Here is a series of lectures given by Sean Gabb in 2022, in which he discusses the influence of the Greeks on the other peoples of the Ancient World. For reasons of politeness and data protection, all student contributions have been removed.

This seventh lecture in the course narrates and tries to explain the conquests of Alexander the Great. It takes less interest in the battles and other military events of the conquest, and looks instead at its causes and effects. The discussing includes:

• The unification of Greece by Philip II
• The declaration of holy war against Persia to legitimise the Macedonian conquest
• The contingent weakness of Persia in the 330s
• Alexander’s policy of fusion and his dream of a Greek and Persian union
• The transformation of the Greeks from objects of prospective conquest to a people of empire