Anatolia The first properly Greek settlements in Anatolia originated shortly after the end of the Bronze age, around the 11th century BCE.
Mycenaean settlements at
Halicarnassus,
Miletus, and
Colophon existed before this, but Mycenaean colonization in the region was sporadic at best and not on the same scale as the later Greek colonization of Anatolia. These initial posts in the 2nd millennium BCE, however, were less colonies in the traditional sense and more akin to the
factories of the
Age of Discovery; that is, that they were trading posts initially established to conduct trade with Anatolian locals. By the beginning of the
Archaic period, settlement of Anatolia had begun to grow at a quick rate, and proper colonies in the traditional sense were established in the form of predominantly Greek city-states (, ). Extensive trade between mainland Greece and the Hellenistic portions of Anatolia was underway by the 8th to 7th centuries BCE, with fish, grain, timber, metal, and often slaves being exported from the land. It is believed that this kind of contact with the spread of Hellenistic culture, religion, and ideas in Anatolia was a peaceful process. Worship of the Greek pantheon of gods was practiced in Lydia. Lydian king
Croesus often invited the wisest Greek philosophers, orators and statesmen to attend his court. Croesus himself often consulted the famous oracle at Delphi-bestowing many gifts and offerings to this and other religious sites for example. He provided patronage for the reconstruction of the Temple of Artemis, to which he offered a large number of marble columns as dedication to the goddess. It was in the towns that Hellenization made its greatest progress, with the process often being synonymous with urbanization. Hellenization reached
Pisidia and
Lycia sometime in the 4th century BC, but the interior remained largely unaffected for several more centuries until it came under Roman rule in the 1st century BC.
Ionian,
Aeolian and
Doric settlers along Anatolia's Western coast seemed to have remained culturally Greek and some of their
city-states date back to the
Archaic Period. On the other hand, Greeks who settled in the southwestern region of Pisidia and Pamphylia seem to have been assimilated by the local culture.
Pisidia and Pamphylia Pamphylia is a plain located between the
highlands of
Lycia and
Cilicia. The exact date of Greek settlement in the region is not known; one possible theory is that settlers arrived in the region as part of
Bronze Age maritime trade between the
Aegean,
Levant and
Cyprus, while another attributes it to population movements during the instability of the
Bronze Age Collapse. The Greek dialect established in
Pamphylia by the Classical period was related to
Arcado-Cypriot.
Mopsus is a legendary founder of several coastal cities in southwestern Anatolia, including
Aspendos,
Phaselis,
Perge and
Sillyon. A bilingual
Phoenician and
neo-Hittite Luwian inscription found at
Karatepe, dated to 800 BC, says that the ruling dynasty there traced their origins to Mopsus. The
Iron Age Panemoteichos I may be an early precursor to later regional Hellenistic settlements including
Selge,
Termessos and
Sagalassos (believed to be the three most prominent cities of Hellenistic Pisidia). Many
Phrygian cult objects were Hellenized during the Hellenistic period, but worship of traditional deities like the Phrygian mother goddess persisted. Greek cults attested to include
Hermes,
Kybele, the
Muses and
Tyche. Most scholars date the establishment of the kingdom to 480 BC, when the
Archaeanactid dynasty assumed control of Panticapaeum, but classical archaeologist
Gocha R. Tsetskhladze has dated the kingdom's founding to 436 BC, when the
Spartocid dynasty replaced the ruling Archaeanactids.
Judea The Hellenistic
Seleucid and
Ptolemaic kingdoms that formed after Alexander's death were particularly relevant to the history of
Judaism. Located between the two kingdoms, Judea experienced long periods of warfare and instability.
Judea fell under Seleucid control in 198 BC. By the time
Antiochus IV Epiphanes came to rule Judea in 175 BC,
Jerusalem was already somewhat Hellenized. In 170 BC, both claimants to the High Priesthood,
Jason and
Menelaus, bore Greek names. Jason had established institutions of
Greek education and in later years Jewish culture started to be suppressed including forbidding
circumcision and observance of the
Sabbath. Hellenization of members of the Jewish elite included names and clothes, but other customs were adapted by the rabbis, and elements that violated the
halakha and
midrash were prohibited. One example is the elimination of some aspects of Hellenistic banquets, such as the practice of offering
libations to the gods, while incorporating certain elements that gave the meals a more Jewish character. Discussion of
Scripture, the singing of sacred songs and attendance of students of the
Torah were encouraged. One detailed account of Jewish-style Hellenistic banquets comes from
Ben Sira. There is literary evidence from
Philo about the extravagance of Alexandrian Jewish banquets, and
The Letter of Aristeas discusses Jews dining with non-Jews as an opportunity to share Jewish wisdom.
Syria Greek art and culture reached
Phoenicia by way of commerce before any Greek cities were founded in Syria, but the Hellenization of Syrians was not widespread until it became a
Roman province. Under Roman rule in the 1st century BC, there is evidence of Hellenistic style funerary architecture, decorative elements, mythological references, and inscriptions. However, there is a lack of evidence from Hellenistic Syria; concerning this, most scholars view it as the case that the "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence".
Bactria and India The
Bactrians, an Iranian ethnic group who lived in
Bactria (northern
Afghanistan), were Hellenized during the reign of the
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and soon after various tribes in northwestern regions of the
Indian subcontinent underwent Hellenization during the reign of the
Indo-Greek Kingdom.
Egypt Thrace Magna Grecia Parthia , a
Hellenistic figure or deity, from the Parthian royal residence and necropolis of
Nisa, Turkmenistan, 2nd century BC of
Mithridates I, showing him wearing a beard and a royal
diadem on his head. Reverse side:
Heracles/
Verethragna, holding a club in his left hand and a cup in his right hand; Greek inscription reading ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΑΡΣΑΚΟΥ ΦΙΛΕΛΛΗΝΟΣ "of the Great King Arsaces the
Philhellene"|alt=Two sides of a coin. The side on the left showing the head of a bearded man, while the right a standing individual. showing Hellenistic influences
Arabia Parts of
pre-Islamic Arabia were partially influenced by Greeks. Hellenization first reaches the peninsula in the 3rd century BC, in Eastern Arabia, shown by the amphorae in that region that came from
Rhodes and
Chios. In South Arabia, Hellenization begins in the 2nd or 1st centuries BCE, around the time of the last of the kings of
Qataban. In the resurgent period of the South Arabian
Kingdom of Awsan, during the 2nd or 1st centuries BCE, an evolution of the iconography of the kings is seen: they are transformed from wearing traditional South Arabian clothing to being shown dressed as a Roman citizen would, with curly hair and wearing a toga. At the
Kingdom of Saba, the traditional Near Eastern norms of iconographic depictions of the gods give way to Roman and Hellenistic anthropomorphic styles around the turn of the Christian era. Recently, Latin inscriptions have revealed a Roman military presence as far south as the
Farasan Islands, in southwestern
Saudi Arabia. In 106 CE, the
Roman Empire conquered the northwest Arabian
Nabataean Kingdom and they set up a province called
Arabia Petraea (Roman Arabia). By this time, Roman rule had already long been imposed on Arabic-speaking populations in
Syria, the
Transjordan, and
Palestine. The new conquests had extended this rule to northwest Arabia, including the northern parts of the
Hejaz. Archaeological finds of Roman military encampments have been made at
Hegra (Mada'in Salih), located today in the
Medina Province of
Saudi Arabia, and at Ruwafa, as shown by the second-century Greek-Arabic bilingual
Ruwafa inscriptions. The
Letter of the Archimandrites dating to 569/570, composed in Greek but preserved in Syriac, demonstrating the presence and distribution of episcopal sees from its 137
Archimandrite signatories from the province of Roman Arabia.
Safaitic inscriptions mention the
Roman emperor. Arabic-speaking tribes were gradually converting to Christianity or becoming
foederati of the emperor, resulting in increasing integration into the Roman world over time. In the mid-sixth century, for example,
Justinian I was closely allied with the
Ghassanids, a Hellenized Christian Arab kingdom. In Central Arabia, statues of Greek deities like
Artemis,
Heracles, and
Harpocrates have been discovered have been found at
Qaryat al-Faw, the former capital of the
Kingdom of Kinda. == Early Christianity ==