death of Alexander in 323 BC and the victory of the future emperor Augustus over Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31. With Alexander dead, his vast empire split into ‘successor kingdoms’, of which the most important, from a literary point of view, was Egypt, which was ruled by a Macedonian dynasty of kings all called Ptolemy until the last ruler, Cleopatra. On her death in 30, Egypt became part of the Roman empire, suffering the fate which the other successor kingdoms and the few surviving city-states had already met, and the last of Greek independence was extinguished.
