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When Alexander died in 323 B.C., he left no legitimate heir to
succeed him. His nearest male relative was a feeble-minded half-brother.
Tradition relates that when his friends requested him on his deathbed to
designate a successor, he replied vaguely, "To the best man." After his death
his highest ranking generals proceeded to divide the empire among them. Some of
the younger commanders contested this arrangement, and a series of wars followed
which culminated in the decisive battle of Ipsus in 301 B.C. The result of this battle was
a new division among the victors. Seleucus took possession of Persia,
Mesopotamia, and Syria; Lysimachus assumed control over Asia Minor and Thrace;
Cassander established himself in Macedonia; and Ptolemy added Phoenicia and
Palestine to his original domain of Egypt. Twenty years later these four states
were reduced to three when Seleucus defeated and killed Lysimachus in battle and
appropriated his kingdom. In the meantime most of the Greek states had revolted
against the attempts of the Macedonian king to extend his power over them. By
banding together in defensive leagues several of them succeeded in maintaining
their independence for nearly a century. Finally, between 146 and 30 B.C.
nearly all of the Hellenistic
territory passed under Roman rule.
The dominant form of government in
the Hellenistic Age was the despotism of kings who represented themselves as at
least
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semi-divine. Alexander
himself was hailed as divine in Egypt. His most powerful successors, the
Seleucid kings in Western Asia and the Ptolemies in Egypt, made more systematic
attempts to deify themselves. A Seleucid monarch, Antiochus IV, adopted the
title "Epiphanes" or "God Manifest." The later members of the dynasty of the
Ptolemies signed their decrees "Theos" (God) and revived the practice of sister
marriage which had been followed by the Pharaohs as a means of preserving the
divine blood of the royal family from contamination. Only in the kingdom of
Macedonia was despotism tempered by a modicum of respect for the liberties of
the citizens.
Two other political institutions developed as by-products of
Hellenistic civilization: the Achaean and Aetolian Leagues. We have already seen
that most of the Greek states rebelled against Macedonian rule following the
division of Alexander's empire. The better to preserve their independence,
several of these states formed alliances among themselves, which were gradually
expanded to become confederate leagues. The states of the Peloponnesus, with
the exception of Sparta and Elis, were united in the Achaean League, while the
Aetolian federation included nearly all of central Greece with the exception of
Athens. The organization of these leagues was essentially the same in both
cases. Each had a federal council composed of representatives of the member
cities with power to enact laws on subjects of general concern. An assembly
which all of the citizens in the federated states could attend decided questions
of war and peace and elected officials. Executive and military authority was
vested in the hands of a general, elected for one year and eligible for
re-election only in alternate years. Although these leagues are frequently
described as federal states, they were scarcely more than confederacies. The
central authority, like the government of the American States under the
Articles of Confederation, was dependent upon the local governments for
contributions of revenue and troops. Furthermore, the powers delegated to the
central government were limited primarily to matters of war and peace, coinage,
and weights and measures. The chief significance of these Leagues is to be found
in the fact that they embodied the principle of representative government and
constituted the nearest approach ever made in Greece to voluntary national
union.
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