ABSTRACT
Alexander, who became king of Macedonia in 336, took up the plans his murdered father Philip II had been unable to realise and brought them to a successful conclusion. His conquests ushered in a new phase in the history of Greece as well as that of the ancient Near East. That phase is called the ‘Hellenistic age’. After Alexander’s death, the lack of a suitable successor almost immediately led to the break-up of his empire into smaller states. The cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis for example became quite widespread in the Hellenistic world and later also in the Roman world. Indigenous historians wrote about the history and culture of their own lands in Greek, the world language of the Hellenistic world. The parts of the Hellenistic world that came under Roman sway continued to feel the influence of Greek culture for a long time yet.
