Kenneth W. Harl Audio

With the exception of Jesus Christ, virtually no figure in antiquity is more renowned in the history of the West than Alexander the Great. His feats are the stuff of legend, inspiring medieval romances, painting and sculptures, and even blockbuster movies.

The Crusades have been hailed as the driving force that brought Western Europe out of the Middle Ages—and condemned as the beginning of European imperialism in the Muslim Near East. But how are they best understood?

Professor Kenneth W. Harl offers 24 lectures focused on a region that has been key to human history since the birth of agriculture.

The ancient civilizations of the Near East can seem remote.

The ancient Greek historian Thucydides called it "a war like no other"—arguably the greatest in the history of the world up to that time. The Peloponnesian War pitted Athens and her allies against a league of city-states headed by Sparta.

The history of the Romans and the "barbarians" they encountered as their mighty legions advanced the frontiers of Classical civilization has in large part been written as a story of warfare and conquest.

As explorers and traders, the Vikings played a decisive role in the formation of Latin Christendom, and particularly of Western Europe.

Open new vistas of historical insight as you join award-winning scholar and lecturer Kenneth W. Harl in this study of the crucial yet overlooked civilization of Byzantium.