Sources for Alexander the Great
Plutarch and Arrian have contributed more than any other ancient authors to our picture of Alexander the Great, but since they wrote four or more centuries after his death the value of what they said depends upon the sources of information on which they themselves drew. In this 1993 book the attempt is made to define and to evaluate those sources in a detailed study, analysing the historians' works section by section and comparing them with other accounts of the same episodes. This volume completes Professor Hammond's study of the five Alexander-historians begun with Three Historians of Alexander the Great (Cambridge University Press, 1983) and lays a basis for work in this area.
- Author is a very distinguished ancient historian - many books include Alexander the Great: King, Commander and Statesman (Noyes 1980, 2nd edn BCP 1989)
- This book is by no means a dry analysis but contains many anecdotes from the historians about the life of Alexander the Great
- Previous book (Three Historians of Alexander the Great) sold 980 copies
Product details
September 2007Paperback
9780521714716
364 pages
215 × 140 × 21 mm
0.474kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations and select bibliography
- Prolegomena
- Part I. Plutarch's Sources for the Narrative Passages:
- 1. Alexander's origin, boyhood and relations with Philip
- 2. Balkan campaign, sack of Thebes and landing in Asia
- 3. The set battles in Asia
- 4. Alexander and Darius
- 5. Phoenicia, Egypt, Mesopotamia and Parthia
- 6. Conspiracies and Callisthenes
- 7. Bactria, India and Carmania
- 8. Persia and Babylonia
- 9. Attributions and deductions
- Part II:
- 10. Plutarch's reflective passages and Alexander's personality
- Part III. Arrian's Sources for the Anabasis Alexandrou:
- 11. The methodology of Arrian
- 12. From Macedonia to the Tanaïs
- 13. From the Tanaïs to the Indus valley
- 14. Advance from Nysa and return to the Hydaspes
- 15. From the Hydaspes to Persepolis
- 16. The last year of Alexander's life
- Part IV:
- 17. The personality of Arrian and his choice and use of sources
- Index.