Society and Power in the Hellenistic Age

This course explore the Hellenistic world (not to be confused with the “Hellenic world”)— the spaces and communities in the Mediterranean, Africa and Western Asia, in the centuries following the destruction of the Achaimenid empire. The themes studied include the formation of large tributary empires, and their strategies for implementing control; local political agency; cultural interaction, within frameworks of imperial power, between Greek and non-Greek; social relations; economic history; and more. This world seems created by a historical accident, but might equally be described as the result of deep structural features (the convergence of polis institutions, the rise of a connected economy, the spread of Greek cultural forms). The interpretation of this extraordinary period has been influenced by a number of factors, some intrinsic to the field (the availability of rich documentary evidence), some extrinsic (the rise and fall of European colonialism); it also has been characterised by paradigm shifts (from decline to vitality to diversities). This course will offer the occasion to test paradigms of “globalization” across many ancient contexts. It will do so by close reading of courses, broader surveys, and constant engagement with historical problems. Its main focus will be on the third and early second centuries BCE (“high Hellenistic period”), with some attention paid to the following century. The historian Polybios (ca. 200 BCE-after 118 BCE) will serve as a guide for both periods, especially his narrative of the year 217 BCE which culminates in the narrative of the battle of Raphia (as well as the arrival of the Roman Republic on the political scene of the Eastern Mediterranean).

The course aims to achieve the following goals. First, to impart familiarity with events in a crucial period of ancient history. Second,  to impart with the physical, historical, and human geographies of the area covered by the “Hellenistic world”— in the longue durée. This means spaces and regions from Spain to Central Asia: ancient Afro-Eurasia.Thirdly, to learn how to read fragmentary or indirect sources, often documentary, and in conjunction with material and visual evidence. Fourthly, to read historical studies by modern scholars, evaluate academic argument (notably in the deployment of evidence but also of theoretical models), and to produce historical argument in exams and paper. Fifthly, to evaluate the history of the Hellenistic age from a