Just as Alexander left much destruction in his wake, he and his successors also founded cities that spread the best features of Greek civilization and served as new markets and ports for Greece. Although he had envisioned a vast empire, Alexander did not plan for an heir. Alexander’s wife Roxane gave birth to his son a few months after he died (the boy was murdered in 310 B. C.E.), but the lands he conquered were divided up among his top commanders.
Alexander’s generals formed three new kingdoms that roughly encompassed the areas of his conquests. Antigonus (c. 382-301 b. c.e.) and his son Demetrius (c. 336-283 B. C.E.) became king and heir to the throne of Macedon and maintained control over Greece-which was nominally independent. Seleucus (c. 358-281 b. c.e.) took over what had been the Persian Empire. Ptolemy (c. 367-282) became king of Egypt. Their descendants would inherit these kingdoms until the Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean world.
The city-states of Greece were no longer independent entities. Like their neighbors in other ancient civilizations, they were now part of one large kingdom. And because of Alexander, their culture became the foundation of what is today called the Hellenistic Age. (The term was coined by 19th-century historians to describe the 293 years between Alexander’s death and 30 b. c.e., when the last of the Hellenistic kingdoms fell to the Roman Empire.)
Much of the wealth grabbed from the Persian Empire by Alexander was now divided up among the three kingdoms, boosting their economies
And providing employment through extensive public works projects. By the third century B. C.E. the Greek language had become the common language of international relations from Egypt and Jerusalem up to the Black Sea in the north and to the border of modern-day India in the east, greatly facilitating the exchange of ideas throughout the Hellenistic world. Much like the colonial period of archaic Greece (750 to 500 b. c.e.), Greek immigrants moved to the cities in these Hellenistic kingdoms, exchanging cultural and social ideas with the local peoples.
World History
