The Hellenistic Age was a new era of Greek civilization that began with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. and lasted until the Roman emperor Octavian defeated the last independent Hellenistic monarch, Cleopatra VII of Egypt, in 31 B.C. Burn traces the development of a distinctive new Hellenistic culture that was shaped both by artists who spread innovations across the Mediterranean region and by rival monarchs who commissioned luxury articles...