ABSTRACT
Claire Préaux’s survey of Greek society and culture after Alexander, Le Monde hellénistique, takes as the title of its main part ‘Les grands entités’, subdivided into ‘Royales’ and ‘Urbaines’. She sees kings and cities as the two major components of the period, and with good reason. New power centres arose in the persons of the kings, but the old cities were not swept aside and new ones sprang up. These two institutions will form the framework of this chapter.
