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On Alexander the Great’s deathbed, he was asked to whom he bequethed his Kingdom. Alexander’s reply was garbled, he may have said ‘Craterus’, his most senior general. However Craterus was not around at the time, Alexander’s other generals interpreted his reply as ‘Krat'eroi’ (“to the strongest”).
Alexander’s generals, known as the Diadochi, squabbled amongst themselves over who was the rightful heir to the throne. Originally at least 9 of the Diadochi vied for control of different parts of the Empire in a series of conflicts known as the Wars of the Diadochi. By 310 BC there were just 5 Diadochi rulers left: Cassander in Macedonia, Lysimachus in Thrace, Antigonus in the Near East, Anatolia and portions of Southern Greece, Seleucus in Mesopotamia and Persia, and Ptolemy in Egypt (see 310 BC map).
Conflicts between the Diadochi continued, Antigonus and his son Demetrius invaded the territories of Lysimachus and Cassander and seized control of the European portions of the Empire, but were eventually defeated in Anatolia by Seleucus and driven out of Asia. By 270 BC, there were just 3 Diadochi Dynasties left, their territories roughly divided between the three continents that the Empire straddled: the Antigonids in Europe; the Seleucids in Asia; and the Ptolemies in Egypt (see 270 BC map).
Whilst none of the Diadochi, nor their successors were ever able to unite Alexander’s Empire, domestically Greek Culture flourished. The Diadochi rulers prudently promoted the intermingling of Greeks with the local peoples in their Kingdoms, leading to a fusion of East with West. Many Greeks settled in the Near East and Egypt, and Greek became the Lingua Franca of the Eastern Mediterranean. The city of Alexandria in Egypt, with its Great Library, became the world center of learning. This period of Greek cultural expansion is known as the Hellenistic Age.
In the Second Century BC, the newly emerging Empires of Rome in the West, and Parthia in the East began to encroach into the Hellenistic World (see 130 BC map), the Diadochi Kingdoms failed to unite against these threats, and one by one they fell. The Romans first conquered Macedonia and Greece, then they took what was left of the Seleucid Kingdom after the Parthians had already overrun most of it. Finally, the Romans conquered Egypt after Octavian’s war with Anthony and Cleopatra, the last Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt.
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