From Alexander to Kleopatra: The rise and fall of the Hellenistic world

Alexander the Great expanded Macedonia from a small north Aegean kingdom to a huge territory stretching from the Danube to the Himalayas. After Alexander's death, that empire disintegrated into a series of warring kingdoms, initially ruled by Alexander's generals. Egypt, ruled by Ptolemy and his successors, became the centre of one of the most enduring of these Hellenistic kingdoms, lasting for nearly three centuries until the reign of Kleopatra VII, who struggled in vain to preserve her kingdom in the face of Roman expansion. This unit focuses on the world created by Alexander and the Ptolemies. Themes include the nature of Alexander's rule and that of the Ptolemies, the heterogeneous culture that developed as a result of Greco-Macedonian occupation, the problems faced by Kleopatra and her Ptolemaic predecessors with the growing threat of Roman power, the rivalry between and among ruling dynasties, and the ways in which the indigenous Egyptian culture flourished and adapted to the profound changes it experienced. This unit analyses archaeological, literary, and documentary sources to provide an interdisciplinary study of a time of unprecedented change in the ancient world.