Alexander the Great comes to UQ

Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) will come to The University of Queensland on Friday, October 5, with a free public lecture on his Asian adventures.

Professor Andrew Stewart, Chancellor’s Research Professor at the University of California, Berkley, will present an illustrated lecture about the most famous conqueror in western history.

Entitled King, Hero and God: With Alexander in Asia, the lecture will be presented by UQ’s School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics and the Queensland Friends of the Australian Archaeological Institute of Athens.

Professor Stewart is the 2001 Australian Archaeological Institute of Athens Visiting Professor.

In just 11 years, Alexander the Great had been victorious as far as India, toppling the mighty Persian empire in the process. Larger than life as a soldier and king, Alexander was also one of the first rulers to have consciously promoted his own public image in sculpture and portraiture.

The lecture traces Alexander’s Asian adventures through the changing “face” of these portraits and some new interpretations of the images are offered and others challenged.

The lecture will be chaired by Associate Professor Dorothy Watts, Head of the Department of Classics and Ancient History at UQ.

The lecture is from 8pm in the Abel Smith Lecture Theatre at the University’s St Lucia campus.

Refreshments will be served after the lecture and for more information, contact 07 3365 2643 (telephone), 07 3365 1399 (facsimile) or classics@mailbox.uq.edu.au (email).