With Alexander's conquests also came great cultural change. In West Asia and North Africa, tradesmen, intellectuals and aristocrats who were neither Greek nor Macedonian, had begun developing an interest in the Greek ways. The Greek gymnasium became popular. It was a place for bathing and physical exercise. The gymnasium was also a place for training in grammar, rhetoric and poetry. In addition, those who passed through training at the gymnasium acquired a status similar to a modern college degree. The increase in trade and travel enhanced an awareness of distance places. An increase in migrations from city to city and from the countryside to city cut people off from their old tribal ties and increased individualism. So too did the increase in commerce. A new cosmopolitanism was rising. Among city governments came a greater desire for cooperation with other cities, such as offering other cities freedom from import and export duties to encourage trade. Cities began offering other cities exchanges of
With Alexander's conquests also came great cultural change. In West Asia and North Africa, tradesmen, intellectuals and aristocrats who were neither Greek nor Macedonian, had begun developing an interest in the Greek ways. The Greek gymnasium became popular. It was a place for bathing and physical exercise. The gymnasium was also a place for training in grammar, rhetoric and poetry. In addition, those who passed through training at the gymnasium acquired a status similar to a modern college degree. The increase in trade and travel enhanced an awareness of distance places. An increase in migrations from city to city and from the countryside to city cut people off from their old tribal ties and increased individualism. So too did the increase in commerce. A new cosmopolitanism was rising. Among city governments came a greater desire for cooperation with other cities, such as offering other cities freedom from import and export duties to encourage trade. Cities began offering other cities exchanges of