Aged twenty-five, Alexander the Great defeated the combined might of the Persian Empire and became the richest ruler in the world. As the self-proclaimed successor to Achilles, he led an army which grew to be bigger than any known again in antiquity and reached India in his ambition to march to the edge of the world. When he died, aged thirty-two, he left his generals with conquests from India to Egypt, no designated heir and an uncertain tradition of his plans. This subject explores the controversial personality and resources of the conqueror, the impact of his conquests on Asia, the nature and importance of Macedonian tradition and the image and achievements of his early successors. The relationship and authority of the surviving sources pose large questions of interpretation on which depend our judgement of the major figures’ abilities and achievements. The career which changed the scope of Greek history is still a matter of dispute both for its immediate legacy and for the evidence on which it rests.

Teaching includes eight sessions of a university class held in Michaelmas Term in which students reading Greats and Ancient and Modern History participate in discussions of the set texts and inscriptions. The examination consists of two papers: an essay paper (on which you have to answer both on Alexander and the successors) and a gobbet paper on the set texts in translation, in which optional passages in Greek will be set from Arrian, Anabasis VII (Loeb, Brunt).