The Hellenistic or Post-Aristotelian period of the Ancient era of philosophy comprises many different schools of thought developed in the Hellenistic world (which is usually used to mean the spread of Greek culture to non-Greek lands conquered by Alexander the Great in the 4th Century B.C.). It is usually considered to begin with the deaths of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. and of Aristotle in 322 B.C.).
It includes the following major philosophers:
Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Syrians living outside Greece incorporated elements of Persian and Indian philosophy into their works, superimposing these ideas on the legacy handed down by the Socratic and Pre-Socratic philosophers of Classical Greece.
During this period, Stoicism, Skepticism, Epicureanism and Neo-Platonism flourished.
To some extent the Hellenistic period overlaps the Roman period, and the distinction is as much geographical as historical.
