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Ch. 6 Sec. 4The Spread of Hellenistic Culture

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Learning & Commerce• The conquests of Alexander the Great spread

Greek culture to Egypt, S.W. Asia, & India• Trade routes linked the Hellenistic world &

connected to China, India, & Arabia

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• Alexandria, Egypt – the largest city – became a leading commercial center

• Many cities built by Alexander became centers of learning

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• The library at Alexandria contained thousands of papyrus scrolls full of knowledge & literature of the Hellenistic world

• As people became prosperous, education spread & new values brought freer lifestyles

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• For example, women of the Hellenistic world appeared more often in public & won new property rights

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Religion & Philosophy• The Greek concept of the

polis declined in the new urban civilization

• For comfort, people turned to new religions & philosophies

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• Hellenistic Kings in Egypt & Asia encouraged ruler-worship, which gave people a new sense of civic duty to replace their role in the polis

• Some also turned to mystery religions, which introduced worshippers to secrets about the afterlife & these cults gave members a sense of control & belonging

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• Others turned to one of four schools of philosophy:

• 1. the Cynics taught that people should live simply, w/out seeking pleasure, wealth, or status

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• 2. the Skeptics believed that all knowledge is uncertain bcuz the world is changing & by accepting this fact, people can achieve peace of mind

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• 3. The Stoic philosophy, established by Zeno in the late 300s B.C. said that divine reason directs the world, so people should accept their fate w/out complaint. Stoics believed that each person has some “spark” of the divine

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• 4. Epicurean philosophy, founded by Epicurus, taught that the aim of life is to seek pleasure & avoid pain, & that people could avoid suffering by limiting their desires

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Science in the Hellenistic Age• Greeks became

outstanding scientists & mathematicians

• Many fields draw their basic understandings from Hellenistic discoveries

• Euclid helped develop geometry by showing how geometric statements flow logically

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• Archimedes, the greatest Hellenistic scientist, calculated the value of pi

• He also explained how levers work & invented many machines, including the Archimedes screw, which draws water upward

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Medicine• Alexandria was the center of

medicine, uniting Greek & Egyptian traditions

• From the Egyptian art of embalming, doctors learned to examine & catalog the human body

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Astronomy & geography• Scientists advanced in

astronomy, building on knowledge from Egypt & Babylon

• They tracked the movements of stars & planets using geometry

• Aristarchus believed that the earth & planets moved around the sun, but he failed to convince others

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• Hellenistic geographers knew the earth was round

• Eratosthenes calculated the distance around the earth w/ amazing accuracy, using the angle of the sun’s rays from different points on the globe

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• To learn anatomy, Alexandrian doctors studied the bodies of executed criminals

• They concluded that the brain is the center of the nervous system, plus, doctors learned to perform delicate surgery

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• One of the most brilliant mathematicians & astronomers of his time, he was asked to head the great Library of Alexandria