Shrinking the Afro Eurasian World, 350 BCE250 CE

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Shrinking the Afro Eurasian World, 350 BCE-250 CE
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Conquests of Alexander the Great, 334-323 BCE

• The Rise of the Macedonian Greek Territorial
  State
• Large Calvary, Disciplined phalanxes, full time
  army
• Conquests of the Persian Empire
• Forays into South and Central Asia

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Alexanders Foundations

• He died before he could create an empire
• He portrayed himself as a universalizing figure
• He founded many new cities, many that served as
  hubs of an emerging
• network of economic and cultural exchange
• He dispersed wealth of Persian Empire throughout
  the Mediterranean World
• Initiated the movement of a portable Hellenistic
  culture that brought regions together
• Hellenistic culture stimulated shifts and
  adjustments in regional culture with which it
  came into contact

4
Alexanders Successors New Territorial Kingdoms
(Map)

• Seleucid State
• Ptolemaic Egypt
• Antiginod State
• (Some City States)

These Territorial States sought to integrate
their subjects into a cultural whole Intense
competition between them (intense warfare
but also intricate diplomacy)
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The Hellenistic Cultural Package

• all who embraced Greek culture whether in Greek
  states or not
• An awesome cultural package
• A common language (koine Greek) (spoken by
  elites, merchants, bureaucrats)
• Cosmopolitan, multiethnic, immigrant cities
• all shared aspects of Hellenistic architecture,
  art, religion, philosophy, drama, entertainment
• Members of a broader world, not just of the city
• Hellenistic Philosophy and Religion
• New Cults and Schools of Philosophy focused on
  individuals
• Epicureans and the good life
• Stoics and being in control of ones passions
• Personal relationships with Gods and individual
  (not collective) salvation

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Hellenistic Images
Temple of Isis, Italy
Temple of Isis, Turkey
Ptolemaic Queen
Seleucid Queen
Mosaic, Cyprus
Hellenistic Theater, Turkey
Rosetta Stone, Egypt
Alexander Sarcophagus, Lebanon
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Hellenism in the Mediterranean World

• Hellenistic assumptions and attitudes unified
  social elites throughout the Mediterranean World
  (Carthaginians, Romans, Egyptians, Jews) and had
  strong echoes beyond.
• Jewish resistance/embracement of Hellenism
  (Maccabees)
• The economic and political forces unleashed by
  Alexander catalyzed the growth of territorial
  states in the Western Mediterranean and beyond
• The Emerging Roman Territorial State
• Using Hellenism for legitimacy
• The Expansion of Carthage and Embracement of
  Hellenism
• Hellenism and Nubia

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Echoes in The Mediterranean World, Third Century
BCE
The Growth of Plantation Slavery More use of
Money (Coins
Sources of Slaves
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Hellenistic Echoes in Central and South Asia
Afghanistan the center of the shortest and most
passable land routes between East, South, and
West Asia
Alexanders route His invasion set off a long
series of developments in both regions
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The Mauryan Empire

• After Alexander retreated from the Indus River
  Valley, the Mauryan dynasty from Northeastern
  India took advantage and united the Ganges and
  Indus River Valleys plus parts of Central Asia
  under one Empire
• Many Greeks remained in Afghanistan
• Mauryan Empire had close relationship
• with the Seleucid Kingdom to its west
• Empire expanded southward under
• Asoka (269-231 BCE)

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The Mauryan Empires Sponsorship of Buddhism

• Asoka built stupas and ruled according to
  Buddhist principles
• Asoka published these principles on pillars and
  rocks throughout the kingdom in local languages
  (some in Greek)
• Under the Mauryan, Greek and Persian styles
  strongly influenced South Asian material culture

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Greeks in Afghanistan, the Punjab, eastern Persia
(Iran)

• Alexander and Seleucid
• Kings build many cities and
• fortifications in this region
• Greek soldiers married local
• women and created new poli.
• These Greek cities used the
• Greek language and were
• remarkably Hellenic

Afghanistan
Eastern Iran
Punjab
Punjab mean five rivers a region today
divided between India and Pakistan
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The Bactrian Kingdom, 250 -130 BCE

• Breakaway Greek Kingdom covering parts of modern
  day Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Uzbekistan

The emergence of a Indo- Greek Culture A bridge
between the Mediterranean and South Asian
worlds Expansion into Indus region (known as
Gandhara) led to several smaller states ruled
by the Yavanna Kings Gandhara
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Ai Khanoum and other Hellenistic remains from
Central and South Asia
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Pastoral Nomadic Invasions (Again)
Emergence and expansion of Xiongnu Confederacy
sets displaced groups into Motion Parthians
take over Persia Saka, later Kushan Tribes take
over Centraland northwestern South Asia Map
Xiongnu Confederacy
Parthians
Yuezhi Kushan
Sakas
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Parthian and Kushan KingdomsSecond Century BCE
Second Century CE
Parthian Kingdom 247 BCE 224 CE
Kushan Kingdom 105-250 CE

• Pastoral, Central Asia traditions blend with
  Hellenistic and Buddhist culture
• Continued use of coins, Greek language for
  commerce and government (Kushans)
• New rulers taxed locals and facilitated trade-
  Brought their horse culture with them

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The Transformation of Buddhism

• India (South Asia) as a melting pot of ideas (300
  BCE-300 CE)
• Pastoral Kings (and Greek kings before)
  patronized local religions
• The rise of Mahayana Buddhism
• - Buddha as a diety
• - Bodhisattvas
• - Heavens or Buddha lands
• - less emphasis on achieving nirvana
• - more heavenly intervention

Buddha, Bodhisattvas, monks, devotees
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Mahayana Buddhism in the Kushan World A very
cosmopolitan religion

• A strong visual culture emerges as rulers and
  monks expanded upon and evangelized the new faith

Gandharan Art - the continued influence of
Hellenism
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Other Echoes of Alexander the formation of the
Silk Road

• The Silk Road was technically the overland routes
  linking Central and East Asia with Mediterranean
  Worlds
• In reality, the Silk Road was one major artery in
  a commercial system linking Central, South, East
  and Southwest Asia and the Mediterranean World.
• Also see
• Map 6.3,
• p. 260

The former cradles of the most highly developed
cultures, Egypt and Mesopotamia, were fading as
sources of innovation and knowledge, becoming
instead a crossroads for the peoples on either
side of them
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Long Distant Trade and Pastoral Nomads

• Steppe Peoples
• pioneered carrying goods over long distance
• developed immunities to many diseases because of
  exposure to various regions
• Learned to mediate between different cultures
• During the later part of the first millennium
  BCE, several groups formed states that
  facilitated long distance trade (state support
  for and encouragement)
• The Xiongu in Central and Inner Asia
• The Kushan in Central and South Asia

Xiongnu
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New Overland Commercial Networks led to the
emergence of Caravan Cities

• Petra and Palmyra entrepots on the Frontiers of
  the Roman Empire

Sabaeans (Arab speaking cultivators of incense)
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Petra supplying incense to Mediterranean World

• Nabateans (Arab speaking)
• Strong Hellenistic influence

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Palmyra replaces Petra during the first and
second century CE

• The Roman Empires entrepot for goods from
  Central, South, and East Asia
• Strong Hellenistic Influences

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China and the Silk Road

• Silk the most sought after commodity in
  Afro-Eurasia
• Chinese rulers used it to buy horses and cement
  relationships with steppe people
• The ultimate prestige good throughout Afro
  Eurasia
• The Silk Road propelled further economic
  development in China, but it remained relatively
  unknown to South Asians and Mediterranean peoples
  and relatively unaffected directly by Hellenism
• Land of Seres
• Booming trade would
• reshape China
• economically, socially,
• and politically

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Mahayana Buddhism spreads along the Silk Road

• Buddha is no longer a wise sage, but a deity that
  can be worshipped
• Local deities could become Bodhisattvas
• Buddhism gained strong following in Central Asia
  and gained a foothold in China
• Buddhist Monks accompanied merchants along trade
  routes
• Buddhism did not successfully challenge
  Zoroastrianism in Persia and never moved westward
• Zoroastrianism did expand to the East

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New Maritime Trade Routes

• The Red Sea and the Indian Ocean
• Monsoon Patterns
• Periplus
• Dhows
• Alexandria