The Rise of the Hellenistic Kingdoms, 336-250 BC

by Philip Matyszak

The author of 24 Hours in Ancient Athens"tells the powerful story of how Greek history survived the meteor of Alexander and his brief world empire" (Firetrench).

When Alexander the Great died in 323 BC, he left an empire that stretched from the shores of the Adriatic to the mountains of Afghanistan. This empire did not survive Alexander's death, and rapidly broke into several successor states. These states, substantial kingdoms in their own right, dominated Asia Minor, Greece, the Levant and Egypt for the next three hundred years.

While Philip Matyszak's narrative covers their remarkable contribution of the Eastern Greeks in fields such as philosophy, science and culture, the main focus is on the rivalry, politics and wars, both civil and foreign, which the Hellenistic rulers constantly fought among themselves. As in other fields, the Successor Kingdoms were innovators in the military and diplomatic field. Indeed, their wars and diplomatic skirmishes closely presage those of eighteenth-century Europe and the superpower rivalries of the twentieth century. The complex interaction of these different kingdoms, each with its own character and evolving military systems, combined geopolitics and grand strategy with diplomatic duplicity, and relentless warfare. The epic story of the successor states is full of flawed heroes, palace intrigue, murder, treachery, incest, rebellion and conquest.

Genres: History, Greece, Ancient History, Nonfiction

184 pages, ebook

Published November 19, 2019

About the author

Philip Matyszak is a British nonfiction author, primarily of historical works relating to ancient Rome. Matyszak has a doctorate in Roman history from St. John's College, Oxford. In addition to being a professional author, he also teaches ancient history for Madingley Hall Institute of Continuing Education, Cambridge University.

Reviews

[Christopher]

Matyszak seems best when talking about this era in general, which is good for me since its my favorite historical era (before the rise of the Turkic-Mongol people anyway). I expect this one will be much more fun to read than its sequel when we have to see this world dismantled by the gentrification of that was Rome.

[Jim]

There is a lot more to Greece beyond the Classical Greece of the 5th century BC. What happened was, because of Alexander the Great's conquests, Greek soldiers, sailors, and merchants became very much in demand -- from Gibraltar to the Indus. By the time the Romans conquered Greece and Macedonia around 200 BC, there weren't enough Greeks present to challenge the Roman legions effectively.

Philip Matyszak's The Rise of the Hellenistic Kingdoms, 336-250 BC covers a period known to few Americans and Western Europeans. After Alexander died, his conquests were not all frittered away. Instead, three Hellenic kingdoms resulted: Macedonia, including Greece; the Seleucan Empire, consisting of Asia Minor, Babylon, Sogdiana, Bactria and other Asian kingdoms; and Egypt, ruled by the Greek Ptolemies. As Matyszak writes at one point:

The war is known as the Babylonian War, and it happened so far to the east that few later Greek historians took much interest in it. (This is a common issue with the history of the Hellenistic kingdoms. Despite the fact that almost half of Alexander’s conquests were in the East, and included lands as rich and important as any to the west, the interest of later historians seems to have stopped dead at the banks of the River Euphrates. For the ethnocentric Greeks and Romans, what happened beyond the banks of that river was almost literally in another world.

Matyszak covers not only the period after Alexander's death, but also includes a chapter on Macedonia before Alexander III (the Great) and two chapters on Alexander's conquests. The Hellenistic period is in many ways a confusing one, with all those Alexandrias, Ptolemies, Antiochuses, Seleucas, and other infinitely repeating Greek place and person names. Matyszak does a good job of clarifying the period.

[Sean]

An excellent work for what it sets out to do, which is a compact introduction to the Hellenistic Kingdoms, how they came to be and how they attempted to build structures to survive. Very readable, enough detail to be interesting but not so much to be overwhelming.

[Jack Long]

This was a great read! Philip Matyszak's witty writing style really made his history a lot more accessible than some other history books I've read!

This book was a great overview of a period that can often be quite arcane and confusing to wrap one's head around. I have always found the Hellenistic period to be fascinating and I love the way Matyszak is able to synthesise the wide array of complex characters and events into an easy to read history.

Of course this clarity comes at the expense of some historiographical and narrative depth, but that is clearly not the design of this book.

I do lament that some of my favourite characters from this time were short shrifted, such Eumenes. I did think Matyszak was a little harsh in his treatment of Olympias, though perhaps this is only fair given his commendable willingness to portray Alexander as a darker historical figure.

However, I did particularly love his overviews of the Ptolemies and Seleucids, and the way their kingdoms shaped and were shaped by the era.

Overall a very accessible history and a reasonably enjoyable read.

[Guilherme]

A really fine book, though I've come to expect that from Maty. The story is a mess, and I challenge anyone to keep all of the dynastic marriages/assassinations/invasions separate, but Maty does as good a job as can be done. As an aside, I really agree with Maty that the little we have of Hellenistic art leaves the Classical stuff in the dust... Nike of Samothrace, Dying Gaul, Laocöon? Beautiful.

One issue is that the publisher, Pen & Sword, needs to get its act together" There are some pretty crazy typos, including some dates being off by 100 years and at least one mix-up of Antigonus and Antiochus. Besides this, the maps are god-awful. They look like they were made by hand in MS Paint, printed off from a dot-matrix printer, and scanned back in.

[David Cuatt]

Exceptionally well written book about this very important period in the history of Western Civilization. The author hits a nice balance between facts and readability that made this a pleasure. I will certainly look for more titles by him.

[Evan]

Decent primer/pop history if you know nothing about the era. If you have even a cursory knowledge about the Hellenistic period (which, to be fair, most don’t) it’s a bit shallow and overly broad. Not a bad read but I got little new out of it.

[Ian Willey]

Added to my knowledge of the period and was interesting to read