This is CBS Eye on the World.

Here's John Batchelor.

This is CBS, I on the World.

I'm John Batchel.

I welcome Professor Toby Wilkinson.

His new book, The Last Dynasty, Ancient Egypt from Alexander

the Great to Cleopatra, is a sweeping presentation of two worlds, the Macedonian from

Alexander and the Egyptian from the Pharaohs. It's a blend that the professor makes a very good case,

leaves it too late for Egyptologists and too early for Roman historians. Well, these 300 years tell

us everything about the Mediterranean world as Rome was gathering its might before it conquers everything. We begin, however,

with Alexander. Alexander conquers the world, but when he gets to Egypt, there are moments

where he thinks about why and how he got to be so powerful.

Professor, a very good day to you.

Thank you very much for this.

Congratulations.

And we go to Alexander's decision to conquer Gaza before he marched on Egypt.

The decision you present is he wanted to show that he was all powerful, there was no

resisting him. And he built up a wall around Gaza, the same Gaza we're talking about today, the

same piece of land, the sandy beaches, the Mediterranean, built up a wall and uses his siege

engines and conquers a city. But there's a moment here where

Alexander shows he has an imagination. He carries around a copy of Homer and he knows what

happened once they got into the Homeric story of conquering Troy. There was a moment where a decision was made to drag a man to death around the city.

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