The Hellenistic period in the Aegean: years shared with Roman rule

The frame

The Met's page "Ancient Greece, 1000 B.C.-1 A.D." has the bar "Hellenistic period, ca. 323-31 B.C.". Its key events open the period under 323 B.C. with the death of Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, who, in the page's words, "extends Greek influence to the east as far as the Indus Valley and Afghanistan"; under 32-31 B.C. they record Octavian's victory over Marc Antony and Cleopatra of Egypt at the Battle of Actium. The site follows this bar for mainland Greece and the Aegean islands. Source 1.

Boundaries and overlaps

The same page also has the bar "Roman rule, Greek mainland, 146 B.C.-330 A.D.". Under 146 B.C. it states that the Romans, under the consul Mummius Achaicus, sack Corinth and dissolve the Achaean Confederacy, and that "From this time onward, Greece is ruled by Rome." The site keeps both periods: from 146 to about 31 B.C. the Hellenistic period and Roman rule run side by side, and a find dated to those years can belong to both. Rome appears on the page earlier still, in the First Macedonian War (214-205 B.C.) and in the Third, after which "Macedon is divided into four republics" (172-168/167 B.C.). The Roman bar is labelled "Greek mainland", and the page does not say when Roman rule began on the islands. Source 1.

On this site

The article on Delos follows a sanctuary island that was declared a free port after 167 BC and attacked in 88 and 69 BC, inside the years of overlap. The article on the Antikythera Mechanism asks what a findspot can tell about "a scientific instrument of the 1st century BC", a century that runs past the end of the period. Sources 2, 3.