ABSTRACT
The Hellenistic world was a world of kings. From Sicily to Baktria and India there were only two substantial non-monarchical polities, in Aitolia and Achaia. West of the Adriatic, of course, there were also the great republics of Rome and Carthage and the cities of Sicily and southern Italy, but none of these impinged seriously on events to the east of the Adriatic until after 200 BC . Around the Aegean and Black Seas there were many cities which claimed autonomy, but many of these became subject in one way or another to a monarchy after Alexander’s time, and none had much weight diplomatically – it was usually a form of diplomacy which kept them under a monarch’s thumb.
