24 CHAPTER ONEidentity.^9 (One of the differences between Greekness in the Hellenistic and
Roman imperial periods was that in the former it was not compatible with
open retention of other ethnic or cultural identities).^10 Hellenization in the
first sense might culminate in hellenization in the second sense, but need not
do so. In fact, it may even function to preserve a native non-Gree kculture.
And hellenization in the second sense need not presuppose, rather surpris-
ingly, prior hellenization in the first sense.^11 For the time being it is the first
type of hellenization that concerns us.
Until 332B.C.E. the Judaeans and their neighbors were subject to Persia,
far in the east, but they remained part of the cultural and economic world of
the eastern Mediterranean, which included not only the cities and nations of
the Syro-Palestinian coast and Egypt but also the old Gree kcities of western
Asia Minor and, at its western fringe, Greece itself. There had been trade
and other contacts between Greece and the east coast of the Mediterranean,
including Israel, for as long as there had been boats. The Philistines, who
infiltrated the coastal cities of Palestine around 1200B.C.E., probably came
from the Aegean and had close ties to the Mycenaean Greeks. Greeks served
as mercenaries in the armies of the kings of Judah and Israel, and Greek
traders were not unknown in the region in the same period.^12 Presumably,
though, there was nothing noteworthy about these people—they were just
part of the general eastern Mediterranean ethnic stew, along with Egyptians,
Phoenicians, and various groups of Asians.
The Gree kvictory over Persia in 478B.C.E., the subsequent rise of the
Athenian empire, the consolidation of classical Gree kculture (which was
among other things an important item for export), and of Athenian economic
dominance, which survived the decline of their empire, changed matters. By
the fifth century, Gree kgoods predominated over all other imports in the
cities of the Syro-Palestinian coast.^13 The well-to-do there had always liked
nicely decorated imported goods, but the trickle of Greek imports now turned
(^9) This is rather different from the distinction posited by U. Rappaport, “The Hellenization of
the Hasmoneans,” in M. Mor, ed.,Jewish Assimilation, Acculturation, and Accommodation(Lan-
ham, Md.: University Press of America, 1992), pp. 1–13.
(^10) See S. Schwartz, “The Hellenization of Jerusalem and Shechem,” in M. Goodman, ed.,
Jews in a Graeco-Roman World(Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), pp. 37–45.
(^11) Cf. S. Sherwin-White and A. Kuhrt,From Samarkhand to Sardis: A New Approach to the
Seleucid Empire(London: Duckworth, 1993), pp. 141–49; F. Millar, “The Phoenician Cities: A
Case Study in Hellenisation,”PCPS209 (1983): 55–71; E. Will, “Poleis helle ́nistiques: Deux
notes,”e ́chos du monde classique/ Classical Views15 (1988): 329–51.
(^12) See M. Hengel,Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in Their Encounter in Palestine during the
Early Hellenistic Period(Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974), 1:32–35; on the Philistines, T. Dothan,
The Philistines and Their Material Culture(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982).
(^13) For a survey, see E. Stern,Material Culture of the Land of the Bible in the Persian Period
538–332 B.C.(Warminster, U.K.: Aris & Phillips, 1982).