide ranging and cosmopolitan culture embraces the great works of the past and the present, though mainly of the present. Only the Pyramids antedate the times of the Greeks. The philosopher Thales was already teaching when the Hanging Gardens were built by Nebuchadnezzar.
THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD
1. The PyramidsEgyptian
2. The Hanging Gardens of BabylonNeo-
Babylonian
3. The Statue of Zeus at OlympiaGreek
4. The Mausoleum at HalicarnassusCarian
5. The Temple of Artemis at EphesusGreek
6. The Colossus of RhodesGreek
7. The Pharos Lighthouse of AlexandriaHellenistic
Only one Wonder, however, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, dates from the actual Golden Age of Greece in the 5th century. The Temple of Artemis, at least the one familiar in the Hellenistic Age, and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus were products of the 4th century; and King Mausolus (d. 353) was not even a Greek, but a Carian, one of the pre-Greek peoples of western Anatolia. The last two Wonders were then actual products of the Hellenistic Age, in the 3th century. The Colossus of Rhodes was constructed by a surviving Greek city state, but then the Pharos Lighthouse was one of the supreme symbols of Hellenistic Monarchy, built by Ptolemy I and II in the first and greatest city of Alexander, marking its location, day and light, on the edge of the otherwise flat and undistinguished Delta of Egypt.

With the Seleucids, as with the Ptolemies, we have a genealogy that gets more complicated as time goes on. This happens as brothers and cousins begin to contend for the Throne, but also as intermarriage, particularly with the Ptolemies, becomes increasingly more confusing. A name so famous in Egypt, Cleopatra, actually derives from a Seleucid marriage, Cleopatra a daughter of Antiochus III. Three of her grandchildren marry back into the Seleucids. Cleopatra Thea marries three Seleucids (although there seems to be some question about the parentage of Alexander Balas) and has children by all of them who eventually becomes Kings. Cleopatra V Selene marries her brother, Ptolemy IX, and then two Seleucids, the son (Antiochus VIII, following her sister) and grandson (Antiochus X) of her own cousin (Cleopatra Thea). The dynasty ends with the five sons of Antiochus VIII and their cousin fighting among themselves as the Kingdom crumbles. Two members of the next generation wrap things up, after Tigranes II of Armenia took over (83-69), until the Romans pick up the pieces in 63. The last King, Philip II, bears the interesting epithet of "Philorhomaeus," "Roman Lover."

Hamilcar Barca, the Carthaginian commander in Sicily during the First Punic War, prepared for the future by moving to Spain and enlarging Carthaginian possessions there. He even founded a "New Carthage," the Latin version of whose name, Carthago Nova, still exists, as Cartagena (in both the Old World and the New). The Second Punic War (218-201) is then initiated by Hamilcar's son, Hannibal. With Carthaginian control of the sea lost, but a successful new domain in Spain, Hannibal decided to beat the Romans at their own game, not only to defeat them on land but to actually invade Italy and do it there. Crossing the Alps with his war elephants, Hannibal created one of the most dramatic and memorable campaigns in world history. In three years, Hannibal inflicted three crushing defeats on the Romans, at the Trebia River in 218, at Lake Trasimene in 217, and finally at Cannae in 216. Cannae, where Hannibal executed a double envelopment of four Roman Legions, surrounding and annhilating them, established a military ideal, a Holy Grail for tactics, for all subsequent military history. After this, the Romans tried to avoid battle in Italy. Hannibal, with no resources to besiege Rome or other cities, lost the initiative. Meanwhile, a Roman army reduced Spain, defeating Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal. Then, the victor of Spain, Scipio Africanus, invaded Africa in 204. Hannibal finally left Italy to defend Carthage itself, and then was defeated at Zama in 202. Hannibal fled as far as Bithynia, where he took poison in 183 rather than be surrendered to the Romans. Carthage was reduced to a rump state in Tunisia.

Macedon made the mistake, when Hannibal looked like a winner, of joining Carthage against Rome. Although bailing out when the tide turned, Philip V nevertheless became the target of Roman vengeance once Carthage had been dealt with. The Second Macedonian War (200-196) has now permanently reduced the Macedonian domain. Carthage for the moment suvives, but only until the Third Punic War (149-146), when it is annihilated. Meanwhile, Antiochus III, the Great, has marched to India and defeated the Ptolemies, driving them out of Asia. These great successes will shortly be undone by the first Seleucid clash with Rome, the Syrian War (192-188). In the aftermath of the Second Punic War, we thus have a unification of the Mediterranean basin, where the power of Rome begins to stretch from one end of the Sea to the other.

KINGS OF PONTUS
Mithridates of Cius337/6-302/1
Mithridates I302/1-266/5
Ariobarzanes266/5-c.255
Mithridates IIc.255-c.220
Mithridates IIIc.220-c.185
Pharnaces Ic.185-c.170
Mithridates IV
Philopator Philadelphus		c.170-c.150
Mithridates V Euergetesc.150-121/0
Mithridates VI Eupator121/0-63
First Mithridatic War,
defeat by Rome, 88-85;
Second Mithridatic War, 83-82;
Third Mithridatic War, 74-63;
Pompey's Settlement of the East, 63
Pharnaces II of the
Bosporus		63-47
Ariarates47-39
VIII of Cappadocia, 101-96 BC
Darius39-37
Polemon I37-8 BC
Bosporus, 14-8 BC
Pythodoris (or Pythodorida) 8 BC-19/23/38 AD
Artaxias(19 AD-27)
Polemon II38-64
Roman Province
The small states of Armenia, Pontus, Bithynia, Pergamum, Cappadocia, Galatia, Commagene, and Caria testify to the ethnic complexity of Asia Minor.

GALATIA
LiutariusChief
278-?
Leonnarius278-?
Twelve Tetrarchies,
228-183
To Pergamum, 183-166
Twelve Tetrarchies,
183-89
To Pontus, 89-86
Twelve Tetrarchies,
86-62
DeiotarusKing
62-40
Brogitarius.62-44
Amintas37-25
Annexed to Rome, 25 BC
Galatians were actually Celts, who had invaded Greece in 279 and killed Ptolemy Ceraunus. Antigonus Gonatas defeated them in Greece in 277, but a group of them crossed the Bosporus and established themselves in Anatolia. At first led by tribal chiefs, they were long organized in local "tetrarchies," only becoming a kingdom after the arrival of the Romans (Pompey) in 63. Their capital, Angora (or Ancyra), has given us the modern name of varieties of cat, goat, and rabbit, two of which are used for their hair. The modern city, Ankara, is now the capital of Turkey. The idea of Celts in the middle of modern Turkey now seems so strange that it sounds like a Monty Python skit.

Of the lists given here, only the rulers of Pergamum would actually have been Greeks. We can see non-Greek influences in the names of the multiple "Mithridates" of Pontus and Commagene. This name means the "gift," dates, of the Iranian god Mithra (Sanskrit Mitra). This is a Persian name whose modern form is Mehrdâd, of whose meaning many modern Iranians may be unaware. The cult of Mithra becomes one of the popular Roman mystery religions, Mithraism. The Galatians and the ancient peoples of Anatolia, however, except for the Armenians, gradually disappeared from history. This was at first under Greek influence, as literate people came to write only in Greek. Indeed, when the Emperor Nicephorus I colonized people from Anatolia into Greece itself, it leaves us wondering how many modern Greeks are actually descendants of Cappadocians, Galatians, etc. Eventually, however, the Turkish conquest erased whatever may have remained of all of them in their homeland.

MACEDONIAN KINGS OF BACTRIA
Diodotus I SoterSatrap,
256-248
Diodotus IIKing,
248-235
Euthydemus I Theos235-200
Demetrius I200-185
Euthydemus II200-190
Antimachus I Theos190-180
Pantaleon185-175
Demetrius II Antiketos180-165
Agathocles180-165
Eucratides I171-155
Menander Soter Dikaios
(Milinda)		155-130
Plato155-?
Heliocles I155-140
Eucratides II140-?
Antimachus II130-125
Strato I Epiphanes
Soter Dikaios		130-95
Archebius130-120
Philoxenus125-115
Zoilus?-125
Heliocles II120-115
Lysias120-110
Antialcidas115-100
Apollodotus115-95
Zoilus, Dioysius,
& Apollophanes		95-80
Nicias95-85
Diomedes95-85
Telephus95-80
Hippostratus85-70
Amyntas85-75
Theopilus?-75
Hermaeus Soter,
last Greek king		75-55, or 40-1 AD
KINGS OF BITHYNIA
Zipoetes298/7-c.280
Nicomedes Ic.280-c.250/42
Ziaelasc.250/42-c.230/27
Prusias Ic.230/27-c.182
Hannibal dies in exile, 183
Prusias IIc.182-149
Nicomedes II Epiphanes149-c.127
Nicomedes III Euergetesc.127-c.94
Nicomedes IV Philopatorc.94-74 BC
Roman Province
THE ATTALIDS OF PERGAMUM
Philetaerus283-263
Eumenes I263-241
Attalus I Soter241-197
Eumenes II Soter197-160
Attalus II Philadelphus160-139
Attalus III Philometor139-133
kingdom willed to Rome
KINGS OF CAPPADOCIA
Datamesd.362
Ariaramnes I (Ariamnes)362-350
Ariarathes ISatrap
350-331
King
331-322
Eumenes the Diadochus323-316
Ariarathes II301-280
Ariaramnes II280-c.250
Ariarathes III255/1-220
Ariarathes IV Eusebes220-c.162
Ariarathes V
Eusebes Philopater		c.120-c.111
Ariarathes VI
Epiphanes Philopater		c.120-c.111
Ariarathes VII Philometorc.111-c.100
Ariarathes VIII Eusebes Philopater
of Pontus		c.100-c.88
Ariobarzanes I Philoromaiosc.95-c.62
Ariobarzanes II Philopator62-c.54
Ariobarzanes III
Eusebes Philoromaios		c.54-42
Ariarathes IX42-36
Archelaus36 BC-17 AD
Cappadocia becomes Roman Province
KINGS OF COMMAGENE
Sames Ic.290-c.260
Arsames Ic.260-c.228
Xerxesc. 228-c. 201
PtolemaeusSatrap
c. 201-163
King,
c.163/2-c.130
Samus II Theosebes Diakiosc.130-c.100
Mithridates I Callinicusc.100-c.70
Antiochos I Theos Dikaios
Epiphanes Philoromaios
Philhellen		c.70-c.35
Mithridates IIc.31
[Antiochus II]d.29
Mithridates IIIc.20 BC
Antiochus IIId.17 AD
Roman Province, 17 AD
Antiochus IV38 AD-72

 
Little is known of the history of Greek Bactria. About fourty kings can be identified from their coins, but many of the dates are conjectural. Names and dates for all the here are from E.J. Bickerman, Chronology of the Ancient World [Cornell U. Press, 1982], and Michael Grant, From Alexander to Cleopatra, The Hellenistic World [Collier Books, 1990].

Menander Soter Dikaios (Milinda in Pali) is an important figure in the history of Buddhism, as the king in the Milindapanha, "Questions of Milinda," where he asks the sage Nagasena about Buddhism. As Greek Bactria absorbed Buddhist influence, Buddhism reflected Greek artistic influences, and perhaps more.

At the beginning of March, 2001, the rulers of Afghanistan, the barbarous zealots of the Tâlibân ("students"), decided to destroy all the "idols" in the country, which meant the entire collection of Buddhist art in the Kabul museum, and the two great cliff carved Buddhas in Bamian province, 175 and 120 feet tall. Although there was an international outcry against this, including from other Islâmic countries as radical as Irân, and offers from museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art simply to take in all Buddhist art objects,
CARIA
Lydamis I 
Artemisia I
the Valiant		c.490s-
mid 5th cent.
Psyndalismid 5th cent.-
late 5th cent.
Lydamis IIlate 5th cent.
Tissaphernes
(Tisapharna)		Satrap of
Lydia
415-407
415-395
Hyssaldomos
of Mylasa		c.395
Hecatomids
Hecatompos395-377
Mausolos377-353
Artemisia II353-350
Hydrites350-343
Idneus.343-341
Ada 343-341
Pyxodoros341-335
Orontabatis335-334
Memnon335-334
To Macedon, 334-305
Ada (restored)334-320s
Olympichusin Mylasa
320s
Asander the
Diadochus		323-c.310s
To Antigonus, 305-295
no one doubted that the Tâlibân were wicked and stupid enough to go through with their despicable vandalism. And, indeed, they went through with it, blowing the Bamian Buddhas to pieces. Where is the Râj when we need it? Now, of course, the Tâlibân have been overthrown with American help, in the aftermath of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. There has been some talk about restoring the Bamian Buddhas, but I still have heard no word about the fate of the Kabul museum collection.

Caria, although very close to the Doric Greek areas near Rhodes, was nevertheless not a Greek kingdom. It's principal claim to fame comes from two rulers, Mausolos and his sister Artemisia II (who, being named after the goddess Artemis, may show Greek influence, or indicate the likelihood that Artemis was not originally a Greek goddess). Although this kind of brother-sister marriage would be typical of the Hellenistic Period, thought to be inspired by Egypt, and Mausolos is usually thought of as a Hellenistic monarch, he was in fact ruling under the Persians and even his sister, who survived him, died before Alexander even arrived. Nevertheless, at his capital of Halicarnassus, he began a great tomb, finished by his sister, which became one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The Mausoleum then gives its name to any great stone burial building. The original survived well into the Middle Ages, before donating its stone to fortresses. An earlier Artemisia, "the Valiant," had her own claim to fame. Commanding Carian ships for the Persians at the Battle of Salamis in 480, she saw the way the battle was going and determined to escape. Geting away involved ramming and sinking another Carian ship. Xerxes, watching the battle, thought that Artemisia had sunk a Greek ship and commented that, "My men have become women, and my women men." I am not aware of Xerxes' reaction when he discovered the truth. It doesn't seem to have affected the tenure of the dynasty. The rulers of Caria were never Kings. They were recognized by the Persians as "Dynasts," and sometimes as Satraps, and by some of their subject Greek cities as "tyrants," i.e. monarchs who were not traditional Kings. Mausolos' relative freedom of action never grew into independence. Caria became subject to Macedon as it had been to Persia.
 


Less than fifty years after the last map (178 years since the death of Alexander), the Hellenistic World looks much different. At the middle of the Second Century BC, Rome is now the dominant power, not only stretching from the Atlantic to Thrace, but the arbiter of power further East. The Seleucids are out of Asia Minor, except for Cilicia, and Pergamum, a Roman client, has expanded from a city state into a major kingdom. Parthia has now broken away (248) and occupied eastern Iran (185), to begin a history of several centuries (until 227 AD) as a Great Power, the only thing like an equal on the borders of Rome. Judaea is also independent. The occupation of Jerusalem by the Maccabees (164), when the lamps of the Temple were relit and burned miraculously without additional oil, led to a Jewish holiday, Hanukkah. Nevertheless, Demetrius II still has a substantial Kingdom. This will not last, as the Parthians take Media (141), Persia (139), and Babylonia (126). In short, Seleucid power is on the verge of collapsing, and the rest of the dynasty will consist of local family conflicts in Syria.

THE PTOLEMIES,
MACEDONIAN KINGS
OF EGYPT;
"XXXII" DYNASTY
Ptolemy I Soter I
("Savior")		Satrap of Egypt,
323-305
King,
305-285
Ptolemy II Philadelphus
(Turamaya [3])		285-247
First Syrian War, 274-271;
Chremonidean War, 267-262;
Second Syrian War, 260-253
Ptolemy III Euergetes I
("Do-Gooder/Benefactor")		247-222
Third Syrian War, 246-241
Ptolemy IV Philopator222-205
Fourth Syrian War, 219-217;
Revolt & Independence
of Upper Egypt, 206-185
Ptolemy V Epiphanes205-180
Fifth Syrian War, Palestine
lost to Seleucids, 203-200;
Rosetta Stone, 196
Cleopatra I180-176
Ptolemy VI Philometor176-145
Sixth Syrian War, 170-168
Ptolemy VII Neos Philopator145
Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II170, 145-116
Cleopatra III &
Ptolemy IX Soter II		116-107
Cleopatra III &
Ptolemy X Alexander I		107-101
Ptolemy X Alexander I
& Cleopatra Berenice		101-88
Ptolemy IX Soter II
(restored)		88-80
Cleopatra Berenice &
Ptolemy XI Alexander II		80
Ptolemy XII Neo
Dionysus, Auletes		80-58
Berenice IV58-55
Ptolemy XII Neo
Dionysus (restored)		55-51
Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator
& Ptolemy XIII Dionysus		51-47
Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator
& Ptolemy XIV Philopator		47-44
Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator
& Ptolemy XV Caesarion		44-30
Roman Conquest, 30 BC
 
Ptolemy I might strike one as the cleverest and most prudent of the Diadochi. Egypt was a well defined and rich land, long familiar with a Greek presence, and it became the most prosperous and durable of the Hellenistic Kingdoms. Soon Ptolemy might well make a claim to priority among his peers by virtue of possessing the mummified body of Alexander himself (stolen on its trip back to Macedonia) and ruling from the city of Alexandria, the first such city founded by Alexander, which became the greatest Hellenistic city, especially distinguished by the Pharos Lighthouse (one of the Seven Wonders of the World) and by the Museum, i.e. the place of the Muses (more a university than a museum), with its great Library.

The Library was founded with the advice of the philosopher Demetrius of Phaleron, who lately had been the Macedonian governor of Athens (from 317 to 307, until the city was taken by Demetrius Poliorcetes). The Library was intended to have every book in the world in it, but with the provision that this be in Greek translation. In Jewish tradition, related by Josephus, a friend of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Aristeas, wrote to Jerusalem, under Ptolemaic rule at the time, to ask the High Priest Elazar for permission to translate the Torah (the Pentateuch) from Hebrew into Greek. Elazar agreed, and selected 72 translators who then produced the Septuagint. While the "Letter of Aristeas" is sometimes said to be a Hasmonean, or later, forgery, Simeon ben Gamaliel, president of the Sanhedrin in the 1st century AD, ruled (according to the Palestinian Talmud) that the Torah could be written in Greek as well as Hebrew (cf. Alfred J. Kolatch, This is the Torah, Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, New York, 1988, pp.46-49). Since the Library would have wanted the Bible in Greek, especially with a large Jewish community in Alexandria, and the Bible certainly was translated thereabouts at the time, this lends some weight to the "Letter of Aristeas," or some equivalent.

Another consequence of the presence of the Jewish community at Alexandria may have been the growing use, even by pre-Christian pagans, of the seven day week. This was, to be sure, not directly associated with Judaism, but with a version of the week produced in Alexandria in terms of the seven planets. The "planetary" week is preserved in most of the languages of Francia, even while there is nothing of the sort in modern Greek, Hebrew, or Arabic. Few languages, perhaps only Welsh and English, retain all the planetary names, with Jewish and Christian terms, usually for Saturday and/or Sunday, intruding elsewhere. "Sunday," indeed, retains the strongest pagan association as, even for Constantine, it commemorated the veneration of Sôl Invictus, the state god of the Tetrarchy.

"Philadelphus," "brotherly (or sibling) love," was a name assumed by Ptolemy II because he had married his sister, Arsinoe (also "Philadelphus"). This was in immitation of Egyptian mythology and became a Ptolemaic practice. Later, when Cleopatra (VII, picture at right, bas relief from Deir el Bahri) met Julius Caesar in 48 BC, she was already married, at 16, to her brother and co-ruler, Ptolemy XIII. She also happened to be at war with him! Caesar helped defeat her brother, who died in the process. Formally marrying a younger brother, Ptolemy XIV, Cleopatra actually lived with Caesar, and went back to Rome with him in 46. After Caesar was assassinated in 44, she returned to Egypt, killed her brother, and formally associated her son by Caesar, Caesarion, with her as Ptolemy XV. The conquest of Egypt by Octavian/Augustus, resulted in Cleopatra and her new Roman protector, Anthony, committing suicide, and Caesarion being killed by Octavian.

While the Library is sometimes said to have been burned by the Arabs, it is likely that the original had already by destroyed in the course of the fighting between Caesar and Ptolemy XIII. The city also burned again in the Roman period, and the Library would have suffered then, even if it had not already. The lower parts of the Pharos were rebuilt as a fortress in the Mediaeval period, and it still exists.

The Ptolemaic chronology and genealogy here is mainly from C. Bradford Welles, Alexander and the Hellenistic World [A.A. Hakkert Ltd., Toronto, 1970] and E.J. Bickerman, Chronology of the Ancient World [Cornell U. Press, 1982]. It all can be very confusing. Some older treatments of the Ptolemies leave out Ptolemy XI and reduce the numbers of the higher Ptolemies (XII, XIII, XIV & XV) by one (to XI, XII, XIII & XIV), or insert an extra Ptolemy IX (a dead son of Ptolemy VIII), turn Ptolemy X into Ptolemy XII (keeping Ptolemy XI the same), and increase the numbers of the higher Ptolemies by one (to XIII, XIV, XV & XVI) [cf. E.M. Forster, Alexandria, Doubleday, 1961, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp.14-15 -- Forster also has exchanged numbers between Ptolemy VII and Ptolemy VIII]. The latter numbering is indicated in red next to the standard numbering. Cleopatra VI is sometimes counted as Cleopatra V because Cleopatra V and Cleopatra IV have sometimes been regarded as the same person. It is rarely noted that Cleopatra (VII) and Marc Anthony had a daughter, Cleopatra Selene, who married Juba II, King of Numidia. They had a son, Ptolemy, who reigned until about 40 AD.

In the strange political project of turning all Egyptians into Nubians, or even Nigerians, the Ptolemies pose a special challenge, since they weren't Egyptians at all but are nevertheless roped into the business because Cleopatra is too famous an Egyptian not to actually have been an Egyptian. The easiest procedure is simply to ignore the history altogether, which one sees in claims that Aristotle stole all the knowledge of Egypt from the Library at Alexandria -- overlooking little problems like that the Library, or even the City, didn't even exist yet, or that the books in the Library were all in Greek -- or that Cleopatra has unaccountably ended up with a Greek name ("Father's Fame"). Once the history is actually acknowledged, a fall-back position is possible:  The name of Cleopatra's grandmother, the third wife of Ptolemy IX, is unknown. To those in the right frame of mind (i.e. "critical race theory" paranoia), this is clear evidence that this woman was Egyptian, or Black, or both -- with her identity concealed by racist historians, past and present. Well, OK. A black grandmother would make Cleopatra black by the laws of South Carolina. That no Ptolemies before Cleopatra herself even spoke Egyptian may, however, tell against their marrying one, of whatever complexion.

Index of Egyptian History

In the End Game of the Hellenistic Period, local powers surge into brief glory with the collapse of the Seleucids. An Armenian Kingdom will not again touch the Mediterranean until Lesser Armenia in the 12th century. Pontus briefly turns the Black Sea into a Pontic lake. In 88 Mithridates VI invaded Asia Minor and massacred Romans (First Mithridatic War, 88-85). In 87 he was in Greece, but then he was defeated by Sulla in 86 and withdrew from his conquests in 85. When he occupied Bithynia in 74, this provoked a massive conflict (the Third Mithridatic War, 74-63). Defeats by Pompey and an internal revolt led to Mithridates' suicide (63). The map thus shows the situation just before this final crisis. Pompey's settlement of the East in 63 extends direct Roman control all around the Eastern Mediterranean. Meanwhile, the Greek presence in Bactria is crumbling. The Sakas and Kushans have arrived off the steppe and will dominate India and Central Asia for some time. The Parthians are solidly established, applying pressure in both Syria and India. Of the Kingdoms of the Diadochi, only Egypt remains. In 59 BC, Ptolemy XII secures Roman protection with a bribe to the Triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. He is overthrown by his daughter Bernice in 58 but is then restored in 55 by the Roman governor of Syria, Gabinius, with a promise of 10,000 talents of silver (perhaps $900 million dollars). Caesar arrived in Egypt in 48 to deal with Ptolemy's daughter Cleopatra, as recounted above.

The Kingdom of the Nabataeans
Harithath (Aretas) I169 BC-144
Maliku (Malichus) I144-110
Harithath (Aretas) II110-95
Erotimc.110-c.100
Ubaidah (Obodas) I95-87
ar-Rabil (Rabbel) I87
Harithath III (Aretas Philhellen)87-62
Roman Client, 63 BC
Ubaidah (Obodas) II62-c.50
Maliku (Malichus) IIc.50-28
Ubaidah (Obodas) III28-9
Harithath IV (Aretas Philopatris)9 BC-c.40 AD
Maliku (Malichus) IIIc.40-c.70
Shakilatc.40-c.60
ar-Rabil II (Rabbel Soter)c.71-106
Gamilatc.71-90
Maliku (Malichus) IV106
Roman Province

The Kingdom of the Nabataeans is in the area the Romans called Arabia Petraea, "rocky" Arabia, in contrast to Arabia Felix, "happy" or "fortunate" Arabia and Arabia Deserta, "desert" Arabia. Arabia Felix was no less than the distant center of its own civilization in Yemen. "Arabia Petraea" gives or derives its name from the capital of the Nabataeans, the remarkable city of Petra, "rock" in Greek,
Osrhoene or Edessa, modern Urfa
Aryu132 BC-127
'Abdu bar Maz'ur127-120
Fardhasht bar Geba'u120-115
Bakru I115-112
Bakru II bar Bakru112-92
Ma'nu I94
Abgar I Piqa94-68
Abgar II bar Abgar68-53
Ma'nu II Aloho52-34
Faquri (Paqor)34-29
Abgar III29-26
Abgar IV Sumaqa26-23
Ma'nu III Saflul23-4
Abgar V Ukkama bar Ma'nu4 BC-7 AD,
13-50
Ma'nu IV bar Ma'nu7-13
Ma'nu V bar Abgar50-57
Ma'nu VI bar Abgar57-71
Roman Client, 63 AD
Abgar VI71-91
vacant, 91-109
Abgar VII bar Ezad109-116
vacant, 116-118
Yalud (Yalur)118-122
Frantsafat (Parthamaspat of Armenia)118-123
Ma'nu VII bar Ezad123-139
Ma'nu VIII bar Ma'nu139-163, 165-167 (165-177)
Wa'el bar Sahru163-165
Abgar VIII the Great167-214 (177-212)
Abgar IX Severus bar Abgar214-216 (212-214)
Ma'nu IX bar Abgar216-242 (214-240)
Abgar X Farhat bar Ma'nu242-244 (240-242)
Roman Province, 244
which is still today one of the major tourist attractions of Jordon and has figured as a location in many movies, such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The Nabataeans apparently were never under the rule of any of the Greek kingdoms and made an excellent living as the middle men on trade routes down all the way to Yemen. Eventually, the Kingdom was annexed as a Roman province. Note that the name Maliku is familiar as the Arabic word for "king."

The familiar images of Petra are the facades of tombs, temples, and perhaps some public buildings. The Nabataeans were too wise to build their actual dwellings on or the near the floor of canyons and defiles that were subject to unpredictable but devastating flash floods. Not much remains of their clifftop homes.
 
Here we see the imposing facade of what is called the "Treasury," although its real function is unknown, which greets travelers as they emerge from the Siq, the narrow passage that leads dramatically into the city. There are few images more familiar, or more beautiful, in the catalogue of ancient ruins.

Emesa or Homs,
under Roman suzerainty
Sampsigeramus I69-43
Imblichus64-31
Alexander31-29
vacant, 29-20
Imblichus II20-11
Sampsigeramus II11 BC-42 AD
Aziz (Asisus)42-54
Julius Sohemus54-73
Julius Alexiolate 1st century
Julius Sampsigeramus III (Shamashgeram)c.79
Julius Bassianus2nd century
father of Julia Domna and Julia Maesa of the Severans
Varius Avitus Bassianus ElagabalusRoman Emperor,
218-222
Sulpicius Uranius Antoninusthird century
To Palmyra, 261-271; Rome, 271

Edessa found its way from Seleucid rule, to Armenian, and then to Parthian. Then, after a ten year war, 53-63 AD, the Roman border was pushed across the upper Euphrates and Edessa became a Roman client. It survived in that fashion until the troubles of the 3rd century, when it finally became the Roman province of Osrhoene. It would become an important city from Late Roman times through the Middle Ages, a Center of the Syrian Orthodox faith and a Crusader State.

Emesa, the modern Homs, is a city in central Syria over which the last shreds of Seleucid authority were maintained. As it began to achieve autonomy in 69 BC, it would only be six years before Pompey arrived to reduce the region to Roman vassalage. Emesa did have its peculiarities. The Kings were Priests of a Phoenician sun god, and after 73 AD they had no other function. Perhaps this is why the dates are so poorly attested. They were of no political significance.

 
This obscurity was abruptly and dramatically reversed when a daughter of King Julius Bassianus, Julia Domna, married Septimius Severus (187), who would become Roman Emperor in 193 AD. It was the Bassiani women who then dominated the "Severan" dynasty of Rome. This reached its unlikely and tragicomic culmination with the Emperor Elagabalus (or Heliogabalus), who himself assumed the Priest-Kingship of Emesa. The Emperor's behavior, both personal and ritual, was scandalous to the Romans, whose elite opinion had always despised "eastern" cults anyway. Elagabalus and his mother were then murdered, to be succeeded, however, by his more conventional cousin, Alexander, and his mother. Nevertheless, for all its peculiarities, this was the last period of stability before the free-for-all of Emperors into which the Third Century plunged.

The lists for the Nabataeans, Edessa, and Emesa are all from Bruce R. Gordon's Regnal Chronologies. I have seen the rulers in no books of Hellenistic or Roman history.

Hellenistic Philosophy, 322 BC to 235 AD

History Continued, The Parthian Arsacids, 248 BC-227 AD

History Continued, Rome and Romania, 27 BC-1453 AD

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The names in parentheses are Sanskrit names from inscriptions of Ashoka (c.274-232), who had unified India and then embraced Buddhism. Ashoka wrote letters (circa 247, the year in which both Antiochus II and Ptolemy II died) to as many Hellenistic monarchs as he knew about to urge them to embrace Buddhism. A letter was also sent to Magas of Cyrene (Maga). The text of the letters is preserved in Ashoka's monumental inscriptions. No Greek historian mentions them. This makes the reign of Ashoka the earliest benchmark for chronology in Indian history.

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Hellenistic Philosophy

322 BC to 235 AD

Hellenistic Philosophy overlaps the Hellenistic Period (from Alexander the Great, d.323, to Cleopatra, d.30 BC) and the Early Roman Empire (30 BC to the death of Alexander Severus, 235 AD). Plato's school at the Academy and Aristotle's school (the Peripatetics) at the Lyceum continued, joined by several other schools, including the Cynics and Hedonists,
The Big Four Hellenistic Schools of Athens
NameMembersFounderFoundedSource
the AcademyAcademicsPlato387/85Socrates
the LyceumPeripateticsAristotle335Plato
the StoaStoicsZeno of Citium292the Cynics
the GardenEpicureansEpicurus306the Hedonists
but especially the Stoics and Epicureans.

Although Antisthenes of Athens (c.450-360) was later credited with founding the Cynic school, Diogenes of Sinope (c.400-323) was the real founder, responsible for both the name and the popularity of the school. "Cynic" comes from the Greek word for "dog," kyôn, and was actually a nickname for Diogenes, since people thought that is how he lived. Diogenes, indeed, had nothing but contempt for conventional morality, mores, and manners. He lived much of his life in a large jar and carried on in such a way that a principle of the school became that one should do in public what other people would be ashamed to do in private. Since that seems to have included masturbation, there are limits to the practicality of this in the modern world. The two most famous stories about Diogenes are (1) that he would walk around Athens, hold a lamp up to people's faces, and say that he was looking for an honest man, and (2) that when Alexander the Great paid him a visit (outside his jar) and offered to grant any wish he might have, Diogenes merely requested that Alexander stand aside so as not to block the sunlight. I would love to see the kind of dialogue that might ensue between a modern judge and a Diogenes arrested for public lewdness (or, for that matter, between a modern judge and a Digambara Jain monk arrested for public nudity). The Cynic Crates of Thebes, who also taught at Athens, was called the "Door-opener" because he used to barge uninvited into people's houses and rebuke them for their moral failings. He may have gone one better than Diogenes by having sex in public with his wife and fellow philosopher Hipparchia, who herself wore male clothing and accompanied Crates to drinking parties. Male drinking parties were ordinarily only attended by women who were musicians, performers, or courtesans. Today "cynicism" can mean, not just contempt for conventional beliefs and motives, but a nihilistic willingness to manipulate them for self-interested purposes. That is contrary to the strong, anarchistic, ascetic ethic of the Cynics themselves. The asocial and antinomian but resolute attitude of the Cynics seems the match in many ways of the Taoists in Chinese philosophy.

The Stoic school was founded by Zeno of Citium (334/3-263), a man apparently of Phoenician descent from Cyprus, and was named after the kind of open building with a porch, a stoa, found in the Athenian marketplace -- in fact a particular stoa, the Stoa Poikilê or "painted" stoa, where Zeno taught and the school became established. After coming to Athens as the result of being shipwrecked on a trading voyage from Cyprus (304), Zeno became a student of Crates, but eventually broke away out of humiliation at the kinds of things he was expected to do [7]. Zeno started his own school at the age of 42, but by some accounts he had not compeltely abandoned his mercantile dealings. Stoicism, which became the dominant Hellenistic school of philosophy, emphasized that happiness depends only on goodness (rather as Socrates had thought) and that all external conditions of life can and must be endured apátheia, "without suffering" (our word "apathy"). Stoicism also continued the Cynic doctrine of the kosmópolis or "world state" as an ethical ideal. That ideal seemed realized later in the Roman Empire. Two curiously representative Roman Stoics were Epictetus (55 AD-135), a slave (later freed), and Marcus Aurelius, an Emperor (ruled 161-180). Apart from ethics, the Stoics devoted considerable creative attention to logic, but their metaphysical doctrines were mostly derived from the teachings of Heraclitus.

The school of Hedonism was reputedly founded by Aristippus of Cyrene (c.435-360) and developed by his obscure grandson of the same name. Aristippus spent some time with Socrates but concluded -- in answer to the Socratic question, "What is the good?" -- that the good was simply pleasure (hêdonê). Today "hedonism" usually means pursuing pleasure as well as just believing that it is the good, and Aristippus seems to have advocated that kind of thing. This was later modified by Epicurus (341-270), who settled in Athens and taught from the garden of his house, where the school remained and from which it derived its name: the Garden. Epicurus remained a hedonist in the sense that he believed pleasure to be the good, but he thought that only pleasures which did not later produce pain should be sought. Excesses and disturbing affairs, like politics, were thus to be avoided. Even the gods were thought to live this kind of existence, paying no special attention to us. Epicurus derived his metaphysical doctrines from Democritus. The teaching of "atoms and the void" gave him less to worry about than other doctrines did. This was never as popular as Stoicism, but there were a few Roman Epicureans -- especially Lucretius (95-55 BC) and his poem De rerum natura ("On the Nature of Things").

While the great emphasis of Hellenistic thought was on ethics, a critical attitude towards questions about knowledge was maintained by the Skeptics, who concluded that knowledge is impossible. There were two main types: Pyrrho of Elis (365-275 BC, hence "Pyrrhonian" skepticism), held that because knowledge is impossible, we should practice suspension (epochê) of judgment in all matters. This was later modified by skeptics who dominated Plato's Academy for a while, like Carneades of Cyrene (d.129 BC). This "Academic" skepticism eventually held that although there may be no certain knowledge, there is spontaneous, reasonable belief, and this is necessary for practical judgments in life. Problems about knowledge did not again so disturb philosophy until Descartes and Hume. Indeed, Hume explicitly regarded his views as a form of Academic skepticism.

Pyrrho may represent a case of direct influence from Indian philosophy. He had traveled to India with his teacher Anaxarchus in the army of Alexander the Great, "with the result that he even associated with the Naked Philosophers (gymnosophistaî) in India and with the Magi" [Diogenes Laertius]. The most striking sign of this possible influence is how Pyrrho expressed himself in the actual form of the Four-Fold Negation, one of the fundamental and most characteristic principles of Buddhism: "...but we should be unopinionated, uncommitted, and unwavering, saying concerning each individual thing that it no more is than is not, or it both is and is not, or it neither is nor is not" [Aristocles]. The entire tradition of Hellenistic skepticism may thus have Buddhist roots.

An important aspect of Hellenistic thought was the degree to which Greek culture began to mix with that of the older civilizations in the Middle East. An important part of this were the books in Greek that were written in the 3rd century BC by the Egyptian priest Manethô on Egyptian history and by the Babylonian priests Sudinês and Bêrôssos on astronomy. Manethô introduced the system, still used, of numbering the dynasties of ancient Egyptian kings; and Sudinês, translating older astronomical texts, including those of the named astronomer Kidinnu, provided invaluable astronomical data all the way back to the beginning of the reign of the Babylonian King Nabonassar (Nabûnâs.iru) in 747 BC [6].

The works of both Sudinês and Manethô continued up through the Roman period to be of great interest to historians and astronomers, but unfortunately complete texts of neither work survive. The astronomical data was later preserved by Claudius Ptolemy. Of a different order of importance, however, was the fusing of Greek philosophical ideas with Judaism that was effected by the first Jewish philosopher writing in Greek, from whom a large corpus survives: Philo Judaeus (or Philo of Alexandria, c.25 BC-50 AD). Philo (a Greek name, Philôn) belonged to the prosperous and influential Jewish community in Alexandria, Egypt, and represented the Jews on an embassy to the Emperor Caligula in 39-40 AD. Familiar with the whole of Greek and Hellenistic philosophy, Philo sought to reconcile it, indeed to identify it, with the meaning and teachings of the Bible. Most notable was Philo's theory that God creates and governs the universe through his Word, the Lógos, which (picking up Heraclitus's Lógos with all its implications) was a combination of Plato's Forms, Jewish Angels, and the Word of the Law itself. This could be worked into the text of the Bible only by careful allegorical readings, which Philo provided in detail. Philo also claimed that Heraclitus and Plato had actually gotten their ideas from the Bible. In much of this, Philo initiates the tradition that leads to Neoplatonism, as well as to much of Mediaeval Jewish, Christian, and even Islamic philosophical, mystical, and allegorical readings of sacred texts.

Philo's theory is also strongly reminiscent of the first words of the Gospel of John (1:1-14): "In the beginning was the Word (Lógos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; and all things were made through him.....And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." The specifically Christian element in the Gospel is simply to identify the Lógos with Jesus Christ, the other elements mostly already being there in Philo. The New Testament is itself, of course, a significant cross-cultural document written in Greek, recounting the deeds and teachings of a man who was speaking in Aramaic. It is a shame that no information survives about the learning and sources of influence on the evangelist John. Philo's influence seems unmistakable, but we can estimate it only through speculation.

Philosophy in Late Antiquity, 235 AD to c.600 AD

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Manethô's history is now often considered the first anti-Semitic document, since the Jews are said to have been expelled from Egypt -- not fled or escaped -- because they were lepers and the Egyptians didn't want them. It is not hard to imagine, however, why the Egyptians or Manethô would prefer such a story, since the Biblical account of the Exodus condemns the Egyptians for oppression and cruelty and dismisses their gods as weak and insignificant, if not non-existent, next to the power of the LORD. The Bible thus might appear to Manethô as a document of "anti-Egyptianism" (perhaps the feeling again of Anwar Sadat when Menachem Begin told him, with grotesque anachronism, that the Jews had built the pyramids). Pagan hostility towards the Jews tended to take a similar form, that, as the ritual purity required by the Torah prevented easy association with non-Jews and as the exclusivistic Biblical prohibition of the recognition of foreign gods prevented the kind of reciprocity common among ancient religions (so that Herodotus, for instance, was comfortable speaking of the "Egyptian Zeus," or Plato with the identification of the Greek Athena with the Egyptian Neith), the Jews were seen as misanthropic, and a hostility was returned which was seen as originating from their religion in the first place. Now, of course, that the exclusivism of Biblical Judaism has long been characteristic of both Christianity and Islâm, so that each excludes the other with equal vigor, it is harder to understand the mentality behind more syncretistic approaches to religion, such as survive in Japan, where people can be said to be "Born Shintô, Marry Christian, and Die Buddhist." However, Greek philosophy, with its emphasis on coherence and logical system, can be said to have cooperated with Judaism in the development of exclusivist domination in the Mediterranean world. Jews could argue, as Philo did (see below), quite correctly, that their critique of paganism was no different from that of Xenophanes, Socrates, Plato, etc., for whom the ancient gods, in all their lusty immorality and conflicts, were an embarrassment.

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Sketches in the History of Western Philosophy
from the Hellenistic Age to the Renaissance, Note 7

This was supposed to have included carrying a bowl of porridge or lentils through the marketplace in Athens. Why that would be improper or humiliating is unclear. Or it may just be that Crates then broke the bowl and spilled the contents on Zeno, taunting him that there was nothing morally wrong, or even bad, with being covered with spilled food.

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Philosophy in Late Antiquity

235 AD to c.600 AD

The Crisis of the Third Century (235-284), when the Roman Empire almost collapsed, resulted in deep political and spiritual changes. The old schools of philosophy disappeared and were succeeded by Neoplatonism, founded by the deeply ascetic and mystical Egyptian (or Greek) Plotinus (205-270). Plotinus revived the influence of Plato and Aristotle, whose teachings were combined in an original and surprising fashion. Since in epistemology and metaphysics Plato and Aristotle in many ways were more sophisticated than the Hellenistic philosophers who followed them, Plotinus in effect picks up again the mainstream development of Western philosophy, preparing the way for Mediaeval thought. In his system, although all the old gods of paganism were preserved, beyond them was the One, an impersonal Absolute combining the One of Parmenides and the Good of Plato. The One was the source of all Being. Matter and the body were essentially Not Being, and evil. In between were Plato's Forms, the gods, and souls. All of existence was understood as analogous to light radiating from the sun, as in the simile of the Good as the sun in Plato's Republic -- though the image it evokes seems like nothing so much as the disk of the Aton shining on Akhenaton. This is the "Declension" of Being. The purpose of life was for the soul to return to union with the One, a process of mystical transport which strongly influenced mystical traditions in the Middle Ages, particularly Islamic Sufism, Jewish mysticism, and the Platonism of the Renaissance. In many ways the impersonal One of Plotinus can be compared to the Brahman of the Upanishads. The idea that evil ultimately corresponds to Nothingness and is a mere privation of Being is one of the simplest solutions to the Problem of Evil in Western philosophy, and was strongly attractive to St. Augustine, even after he left Neoplatonism for Christianity. Plotinus's student and Boswell, Porphyry (233-c.300) edited, published (as The Enneads), and popularized Plotinus's work. His introduction to Aristotle's logical works, the Isagoge ("Introduction"), became one of the most important texts of Mediaeval philosophy, attracting commentaries by Boethius and Peter Abelard; and his Against the Christians began the long and futile rearguard action against the new religion on behalf of the old.

Plotinus's own teacher was a Christian, and Late Antiquity saw a revolution in religion. The Empire had been restored by Diocletian (284-305) but then began to be Christianized by Constantine I (306-337). Theodosius I (379-395) banned pagan worship; and Justinian I (527-565) both banned pagan belief and in 529 closed Plato's Academy, which had become the last refuge of Neoplatonism. There are several striking incidents in this decline. One was the murder by Christian monks in Alexandria in 415 of the philosopher and mathematician Hypatia, one of the few well attested examples of a woman in ancient philosophy [9]. While Hypatia is celebrated as a martyr and victim of Christian fanaticism by Edward Gibbon and modern feminists, and a feminist philosophy journal is named after her, she had, as a Neoplatonist, world denying sentiments that today would sound more religious and ascetic than otherwise: She remained a virgin, and when one of her students professed love for you, she showed him a menstrual rag and said, "You are in love with this, young man, not with the Beautiful," which in Platonism or Neoplatonism would mean the Form of Beauty [cf. Mary Lefkowitz, Women in Greek Myth, Johns Hopkins U Press, 1986, p. 131]. Another incident was the brief exile to Sassanid Persia of the last Scholarch of the Academy, Damascius, and his colleague Simplicius, to whom we owe many of our fragments of Parmenides. They figured that the Persian King would be more tolerant than Justinian, which he was, but they seem to have returned out of homesickness. That was essentially the end of ancient philosophy.

As with Hypatia, those searching for modern attitudes, and for science and rationality, among the opponents of the Christians, will be disappointed. Iamblichus (c.250-c.319), although a mathematician, became rather better known as a "theurge" ("divine worker") or "thaumaturge" ("wonder worker"), i.e. he is reputed to have performed miracles. We see competition between the more and the less rational Neoplatonists for the patronage of the Emperor Julian. According to the historian Eunapius (d.414), Julian originally was a student of Eusebius of Myndus, who would end his lectures by saying:

These are the only true realities, whereas the impostures of witchcraft and magic that cheat the senses are the works of conjurors who are insane men led astray into the exercise of earthly and material powers. [Philostratus and Eunapius, The Lives of the Sophists, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard, 1921, p.433]

Julian discovered that Eusebius was referring to Maximus of Ephesus (d.371). After witnessing some of Maximus' miracles, Julian fell entirely under his influence. The last pagan Emperor, Julian died with Maximus at his bedside. The jarring combination of first rate mathematics, mysticism, and thaumaturgy continued with Proclus (d.485), who ironically had been born in Constantinople but flourished as Scholarch of the Academy.

Meanwhile, characteristically mediaeval Christian philosophy had been developing, for instance with St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), who himself had "converted" to Neoplatonism before becoming a Christian. Since Augustine wrote in Latin, he and some other late Western writers, like Boethius (480-525) and St. Isidore of Seville (c.560-636), exerted exclusive influence on Western Europe during the period when the texts of Greek writers were not directly accessible (c.750-c.1100). One of the few philosophers we find even writing during that period was John Scotus Erigena (or Eriugena, c.810-c.877). "Scotus" at the time meant "Irish," not "Scottish," and Erigena (which actually means "born in Ireland"), who seems to have known some Greek himself, is symbolic of the intellectual activity that for a time distinguished Ireland, which had never even been part of the Roman Empire, during the Dark Ages. Erigena, however, gained his fame after being called to the court of the Charles (II) the Bald, who was King of France (843-877) and crowned Emperor by the Pope (875). Erigena also illustrates the danger of original thought at the time: his works ended up condemned as heresy.

The degree to which Greek metaphysics and the tradition of philosophical disputation affected Christianity can be seen in the Christological controversies, the debates over the nature of Jesus, that stretched from the 4th to the 7th centuries. The major doctrines condemned as heresies by the Ecumenical Councils (accepted by both the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches) along by the way are:

Although in general it may be comforting to think that Christianity snuffed out the inquisitive instincts, scientific and otherwise, in Greek and Roman culture, a glaring exception to this occurs in Late Antiquity. A contemporary of Simplicius and Damascius was the Christian John Philoponus (or John the Grammarian, John of Alexandria). Philoponus produced a large body of work, including grammar and (arguably Monophysite) theology, but especially commentaries on Aristotle. Little of this is now available in translation, but it was of considerable influence at the time and by way of Syriac and Arabic translations on the subsequent mainstream of Mediaeval thought. Of particular importance is his treatment of Aristotle's Physics.

It is now easy to forget how different ancient and mediaeval physics were from the modern physics that began with Galileo. Most important was the principle enunciated by Aristotle that an object will not move unless it is pushed. Since we are now accustomed to the idea that a thrown projectile continues in motion because of its own momentum, Aristotle's assertion sounds bizarre. But it really only sounds bizarre because of the work of John Philoponus. Not just Aristotle, but all the Greeks, believed that the projectile continues in motion because it continues to be pushed by the air behind it. Originally, it was believed that the pushing air was the air displaced by the motion of the projectile, which came around behind it (antiperistasis). Aristotle didn't like the notion in that form, but he still agreed that the air was pushing and that a medium (like air, water, etc.) was necessary for motion. Philoponus rejected all this, asserting that motion could even take place in a void, a vacuum -- at a time when it generally was believed that a vacuum was impossible. As an experiment Philoponus suggested setting up an arrow or a stone and blowing air on it. Of course, without modern equipment, or gale force winds, neither the arrow nor the stone are likely to stir. Yet even the stone can simply be tossed through the air. Philoponus argued, quite correctly, that a medium resists motion, not facilitates it.

Philoponus thus held that a projectile continues in motion through the air because there was imparted to it an immaterial force, an impetus, that perpetuates the motion. This now (although it is called "momentum") seems so obvious that it is hard to imagine that for a thousand years Greek and Roman thought subscribed to nothing of the sort. The impetus theory, however, was still not Galileo's theory of inertia. Although Philoponus realized that a medium resists motion, he still believed that the projectile loses its momentum because the impetus runs out. Thus, without actively being pushed, all things will slow down and stop, even in a vacuum. For the next thousand years, this is what would prevent the theory of Aristarchus, that the earth is a planet that rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun, from being taken seriously. If the earth were moving, this requires the renewal of its impetus, an action that could be observed and would be detectable.

If Philoponus represents a significant advance over ancient mechanics, something else is positively breathtaking. He anticipated Galileo's legendary experiment of dropping cannon balls of different weights:

For if you let fall at the same time from the same height two weights that differ greatly, you will see that the ratio of the times of the motions does not correspond to the ratio of the weights, but that the difference in the times is a very small one. [Commentary on Aristotle's Physics, 683 16 ff, quoted by G.E.R. Lloyd, Greek Science After Aristotle, W.W. Norton, 1973, p.160]

Galileo thus did not originate the experiment that would refute Aristotle's view that falling objects gained speed in proportion to their weights. Philoponus had already done it. Unfortunately, the Sixth Century Christian did not get the same result, but observed that the heavier weight did fall faster, just not in a simple proportion to the weight. His error is then to be blamed, not on the reverence for authority by which we dismiss the curiosity or good faith of Mediaeval philosophers, but on the imperfections of his experimental equipment, such as it may have been. His thinking, however, is extraordinarily critical and experimental, even hovering on the verge of a mathematical treatment of motion. As little progress as would be made for centuries in this direction, it is unfortunate that he generally receives so little credit for it.

Philosophy in Islâm, c.800 AD to c.1300 AD

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Besides Hipparchia, mentioned above, there were obscure earlier cases, as with one student of Pythagoras, Theano, two students of Plato, Axiothea of Phlius and Lasthenia of Mantinea, and a student of Epicurus, Leontion, who had been a courtesan.

There is a reference to Theano by Anna Comnena, daughter of the Roman/Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus (1081-1118), in her biography of her father, the Alexiad. Speaking of her mother, the Empress Irene, Anna says:

Whenever she had to appear in public as empress at some important ceremony, she was overcome with modesty and a blush at once suffused her cheeks. The woman philosopher Theano once bared her elbow and someone playfully remarked, 'What a lovely elbow!' 'But not for public show,' she replied. [Penguin Books, 1979, p.375]

It is not clear how Anna is aware of this anecdote. The Penguin edition note says of Theano that "several books were ascribed to her in antiquity." These may well have survived to Anna's day, before the sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade and the other disasters of the Roman decline -- after all, of the almost 300 works in the Bibiotheca by the Patriarch of Constantinople Photius (858-867, 877-886), about half are now lost. Or she might simply know of it from the Christrian Patristic Clement of Alexandria (c.200 AD):

What shall I say? Did not Theano the Pythagorean make such progress in philosophy that when a man, staring at her, said, "Your arm is beautiful," she replied, "Yes, but it is not on public display." [Paidagogos 1.6; quoted by Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels, Vintage Books, 1979, p.68]

This simply puts the problem back one step, since we would like to know how Clement knew about the matter.

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Philosophy in Islâm

c.800 AD to c.1300 AD

There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace,
and as much knowledge of the world.

(Sherlock Holmes [Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, "A Case of Identity," 1891])

After the death of the Prophet Muh.ammad in 632, Arab armies rapidly overran Syria and Palestine (638), Egypt (642), the entire Persian Empire (646), and later North Africa (696) and Spain (711). When the Caliphate was established at Baghdad (763), stability, prosperity, and Persian cultural influence led to a great intellectual revival. The Caliph al-Ma'mûn (813-833) became interested in philosophy and mathematics and founded the Dâr al-H.ikmah, or "House of Wisdom," as a center for translation and study. Greek philosophy, medicine, and mathematics were translated into Arabic. For example, here are the titles in Arabic of the works grouped by Islamic philosophers in Aristotle's corpus on logic, the Organon (the last three titles are usually not included in the Organon today):
The CategoriesKitâbu l-Maqûlâtthe Book of Words
On InterpretationKitâbu l-'Ibârahthe Book of Interpretation
Prior AnalyticsKitâbu l-Qiyâsthe Book of Deduction
Posterior AnalyticsKitâbu l-Burhânthe Book of Proof
TopicaKitâbu l-Jadalthe Book of Debate
On Sophistical
Refutation		Kitâbu s-Safsat.ahthe Book of Sophistry
RhetoricKitâbu l-Khit.âbahthe Book of Rhetoric
PoeticsKitâbu sh-Shi'rthe Book of Poetry

Nearly the entire corpus of Plato and Aristotle and of the physicians Hippocrates and Galen was translated by a single Armanaean (Nestorian) Christian, H.unayn ibn Ish.âq (or Johannitius in Latin, 808-876). Although learning Greek (and Arabic) only as an adult, he could recite Homer from memory. Since Greek philosophical works had already been translated into Syriac, the Aramaean language of the day, there was already a precedent and a tradition that made translation into the closely related Arabic easier. H.unayn's father, Ish.âq, was a pharmacist, and H.unayn himself initially studied medicine under Yuhanna ibn Masawayh, the Christian physician of the Caliph al-Ma'mûn himself -- Yuhanna, exasperated with his own son's stupidity, proposed that he be vivisected, but the Caliph prohibited this. H.unayn ended up as the physician of the Caliph Mutawakkil, but his son Ish.âq was in turn a translator also.

Much original work that was then done in Arabic in astronomy, mathematics, and medicine is still commemorated in words from Arabic like algebra, zenith, azimuth, or alcohol. The word algorithm, describing what a computer program does, is actually the name of al-Khuwârizmî (c.780-850), whose book, Hisâb al-Jabr w'al-Muqabâlah, introduced algebra (the al-jabr of the title) and also passed on from India the method of decimal counting with the number zero. What we call Arabic numerals are still called "Indian" (Hindî) numerals in Arabic. Most of the named stars in the sky still have Arabic names, e.g. Betelgeuse, from Baytuljawzâ', "the house of the Twins [Gemini]."

Philosophy revived through the adaptation of the Neoplatonism of Late Antiquity to Islam:  the One became God, and the lesser gods became angels. This helped spark the movement of Islamic mysticism, later called Sufism (from s.ûf, the woolen garment that some mystics wore). Traditionally, the first philosopher is Islam is considered to be al-Kindî (c.796-873), who also shares the distinction of being very nearly the only classical Islamic philosopher who was an Arab [10]:  Although all wrote in Arabic, the language of religion and scholarship, most were Persians, and one of the greatest, al-Fârâbî (c.873-950), was Turkish. The greatest of the Islamic philosophers in this Greek tradition is usually considered to be Ibn Sîna (980-1037), commonly referred to by his Latinized name Avicenna. Like most of these figures, Avicenna was a physician as well as a philosopher, and his work on medicine survived for centuries in Europe as a standard text.

Although the Islamic philosophers in the Greek tradition did very substantial work, some of the more original ideas are found in Islamic theology, called Kalâm ("Talk"). The theologians (mutakallimûn) were not tied to Greek ideas and were concerned to achieve characteristically Islamic answers to traditional religious questions. Kalâm, to be sure, started with a Hellenizing and even Christianizing tendency in the form of the Mu'tazilite school, which defended human free will and regarded God in the Greek sense as reasonable, just, and good. Although this appealed even to the great Caliph al-Ma'mûn, it did not last long. The Caliph al-Mutawakkil (847-861) turned against such Christianizing doctrines. Islamic orthodoxy became t