Hellenistic culture, era, the time proceding the death of Alexander the Great (c. 323 BCE). In that time the influence of Greek culture moved eastward toward Mesopotamia, Egypt and Persia, and there it mingled with local faiths and cultures. The two major hellenistic kingdoms were named after their dynastic ruling families: the Seleucid Kingdom, with Antiochia as its capital; and the Ptolemaeic Kingdom, with Alexandria as its capital.