>>281264834
during the time between the conquest of Greece and the rise of the Empire, the upper social strata (when not purging itself) in a cultural war between Hellenophiles and Hellenophobes
It helps that plundering Macedon gave enough wealth to remove the need of taxes for two years, but Hellenophiles were just drawn to all of the centers of learning in the Aegean, as well as the wealth of the eastern Mediterranean. With the expansion of the Empire into the Levant, it would be one of the drives that implicitly split the empire between East and West, especially as power and attentions moved further from Rome
