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‘Prince: Alexander in the Macedonian Court’ looks at Alexander's childhood and at a number of women who played an important part in his upbringing, such as his mother, Olympias; Eurydice, wife of Amyntas III; and Cleopatra, his sister. Of the Alexander historians, only Plutarch talks about Alexander the Great's childhood, telling many stories about Alexander's mother. Alexander maintained a close relationship with his mother throughout his life and he corresponded with her regularly. Alexander's life in the Macedonian court was interrupted when he went into exile and shortly after his father was assassinated at his sister's wedding leaving Alexander heir. ...Less

‘History wars’ uses the literature of the second century AD to recover a sense of how those who were conquered sought to establish an identity in a new imperial world. Conquest by Rome had an enormous impact — architecturally, intellectually and organizationally. The past was refashioned and incorporated into a Roman present in which cities wanted to participate. Some authors reacted by producing their own competing histories. Pausanias' Description of Greece offers a tour of the sights, but gives primacy to antiquity, not Roman contributions. Plutarch tried to show that Roman history was best understood from a Greek perspective and present the two peoples in parallel. ...Less

Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction explores the puzzles sketched out by the Presocratic philosophers: What is being? Suppose what is real is very different from what we seem to see and hear: what then? And if we can ever discover the truth about what exists, how exactly could we prove it? These questions grew out of a primitive interest in cosmology, but they have led directly into metaphysics, theory of knowledge, philosophy of language, logic, and many other branches of philosophy as we know it now. Moreover, these pioneering questions about knowledge, reality, and truth, were often accompanied by new insights into mathematics, astronomy, physics, politics, religion, and morality. ...Less

For what is believed to be his last tragedy, Shakespeare turned once again to Ancient Rome. He chose to write a political and personal drama about a great Roman warrior of the 5th century bc whose personal fate is bound up with that of his nation. Shakespeare depicts a unique, psychologically complex individual caught up in a web of difficult personal relationships that reflect basic human situations. ‘Coriolanus’ describes the play as knotty, harsh, austere, intellectually rigorous, and resolutely unlyrical, where the dialogue is leavened with humour, sometimes conscious on the part of the speakers, but no less frequently oblique and ironical. ...Less

‘Socrates and later philosophy’ examines the legacy of Socrates, the most important aspect of which was his influence on Plato. Antisthenes, another personal associate, adhered to some of Socrates’ ethical doctrines and his austere lifestyle. The Stoics accepted the cardinal doctrines of Socratic ethics—that virtue is knowledge and that virtue is sufficient for eudaimonia—while the Epicureans were consistently hostile to his ideas. The major medieval philosophers showed little interest in Socrates, but the revival of Platonism in the late 15th century changed that. The tradition of adapting the figure of Socrates to fit the general preconceptions of the writer is discernible in his treatment by three 19th-century philosophers: Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. ...Less

‘Grand Theories’ focuses on the continuing efforts to make available the most authentic texts of classical literature. Classical editors explain the language and content of the works they study in the form of commentary, line-by-line notes on the text, which attempt to anticipate and answer the questions that readers are likely to raise. The Greek myths are still one of the most common ways that Classics first comes to our notice. Over the last hundred years much theorizing has gone into accounting for these myths. Using examples from the work of Sigmund Freud, Sir James Frazer, and Shakespeare, their interpretations of Homer and Ovid can be seen to shape more modern readings. ...Less

‘Doomed to Die: Alexander in Babylon’ looks at the final chapter in Alexander's life, which was set in Babylon. When Alexander entered Babylon after his victory at Gaugamela, he was following a long line of previous victors. None of the surviving narratives mentions a coronation of Alexander in Babylon, but he was definitely recognized as king from the point of his arrival and described as such since. What do we know about the end of Alexander's life? Plutarch and Arrian both give detailed accounts of the last days of his life. They describe how he caught a fever, his health gradually declined, he lost the power of speech, and died. He was only 32. Shortly after, stories circulated claiming that he was poisoned. ...Less

Shakespeare’s grammar school education gave him a thorough grounding in Latin, and possibly some Greek, and in the writings of classical authors. He drew on and developed this knowledge at every stage of his career, most conspicuously in the remarkably diverse tragedies and other plays in which he dramatized Greek and Roman history. ‘Classical plays’ first considers Titus Andronicus and then Julius Caesar, which he wrote seven or so years later. It also discusses Troilus and Cressida, Timon of Athens, and his last two classical plays Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra for which he drew far more extensively on Plutarch. ...Less