Alexander and the Hellenistic World

This course covers Greek history from the subordination of Greece to Philip II, king of Macedonia, and his heir and successor Alexander the Great, in 338 BCE through the Hellenistic world's loss of independence to Rome some 300 years later. This era is defined by the charismatic figure of Alexander the Great and by his military campaigns, which led to the conquest of all the eastern Mediterranean and made possible the spread of Greek culture all over Anatolia, Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt. After Alexander's death, his empire was divided into the three Hellenistic kingdoms of Egypt, Syria, and Macedonia until Rome's progressive absorption of them in the 2nd and 1st c. BCE.

The course will devote roughly equal time to covering major events and personalities, exploring key developments in culture and society, and examining the various types of evidence available for the era (literary, epigraphic, papyrological, and archeological sources). There will be two hours of lecture and one hour of discussion each week. The two lectures will combine historical outline with the exploration of specific themes and problems, such as systems of government, social structures, economy, culture, religion, and war, while the discussion sections will be focused on how to analyze, interpret, and use ancient sources.

This course carries the Writing and Global Cultures flags.