Conceptions and Sources
haveeverythingtoboastofinthesheerextensiveness,inspaceandintime,
ofGraeco-Romanculture.Butinemphasisingtheimportanceofourfieldas
amajorpartofhumanexperience,wemustnot,justbecauseboth‘‘imperi-
alism’’and‘‘colonialism’’areunpopularconceptsinmodernculture,falsify
historybyobscuringthefactthatitwas,inthefirstinstance,war,conquest,
andoverseassettlement,bothGreekandRoman,whichcreatedthevastand
long-standingGraeco-Romanworld.
Asforthatprocessitself,wedonotneedtofollowallthedetailshere.It
willbeenoughtorecallthatthetwomajorphaseswereindeedAlexander’s
conquestsinAsiainthelaterfourthcentury,andRomanconquest,inboth
the Greek East and what was to become the LatinWest,which reached a
decisivephaseinthefirstcentury..
From within the context of the imposition of Greek culture in Asia, it
willbeworthjustpickingoutthreeareaswheretheconsequenceswerepar-
ticularlystriking.ThefirstisEgypt,whichisgivenaparticularsignificance
bythesurvivalofpapyri.So,firstly,wecanactuallymeetthesettlersfromthe
Greekworldwhoestablishedthemselvestherefromthelatefourthcentury
onwards.Perhapsmostnotableofall,becausesoearly,istheGreekpapyrus
of..fromElephantine,nearlysixhundredmilessouthfromthemouth
of the Nile.The papyrus records a marriage contract between two Greek
settlers:
In the th yearof the reign of Alexander son of Alexander, the th
yearofthesatrapshipofPtolemy,inthemonthofDius.Marriagecon-
tract of Heraclides and Demetria. Heraclides takes as his lawful wife
Demetria,Coan,bothbeingfreeborn,fromherfatherLeptines,Coan,
andhermotherPhilotis,bringingclothingandornamentstothevalue
to , drachmae, and Heraclides shall supply to Demetria all that
is proper fora freeborn wife, and we shall live together wherever it
seemsbesttoLeptinesandHeraclidesconsultingincommon....Wit-
nesses:Cleon,Gelan;Anticrates,Temnian;Lysis,Temnian;Dionysius,
Temnian;Aristomachus,Cyrenaean;Aristodicus,Coan.More important, perhaps, because from now on until the Arab conquests
Egyptwastobeabilingualland,inwhichbothEgyptianandGreekwere
used,thetensofthousandsofsurvivingpapyripreserveforusalarge,ifer-
ratic,cross-sectionofGreekliterature,inwhichHomerpredominatesabove
allelse.WecannowreadGreek(andalittleLatin)literature,notastrans-
mittedbymedievalscribes,butasreadintheancientworld.
ThesecondareaofimmensesignificancewasofcourseJudaea,foroneof
thelong-termconsequencesofAlexander’sconquestswastobethatpost-