Lessons from the ancient Greeks for today’s global world
Campaigns by Alexander the Great and his successors changed the ancient world. Diverse people and ideas from Spain to Afghanistan suddenly came into contact, and the Hellenistic world grew deeply interconnected and interdependent.
This world was not unlike our own. Economies were united across vast distances, networks of sport, art, literature and faith appeared, and the world seemed smaller with faster lines of communication through the largely common language that Greek became. But this was not a tranquil paradise where everyone came together and lived happily ever after. Rather, all of this occurred through warfare and competition among great powers for resources, prestige and prominence.
Join Dr Alex McAuley as he delves into this fascinating globalised world, examines what it meant to the people who lived it day to day, and reflects on the insight their experience provides two millennia later.
Bio
Dr Alex McAuley is Senior Lecturer in Greek History and Language in the Faculty of Arts and Education and Programme Director of the Bachelor of Arts. He previously taught in Canada and Wales and has published widely on diverse aspects of the world, from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra. He also works on the shadows of antiquity in modern culture. A French-Canadian, Alex is a keen ice hockey player and referee.
Event
Tuesday, 25 August 2026, 7:30pm – 8:30pm @Norma Taps, 90 Wellesley Street West, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010
The other talk at this location is Restoring NZ’s native wildlife: 10 years of Predator Free 2050 at 6:00pm – 7:00pm
