Greece's dominant state during the Hellenistic period was Macedon.
Ancient Greece . This was followed by the period of Classical Greece , an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars , lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC . The Hellenistic period came to an end with the conquests and annexations of the eastern Mediterranean world by the Roman Republic , which established the Roman province of Macedonia in Roman Greece , and later the province of Achaea during the Roman Empire . Greece . Philip of Macedon united most of the Greek mainland in the fourth century BC , with his son Alexander the Great rapidly conquering much of the ancient world , spreading Greek culture and science from the eastern Mediterranean to the Indus River . Macedonia or Macedon ( [ ˈmæsɪˌdɒn ] ) was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece , and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece .