Western Civilization

QUESTIONS
1. How “Greek” is Alexander the Great? To defines “Greek-ness,” please base your definition on evidence drawn from Thucydides.
2. Compare the approaches of Thucydides and Arrian (our major source for Alexander to the Great) to their subjects. What best accounts for their differing approaches? (You might consider their views of human nature or their different perspectives on their topics – that is, Thucydides lived through the events he described, whereas Arrian writes with several centuries of hindsight.)
3. Basing your answers primarily on the speeches in Thucydides and Arrian, what are the different motivational strategies employed to spur audiences to action in the Hellenic and Hellenistic worlds? What might these differences reveal about the fundamental political or cultural changes that occurred between the Peloponnesian War and the campaigns of Alexander?
4. What is the most fundamental difference in the conception of empire in Thucydides’s world as opposed to Alexander’s, and what role do these different conceptions of empire have in justifying war