Course overview
The course explores the ‘game of thrones’ in the Hellenistic kingdoms from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra and next analyses the complexities of the Hellenistic Mediterranean: its many environments and fragmented ecologies, the advanced economy, warfare, the centrality of slavery, and cultural responses to this ever-more-cosmopolitan world. In doing so students will learn how to use and combine various types of evidence, especially written and archaeological evidence, to tell true stories about the past. They will come to understand the limits and possibilities of what can be known and what claims historians can responsibly make.
- Kings
- Cities
- Culture
Course learning outcomes
- Demonstrate a scholarly approach to and methodology for historical interpretation of relevant historical texts and material evidence
- Use archaeological reports and evidence at scale to support historical claims
- Understand and critique scholarly arguments about historical causation
- Analyse concepts of economic theory, race and colonialism in the ancient context
- Understand the chronology and geography of the Hellenistic Mediterranean and its influence upon human affairs
- Explain the relative importance of prestige, power and ideology in the Hellenistic state system