the persians governed the near east for almost exactly 200 years: they conquered Babylon in 539 BCE, and they held power until a rapid series of spectacular defeats at the hands of Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia, from 333 to 331 BCE. After that, the Greek language and varieties of Greek culture dominated the eastern Mediterranean for almost 1,000 years, until the equally spectacular arrival of the Arabs and Islam in the seventh century CE.

Alexander kept the Persian system of dividing his kingdom into regions or satrapies and placing a trusted subordinate in charge of each; once active warfare had ended, many of his generals were appointed to these positions. He did take steps to implant Greek culture throughout the kingdom – he established settlements of active or retired soldiers in key locations, and he encouraged (or forced) his officers to marry high-ranking native women – but he may have been more concerned with maintaining stability and control than with starting a cultural revolution.

King Alexander made no move to interfere with the inner life of the Jewish (or any other) population now under his rule, but he did encourage large-scale immigration to the new city of Alexandria in Egypt. This new city soon became a royal capital, the largest city in the Greek world, home to the largest Jewish community anywhere. Here and elsewhere a Greek-speaking Judaism developed, flourished, and then almost completely disappeared; see Chapter 6 for further details.