In the book of the French historian F. Chamoux, Hellenistic civilization is presented not as an era of decline in the traditions of classical Greece, nor as a simple transition through a chaotic and bloody military history from the Greek east to the Latin west, from Athens to Rome. Historical reality turns out to be much more complex than it is represented by school textbooks, which are forced to resort to simplifications. Hellenism is not only the conquests of Alexander the Great, who spread the Greek world into Asia, it is innovations and continuity, devotion to tradition and amazing innovations, it is people attached to the past and passionately aimed at the future. The book is intended for a wide range of readers.