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World History 1

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	A characteristic cultural feature of the Hellenistic period was the blending of Greek and other cultures of the former <OpenstaxTerm>Persian Empire</OpenstaxTerm>. The Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties both employed Greeks and Macedonians as soldiers and bureaucrats in their empires. <OpenstaxTerm>Alexander the Great</OpenstaxTerm> and subsequent Hellenistic kings founded Greek cities in the former Persian Empire for Greek and Macedonian colonists, often naming them in honor of themselves or their queens. These cities included the institutions of the Greek cities of their homeland—temples to Greek gods, theaters, <OpenstaxEm>agora</OpenstaxEm> (marketplaces), and gymnasia—so the colonists could feel at home in their new environment. At the site of <OpenstaxTerm>Ai Khanum</OpenstaxTerm> in modern Afghanistan, archaeologists have uncovered the impressive remains of one such Hellenistic city with a gymnasium.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
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	<OpenstaxTerm>Alexandria</OpenstaxTerm> in Egypt, founded by Alexander himself in 331 BCE, was the capital of the Ptolemaic kingdom and the largest Hellenistic city, with a population that reached one million. There the Ptolemies founded the <OpenstaxEm>Museon</OpenstaxEm>, or “home of the Muses,” from which the term “museum” derives. They modeled this on Aristotle’s <OpenstaxTerm>Lyceum</OpenstaxTerm>, as a center for scientific research and literary studies. These same kings also patronized the <OpenstaxTerm>Alexandrian Library</OpenstaxTerm>, where they assembled the largest collection of books in the ancient world. <OpenstaxTerm>Antioch</OpenstaxTerm>, in today’s southeastern Turkey, was the largest city of the Seleucid kingdom, with a population of half a million. In cities such as Alexandria and Antioch, the Greek-speaking population became integrated with the indigenous population.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Most Greek cities in this period were no longer independent since they were usually under the control of one of the Hellenistic kingdoms. The <OpenstaxTerm>city-state</OpenstaxTerm>s of the Achaean and Aetolian Leagues in Greece were the exception, fiercely maintaining their independence against the Antigonid rulers of Macedon. Having lost the right of self-government, many Greeks in cities under the rule of kings no longer focused on politics and diplomacy but turned to the search for personal happiness. New religions emerged that promised earthly contentment and eternal life and combined Greek and non-Greek elements. For example, the worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis became common in many Hellenistic cities.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Mithras was a Persian sun god worshiped by the Medes, but in the second century BCE, Greeks in Hellenistic cities came to believe <OpenstaxTerm>Mithras</OpenstaxTerm> would lead them, too, to eternal life. His followers built special chapels decorated with symbols whose meaning is still disputed. The emphasis on secret religious rituals, or <OpenstaxEm>mysteries</OpenstaxEm>, about which followers were sworn to silence, lends the worship of Isis and Mithras in this period the name <OpenstaxTerm>mystery religions</OpenstaxTerm> (<a href="#fig-00005">Figure 6.27</a>).
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00005" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/753e76a2f776645d43e1bdcc4a11101882402907" alt="An image of a rectangular pale brown stone is shown on a gray background. The edges of the stone are worn and broken in places. The top edge shows three holes. Letters are engraved along the left edge and scripted images are engraved in red along the bottom in three rows. The middle shows a raised image of a figure in a striped shirt and pants with a long flowing cape sitting atop an animal with four legs, long bushy tail, and a long snout. The figure has round eyes and a large hat on his head. His right arm encircles the head of the animal he sits on and his left hand is close to the nose of the animal. The animal he is sitting on has bent legs and is close to the ground. Another small animal standing up on its hind legs reaches toward the front of the larger animal. A round sun with rays and broken in places is carved in the top right and a crescent moon with a flowery image inside is carved at the top left. A small, winged creature is seen to the left of the figure’s head." mediaType="image/jpg" width="1200" height="945" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="1200">
	<strong>Figure 6.27</strong> This stone relief from the second century CE depicts the Persian sun god Mithras, who became the center of a mystery religion. (credit: modification of work “Cult Relief of Mithras Slaying the Bull (Tauroctony)” by Yale University Gallery/Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Another religion practiced in <OpenstaxTerm>Hellenistic</OpenstaxTerm> cities was <OpenstaxTerm>Judaism</OpenstaxTerm>, whose followers included migrant Jewish people and new converts. By the second century BCE, the Hebrew Bible had been translated into Greek under the Ptolemies, since ancient Judea was within their control for much of the Hellenistic period and many Jewish people had immigrated to Alexandria.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Some Greeks preferred new philosophies to religion as a means to achieve happiness. Hellenistic philosophy emphasized the search for internal peace and contentment. <OpenstaxTerm>Stoicism</OpenstaxTerm>, for example, maintained that the universe was governed by divine reason (<OpenstaxEm>Logos</OpenstaxEm>), which determined the fate of all people. Happiness therefore resulted from learning how to cope with life and accepting fate while avoiding extreme negative emotions such as fear and anger. <OpenstaxTerm>Epicureans</OpenstaxTerm>, however, maintained that the key to happiness was to avoid physical and mental pain by pursuing pleasure. The founders of these two philosophical schools, <OpenstaxTerm>Zeno</OpenstaxTerm> and <OpenstaxTerm>Epicurus</OpenstaxTerm> respectively, both lived in the early third century BCE and taught in <OpenstaxTerm>Athens</OpenstaxTerm>, which continued to be a center of learning in this period. The Stoics were so named because Zeno instructed his students in the <OpenstaxEm>stoa poikile</OpenstaxEm>, or “painted porch” in the Athenian <OpenstaxEm>agora</OpenstaxEm>. The <OpenstaxTerm>mystery religions</OpenstaxTerm> and philosophies of the Hellenistic era continued to flourish as these cities became incorporated into the expanding Roman Empire.
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6.3.2 Hellenistic Culture

1 Understanding the Past

1.1 Developing a Global Perspective

1.1.1 World History as Preparation for Life after College

1.1.2 World History and Global Citizenship

1.1.3 Features of This Textbook

1.2 Primary Sources

1.2.1 Learning to Evaluate Documents and Images

1.2.2 Documentary Sources: Competing Narratives

1.2.3 Textual Sources: The Importance of Language

1.2.4 Hidden in History

1.3 Causation and Interpretation in History

1.3.1 Levels of Causation

1.3.2 Interpretation in History

2 Early Humans

2.1 Early Human Evolution and Migration

2.1.1 Human Evolution

2.1.2 Why Did Humans Move and Where Did They Go?

2.1.3 Early Human Technologies

2.2 People in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.1 Ice, Ice, and More Ice

2.2.2 Life in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.3 Diverse Paleolithic Peoples

2.3 The Neolithic Revolution

2.3.1 The Development of Agriculture

2.3.2 How Farming Changed the Human Experience

2.3.3 Neolithic Peoples

3 Early Civilizations and Urban Societies

3.1 Early Civilizations

3.1.1 Attributes of Early Civilizations

3.1.2 The First Urban Societies

3.2 Ancient Mesopotamia

3.2.1 The Rise and Eclipse of Sumer

3.2.2 The Rise of the World’s First Empire

3.2.3 Later Empires in Mesopotamia

3.2.4 Society and Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia

3.3 Ancient Egypt

3.3.1 The Origins of Ancient Egypt

3.3.2 The Age of Pyramid Building

3.3.3 A Second Age of Egyptian Greatness

3.4 The Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.1 The Origins of the Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.2 Trade, Writing, and Religion

3.4.3 The Era of Decline

4 The Near East

4.1 From Old Babylon to the Medes

4.1.1 Power Politics in the Near East

4.1.2 Foreign Affairs and Trade

4.1.3 Daily Life and the Family in the Near East

4.2 Egypt’s New Kingdom

4.2.1 The Hyksos in Egypt

4.2.2 The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom

4.2.3 Egypt’s Foreign Policy

4.3 The Persian Empire

4.3.1 The Rise of Persia

4.3.2 Darius I and the Reorganization of the Empire

4.3.3 Persian Culture and Daily Life

4.4 The Hebrews

4.4.1 The History of the Hebrews

4.4.2 The Culture of the Hebrews

5 Asia in Ancient Times

5.1 Ancient China

5.1.1 Prehistoric China

5.1.2 Early Dynastic China

5.1.3 The Zhou Dynasty

5.1.4 The Warring States Era and Qin Unification

5.2 The Steppes

5.2.1 The Nomadic Culture of the Steppes

5.2.2 Tribes, Confederations, and Settled Neighbors

5.3 Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia

5.3.1 Ancient Korea

5.3.2 Ancient Japan

5.4 Vedic India to the Fall of the Maurya Empire

5.4.1 Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

5.4.2 The Aryans and Brahmanism

5.4.3 Buddhism

5.4.4 The Mauryan Empire

5.4.5 The Gupta Dynasty

6 Mediterranean Peoples

6.1 Early Mediterranean Peoples

6.1.1 The Late Bronze Age World

6.1.2 Phoenicians, Greeks, and Etruscans

6.2 Ancient Greece

6.2.1 Archaic Greece

6.2.2 Sparta and Athens

6.2.3 Classical Greece

6.3 The Hellenistic Era

6.3.1 The Kingdom of Macedon

6.4 The Roman Republic

6.4.1 The Foundation and Function of the Roman Republic

6.4.2 The Expansion of the Roman Republic

6.5 The Age of Augustus

6.5.1 The First Triumvirate

6.5.2 From Republic to Principate

7 Experiencing the Roman Empire

7.1 The Daily Life of a Roman Family

7.1.1 The Structure of Roman Families

7.1.2 A Day in the Life of a Roman Family

7.1.3 What Family Meant in Rome

7.2 Slavery in the Roman Empire