Hellenistic Monarchies Research Articles

Periodization of Antiquity’s History in Studies of I. M. Grevs and N. I. Kareev in Late XIX — Early XX Centuries

The periodization of history and the definition of the framework of Antiquity and the Middle Ages were questions open for scientific discussion at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, when the Russian school of ancient and medieval studies was actively developing in Russia and especially in St. Petersburg. The concept of I. M. Grevs was that the Roman Empire marked the beginning of Late Antiquity with its special economic structure in the form of large land ownership, but this period ended with the onset of the era of barbarian kingdoms. I. M. Grevs separated the Roman Empire from the period of classical Antiquity and at the same time showed its difference from the way of the early Middle Ages. In his courses on general history, read after I. M. Grevs, N. I. Kareev described the ancient universal monarchies, which sought to extend their power to the limits of the ecumene and unite the various traditions of organizing power. It should be concluded that N. I. Kareev supplemented the periodization proposed by I. M. Grevs, finding in the Ancient world the same turning point in the form of the Hellenistic monarchy, similar to that found in Late Antiquity by I. M. Grevs.

THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIO-HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT ON GREEK PHILOSOPHY IN THE PERIOD OF EARLY HELLENISM: STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND BASIC APPROACHES TO ITS SOLUTION

The article deals with the problem of the influence of the political development of Greece on the early Hellenistic philosophy. The main approaches to solving this problem are shown. The traditional approach goes back to G. W. F. Hegel and E. Zeller. This approach is based on the idea of changing the nature of Greek philosophy in the conditions of the formation of Hellenistic monarchies and the decline of the polis in the period of early Hellenism. The tendency to alienation of the individual from society comes to the fore in the philosophical teachings of Hellenism. Another approach, presented in the works of P. Hadot and E. Brown, is based on the position on the preservation of the polis in the period of early Hellenism and, as a result, the tendency to political activity in Greek philosophy. The one- sidedness of these approaches is shown.

THE REPRESENTATIONS ON THE CONTEMPLATIVE AND ACTIVE LIFE IN EARLY HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY

It is established that the question of the preferred way of life was actualized in the early Hellenistic philosophy. For many philosophers, the contemplative and the active life were equivalent. This position was held by Demetrius of Phalerum, early Stoics, probably Xenocrates and Menedemus of Eretria. Dicaearchus preferred an active life. Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Epicurus preferred the contemplative life. Unlike Aristotle and Theophrastus, Epicurus viewed the contemplative life not as an end, but only as a means of achieving serenity. It was also found that the high value of active life in early Hellenistic philosophy was due to the preservation of the polis system and the formation of Hellenistic monarchies, which opened up wide opportunities for philosophers to participate in political activities. The desire for a contemplative life was associated with the crisis of the polis system.

Индивидуализм и коллективизм в греческой философии в период раннего эллинизма

It has been found that despite the spread of individualism in the philosophical teachings of early Hellenism, the collectivist component not only did not disappear, but also retained a strong position. Most philosophical teachings were characterized by the coexistence of both tendencies. This is clearly visible in Epicurus, the early Stoics, Anniceris, the Peripatetics and the Academicians. It has also been found that this feature of Greek philosophy was closely connected with the socio-historical development of Greece during the period of early Hellenism. The crisis of the polis system and the formation of Hellenistic monarchies contributed to the strengthening of individualism. The persistence of the tendency toward collectivism was a consequence of the viability of the polis system and the foundation of numerous Greek polities in Hellenistic monarchies.

COSMOPOLITANISM AND PATRIOTISM IN EARLY HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY: SOCIO-HISTORICAL FACTOR

It is established that in Early Hellenistic philosophy the opposition between two tendencies – Patriotic and cosmopolitan increased. Patriotic values have retained their influence. The exponents of Patriotic ideas were Aristotle, Xenocrates, Anniceris, Menedemus, and partially the early stoics. At the same time, the positions of cosmopolitanism, which was represented in the philosophy of the cynics, the early Stoics, and Theodorus, also strengthened. It is also established that the formation of Hellenistic monarchies influenced the development of both tendencies. The rapprochement of the Greeks with the peoples of the East con-tributed to the spread of cosmopolitan ideas. And the Foundation of Greek cities in the Hellenistic States contributed to the preservation of Polis values, one of which was patriotism.

Cosmopolitanism and patriotism in greek philosophy during the early Hellenistic period

The article is devoted to the question of the correlation of cosmopolitanism and patriotism in the early Hellenistic philosophy. It is established that during this period in Greek philosophy the opposition between two tendencies – Patriotic and cosmopolitan increased. Patriotic values have retained their influence. The exponents of Patriotic ideas were Aristotle, Xenocrates, Anniceris, Menedemus, and partially the early stoics. At the same time, the positions of cosmopolitanism, which was represented in the philosophy of the cynics, the early Stoics, and Theodorus, also strengthened. It is also established that the formation of Hellenistic monarchies influenced the development of both tendencies. The rapprochement of the Greeks with the peoples of the East contributed to the spread of cosmopolitan ideas. And the Foundation of Greek cities in the Hellenistic States contributed to the preservation of Polis values, one of which was patriotism.

The Impact of Hellenistic Monarchy on Jewish Identity

Abstract The rise of “conversion,” i.e., the interpretation of Jewishness as an elective identity, is frequently described as a consequence of the advent of Hellenism. This article argues that while the main observations on the chronology and the nature of the phenomenon are correct, “Hellenism” as such cannot explain it. A more plausible context is the change of power relations in Judea after the interventions of Antiochus IV. When the depositions of legitimate high priests and the rise of the Hasmoneans called into question the value of genealogy as an ordering principle, the lessons learned were not limited to the political sphere.

О РОЛИ ГРЕЧЕСКОЙ ФИЛОСОФИИ В ФОРМИРОВАНИИ ЭЛЛИНИСТИЧЕСКИХ МОНАРХИЙ

The article deals with the question of the influence of Greek philosophy on the formation of Hellenistic monarchies. According to one point of view, theories of Greek philosophers on kingship played an important role in the formation of absolutism in the Hellenistic monarchies. It is believed that it is in the classical Greek philosophy that the ideas on absolute monarchy as the best state structure and on the legal rights of an outstanding person to royal power were developed. In the course of the study, the author infers that Greek philosophy did not have a significant impact on the formation of absolutism in Hellenistic monarchies. The Greek philosophers’ doctrines of kingship were significantly different from the type of power that was characteristic of the Hellenistic monarchies. Leading political philosophers of the IV century BC Plato and Aristotle were supporters of two types of monarchy: a moderate monarchy in which the royal power is limited by law and an absolute monarchy based on the exceptional virtue of the king. In the Hellenistic monarchies, the unlimited power of the king was originally associated with military-political power. At the same time, the author finds that Greek philosophy had an indirect influence on the formation of absolute monarchies in the period of early Hellenism. This influence consisted in the fact that Greek philosophers criticized the sociopolitical system of Greece and the main types of polity of the state – democracy and oligarchy. Plato and Aristotle sharply criticized extreme forms of oligarchy and democracy in their works. At the same time, as the author has established, philosophers were supporters of moderate democracy and oligarchy. The sophists, the cynics and the Cyrenaics also actively criticized the values and traditions of polis. Thus, Greek philosophers unwittingly contributed to the weakening of the polis and the formation of absolute monarchies. The author has also found that Greek philosophers influenced the formation of the enlightened character of the rule of individual Hellenistic kings. Philosophers contributed to the upbringing of high moral qualities in the Hellenistic kings. This influence was especially evident in Alexander the Great, Ptolemy I Soter, Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Antigonus II Gonatas. In the final part of the article, the author comes to the conclusion that the main role in the formation of absolute monarchies in the period of early Hellenism was played by the ancient Eastern political traditions, as well as by the nature of the formation of Hellenistic kingdoms and their ethnic composition.

Double Guardianship and Hellenistic Monarchy: Protecting the Person of Infant Kings

This article aims to present the institution of double guardianship of infant kings by pointing to the connection between appointment of more than one guardian and protection and upbringing of young monarchs. Multiple guardianship was an established practice in the setting of Greek poleis, which aimed at the protection of the ward’s person from untrustworthy guardians. In a royal context this institution emerged as a solution to the problems concerning Alexander’s succession after 323 BC. Nevertheless, there is a possibility that it was already known in Classical Macedonia in relation to the role of royal women, who acted as protectors of their children along with men who were appointed as regents. During the Hellenistic era double guardianship became very popular in the Ptolemaic kingdom. There it is connected with the loss of the queen mother, who could exercise guardianship for her royal son. Tutorship and guardianship were sometimes combined into one person, something that led influential tutors of young rulers to become the true administrators of the kingdom.

Disputes about Hellenism

The article is devoted to the issues of chronology, geography and the essence of Hellenism. The author of the article, being a supporter of Konstantin K. Zelyin’s concept, criticizes attempts to explain this phenomenon on the basis of the spread of Greek culture or the evolution of socio-political psychology. As a specific feature of this period, it is proposed to consider the combination of the Hellenistic polis and the ancient Eastern monarchy that underwent a serious transformation. Rather significant changes in the economic (a combination of classic slavery with the exploitation of the labor of dependent tenants, the development of commodity-money relations), socio-political (the emergence of the Hellenistic monarchy and the Hellenistic polis) and religious and cultural areas (dynastic cult, Greek-Eastern cultural synthesis) can be considered as the result of this interaction.

Феодор Безбожник и античный атеизм

It is established that Theodore’s anti-religious views were closely connected with his moral and ethical teaching. It is shown that all known ancient atheists, except Theodore, were inconsistent in their criticism of religious views. It is established that Theodore’s views on the gods and religion were formed in the conditions of the deepening crisis of the Greek polis and the formation of Hellenistic monarchies. It is concluded that Theodore was the most consistent and radical ancient atheist.

Установка на независимость от внешних обстоятельств в греческой философии в период раннего эллинизма

It is established that the desire for independence from external circumstances is not a common feature for Greek philosophy in the period of early Hellenism. The strengthening of this feature in the early Hellenistic philosophy was associated with the formation of Hellenistic monarchies. Recognition of dependence on external conditions, primarily on politics and friendship, was associated with the preservation of the policy system.

Греческая философия и образование эллинистических монархий

Греческая философия и образование эллинистических монархий

Sinologiczne tropy w dwóch powieściach Teodora Parnickiego

As the title suggests, the article focuses on Chinese traces and motifs in Teodor Parnicki’s prose. The considerations pertain to his historical novels Koniec “Zgody Narodow” and Slowo i cialo where the Chinese elements create extremely specific philosophical and cultural contexts. The analysis revolves around the contacts between ancient Chinese kingdoms and the Asian Hellenistic monarchies mentioned in both novels. As a result of the analysis, Parnicki is presented as a writer attempting to capture the psychological phenomenon of an individual meeting with the paradigm of a mysterious, highly distant civilisation.

Cypriot Autonomous Polities at the Crossroads of Empire: The Imprint of a Transformed Islandscape in the Classical and Hellenistic Periods

This article explores the relationship between power and cult, not in the age of the Cypriot city-kingdoms per se but rather in the context of a changing political landscape that eventually led to the abolition of the autonomous polities and the establishment of a new order by the Ptolemaic Empire. In particular, this contribution explores some of the Cypro-Classical kings' internal responses to the changing political map of the Mediterranean, suggesting a shift from eastern to western orientations and cultural and iconographic prototypes. Furthermore, it attempts to put Cyprus in a broader context of Hellenistic monarchies in the Mediterranean, considering the resulting transformations of the island's political geography and cultural identities. Finally, through the medium of sacred landscapes, this article explores the response of Cypriot populations (elite and non-elite) to Ptolemaic power and rule.

En torno al culto al gobernante y a Dea Roma en el Mundo Helenístico: Las póleis y la política de la reciprocidad

This work deals with the cults voluntarily offered to the Hellenistic monarchs and Dea Roma by the poleis of the Greek East. The issue of the isotheoi timai (statue, sacrifices and festivals) offered to the Hellenistic kings is analyzed from a historical point of view; and the creation of an original cult of Rome with similar characteristics is also taken into account. In this sense, we are interested in investigating the role that these cultural practices had in the establishment and development of the diplomatic relations between the Greek poleis and ethne with the Hellenistic kings and Rome. These two kinds of cults show continuities which reveal the strategic and pragmatic condition of these social practices. We believe that the study of this phenomenon will provide elements to set the active role of the poleis in the Hellenistic period within an international context characterized by the supremacy of the Hellenistic monarchies at the beginning, and of Rome at a later period.

Jewish Perspectives on Hellenistic Rulers. Edited by TESSA RAJAK, SARAH PEARCE, JAMES AITKEN, and JENNIFER DINES.

This collection of papers studying the images of Hellenistic monarchies as reflected in the Greek translation of the Old Testament and related Jewish writings is a first probe in a larger project by the editors (‘The Greek Bible in the Graeco-Roman World’) supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Board. As individual papers belonging to a colloquium organized in 2003, they do not all focus with the same sharpness on the title of the volume, nor do they all express the same opinion. It is also mostly the Ptolemies that are meant here, hardly followed by the Seleucids, and not at all by the Antigonids or the Attalids. The introduction by T. Rajak is a brave synthesis of what seems an uneven and inconclusive treatment, raising more questions than providing answers. But at the outset of a major investigation of an important and so far neglected subject, this is understandable.

The Hellenistic Royal Court. Court Culture, Ceremonial and Ideology in Greece, Egypt and the Near East, 336-30 BCE

In the Hellenistic empires of Alexander the Great and his successors in Greece, Egypt and the Near East, new forms of court culture and political ideology developed during the last three centuries BCE. Appropriated by Parthian kings and Roman emperors alike, the culture of these Macedonian courts eventually influenced the evolution of royal ideology and court culture in both western Europe and the Islamic East. In this first all-embracing study of the Hellenistic royal court the author endeavours to explain, among other things, the success and long life of Hellenistic royal culture. This study has a broad set-up. It discusses the social, cultural and formal aspects of court society, palace architecture, royal patronage of the arts and sciences, and monarchic representation. The focus is on the three principal Macedonian dynasties: the Antigonids (Macedonia and Greece), Ptolemies (Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean) and Seleukids (Asia Minor, the Near East and Iran). , In Chapter 1 (titled 'Court, kingship and ideology') the methodological en theoretical framework is set out, using recent literature about court culture, state formation and political representation in varying cultures and periods. Hellenistic kingship is defined by the centrality of war and conquest in both ideology and practice. Chapter 2 ('Palaces') discusses the architecture and decoration of royal residences, accentuating the ideological implications, particularly regarding the connection of (royal) palace and (autonomous) city. Chapter 3 ('Court society') discusses the social, formal and political aspects of the court: the courtiers (the so-called 'friends of the king'), the royal family, giving i.a. new interpretations of the position of the queen and the crown prince, as well as the dynamics of faction and succession strife. In Chapter 4 ('Cultural and scientific patronage') a new explanation is given for the remarkable fact that the artistic and scientific life, notably, but not exclusively, at the Ptolemaic Museum at Alexandria, was characterised by intellectual freedom and a preference for innovation, leading e.g. to the formulation of heliocentric theory in astronomy, the first steam engine, the empirical examination of the human vascular and nervous system, and the development of new forms of poetry and scholarship. This chapter also discusses cultural interaction and the significance of the 'Hellenism' of the courts for royal imperial rule. Chapter 4 ('Ritual and ceremonial') extensively deals with public representation: inauguration rituals, ceremonial entries into cities, religious festivals and processions. It will be shown that ritual and ceremonial emphasised the divinity of the ruler, particularly his role as a victorious saviour and bringer of peace, prosperity and order. In the last chapter ('Synthesis: A Golden Age') it is argued, contrary to prevailing opinion, that the Hellenistic monarchies followed the example of their Mesopotamian, Persian and Egyptian predecessors of claiming absolute rulership over world empires that knew no limits. As they also incorporated more 'individualistic' or 'western' aspects of kingship from Greco-Macedonian tradition, the Hellenistic empires developed a form of monarchical representation that was suitable to serve as the foundation for the imperial ideology of the Roman Empire succeeding them.

Nómos émpsychos. El tratado "De Iosepho" de Filón de Alejandría / Nómos émpsychos. The Treatise "De Iosepho" by Philo of Alexandria

Analysis of a capital text, De Iosepho (On Joseph), to understand the political philosophy of Philo of Alexandria. This autor, according to its religious creed (judaism) and its philosophy affinities (pythagoreanism, heracliteanism, platonism, aristotelianism, stoicism, pyrrhonism and neoplatonism), praises the monarchical state (the Theocracy of the Pentateuch would be the model, he hellenistic monarchies the copy), that reinterprets in terms of ethnos, religion and culture. The morarch should embody or to be the «Living Law» (Nomos Empsychos).

The Hellenistic monarchies: selected papers

The Hellenistic monarchies: selected papers