Rolf Strootman

Background

About Rolf Strootman

I lecture in World History and Ancient History at the University of Utrecht. In my work, I aim to broaden the conventional focus of Ancient History on the (Greco-Roman) Mediterranean by drawing attention to cultural and political developments in East Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. My research concerns Eurasian empires in a comparative perspective, focusing on monarchy, court culture and cultural interactions in the Persian and Hellenistic periods. My field of expertise also includes ancient religion and mythology, the history and topography of Istanbul, western views of the "Orient", and the use and abuse of the classical past in modern contexts. Keywords: Global Antiquity; Orientalism; the Silk Roads; Classical Greece; Ancient Persia; Alexander the Great and Macedonia; the Hellenistic World and the rise of Rome; Anatolia, the Near East, Iran and Central Asia; Istanbul.