“Who is so worthless or indolent as not to wish to know by what means and under what system of polity the Romans in less than fifty-three years have succeeded in subjecting nearly the whole inhabited world to their sole government, a thing unique in history?” When the Greek historian Polybius composed his universal history in the 2nd century BCE, the Roman conquest of the Hellenistic world was well under way. But Hellenistic history is more than one of gradual decline and defeat. The lecture introduces students to one of the most complex and most exciting eras in the ancient world: the widely connected Hellenistic world, from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra. This requires an in-depth analysis of the period’s scanty sources on politics, diplomacy, and warfare. At the same time, the lecture examines Hellenistic social, religious, and cultural landscapes. In doing so, it aims also at a paradigmatic study of historical transformation between continuity, change and contingency.
Learning goals: in-depth knowledge of the course content and subject matter; basic comprehension of research operations; development of critical thinking and analytical skills (intermediate level).
- Lehrende/r: Hans Beck