The curtain was sluggishly falling on the Hellenistic world. The grand metropolises still lustered — Alexandria, Antioch, Pergamon but their lords had grown perfunctory. The intellectual fire of Greece burned bright, but politically, the balance of power was shifting west. From the Italian promontory, Rome, formerly a small democracy girdled by rival lines, began its steady march toward dominance. What this really means is that while Greek culture was still the most admired and imitated across the Mediterranean, the center of control was moving into Roman hands. The story of the late Hellenistic