Hellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world. After the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great, Macedonian kingdoms were established in the throughout south-west Asia (the 'Near' and 'Middle East') and northern Africa (including Ancient Egypt). This resulted in the export of Greek culture and language to these new realms, and moreover Greek colonists themselves. Equally, however, these new kingdoms were influenced by the indigenous cultures, adopting local practices where beneficial, necessary or convenient. Hellenistic civilisation thus represents a fusion of the the ancient Greek world with that of Asia, and a departure from the traditional Greek attitude to "barbarian" cultures. The extent to which a genuinely hybrid Greco-Asian cultures emerged is contentious; consensus tends to point towards pragmatic cultural adaptation by the elites of society; for the mass of the population, life would probably have continued much as before.

The Hellenistic period was characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization (as distinguished from that occurring in the 8th-6th centuries BC) which established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa.Ulrich Wilcken, Griechische Geschichte im Rahmen der Alterumsgeschichte Those new cities were composed of Greek colonists who came from different parts of the Greek world, and not, as before, from a specific "mother city".. The main cultural centers expanded from mainland Greece, to Pergamon, Rhodes, and new Greek colonies such as Antioch and Alexandria. This mixture of Greek-speakers gave birth to a common Attic-based dialect, known as Hellenistic Greek, which became the lingua franca through the Hellenistic world.

The term Hellenistic itself is derived from (Héllēn), the Greeks' traditional name for themselves. It was coined by the historian Johann Gustav Droysen to refer to the spreading of Greek culture and colonization over the non-Greek lands that were conquered by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. There has been much debate about the validity of Droysen's ideas; leading many to reject the label 'Hellenistic' (at least in the specific meaning of Droysen). However, the term Hellenistic can still be usefully applied to this period in history; and moreover, no better general term exists to do so.

History

The nominal start of the Hellenistic period is usually taken as the death of Alexander the Great, in Babylon, in 323 BC. During the previous decade of campaigning Alexander had conquered the whole Persian Empire, overthrowing the Persian King Darius III. The conquered lands included Asia Minor, Assyria, the Levant, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Media, Persia, and parts of modern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the steppes of central Asia. Alexander had made no especial preparations for the succession to his new-found empire (dying, as he did, at a young age), and on his death-bed (apocryphally) willed his it to "the strongest".