cities was constructed so that it had the characteristic features of a Greek polis, such as a theater, a
gymnasium, and an agora. The cities then became the centers of Greek culture and of trade, attracting
additional settlers from Greece and Macedon as well as those members of the indigenous population who
wished to take advantage of the economic opportunities afforded by the city. In order to do this, however,
they would usually have to become Hellenized and to learn the Greek language. There arose, then, in the
Macedonian kingdoms a division between the cities and the countryside. In the latter, the inhabitants kept
for the most part to their traditional customs and religions and spoke their native language, Demotic in
Egypt, say, or Aramaic in Syria. In the cities, the language of commerce and administration was Greek. It
will be remembered, however, that the Greek language was divided into a number of distinct dialects (p.
33). Which of these dialects was spoken in Egyptian Alexandria or in Kandahar? Because of the cultural
and especially the literary prominence of Athens, the Macedonian kings had taken to using a form of the
Attic dialect in order to project the image of a cultured Greek, and it was a version of the dialect of
Athens that thus became a quasi-standardized form of Greek throughout the cities of the Macedonian
kingdoms. This form of Greek is known as the Koine, or the “common (dialect),” and from it evolved the
form of Greek spoken today.
“So Alexander reigned twelve years, and then died. And his servants bare rule every one in his
place... And there came out of them a wicked root Antiochus surnamed Epiphanes, son of Antiochus
the king, who had been an hostage at Rome, and he reigned in the hundred and thirty and seventh year
of the kingdom of the Greeks. In those days went there out of Israel wicked men, who persuaded
many, saying, Let us go and make a covenant with the heathen that are round about us: for since we
departed from them we have had much sorrow. So this device pleased them well. Then certain of the
people were so forward herein, that they went to the king, who gave them license to do after the
ordinances of the heathen: Whereupon they built a place of exercise at Jerusalem according to the
customs of the heathen: And made themselves uncircumcised, and forsook the holy covenant, and
joined themselves to the heathen, and were sold to do mischief.” (1 Maccabees 1:7–15)Hellenistic Literature
Koine Greek also became the medium for prose literature throughout the Hellenistic Period and the period
of the Roman Empire. Since Greek was now the lingua franca in the Macedonian kingdoms, works were
written in Koine even by people whose ancestors were not Greek and who did not consider themselves
Greek. There was, for example, in Egyptian Alexandria during the Hellenistic Period a very large
population of Diaspora Jews, many of whom could not read the Hebrew of the Bible and for some of
whom Greek may have been their native language. For their benefit, a translation of the Bible into Greek
was made, beginning in the third century BC. This translation, known as the Septuagint, was the
translation used by the authors of the books of the New Testament, and it is from the Septuagint that they
quote, when they quote, as they often do, from the Old Testament. The Septuagint is still today the official
text of the Old Testament used by the Greek Orthodox Church. A well-educated Greek of the Hellenistic
Period, however, if he had encountered the Septuagint, would have regarded it as a curious and interesting
text documenting the history of a barbarian nation, but as stylistically crude and lacking the rhetorical
polish that distinguishes fine, literate Greek prose. Unfortunately, not a great deal of fine, literate Greek
prose from the Hellenistic Period has survived. Instead, the surviving masterpieces of Greek literature
from the period are in verse. Even so, what we have represents only a small fraction of what was
produced in a particularly vital and inventive phase of Greek literature.