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197-154 BC Mega update.
Well it took me some days but the update is kind of huge! 43 years mega update!
I hope that you like it and sorry in advance for my bad english!
Major events 197-154 BC
197 BC
By place :
Massaliot League
Under Anastasios the military expedition to the Soninke lands was successful. The Soninke people were divided to clans, a confederation of independent, freely allied, “states” that were easily manipulated/defeated by Anastasios professional army. After two years all the lands of the Soninke people were under Anastasios control( under three major vassals).
Rome
After the defeat in the War against Massalia, Rome was in a political turmoil. One faction was decidedly pro-Massaliot league. They desired to tight their relationship with the league and to emulate them. The other main faction was opposed to close ties with the league and interested to emphasise their Roman-ness, their own identity, opposed to the hated foe.
Pyu kingdom
The first literate and urban civilization of South East Asia has now appeared, in Burma. This is linked to the Pyu kingdom, which, lying across the trade routes between China and India which pass down the Irrawaddy river system to the Indian Ocean, has received influences from both these great civilizations. The kingdom seems to be a confederacy of small states under a royal overlord based in the city of Pyu. According to Chinese records, the Pyu culture is strongly Buddhist by religion, and is noted for its emphasis on humane values.
Eschatia/Sri lanka
The marriage of Agathocles with the daughter of the king of the Ruhuna kingdom was crucial for the Eschatians. With Ruhuna as allies, Agathocleus found the opportunity to strengthen his position in the area. The Eschatians were few in numbers( 7000 greeks plus around 5000 hellienised Persians/Indians) but they did have quite a few specialised people (statemans,engineers,architects etc) and a strong fleet. The marriage of Agathocles with the daughter of the king of the Ruhuna kingdom was crucial for them cause they now had the work force that they desperately needed. At the same time they also strengthen their position in the area. They started mint coins, built a wall around Eschatia and in 187 BC they send their first trade/diplomatic convoy to the Ptolemaic holdings in Arabia. Another purpose of this trip was to invite greek cleruchs to Eschatia. The attempts to find Greek settlers failed miserably but over the next 10 years more than 5000 Helenised Arabs settled in Eschatia mostly as mercenaries .
196 BC
By place:
Rome
Gnaeus Licinius leader of the pro-Massalia party was murdered by representatives of the senate with 3,000 of his supporters on Capitoline Hill in Rome. Scipio appointed dictator shortly after. Scipio immediately began pushing for a programme of reforms, partly due to the heavy losses of Romans during the last war. He proposed and passed a law which granted citizenship rights to several Rome's Italian allies. This lead to a civil war.
Ptolemaic empire
By place :
Diodotian empire
By place :
Macedonia
Scipio prevailed in the roman civil war. After the end of the war, Scipio set out to pass an ambitious legislative agenda. He ordered a census be taken, which forced a reduction in the grain dole. He passed a sumptuary law that restricted the purchase of certain luxuries. After this, he passed a law that rewarded families for having many children, to speed up the repopulation of Italy. Then, he outlawed professional guilds, except those of ancient foundation, since many of these were subversive political clubs. Finally he passed a debt-restructuring law, which ultimately eliminated about a fourth of all debts owed.
191 BC
By place :
Macedonia/Epirus
190 BC
By place:
Ptolemaic empire
By place:
Greece
By place:
Ptolemaic empire/Seleucid empire
Ptolemy IV dies. Ptolemy V rises to the throne at the age of 26. Antiochus III invades to claim the throne of Egypt for his son Alexander-Ptolemy. The Ptolemaic forces repel easily the Seleucid army. The professional and “fanatic” black shields troops are no much for the Seleucid army.
186 BC
By place:
Ptolemaic empire/Seleucid empire
After five years of war, Dimitrios of Macedon gives a final blow to the Spartan forces near Argos. After that, Sparta was forced to accept a harsh peace treaty .Sparta lost her holdings in South Italy, Aetolia and Boeotia. Dimitrios also imposed a war indemnity of 8,000 talents. The same year, Rhodians took the opportunity to plunder the Spartan holdings in Crete.
Diodotian empire
By place:
Rome/Italy
The Suebi, a Germanic tribe, comprising about 40,000 warriors, coming from the North , marched South in a great expedition to Italy. Despite the numerous envoys from the Boii tribe, Massaliot league didn’t provide help to them. After the pillage of the Boii lands, the Suebi stopped and settle in the area. When some of them decided to advance again, towards central Italy, they were easily repulsed by Scipio.
Eschatia/Sri lanka
The king of Bindushuka dies of old age. Protagoras, the young son of Agathocles and Bindushuka’s daughter, is the new king, with Agathocles his regent. Not everybody from the nobles of Ruhana likes this outcome. In an assassination attempt Agathocles is saved the last moment from troops of his loyal Arabian mercenaries. The next days several Ruhana nobles were arrested and killed.
Ptolemaic empire/Seleucid empire
By place:
Ptolemaic empire
By place:
Massaliot league
Dynatoi company dispatched Nearchos at the head of a fleet of 60 ships to explore and colonise South of Astypylaia. He sailed South, founded two trade hub colonies along the African coast and explored significantly farther along the Atlantic coast of the continent. Nearchos encountered various indigenous peoples on his journey and met with a variety of welcomes.
During Nearchos voyage, the explorer found a land heavily populated with what were described as hirsute and savage people. Attempts to capture the males failed, but several of the females were taken. A carthaginian travelling with Nearchos realised that this was Gorillai(gorillas).
Rome
By place:
Bosporus kingdom
Hard Pressed by the Bastarnae, 200000 scythians with more than 60000 warriors began migrating to Bosporus lands. Later this year Olbia and several other Greek towns are burned to the ground from the Scythian horde.
181 BC
By place:
Bosporus kingdom
With reinforcements from Pergamon,Macedonia and 5000 Thracian Gauls mercenaries, Bosporus Kingdom managed to repel the Scythians near Kalos Limin. This invasion crippled the Bosporus kingdom and basically transform it to a client state of Pergamon.
Trinovantes kingdom/Bretannike
Imanuentius, king of the Trinovantes kingdom dies. Between 195-184 BC he managed to aggressively expand his kingdom considerably, with several successful expeditions against the neighborhood tribes of Dobunnin,Coritani and Cantiaci. His son, the new king, Braventius, a completely Hellenised man,was a great fan of the stories of Pytheas. One of the first things he ordered as a king, was an expedition to the North to establish contact with Thule(Iceland).
180 BC
By place:
Ptolemaic empire
By place:
Diodotian empire/Xiongnu
The Xiongnu led by one of Modu's tribal chiefs, invaded Yuezhi territory and achieved a crushing victory. Modu boasted in a letter to the Han emperor that due to "the excellence of his fighting men, and the strength of his horses, he has succeeded in wiping out the Yuezhi, slaughtering or forcing to submission every number of the tribe." The son of Modu,Laoshang Chanvu , subsequently killed the king of the Yuezhi and, in accordance with nomadic traditions, "made a drinking cup out of his skull."
Exodus of the Great Yuezhi
After this disaster, the Yuezhi split into two groups. The Lesser or Little Yuezhi (Xiao Yuezhi) moved to the southern mountains, on the edge of the Tibetan plateau.The so-called Great or Greater Yuezhi (400000 people with more than 100000 able to bear arms) began migrating west, settling in the Northern parts of Diodotian empire, where they defeated the small Diodotian garrisons.
175 BC
By place:
Massaliot league
Diodotus III marched North to meet the Yuezhi with a grand army of 70000 infantry, 12000 horsemen and more than 700 elephants. In a massive battle in North East Bactria the two armies suffered heavy losses and the battle ended in a stalemate. With his army weakened and fearing rebellions within his empire, Diodotus III signed a peace treaty with the Yuezhi “allowing” them to settle in East Sogdiana.
Ptolemaic empire
Ptolemy V impressed by the stories of the Massaliot league in West Africa, orders an expedition to explore the lands South of the Cushites. A new trade colony Ptolemia founded later this year by the Ptolemaic expedition in modern day Tanzania(two days travel south of the Menouthias islands )
172 BC
By place:
Diodotian empire
By place:
Ptolemaic empire
By place:
Massaliot league
By place:
Ptolemaic empire
Ptolemy V dies. The new king Ptolemy VI rises to the throne at the age of 21. Ptolemy VI focused much of his attention on diplomacy(he establish formal relations with Diodotian empire), trade and enhancing the cultural life of the empire, ordering theatres built and promoting athletic games.
Carthage/Numibia
Constant low-level warfare persisted between Carthage and Numidia, Carthage had lost most of her African territories and the Numibians traded independently with the Greeks. In 165 BC Numidia launched another border raid on Carthaginian soil, besieging the Punic town of Utica, and Carthage launched a large military expedition (20,000 soldiers) to repel the Numibian invaders. As a result, Carthage suffered a military defeat and was now basically a city state.
Pergamon
Protagoras decides to support Pandyas kingdom defensive war against the Chola kingdom. Although dominant in the sea, the war ended in a stalemate after couple of years. To celebrate the successful repel of the Cholas, Protagoras send an ambassador in Pandyas capital to erect a monument. The monument was a pillar with an inscription* in Brahmi script /Greek and a sculpture of Garuda on the top.
* This Garuda-standard of Vasudeva Zeus, the God of Gods
was erected here by the devotee Heliodoros,
the son of Dionysus, a man of Eschatia,
sent by the Great Greek(Yona) King
Protagoras, as ambassador to
King Lesiputra Bhagabhadra
161 BC
By place:
Diodotian empire
Memnon crush a rebellion in his indian territories,enslaves 250000 indians from Pataliputra and resettles the town with Yuezhi and Hellenised Bactrians-indians. A large part of the slaves were used to build an imperial road connecting Bactra with Patalipurta
Ptolemaic empire
By place:
Massaliot league
Chalkis, the Massaliot league colony in the Baltic is burned to the ground. A greek survivor told the following to the people of Aktio(league’s colony in modern day Sweden):
Having gained possession of the colony and of a huge amount of booty, the enemy seemed driven by some strange and unusual animus. They completely destroyed everything they had captured, clothing was cut to pieces and strew about,gold and silver were thrown into the river and men, with nooses fastened around their necks were hanged from the trees.
Ptolemaic empire
By place:
Diodotian empire
By place:
Massalia/Rome
After several raids within Roman territory,within the last few years, Rome decided to deal with the Suebi tribe once and for all. Massalia showed displeasure with Rome’s decision to wage war against its neighbour without Massalia’s consent, and told Rome that in order to avoid a war it had to “satisfy the Massaliot league.”
Eschatia/Sri lanka
Massaliot League analysis and data.
Culture
With the invention of proto-paper back in 203 BC by Nearchos of Massalia, the small private libraries in Massaliot league rise up from a few hundreds up to couple of thousands by 150 BC. Also three rather small museums/“universities” were built during this period. In Carthago Nova(182 BC), in Tolosa 164(BC) and in Naucratia(158 BC). The easier spread of knowledge,the stability and the great wealth of Massaliot league triggered a major boom in art and science.
Architecture:
Until the end of the 3th century BC, ancient Greek architecture of the most formal type, for temples and other public buildings, was divided stylistically into three”orders”. These were: the Doric order,the Ionic order and the Corinthian order , the names reflecting their regional origins within the Greek world. Early in the 2th century BC a new order developed in Massalia.
The Massalian Order
The Massalian Order although have its origin in Ionic order, it was heavily influenced from the Corinthian order and was initially of much the same style and proportion,but around 190-180 BC added a number of refinements and decorative details inspired mostly from Gaul artefacts.
Magna Graecia architecture school
The widespread use of concrete( mostly in Magna Graecia) in the League’s architecture enabled the often use of the previously little-used architectural forms of the arch and dome.
Art:
Tessera mosaic
On his return from Greece (195 BC), the wealthy trader Galenos brought back , the tessera mosaic. This new tiling method took the league by storm and in the league’s wealthiest homes joined murals in decorating floors, walls. This new technique used tiny teaser, typically cubes of 4 millimeters or less, and was produced in workshops in relatively small panels which were transported to the site glued to some temporary support. The tiny tessera cubes allowed very fine detail, and an approach to the illusionism of painting.
Sculpture
During this period, sculpture again experienced a shift towards increasing naturalism. Common people, women, children, animals(around 150 BC Gorillas were a major trent in Massaliot league), and domestic scenes became acceptable subjects for sculpture, which was commissioned by wealthy families for the adornment of their homes and gardens. Realistic figures of men and women of all ages were produced, and sculptors no longer felt obliged to depict people as ideals of beauty or physical perfection. At the same time, new Hellenistic cities springing up in West Africa,Egypt,middle east,Bactria,etc required statues depicting the gods and heroes of Greece for their temples and public places. This made sculpture, like pottery, an industry, with the consequent standardisation and (some) lowering of quality. Alongside the natural shift towards naturalism, there was a shift in expression of the sculptures as well. Sculptures began expressing more power and energy during this time period. Aphrodisios a Greek-Gaul from Tolosa was famous for his full of energy sculptures. His statue “Soldier fighting gorrila” has been a prototypical icon of this school.
Theatre
The primary Hellenistic theatrical form of the era was not tragedy but New comedy, comic episodes about the lives of ordinary citizens. In Massalia although, a new form of tragedy appeared around 160 BC influenced by Gallic tragic stories and legends. A playwright of Brenotas* “Cursed by Sucellos” (Sucellus) was the biggest hit of the era.
Another major development in Massaliot leagues theatres, was the highly detailed Pinakes(pictures hung to create scenery) and the rise of small touring street theatres all over North Gaul (really common sight by 150 BC)
*Brenotas, Greek : Βρενὠτας (c. 198 – c. 143 BC) a third generation hellenised Gaul from Nemessos, was a tragedian, that followed Euripides “realistic” style of tragedies. He was born in Nemessos around198 BC, with parents Villu(mother) and Dannotalos(father), a retailer who lived in a village near Nemessos. Upon the receipt of a druid oracle saying that his son was fated to win "crowns of victory", Dannotalos insisted that the boy should train for a career in military. He served for a short time as scout and as a torch-bearer at several rites of Epona . His education was not confined to military/athletics: he also studied painting and philosophy. He had two disastrous marriages and both his wives were unfaithful. Afterwards he quitted his work as head of a library in Nemessos and became a “recluse”, making a home for himself in a forest deep inside Aedui lands After a while fascinated by the local myths and stories he built a small library and started to document them. Eventually after some years he returned to Nemossos.
Literaure
Poetry flourished also in Massalia in the second century BC. The chief Massaliotes poets were Theomachus and Callitrikus. Theocritus, especially, was very famous for his bucolic poems.
Science
naval:
Caravos
Until the 3th century BC, Massaliotes were limited to almost coastal navigation with the exception of Venemeres, These boats were better suited for the Atlantic ocean but they were fragile, that was hard overcome the navigational difficulties of southward oceanic exploration, as the strong winds, shoals and strong ocean currents often overwhelmed their abilities. The Caravos(καραβος in Greek) was developed in about 190 BC, based on existing West African fishing boats and the Venemeres, under the sponsorship of Apolodoros of Dynatoi company, and soon became the preferred vessel for Massaliot explorers. They were agile and easier to navigate, with a tonnage of 100 to 300 tons and 1 to 3 masts, with lateen triangular sails allowing beating. With the lateen sails attached, it was highly manoeuvrable and could sail much nearer the wind, while with the square Atlantic-type sails attached, it was very fast. Its economy, speed, agility, and power made it esteemed as the best sailing vessel of its time. The rather low capacity for cargo and crew were their main drawbacks, but did not hinder its success.
compass- navigation charts
With the introduction of the compass by Archimedes in 233 BC(at first only in limited used) and the wider use of it from approximately 180 BC, Compass went hand in hand with improvements in dead reckoning methods, and the development of new advanced navigational chart maps(similar to Portolan charts), leading to more navigation during winter months. While the common practice so far had been to curtail sea travel between October and April, due in part to the lack of dependable clear skies during the winter, the prolongation of the sailing season resulted in a gradual, but sustained increase in shipping movement; by around 150 BC the sailing season could start in late February, and end in early December. The additional few months were of considerable economic importance(For instance, it enabled convoys to make more round trips a year).
Demographics
Population:
Magna Graecia 0,6+ mil
Sicily 0,8 mil
Iberia 3.3 mil(0.5 Greeks-0,8 hellenised local mix)
North Gaul 3,4mil(1m Hellenized Gauls)
South Gaul 2,9 mil(1 mil Greeks- 1,8 mil hellenised Gauls)
west Africa( 150k Greeks/Gauls, insufficient data for local tribes)
Ethnic groups:
The league despite a big Greco-gaul core, is by now a very ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with around 20 distinct native ethnic groups.Most of the league population are Greek,Gauls and mix of this two . Another major grouping are the Celtiberian and African tribes, who inhabit various parts under the league control. Much of the country's privately owned commerce and wealth is Greek controlled although Gauls and especially Greco-Gauls start to rise in ranks of the wealthiest league citizens.
Languages:
More than 14 regional languages are spoken in the Leagues numerous holdings. The official/common language is the Massaliot Greek dialect(also known as Gallic-Greek). Massaliot Greek is a variant of Greek koine which was used from the Greeks of Massalia and it borrows from local Gaul languages.
Urban centres:
1)Massalia 350000 pop
2)Syracuse 270000 pop
3)Tolosa 160000 pop
4)Emporion 80000
5)Ypernoteia,Carthago Nova 50000 pop
Religion:
The Massaliotes continued to worship the same gods with the same sacrifices, dedications, and festivals as in the past. Religious freedom is tolerated and the dominant religions/dogma is Druidic Epicureanism and various versions of Dodekatheism blended with Gaulish deities. There is also a rise in scepticism,agnosticism and atheism, as well as an increase in mysticism and astrology. Epicurean/druidism influences reached the west Africa coast as early as 210 BC. Epicureanism/druidism was first adopted by west africans in Soninke , through the influence of traders and the last years by various epicurean druidic missionary efforts. Never the less most of indigenous native west Africans beliefs are still animism,shamanism as well ancestral worship.
A view in the Ptolemaic empire
The story of Ptolemy VI
Ptolemy VI became Emperor at the age of 18 when the news of his father death was made known,making him the youngest emperor thus far. In the first years of his reign, he was advised, and strongly influenced, by his mother Cleopatra and by his tutor Anneas of Athens. Cleopatra competed with Anneas for control of the young emperor. At first, she seems to have succeeded, on the earliest coin issues of Ptolemy VI reign, Cleopatras face confronts that of her son, as if they are equals or co-rulers. Cleopatra resented Anneas influence over her son but Ptolemy VI preferred Anneas advice to his mother's. In 163 BC Cleopatra tried to sit down next to Ptolemy VI while he met with an Athenian envoy, but Anneas stopped her and thus prevented a scandalous breach of protocol. Ptolemy VI friends also mistrusted Cleopatra and told Ptolemy VI to beware of his mother. Ptolemy VI with the support of Anneas, resisted the intervention of his mother.
With Cleopatras influence over her son severed, she reportedly began pushing for Alexander, Ptolemy stepbrother, to become emperor. Nearly fourteen-year-old Alexander, was still legally a minor, but was approaching legal adulthood. However, the youth died suddenly and suspiciously.
Ptolemy VI claimed that Alexander died from an epileptic seizure, but rumours claim Alexander’s death came from Ptolemy poisoning him.
Over time, Ptolemy VI became progressively more powerful, freeing himself of his advisers and eliminating possible threats and rivals. In 161 BC, he removed Patroclos an ally of Cleopatra, from his position as satrap of Mesopotamia.
In 158 BC, Ptolemy VI became romantically involved with Alkisti, the wife of his friend and strategos Dimitrios, and in the following year, he arranged the murder of his mother. Ptolemy IV was known for spending his time visiting brothels and taverns during this period.
PtolemyVI built a number of gymnasiums and theatres. Enormous athletics shows were also held. Ptolemy VI also established the “Ptolemaika” festival. The festival included games, poetry, and theatre. He also built a new great pharos (lighthouse) in the great Ptolemaic port Eudaemon in north Arabia.
"Socialism" in Ptolemaic Egypt?
Royal ownership of the land had long been a sacred custom in Pharaonic Egypt, the Pharaoh, as king and god, had full right to the soil and all that it produced. The fellah was not a slave, but he could not leave his place without the permission of the government, and he was required to turn over the larger part of his crops to the state. The Ptolemies accepted this system, and extended it by appropriating the great tracts which, under previous dynasties, had belonged to the Egyptian nobles or priests. A great bureaucracy of governmental overseers, supported by armed guards, managed all Egypt as a vast state farm.Nearly every peasant in Egypt was told by these officials what soil to till and what crops to grow, his labor and his animals could at any time be requisitioned by the state for mining, building, hunting, and the making of canals or roads; his harvest was gauged by state measurers, registered by the scribes, threshed on the royal threshing floor, and conveyed by a living chain of fellahs into the granaries of the king. There were exceptions to the system: the Ptolemies allowed the farmer to own his house and garden; they resigned the cities to private property; and they gave a right of leasehold to soldiers whose services were rewarded with land. But this leasehold was usually confined to areas which the owner agreed to devote to vineyards, orchards, or olive groves; it excluded the power of bequest, and might at any time be canceled by the king. As Greek energy and skill improved these cleruchic lands, a demand arose for the right to transmit the property from father to son. Untill the second century such bequest was permitted by custom, but not by law; in 158 BC it was recognized by law, and the usual evolution from common property to private property was complete.
Doubtless this system of "socialism" had been evolved because the conditions of tillage in Egypt required more co-operation, more unison of action in time and space, than individual ownership could be expected to provide. The amount and character of the crops to be sown depended upon the extent of the annual inundation, and the efficiency of irrigation and drainage; these matters naturally made for central control. Greek engineers in the employ of the government improved the ancient processes, and applied a more scientific and intensive agriculture to the land. The centralisation of economic management in the hands of the government, and the institution of forced labor, made possible great public works of flood control, road construction, irrigation, and building.
Industry operated under similar conditions. The government not only owned the mines, but either worked them itself, or appropriated the ore.The Ptolemies opened up valuable gold deposits in Nubia, and had a stable gold coinage. They controlled the copper mines of Cyprus and Sinai. They had a monopoly of oil—derived not from the soil but from plants like linseed, croton, and sesame. The government fixed, each year, the amount of land to be sown to such plants; it took the whole produce at its own price, it extracted the oil in state factories through great beam presses worked by serfs, it sold the oil to retailers at its own price, and excluded foreign competition by a heavy tariff, its profit ranged from seventy to three hundred per cent. Apparently there were similar governmental subsidies in salt, natron (carbonate of soda used as soap), incense, papyrus, and textiles,
Industry was well developed:chariots, furniture, terra cotta, carpets, cosmetics were produced in abundance, glass blowing and the weaving of linen were Alexandrian specialties. Invention was more advanced in Ptolemaic Egypt than in any economy besides Massalia, the screw chain, the wheel chain, the pulley chain, and the screw press were all in use and the chemistry of dyes had progressed to the point of treating cloths with diverse reagents which brought forth, from immersion in one dye, a variety of fast colors. In general the factories of Alexandria were worked by slaves, whose low cost of maintenance enabled the Ptolemies to undersell in foreign trade the products of Greek handicraft.
All commerce was controlled and regulated by the government; retail traders were usually state agents distributing state goods. All caravan routes and waterways were owned by the state. Ptolemy II introduced the camel into Egypt, and organised a camel post to the south this carried only governmental communications, but these included nearly all the commercial correspondence of the country. The Nile was busy with passenger and freight traffic, apparently under private management subject to state regulation. For the Mediterranean trade the Ptolemies built the largest commercial fleet of the time, with vessels of three hundred tons burden.The warehouses of Alexandria invited world trade, its double harbor was the envy of other cities; its lighthouse was one of the Seven Wonder. The fields, factories, and workshops of Egypt supplied a great surplus, which found markets as far east as China, as far south as central Africa, as far north as Russia and the British Isles. Egyptian explorers sailed down to Zanzibar and Somaliland, and told the world about the Troglodytes who lived along the east African coast on sea food, ostriches, carrots, and roots. Egyptian ships sailed directly from the Nile to India. Under the wise encouragement of the Ptolemies Alexandria became the leading port of reshipment for Eastern merchandise destined for the markets of the Mediterranean.
The masters and beneficiaries of this system were the Greeks. At the head of all was the Pharaoh-god-king. From the viewpoint of the Greek population the Ptolemies were truly Soter or Saviours, Euergetes or Benefactors, they gave them a hundred thousand places in the bureaucracy, endless economic opportunities, unprecedented facilities for the life of the mind, and a wealthy court as the source and center of a luxurious social life. Nor was the king an incalculable despot. Egyptian tradition combined with Greek law to build up a system of legislation which borrowed from, and improved upon, the Athenian code in every respect except freedom. The edicts of the king had full legal force but the cities enjoyed considerable self-government, and the Egyptian, Greek, and Jewish population lived each under its own system of law, chose its own magistrates, and pled before its own courts.
Religion:
When Ptolemy I made himself king of Egypt, he created a new god, Serapis , which was a combination of two Egyptian gods: Apis and Osiris, plus the main Greek gods: Zeus, Hades, Asklepios, Dionysos, and Helios. Serapis had powers over fertility, the sun, corn, funerary rites, and medicine. Many people started to worship this god. In the time of the Ptolemies, the cult of Serapis included the worship of the new Ptolemaic line of pharaohs. Alexandria supplanted Memphis as the preeminent religious city. Ptolemy I also promoted the cult of the deified Alexander, who became state god of the Ptolemaic kingdom; the Ptolemies eventually associated themselves with the cult as gods.
The traditional table for offerings disappeared from reliefs during the Ptolemaic period. Male gods were no longer portrayed with tails in attempt to make them more humanlike.
The wealthy and connected of Egyptian society seemed to put more stock in “magical” stele during the Ptolemaic period. These were religious objects produced for private individuals, something uncommon in earlier Egyptian times.
Arithmistes/Αριθμηστἑς(sect in Mesopotamia)
This sect/religion, led by the teacher Erasmos, is known for its fascination with numerology and letter theory. This theory of numbers was derived from the Pythagoreans. Arithmistes found significance in the numerical equivalents of words (in Greek, every letter has a numerical value).
Arithmistes used numerology to explain the nature of god. Erasmos also taught of 30 divine beings, called Aeons, derived from the fact that 1+2+3+4+5+7+8 = 30, with the “6” omitted, because it is not a letter of the usual Greek alphabet (“8” represents the “Ogdoad,” the eight primary Aeons). The sect quickly become popular between Greeks and Persians in Mesopotamia and South West Persia.
Architecture:
Most of the Ptolemaic “magical” stele were connected with matters of health. They were commonly of limestone, the Greeks tended to use marble or bronze for private sculpture. The most striking change in depiction of figures is the range from idealizing to nearly grotesque realism in portrayal of men. Previously Egyptian depictions tended toward the idealistic but stiff, not with an attempt at likeness. Likeness was still not the goal of art under the Ptolemies. The influence of Greek sculpture under the Ptolemies was shown in its emphasis on the face more than in the past. Smiles suddenly appear.
One significant change in Ptolemaic art is the sudden re-appearance of women, who had been absent since about the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. Some of this must have been due to the importance of women, such as the series of Cleopatras, who acted as co-regents or sometimes occupied the throne by themselves. Although women were present in artwork, they were shown less realistically than men in this era. Even with the Greek influence on art, the notion of the individual portrait still had not supplanted Egyptian artistic norms during the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Ways of presenting text on columns and reliefs became formal and rigid during the Ptolemaic Dynasty.
Military:
Melas aspis
The formation of Melas aspis was a crucial point in the history of the Ptolemaic empire.
First of all, black shields help stabilised the upper Egypt and second provided the Ptolemies with a strong “fanatic” army that conquered vast new lands for them. After the conquest of the Seleucid empire, Ptolemy V formed a second branch of the Melas aspis in Seleucia. in 155 BC Melas aspis had 20000 troops in Egypt and 10000 in Mesopotamia with to major camps in Alexandria and Seleucia.
The Ptolemaic Empire used black shields in all its major campaigns. Black shields troops were always led to the battle by the strategos, and always had a share of the loot. The black shields was the main infantry division of the Ptolemaic army. In the battle the black shields main mission was to protect the strategos and hold the centre of the battle field.
For all practical purposes black shields belonged to the emperor and they were regarded as the protectors of the throne and the emperor. Black shields were taught to consider the corps their home and family, and the emperor as their father. In this and in their secluded life, black shields resembled Christian military orders. By tradition, the emperor himself, after authorizing the payments to the black shields, visited the barracks and received(as the leader of the order) his pay alongside the other men of the First Division. They also served as policemen, palace guards, and fire fighters during peacetime. The black shields also enjoyed far better support on campaign than most armies of the time. They were part of a well-organized military machine, in which one support corps prepared the roads while others pitched tents and baked the bread. They campaigned with their own medical teams of surgeons and their sick and wounded were evacuated to dedicated mobile hospitals set up behind the lines.
I hope that you like it and sorry in advance for my bad english!
Major events 197-154 BC
197 BC
By place :
Massaliot League
Under Anastasios the military expedition to the Soninke lands was successful. The Soninke people were divided to clans, a confederation of independent, freely allied, “states” that were easily manipulated/defeated by Anastasios professional army. After two years all the lands of the Soninke people were under Anastasios control( under three major vassals).
Rome
After the defeat in the War against Massalia, Rome was in a political turmoil. One faction was decidedly pro-Massaliot league. They desired to tight their relationship with the league and to emulate them. The other main faction was opposed to close ties with the league and interested to emphasise their Roman-ness, their own identity, opposed to the hated foe.
Pyu kingdom
The first literate and urban civilization of South East Asia has now appeared, in Burma. This is linked to the Pyu kingdom, which, lying across the trade routes between China and India which pass down the Irrawaddy river system to the Indian Ocean, has received influences from both these great civilizations. The kingdom seems to be a confederacy of small states under a royal overlord based in the city of Pyu. According to Chinese records, the Pyu culture is strongly Buddhist by religion, and is noted for its emphasis on humane values.
Eschatia/Sri lanka
The marriage of Agathocles with the daughter of the king of the Ruhuna kingdom was crucial for the Eschatians. With Ruhuna as allies, Agathocleus found the opportunity to strengthen his position in the area. The Eschatians were few in numbers( 7000 greeks plus around 5000 hellienised Persians/Indians) but they did have quite a few specialised people (statemans,engineers,architects etc) and a strong fleet. The marriage of Agathocles with the daughter of the king of the Ruhuna kingdom was crucial for them cause they now had the work force that they desperately needed. At the same time they also strengthen their position in the area. They started mint coins, built a wall around Eschatia and in 187 BC they send their first trade/diplomatic convoy to the Ptolemaic holdings in Arabia. Another purpose of this trip was to invite greek cleruchs to Eschatia. The attempts to find Greek settlers failed miserably but over the next 10 years more than 5000 Helenised Arabs settled in Eschatia mostly as mercenaries .
196 BC
By place:
Rome
Gnaeus Licinius leader of the pro-Massalia party was murdered by representatives of the senate with 3,000 of his supporters on Capitoline Hill in Rome. Scipio appointed dictator shortly after. Scipio immediately began pushing for a programme of reforms, partly due to the heavy losses of Romans during the last war. He proposed and passed a law which granted citizenship rights to several Rome's Italian allies. This lead to a civil war.
Ptolemaic empire
- Minor rebellion in Upper Egypt is easily crashed
By place :
Diodotian empire
- Diodotus III repels Sarmatian nomadic tribes from North-West Bactria.
- The construction of the first city wall of Chang’an(capital of the Han Dynasty) begins.
By place :
Macedonia
- Dimitrios of Macedon invades to Epirus to claim the throne on behalf of infant Alexander IV( cousin of ex King Ptolemy Keraunos II who died mysteriously in 200 BC). Nicomedes asks for help from Sparta and Athens which= they gladly join the war.
Scipio prevailed in the roman civil war. After the end of the war, Scipio set out to pass an ambitious legislative agenda. He ordered a census be taken, which forced a reduction in the grain dole. He passed a sumptuary law that restricted the purchase of certain luxuries. After this, he passed a law that rewarded families for having many children, to speed up the repopulation of Italy. Then, he outlawed professional guilds, except those of ancient foundation, since many of these were subversive political clubs. Finally he passed a debt-restructuring law, which ultimately eliminated about a fourth of all debts owed.
191 BC
By place :
Macedonia/Epirus
- Dimitrios conquered Epirus but he is hard pressed in Thessaly by the Spartan-Athenian coalition. He ask assistance from his allies Pergamon and Bosporus.
- Hannibal is assassinated by rival noble families.
- Emperor Hui of Han lifts the ban on confucian writings ordered in 213 BC.
190 BC
By place:
Ptolemaic empire
- with his Domain stable and no external threats Ptolemy IV send an army of 20000(including 10000 black shields) to conquer the lands of Axum
By place:
Greece
- Athens surrenders to the combined Macedonian-Pergamon-Bosporus forces
- A major Parthian revolt starts.
- 189 BC Axum is conquered easily by the Ptolemaic forces
By place:
Ptolemaic empire/Seleucid empire
Ptolemy IV dies. Ptolemy V rises to the throne at the age of 26. Antiochus III invades to claim the throne of Egypt for his son Alexander-Ptolemy. The Ptolemaic forces repel easily the Seleucid army. The professional and “fanatic” black shields troops are no much for the Seleucid army.
186 BC
By place:
Ptolemaic empire/Seleucid empire
- Ptolemy V invades North Syria with a massive army including all of his 20000 elite black shields troops. He won major victories over Antiochus in Syria.
After five years of war, Dimitrios of Macedon gives a final blow to the Spartan forces near Argos. After that, Sparta was forced to accept a harsh peace treaty .Sparta lost her holdings in South Italy, Aetolia and Boeotia. Dimitrios also imposed a war indemnity of 8,000 talents. The same year, Rhodians took the opportunity to plunder the Spartan holdings in Crete.
Diodotian empire
- Diodotus after 3 years manages to crush the major Parthian rebellion.
By place:
Rome/Italy
The Suebi, a Germanic tribe, comprising about 40,000 warriors, coming from the North , marched South in a great expedition to Italy. Despite the numerous envoys from the Boii tribe, Massaliot league didn’t provide help to them. After the pillage of the Boii lands, the Suebi stopped and settle in the area. When some of them decided to advance again, towards central Italy, they were easily repulsed by Scipio.
Eschatia/Sri lanka
The king of Bindushuka dies of old age. Protagoras, the young son of Agathocles and Bindushuka’s daughter, is the new king, with Agathocles his regent. Not everybody from the nobles of Ruhana likes this outcome. In an assassination attempt Agathocles is saved the last moment from troops of his loyal Arabian mercenaries. The next days several Ruhana nobles were arrested and killed.
Ptolemaic empire/Seleucid empire
- Plutarch, the opportunistic Satrap of Armenia proclaims himself king of Armenia and joins Ptolemy against Antiochus.
By place:
Ptolemaic empire
- Ptolemy V won another major victory in Mesopotamia with Antiochus dying in the battle-flied. Ptolemy V is now the ruler of both realms.
By place:
Massaliot league
Dynatoi company dispatched Nearchos at the head of a fleet of 60 ships to explore and colonise South of Astypylaia. He sailed South, founded two trade hub colonies along the African coast and explored significantly farther along the Atlantic coast of the continent. Nearchos encountered various indigenous peoples on his journey and met with a variety of welcomes.
During Nearchos voyage, the explorer found a land heavily populated with what were described as hirsute and savage people. Attempts to capture the males failed, but several of the females were taken. A carthaginian travelling with Nearchos realised that this was Gorillai(gorillas).
Rome
- Scipio retired to his country seat at Liternum on the coast of Campania. He lived there for the rest of his life.
By place:
Bosporus kingdom
Hard Pressed by the Bastarnae, 200000 scythians with more than 60000 warriors began migrating to Bosporus lands. Later this year Olbia and several other Greek towns are burned to the ground from the Scythian horde.
181 BC
By place:
Bosporus kingdom
With reinforcements from Pergamon,Macedonia and 5000 Thracian Gauls mercenaries, Bosporus Kingdom managed to repel the Scythians near Kalos Limin. This invasion crippled the Bosporus kingdom and basically transform it to a client state of Pergamon.
Trinovantes kingdom/Bretannike
Imanuentius, king of the Trinovantes kingdom dies. Between 195-184 BC he managed to aggressively expand his kingdom considerably, with several successful expeditions against the neighborhood tribes of Dobunnin,Coritani and Cantiaci. His son, the new king, Braventius, a completely Hellenised man,was a great fan of the stories of Pytheas. One of the first things he ordered as a king, was an expedition to the North to establish contact with Thule(Iceland).
180 BC
By place:
Ptolemaic empire
- Ptolemaic empire conquers the Cushites
- Emperor Wen of the Han dynasty ascends to the throne.
- The state of Nanyue in Vietnam and southern China submits to the Han dynasty as a vassal.
By place:
Diodotian empire/Xiongnu
The Xiongnu led by one of Modu's tribal chiefs, invaded Yuezhi territory and achieved a crushing victory. Modu boasted in a letter to the Han emperor that due to "the excellence of his fighting men, and the strength of his horses, he has succeeded in wiping out the Yuezhi, slaughtering or forcing to submission every number of the tribe." The son of Modu,Laoshang Chanvu , subsequently killed the king of the Yuezhi and, in accordance with nomadic traditions, "made a drinking cup out of his skull."
Exodus of the Great Yuezhi
After this disaster, the Yuezhi split into two groups. The Lesser or Little Yuezhi (Xiao Yuezhi) moved to the southern mountains, on the edge of the Tibetan plateau.The so-called Great or Greater Yuezhi (400000 people with more than 100000 able to bear arms) began migrating west, settling in the Northern parts of Diodotian empire, where they defeated the small Diodotian garrisons.
175 BC
By place:
Massaliot league
- Tensions between Palaioi and Dynatoi party nearly lead to a civil war.
Diodotus III marched North to meet the Yuezhi with a grand army of 70000 infantry, 12000 horsemen and more than 700 elephants. In a massive battle in North East Bactria the two armies suffered heavy losses and the battle ended in a stalemate. With his army weakened and fearing rebellions within his empire, Diodotus III signed a peace treaty with the Yuezhi “allowing” them to settle in East Sogdiana.
Ptolemaic empire
Ptolemy V impressed by the stories of the Massaliot league in West Africa, orders an expedition to explore the lands South of the Cushites. A new trade colony Ptolemia founded later this year by the Ptolemaic expedition in modern day Tanzania(two days travel south of the Menouthias islands )
172 BC
By place:
Diodotian empire
- Diodotus dies. His youngest son Memnon kills his two older brothers and declare himself as the new king. After some months he manages to control the empire with the help of Yuezhi mercenaries.
- Kalinga a prosperous region consisting of freedom-loving and artisticly skilled people, rebels against Samprati rule.
By place:
Ptolemaic empire
- Mascat is conquered by Ptolemaic forces
- After a savage war that lasted 3 years, Kalinga managed to become independent.
By place:
Massaliot league
- A small revolt by the Carpetani tribe in Iberia was easily crashed by the Massaliot league.
- Memnon orders for a museum to be built in his capital Bactra, after some Massaliot kola nut traders /explorers told him about the Hydraulis and other wonders of the Massaliot league museums.
By place:
Ptolemaic empire
Ptolemy V dies. The new king Ptolemy VI rises to the throne at the age of 21. Ptolemy VI focused much of his attention on diplomacy(he establish formal relations with Diodotian empire), trade and enhancing the cultural life of the empire, ordering theatres built and promoting athletic games.
Carthage/Numibia
Constant low-level warfare persisted between Carthage and Numidia, Carthage had lost most of her African territories and the Numibians traded independently with the Greeks. In 165 BC Numidia launched another border raid on Carthaginian soil, besieging the Punic town of Utica, and Carthage launched a large military expedition (20,000 soldiers) to repel the Numibian invaders. As a result, Carthage suffered a military defeat and was now basically a city state.
Pergamon
- Pergamon conquers Rhodes League. The new king of the Ptolemaic empire refuses to help the Rhodians.
Protagoras decides to support Pandyas kingdom defensive war against the Chola kingdom. Although dominant in the sea, the war ended in a stalemate after couple of years. To celebrate the successful repel of the Cholas, Protagoras send an ambassador in Pandyas capital to erect a monument. The monument was a pillar with an inscription* in Brahmi script /Greek and a sculpture of Garuda on the top.
* This Garuda-standard of Vasudeva Zeus, the God of Gods
was erected here by the devotee Heliodoros,
the son of Dionysus, a man of Eschatia,
sent by the Great Greek(Yona) King
Protagoras, as ambassador to
King Lesiputra Bhagabhadra
161 BC
By place:
Diodotian empire
Memnon crush a rebellion in his indian territories,enslaves 250000 indians from Pataliputra and resettles the town with Yuezhi and Hellenised Bactrians-indians. A large part of the slaves were used to build an imperial road connecting Bactra with Patalipurta
Ptolemaic empire
- The Maccabees, under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus, continue their struggle/guerrilla warfare against the Ptolemaic empire and persecute the Hellenising Jew faction in Judea .
By place:
Massaliot league
Chalkis, the Massaliot league colony in the Baltic is burned to the ground. A greek survivor told the following to the people of Aktio(league’s colony in modern day Sweden):
Having gained possession of the colony and of a huge amount of booty, the enemy seemed driven by some strange and unusual animus. They completely destroyed everything they had captured, clothing was cut to pieces and strew about,gold and silver were thrown into the river and men, with nooses fastened around their necks were hanged from the trees.
Ptolemaic empire
- Ptolemy VI finally crushed the jewish revolt in Judea. Judas Maccabeus manages to escape with the help of some loyal friends.
- A hellenised of Arabic-indian origin, trader of Eschatia brings back to his home town some kola nuts, the magic spice from lands after the pillars of Hercules.
By place:
Diodotian empire
- Memnon builds a new big theatre in Pataliputra to promote greek culture to his indian subjects.
- Gaulish Thrace is annexed by the Macedonian forces.
By place:
Massalia/Rome
After several raids within Roman territory,within the last few years, Rome decided to deal with the Suebi tribe once and for all. Massalia showed displeasure with Rome’s decision to wage war against its neighbour without Massalia’s consent, and told Rome that in order to avoid a war it had to “satisfy the Massaliot league.”
Eschatia/Sri lanka
- Protagoras sends an naval expedition to explore and establish trade with the cities east of India(Pyu kingdom).
Massaliot League analysis and data.
Culture
With the invention of proto-paper back in 203 BC by Nearchos of Massalia, the small private libraries in Massaliot league rise up from a few hundreds up to couple of thousands by 150 BC. Also three rather small museums/“universities” were built during this period. In Carthago Nova(182 BC), in Tolosa 164(BC) and in Naucratia(158 BC). The easier spread of knowledge,the stability and the great wealth of Massaliot league triggered a major boom in art and science.
Architecture:
Until the end of the 3th century BC, ancient Greek architecture of the most formal type, for temples and other public buildings, was divided stylistically into three”orders”. These were: the Doric order,the Ionic order and the Corinthian order , the names reflecting their regional origins within the Greek world. Early in the 2th century BC a new order developed in Massalia.
The Massalian Order
The Massalian Order although have its origin in Ionic order, it was heavily influenced from the Corinthian order and was initially of much the same style and proportion,but around 190-180 BC added a number of refinements and decorative details inspired mostly from Gaul artefacts.
Magna Graecia architecture school
The widespread use of concrete( mostly in Magna Graecia) in the League’s architecture enabled the often use of the previously little-used architectural forms of the arch and dome.
Art:
Tessera mosaic
On his return from Greece (195 BC), the wealthy trader Galenos brought back , the tessera mosaic. This new tiling method took the league by storm and in the league’s wealthiest homes joined murals in decorating floors, walls. This new technique used tiny teaser, typically cubes of 4 millimeters or less, and was produced in workshops in relatively small panels which were transported to the site glued to some temporary support. The tiny tessera cubes allowed very fine detail, and an approach to the illusionism of painting.
Sculpture
During this period, sculpture again experienced a shift towards increasing naturalism. Common people, women, children, animals(around 150 BC Gorillas were a major trent in Massaliot league), and domestic scenes became acceptable subjects for sculpture, which was commissioned by wealthy families for the adornment of their homes and gardens. Realistic figures of men and women of all ages were produced, and sculptors no longer felt obliged to depict people as ideals of beauty or physical perfection. At the same time, new Hellenistic cities springing up in West Africa,Egypt,middle east,Bactria,etc required statues depicting the gods and heroes of Greece for their temples and public places. This made sculpture, like pottery, an industry, with the consequent standardisation and (some) lowering of quality. Alongside the natural shift towards naturalism, there was a shift in expression of the sculptures as well. Sculptures began expressing more power and energy during this time period. Aphrodisios a Greek-Gaul from Tolosa was famous for his full of energy sculptures. His statue “Soldier fighting gorrila” has been a prototypical icon of this school.
Theatre
The primary Hellenistic theatrical form of the era was not tragedy but New comedy, comic episodes about the lives of ordinary citizens. In Massalia although, a new form of tragedy appeared around 160 BC influenced by Gallic tragic stories and legends. A playwright of Brenotas* “Cursed by Sucellos” (Sucellus) was the biggest hit of the era.
Another major development in Massaliot leagues theatres, was the highly detailed Pinakes(pictures hung to create scenery) and the rise of small touring street theatres all over North Gaul (really common sight by 150 BC)
*Brenotas, Greek : Βρενὠτας (c. 198 – c. 143 BC) a third generation hellenised Gaul from Nemessos, was a tragedian, that followed Euripides “realistic” style of tragedies. He was born in Nemessos around198 BC, with parents Villu(mother) and Dannotalos(father), a retailer who lived in a village near Nemessos. Upon the receipt of a druid oracle saying that his son was fated to win "crowns of victory", Dannotalos insisted that the boy should train for a career in military. He served for a short time as scout and as a torch-bearer at several rites of Epona . His education was not confined to military/athletics: he also studied painting and philosophy. He had two disastrous marriages and both his wives were unfaithful. Afterwards he quitted his work as head of a library in Nemessos and became a “recluse”, making a home for himself in a forest deep inside Aedui lands After a while fascinated by the local myths and stories he built a small library and started to document them. Eventually after some years he returned to Nemossos.
Literaure
Poetry flourished also in Massalia in the second century BC. The chief Massaliotes poets were Theomachus and Callitrikus. Theocritus, especially, was very famous for his bucolic poems.
Science
naval:
Caravos
Until the 3th century BC, Massaliotes were limited to almost coastal navigation with the exception of Venemeres, These boats were better suited for the Atlantic ocean but they were fragile, that was hard overcome the navigational difficulties of southward oceanic exploration, as the strong winds, shoals and strong ocean currents often overwhelmed their abilities. The Caravos(καραβος in Greek) was developed in about 190 BC, based on existing West African fishing boats and the Venemeres, under the sponsorship of Apolodoros of Dynatoi company, and soon became the preferred vessel for Massaliot explorers. They were agile and easier to navigate, with a tonnage of 100 to 300 tons and 1 to 3 masts, with lateen triangular sails allowing beating. With the lateen sails attached, it was highly manoeuvrable and could sail much nearer the wind, while with the square Atlantic-type sails attached, it was very fast. Its economy, speed, agility, and power made it esteemed as the best sailing vessel of its time. The rather low capacity for cargo and crew were their main drawbacks, but did not hinder its success.
compass- navigation charts
With the introduction of the compass by Archimedes in 233 BC(at first only in limited used) and the wider use of it from approximately 180 BC, Compass went hand in hand with improvements in dead reckoning methods, and the development of new advanced navigational chart maps(similar to Portolan charts), leading to more navigation during winter months. While the common practice so far had been to curtail sea travel between October and April, due in part to the lack of dependable clear skies during the winter, the prolongation of the sailing season resulted in a gradual, but sustained increase in shipping movement; by around 150 BC the sailing season could start in late February, and end in early December. The additional few months were of considerable economic importance(For instance, it enabled convoys to make more round trips a year).
Demographics
Population:
Magna Graecia 0,6+ mil
Sicily 0,8 mil
Iberia 3.3 mil(0.5 Greeks-0,8 hellenised local mix)
North Gaul 3,4mil(1m Hellenized Gauls)
South Gaul 2,9 mil(1 mil Greeks- 1,8 mil hellenised Gauls)
west Africa( 150k Greeks/Gauls, insufficient data for local tribes)
Ethnic groups:
The league despite a big Greco-gaul core, is by now a very ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with around 20 distinct native ethnic groups.Most of the league population are Greek,Gauls and mix of this two . Another major grouping are the Celtiberian and African tribes, who inhabit various parts under the league control. Much of the country's privately owned commerce and wealth is Greek controlled although Gauls and especially Greco-Gauls start to rise in ranks of the wealthiest league citizens.
Languages:
More than 14 regional languages are spoken in the Leagues numerous holdings. The official/common language is the Massaliot Greek dialect(also known as Gallic-Greek). Massaliot Greek is a variant of Greek koine which was used from the Greeks of Massalia and it borrows from local Gaul languages.
Urban centres:
1)Massalia 350000 pop
2)Syracuse 270000 pop
3)Tolosa 160000 pop
4)Emporion 80000
5)Ypernoteia,Carthago Nova 50000 pop
Religion:
The Massaliotes continued to worship the same gods with the same sacrifices, dedications, and festivals as in the past. Religious freedom is tolerated and the dominant religions/dogma is Druidic Epicureanism and various versions of Dodekatheism blended with Gaulish deities. There is also a rise in scepticism,agnosticism and atheism, as well as an increase in mysticism and astrology. Epicurean/druidism influences reached the west Africa coast as early as 210 BC. Epicureanism/druidism was first adopted by west africans in Soninke , through the influence of traders and the last years by various epicurean druidic missionary efforts. Never the less most of indigenous native west Africans beliefs are still animism,shamanism as well ancestral worship.
A view in the Ptolemaic empire
The story of Ptolemy VI
Ptolemy VI became Emperor at the age of 18 when the news of his father death was made known,making him the youngest emperor thus far. In the first years of his reign, he was advised, and strongly influenced, by his mother Cleopatra and by his tutor Anneas of Athens. Cleopatra competed with Anneas for control of the young emperor. At first, she seems to have succeeded, on the earliest coin issues of Ptolemy VI reign, Cleopatras face confronts that of her son, as if they are equals or co-rulers. Cleopatra resented Anneas influence over her son but Ptolemy VI preferred Anneas advice to his mother's. In 163 BC Cleopatra tried to sit down next to Ptolemy VI while he met with an Athenian envoy, but Anneas stopped her and thus prevented a scandalous breach of protocol. Ptolemy VI friends also mistrusted Cleopatra and told Ptolemy VI to beware of his mother. Ptolemy VI with the support of Anneas, resisted the intervention of his mother.
With Cleopatras influence over her son severed, she reportedly began pushing for Alexander, Ptolemy stepbrother, to become emperor. Nearly fourteen-year-old Alexander, was still legally a minor, but was approaching legal adulthood. However, the youth died suddenly and suspiciously.
Ptolemy VI claimed that Alexander died from an epileptic seizure, but rumours claim Alexander’s death came from Ptolemy poisoning him.
Over time, Ptolemy VI became progressively more powerful, freeing himself of his advisers and eliminating possible threats and rivals. In 161 BC, he removed Patroclos an ally of Cleopatra, from his position as satrap of Mesopotamia.
In 158 BC, Ptolemy VI became romantically involved with Alkisti, the wife of his friend and strategos Dimitrios, and in the following year, he arranged the murder of his mother. Ptolemy IV was known for spending his time visiting brothels and taverns during this period.
PtolemyVI built a number of gymnasiums and theatres. Enormous athletics shows were also held. Ptolemy VI also established the “Ptolemaika” festival. The festival included games, poetry, and theatre. He also built a new great pharos (lighthouse) in the great Ptolemaic port Eudaemon in north Arabia.
"Socialism" in Ptolemaic Egypt?
Royal ownership of the land had long been a sacred custom in Pharaonic Egypt, the Pharaoh, as king and god, had full right to the soil and all that it produced. The fellah was not a slave, but he could not leave his place without the permission of the government, and he was required to turn over the larger part of his crops to the state. The Ptolemies accepted this system, and extended it by appropriating the great tracts which, under previous dynasties, had belonged to the Egyptian nobles or priests. A great bureaucracy of governmental overseers, supported by armed guards, managed all Egypt as a vast state farm.Nearly every peasant in Egypt was told by these officials what soil to till and what crops to grow, his labor and his animals could at any time be requisitioned by the state for mining, building, hunting, and the making of canals or roads; his harvest was gauged by state measurers, registered by the scribes, threshed on the royal threshing floor, and conveyed by a living chain of fellahs into the granaries of the king. There were exceptions to the system: the Ptolemies allowed the farmer to own his house and garden; they resigned the cities to private property; and they gave a right of leasehold to soldiers whose services were rewarded with land. But this leasehold was usually confined to areas which the owner agreed to devote to vineyards, orchards, or olive groves; it excluded the power of bequest, and might at any time be canceled by the king. As Greek energy and skill improved these cleruchic lands, a demand arose for the right to transmit the property from father to son. Untill the second century such bequest was permitted by custom, but not by law; in 158 BC it was recognized by law, and the usual evolution from common property to private property was complete.
Doubtless this system of "socialism" had been evolved because the conditions of tillage in Egypt required more co-operation, more unison of action in time and space, than individual ownership could be expected to provide. The amount and character of the crops to be sown depended upon the extent of the annual inundation, and the efficiency of irrigation and drainage; these matters naturally made for central control. Greek engineers in the employ of the government improved the ancient processes, and applied a more scientific and intensive agriculture to the land. The centralisation of economic management in the hands of the government, and the institution of forced labor, made possible great public works of flood control, road construction, irrigation, and building.
Industry operated under similar conditions. The government not only owned the mines, but either worked them itself, or appropriated the ore.The Ptolemies opened up valuable gold deposits in Nubia, and had a stable gold coinage. They controlled the copper mines of Cyprus and Sinai. They had a monopoly of oil—derived not from the soil but from plants like linseed, croton, and sesame. The government fixed, each year, the amount of land to be sown to such plants; it took the whole produce at its own price, it extracted the oil in state factories through great beam presses worked by serfs, it sold the oil to retailers at its own price, and excluded foreign competition by a heavy tariff, its profit ranged from seventy to three hundred per cent. Apparently there were similar governmental subsidies in salt, natron (carbonate of soda used as soap), incense, papyrus, and textiles,
Industry was well developed:chariots, furniture, terra cotta, carpets, cosmetics were produced in abundance, glass blowing and the weaving of linen were Alexandrian specialties. Invention was more advanced in Ptolemaic Egypt than in any economy besides Massalia, the screw chain, the wheel chain, the pulley chain, and the screw press were all in use and the chemistry of dyes had progressed to the point of treating cloths with diverse reagents which brought forth, from immersion in one dye, a variety of fast colors. In general the factories of Alexandria were worked by slaves, whose low cost of maintenance enabled the Ptolemies to undersell in foreign trade the products of Greek handicraft.
All commerce was controlled and regulated by the government; retail traders were usually state agents distributing state goods. All caravan routes and waterways were owned by the state. Ptolemy II introduced the camel into Egypt, and organised a camel post to the south this carried only governmental communications, but these included nearly all the commercial correspondence of the country. The Nile was busy with passenger and freight traffic, apparently under private management subject to state regulation. For the Mediterranean trade the Ptolemies built the largest commercial fleet of the time, with vessels of three hundred tons burden.The warehouses of Alexandria invited world trade, its double harbor was the envy of other cities; its lighthouse was one of the Seven Wonder. The fields, factories, and workshops of Egypt supplied a great surplus, which found markets as far east as China, as far south as central Africa, as far north as Russia and the British Isles. Egyptian explorers sailed down to Zanzibar and Somaliland, and told the world about the Troglodytes who lived along the east African coast on sea food, ostriches, carrots, and roots. Egyptian ships sailed directly from the Nile to India. Under the wise encouragement of the Ptolemies Alexandria became the leading port of reshipment for Eastern merchandise destined for the markets of the Mediterranean.
The masters and beneficiaries of this system were the Greeks. At the head of all was the Pharaoh-god-king. From the viewpoint of the Greek population the Ptolemies were truly Soter or Saviours, Euergetes or Benefactors, they gave them a hundred thousand places in the bureaucracy, endless economic opportunities, unprecedented facilities for the life of the mind, and a wealthy court as the source and center of a luxurious social life. Nor was the king an incalculable despot. Egyptian tradition combined with Greek law to build up a system of legislation which borrowed from, and improved upon, the Athenian code in every respect except freedom. The edicts of the king had full legal force but the cities enjoyed considerable self-government, and the Egyptian, Greek, and Jewish population lived each under its own system of law, chose its own magistrates, and pled before its own courts.
Religion:
When Ptolemy I made himself king of Egypt, he created a new god, Serapis , which was a combination of two Egyptian gods: Apis and Osiris, plus the main Greek gods: Zeus, Hades, Asklepios, Dionysos, and Helios. Serapis had powers over fertility, the sun, corn, funerary rites, and medicine. Many people started to worship this god. In the time of the Ptolemies, the cult of Serapis included the worship of the new Ptolemaic line of pharaohs. Alexandria supplanted Memphis as the preeminent religious city. Ptolemy I also promoted the cult of the deified Alexander, who became state god of the Ptolemaic kingdom; the Ptolemies eventually associated themselves with the cult as gods.
The traditional table for offerings disappeared from reliefs during the Ptolemaic period. Male gods were no longer portrayed with tails in attempt to make them more humanlike.
The wealthy and connected of Egyptian society seemed to put more stock in “magical” stele during the Ptolemaic period. These were religious objects produced for private individuals, something uncommon in earlier Egyptian times.
Arithmistes/Αριθμηστἑς(sect in Mesopotamia)
This sect/religion, led by the teacher Erasmos, is known for its fascination with numerology and letter theory. This theory of numbers was derived from the Pythagoreans. Arithmistes found significance in the numerical equivalents of words (in Greek, every letter has a numerical value).
Arithmistes used numerology to explain the nature of god. Erasmos also taught of 30 divine beings, called Aeons, derived from the fact that 1+2+3+4+5+7+8 = 30, with the “6” omitted, because it is not a letter of the usual Greek alphabet (“8” represents the “Ogdoad,” the eight primary Aeons). The sect quickly become popular between Greeks and Persians in Mesopotamia and South West Persia.
Architecture:
Most of the Ptolemaic “magical” stele were connected with matters of health. They were commonly of limestone, the Greeks tended to use marble or bronze for private sculpture. The most striking change in depiction of figures is the range from idealizing to nearly grotesque realism in portrayal of men. Previously Egyptian depictions tended toward the idealistic but stiff, not with an attempt at likeness. Likeness was still not the goal of art under the Ptolemies. The influence of Greek sculpture under the Ptolemies was shown in its emphasis on the face more than in the past. Smiles suddenly appear.
One significant change in Ptolemaic art is the sudden re-appearance of women, who had been absent since about the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. Some of this must have been due to the importance of women, such as the series of Cleopatras, who acted as co-regents or sometimes occupied the throne by themselves. Although women were present in artwork, they were shown less realistically than men in this era. Even with the Greek influence on art, the notion of the individual portrait still had not supplanted Egyptian artistic norms during the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Ways of presenting text on columns and reliefs became formal and rigid during the Ptolemaic Dynasty.
Military:
Melas aspis
The formation of Melas aspis was a crucial point in the history of the Ptolemaic empire.
First of all, black shields help stabilised the upper Egypt and second provided the Ptolemies with a strong “fanatic” army that conquered vast new lands for them. After the conquest of the Seleucid empire, Ptolemy V formed a second branch of the Melas aspis in Seleucia. in 155 BC Melas aspis had 20000 troops in Egypt and 10000 in Mesopotamia with to major camps in Alexandria and Seleucia.
The Ptolemaic Empire used black shields in all its major campaigns. Black shields troops were always led to the battle by the strategos, and always had a share of the loot. The black shields was the main infantry division of the Ptolemaic army. In the battle the black shields main mission was to protect the strategos and hold the centre of the battle field.
For all practical purposes black shields belonged to the emperor and they were regarded as the protectors of the throne and the emperor. Black shields were taught to consider the corps their home and family, and the emperor as their father. In this and in their secluded life, black shields resembled Christian military orders. By tradition, the emperor himself, after authorizing the payments to the black shields, visited the barracks and received(as the leader of the order) his pay alongside the other men of the First Division. They also served as policemen, palace guards, and fire fighters during peacetime. The black shields also enjoyed far better support on campaign than most armies of the time. They were part of a well-organized military machine, in which one support corps prepared the roads while others pitched tents and baked the bread. They campaigned with their own medical teams of surgeons and their sick and wounded were evacuated to dedicated mobile hospitals set up behind the lines.
- Sersor
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