Open Lecture: The Self-Identification of Alexander the Great according to the Ancient Sources

Location: Ithacan Philanthropic Society, Level 2, 329 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne 
Date: THURSDAY 12/4/2018 @ 7:00pm
Presenter: Dimitris Gonis

Language of Presentation: English | R.M.L.G.*: 0 (No knowledge of Greek Required).
Entry: FREE

Synopsis

Ancient sources on the Hellenism of the ancient Macedonians are not always clear. They sometimes paint a picture of people who lived on the fringes of the Greek world, and who were not always considered Hellenes by their southern kin. People like Demosthenes called Philip II a ‘barbarian’, while Isocrates referred to him as a man ‘beyond any of the Hellenes’ and a man of the ‘blood of Hellas’.

We have little evidence regarding what Philip exactly thought of himself. All his actions point to his Hellenic self-identification. However, we do not have the unmistakable declarations we find in Alexander. Alexander unambiguously self-identifies as a Hellene.

All the sources we have available to us speak of an Alexander who repeatedly affirms his Hellenic roots and intrinsic Hellenism. This lecture focuses on the self-identification of Alexander the Great as presented in the Hellenistic writings of both Greek and Roman writers. It also examines Alexander’s self-identification, but also identification by others, in the 3rd century CE folkloric tradition of Pseudo-Callisthenes

Bio

Andrew Connor is the Lecturer in Ancient History in the Centre for Ancient Cultures at Monash University. He completed his PhD at the University of Cincinnati, studying the economic infrastructure of Egyptian temples under the Romans. He has published and presented on legal procedure in Roman Egypt, the meaning of rare technical terms in ancient Greek, economic and administrative difficulties for Ptolemaic temples, religious confiscations, contracts and leases in Byzantine Egypt, and Herodotus’ descriptions of Persians, tyrants, and scandalous behaviour.

As part of his studies, he spent a year in Greece, at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and participated in excavations at the site of Ancient Corinth. Andrew taught at the University of Cincinnati and at Xavier University before joining Monash University. He currently teaches on Periklean Athens, the Hellenistic period, Imperial Rome, and Roman Archaeology, as well as the Ancient Greek language

Sponsors

We thank this lecture's donors: AIMS (Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies)

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