Serendipity Talk: In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great

Join us for a fascinating journey with one of the most dramatic figures in world history - Alexander the Great. In his short life - he died at 32 - he conquered much of what was then the known world. Future generals of fame, fortune and misfortune such as Julius Caesar, Hannibal, and Napoleon, all accorded Alexander prime of place. It was Julius Caesar who wept when he visited Alexander's tomb in Egypt.

In vast and varied quilt of territory, his conquests encompassed such modern day countries as Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. In his last pitched battle in India, he met and bested King Porus and an army of 50,000, including 4,000 cavalry, 300 chariots, and 200 fierce, battle-tested war elephants.

His signal achievement was the destruction of the Persian Empire; his major accomplishment was the flow of Greek culture to Asia. As Arrian, one of his biographers reminds us, "It is a lovely thing to live with courage and to die, leaving behind an everlasting renown."

Nick Glakas is a former naval officer, international lawyer, cruise ship lecturer and graduate of Georgetown and Cambridge law schools.

 

No registration is required. The Zoom link will be e-mailed to all those subscribed to the OLLI newsletter the morning of the talk. If you do not receive the newsletter and would like to attend, please e-mail [email protected] that morning.