| Credits | 1 |
| Restrictions | No 2022 2021 2020 Open to first-years only |
| Pre-Requisites | |
| Co-Requisites | |
| Core Area | |
| Area of Inquiry | Human Thought and Expression |
| Liberal Arts Practices |
Faculty Profile for Professor Tober
Alexander the Great: Fact & Fiction
By the time of his death in 323 BCE, Alexander III, the young king of Macedon, had expanded his realm from northern Greece to the borders of India, in the process transforming the Mediterranean world and much of the Middle East and earning himself unparalleled fame. Indeed, Alexander the Great, as he came to be known, has remained one of the most iconic and recognizable names of antiquity: he crops up not only in Greek and Roman texts but also in Egyptian, Persian, and Indian tradition and in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scripture; the so-called Alexander Romance, an early novelization of his exploits, was one of Medieval Europe’s best-selling books; and he was recently named by Time Magazine as one of the top ten “most significant figures in history”, outstripping Thomas Jefferson, Julius Caesar, and the Buddha. Students examine the life and afterlife of Alexander, not only what Alexander did, why he did it, and how, but also the ways in which his life and achievements have been interpreted, emulated, used, and abused over the past 2300 years. While the brunt of our attention will be on Greek and Latin histories, students also work with other contemporary material, literary, archaeological, epigraphical, and numismatic (we shall even have the opportunity to familiarize ourselves firsthand with the extraordinary gold and bronze coinage produced by Alexander and his successors). The course will conclude with a unit on Alexander’s reception in twentieth-century literature and film (from Hollywood to Bollywood and beyond). Students who successfully complete this seminar will receive credit for a 200-level CLAS course and satisfy one half of the human thought and expression area of inquiry requirement.
Daniel Tober is an Assistant Professor of the Classics, focusing on Greek and Roman history. His current interests include community and memory in Greece and Rome, Hellenistic Athens, and Greek local historiography.