Hellenization

Map of the Hellenized Macedonian Empire, established by the military conquests of Alexander the Great in 334–323 BC.

By the 4th century BC, the process of Hellenization had started in southwestern Anatolia's Lycia, Caria and Pisidia regions. (1st century fortifications at Pelum in Galatia, on Baş Dağ in Lycaonia and at Isaura are the only known Hellenistic-style structures in central and eastern Anatolia).[4] When it was advantageous to do so, places like Side and Aspendos invented Greek-themed origin myths; an inscription published in SEG shows that in the 4th century BC Aspendos claimed ties to Argos, similar to Nikokreon of Cyprus who also claimed Argive lineage. (Argos was home to the Kings of Macedon.)[5][6] Like the Argeads, the Antigonids claimed descent from Heracles, the Seleucids from Apollo, and the Ptolemies from Dionysus.[7]

The Seuthopolis inscription was very influential in the modern study of Thrace. The inscription mentions Dionysus, Apollo and some Samothracian gods. Scholars have interpreted the inscription as evidence of Hellenization in inland Thrace during the early Hellenistic, but this has been challenged by recent scholarship.[8][9]

However, Hellenization had its limitations. For example, areas of southern Syria that were affected by Greek culture mostly entailed Seleucid urban centres, where Greek was commonly spoken. The countryside, on the other hand, was largely unaffected, with most of its inhabitants speaking Syriac and clinging to their native traditions.[10]

By itself, archaeological evidence only gives researchers an incomplete picture of Hellenization; it is often not possible to state with certainty whether particular archaeological findings belonged to Greeks, Hellenized indigenous peoples, indigenous people who simply owned Greek-style objects or some combination of these groups. Thus, literary sources are also used to help researchers interpret archaeological findings.[11]

Greek cultural influence spread into Anatolia in a slow rate from the 6th to 4th century. The Lydians had been particularly receptive to Greek culture, as were the 4th century dynasties of Caria and Lycia as well as the inhabitants of the Cicilian plain and of the regions of Paphlagonia. The local population found their desires for advancement a stimulus to learn Greek. The indigenous urban settlements and villages in Anatolia coalesced, on their own initiative, to form cities in the Greek manner. The Attalids were active in promoting Greek cities in western Asia Minor; the local kings of Asia Minor adopted Greek as their official language and sought to imitate other Greek cultural forms.[12]

Worship of the Greek pantheon of gods was practiced in Lydia. Lydian king Croesus often invited the wisest Greek philosophers, orators and statesmen to attend his court. Croesus himself often consulted the famous oracle at Delphi-bestowing many gifts and offerings to this and other religious sites for example. He provided patronage for the reconstruction of the Temple of Artemis, to which he offered a large number of marble columns as dedication to the goddess.[13][14]

It was in the towns that Hellenization made its greatest progress, with the process often being synonymous with urbanization.[15] Hellenization reached Pisidia and Lycia sometime in the 4th century BC, but the interior remained largely unaffected for several more centuries until it came under Roman rule in the 1st century BC.[16] Ionian, Aeolian and Doric settlers along Anatolia's Western coast seemed to have remained culturally Greek and some of their city-states date back to the Archaic Period. On the other hand, Greeks who settled in the southwestern region of Pisidia and Pamphylia seem to have been assimilated by the local culture.[17]

Panticapaeum (modern day Kerch) was one of the early Greek colonies in Crimea. It was founded by Miletus around 600 BC on a site with good terrain for a defensive acropolis. By the time the Cimmerian colonies had organized into the Bosporan Kingdom around much of the local native population had been Hellenized.[18] Most scholars date the establishment of the kingdom to 480 BC, when the Archaeanactid dynasty assumed control of Panticapaeum, but classical archaeologist Gocha R. Tsetskhladze has dated the kingdom's founding to 436 BC, when the Spartocid dynasty replaced the ruling Archaeanactids.[19]

The Hellenistic Seleucid and Ptolemaic kingdoms that formed after Alexander's death were particularly relevant to the history of Judaism. Located between the two kingdoms, Judea experienced long periods of warfare and instability.[20] Judea fell under Seleucid control in 198 BC. By the time Antiochus IV Epiphanes became king of Judea in 175 BC, Jerusalem was already somewhat Hellenized. In 170 BC, both claimants to the High Priesthood, Jason and Menelaus, bore Greek names. Jason had established institutions of Greek education and in later years Jewish culture started to be suppressed including forbidding circumcision and observance of the Sabbath.[21]

Hellenization of members of the Jewish elite included names and clothes, but other customs were adapted by the rabbis, and elements that violated the halakha and midrash were prohibited. One example is the elimination of some aspects of Hellenistic banquets, such as the practice of offering libations to the gods, while incorporating certain elements that gave the meals a more Jewish character. Discussion of Scripture, the singing of sacred songs and attendance of students of the Torah were encouraged. One detailed account of Jewish-style Hellenistic banquets comes from Ben Sira. There is literary evidence from Philo about the extravagance of Alexandrian Jewish banquets, and The Letter of Aristeas discusses Jews dining with non-Jews as an opportunity to share Jewish wisdom.[22]

Pamphylia is a plain located between the highlands of Lycia and Cilicia. The exact date of Greek settlement in the region is not known; one possible theory is that settlers arrived in the region as part of Bronze Age maritime trade between the Aegean, Levant and Cyprus, while another attributes it to population movements during the instability of the Bronze Age Collapse. The Greek dialect established in Pamphylia by the Classical period was related to Arcado-Cypriot.[23]

Mopsus is a legendary founder of several coastal cities in southwestern Anatolia, including Aspendos, Phaselis, Perge and Sillyon.[23][24] A bilingual Phoenician and neo-Hittite Luwian inscription found at Karatepe, dated to 800 BC, says that the ruling dynasty there traced their origins to Mopsus.[17][23] Mopsus, whose name is also attested to in Hittite documents, may originally have been an Anatolian figure that became part of the cultural traditions of Pamphylia's early Greek settlers.[23] Attested to in Linear B texts, he is given a Greek genealogy as a descendant of Manto and Apollo.[24]

For centuries the indigenous population exerted considerable influence on Greek settlers, but after the 4th century BC this population quickly started to become Hellenized.[17] Very little is known about Pisidia prior to the 3rd century BC, but there is quite a bit of archeological evidence that dates to the Hellenistic period.[25] Literary evidence, however, including inscriptions and coins are limited.[17] During the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, native regional tongues were abandoned in favor of koine Greek and settlements began to take on characteristics of Greek polis.[17][25]

The Iron Age Panemoteichos I may be an early precursor to later regional Hellenistic settlements including Selge, Termessos and Sagalassos (believed to be the three most prominent cities of Hellenistic Pisidia).[17][25] The site is evidence of "urban organization" that predates the Greek polis by 500 years. Based on Panemoteichos I and other Iron Age sites, including the Phrygian Midas şehri and the Cappadocian fortification of Kerkenes, experts believe that "behind the Greek influence that shaped the Hellenistic Pisidian communities there lay a tangible and important Anatolian tradition."[25]

According to the writings of Arrian the population of Side, who traced their origins to Aeolian Cyme, had forgotten the Greek language by the time Alexander arrived at the city in 334 BC. There are coins and stone inscriptions that attest to a unique script from the region but the language has only been partially deciphered.[23][17]

The latest dateable coins found at the Phrygian capital of Gordion are from the 2nd century BC. Finds from the abandoned Hellenistic era settlement include imported and locally produced imitation Greek-style terracotta figurines and ceramics. Inscriptions show that some of the inhabitants had Greek names, while others had Anatolian or possibly Celtic names.[26] Many Phrygian cult objects were Hellenized during the Hellenistic period, but worship of traditional deities like the Phrygian mother goddess persisted.[27] Greek cults attested to include Hermes, Kybele, the Muses and Tyche.[26]

Greek art and culture reached Phoenicia by way of commerce before any Greek cities were founded in Syria.[28] but Hellenization of Syrians was not widespread until it became a Roman province. Under Roman rule in the 1st century BC there is evidence of Hellenistic style funerary architecture, decorative elements, mythological references, and inscriptions. However, there is a lack of evidence from Hellenistic Syria; concerning this, most scholars view it as a case of "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence".[29][30]

The Bactrians, an Iranian ethnic group who lived in Bactria (northern Afghanistan), were Hellenized during the reign of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and soon after various tribes in northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent underwent Hellenization during the reign of the Indo-Greek Kingdom.

Arvanites are descendants of Albanian settlers who came to the present southern Greece in the late 13th and early 14th century. With participation in the Greek War of Independence and the Greek Civil War, this has led to increasing assimilation amongst the Arvanites.[37] The common Orthodox Christian faith they shared with the rest of the local population was one of the main reasons that led to their assimilation.[38] Other reasons for assimilation are large-scale internal migration to the cities and subsequent intermingling of the population. Although sociological studies of Arvanite communities still used to note an identifiable sense of a special "ethnic" identity among Arvanites, the authors did not identify or never identified a sense of 'belonging to Albania or to the Albanian nation'.[39] Many Arvanites find the designation "Albanians" offensive as they identify nationally and ethnically as Greeks and not Albanians.[40] Because of this, relations between Arvanites and other Albanian-speaking populations have diverged over time. During the onset of the Greek war of Independence, Arvanites fought alongside Greek revolutionaries against Muslim Albanians.[41][42] For example, Arvanites participated in the 1821 Tripolitsa Massacre of Muslim Albanians,[41] while some Muslim Albanian speakers in the region of Bardounia remained after the war, converting to Orthodoxy.[42] In recent times, Arvanites have expressed mixed opinions towards recent Albanian settlers within Greece. Other Arvanites during the late 1980s and early 1990s expressed solidarity with Albanian immigrants, due to linguistic similarities and being politically leftist.[43] Relations too between Arvanites and other Orthodox Albanian-speaking communities such as those of Greek Epirus are mixed, as they are distrusted regarding religious matters due to a past Albanian Muslim population living amongst them.[44]

There are no monolingual Arvanitika-speakers, as all are today bilingual in Greek. However, while Arvanites are bilingual in Greek and Arvanitika, Arvanitika is considered an endangered language as it is in a state of attrition due to the large-scale language shift towards Greek among the descendants of Arvanitika-speakers in recent decades, becoming monolingual Greek speakers in the end,[45] and since Arvanitika is almost exclusively a spoken language, Arvanites also no longer have practical affiliation with the Standard Albanian language used in Albania, as they do not use this form in writing or in media.