The story of Alexander the Great, who in 4th century B.C. conquered ninety percent of the known world of the time by defeating Greece, Persia, Afghanistan, and India in just eight years.

Why do the ancient Greeks occupy such a prominent place in conceptions of Western culture and identity? The Greeks are a source of much that we esteem: democracy, philosophy, tragedy, epic and lyric poetry, history-writing, ideals of athletic competition, aesthetic sensibilities, and more. Spanning roughly 1,000 years, the lectures cover the Late Bronze Age (1500 B.C.E.) to the time of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century (400 B.C.E.). Greek...