On 18 April 2007, at the initiative of the Department of the Ancient World, a round table discussion was organized on Alexander the Great. Life of the Image in World Culture. At this gathering, a wide range of subjects was discussed. Some were among topics touched upon in the exhibition and in the catalogue of the temporary exhibition entitled Alexander the Great. The Road to the East., while others were not dealt with in the exhibition. At the center of attention was the multicultural aspect of how the image of Alexander the Great was perceived in Hellenistic and Post-Hellenistic traditions of the East, the West and Russia, in historiography, literature, ideology, religion and folklore.

Among those taking part in the gathering were staff of the State Hermitage, of the section on Ancient Greece and Rome in the History Department and of the section on Iranian philology of the Oriental Department of St Petersburg State University, the State University of Saratov, Moscow State Pedagogical University (Samara Branch), the Russian Institute of Art History and the State Russian Museum:

E. Smykov (Saratov, Saratov State University). Was there imitation of Alexander in Rome?
Ì. N. Khimin (Petersburg, State Hermitage). On the religious depictions of Alexander in Alexandria
Ì. Ì. Kholod (Petersburg, St Petersburg State University. Alexander the Great's dedications to Greek temples
I.M. Steblin-Kamensky (Petersburg, St Petersburg State University). Iskander in the poem by Firdousi Shah-name
À. D. Pritula (Petersburg, State Hermitage). 1) The Persian Novel about Alexander 2) Wakwak Wood in Islamic applied art
À. À. Òrofimova (Petersburg, State Hermitage). Portraits of Alexander of Macedon in 20th century historiography of antiquity
Yu. N. Kuzmin (Samara, Moscow State Pedagogical University). Study of the history of ancient Macedonia and several modern tendencies
V.M Faibisovich (Petersburg, State Hermitage). The grandchildren of Catherine the Great and the "Greek Project"
V.V. Vinogradov (Petersburg, Russian Institute of Art History). Alexander in Russian folklore
À. G. Sechin (Petersburg, State Russian Museum). The Alexander of M.I. Kozlovsky as a rhetorical phenomenon

The reports were accompanied by lively discussion in the course of which individuals raised their own questions presenting methodological interest for specialists of various fields and sciences involved in the general theme of the research. In particular, this concerns the problem of sources, the correlation of critical and apologetic traditions in the West and the East, history, myth, rhetoric and tale that went into the images of Alexander. The gathering was rounded out by some interesting talks: E.V. Vlasova and A.Yu. Alekseeva on the depiction of Alexander's battle on a scabbard from Chertomylek; O.Ya. Neverova on the reverence for Alexander by Kristina of Sweden; and D.P. Aleskinsky on N.S. Novgorodov's book Alexander's Siberian Campaign. All the reports, statements and discussion will be published in a volume of materials of the round table which the State Hermitage plans to publish in early 2008.