The idea of the Hellenistic -- From Alexander to Augustus -- Demetrius the Besieger and Hellenistic kingship -- Eratosthenes and the system of the world -- Encounters -- Priene;The Hellenistic Age was a time of opportunity and adventure, when a Celt from the lower Danube could serve in the mercenary army of a Macedonian king ruling in Egypt. Greek city-states came together under the earliest federal governments known to history, while scientists of Ptolemaic Alexandria measured the circumference of the earth, and pioneering Greek argonauts explored the Atlantic coast of Africa. Drawing on inscriptions, papyri, coinage, poetry, art, and archaeology, Peter Thonemann opens up the history and culture of the vast Hellenistic world, from the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) to the Roman conquest of the Ptolemaic kingdom (30 BC)