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Behind Hellenism...
A brief rundown of the influence of Hellenism
o Necho I's son, Psamtik/Psammetichus I, cast off Assyrian rule
of Egypt ante 653 BCE, using for the first time Greek and
Carian mercemaries.
o Western and Northern Asia Minor was all Greek then.
o By Persian times, Greek generals and troops served in
Persian armies and Greeks lived in colonies as far east as
Susa, some by impression...
o Bagoas, the Persian Chiliarch of Jerusalem, paid for the
Jewish temple at Elephantine (Aswan) circa 400 BCE.
o Liberation of Jerusalem from Persian control by the Jews'
ally, Alexander, 332 BCE... and for the Jew's help in the
seiges of Tyre and Gaza Alexander gave them history's first
medal.
o Continually under suzereignty either of Alexandria or Antioch
with brief Maccabean interludes until the arrival of Pompey,
circa 60 BCE. The active forces both of Egypt and Antioch
were mainly Greek. There existed in the diaspora and in
Israel at least 8,000,000 Jews in an Hellenistic world.
(courtesy of a brief rundown of my Atlas of Ancient Egypt,
Pritchard's ANE, Grant's _From Alexander To Cleopatra_ and Lane
Fox's _The Search For Alexander_.)
Tom Simms