Alexander the Great in Arrian’s ›Anabasis‹

Alexander the Great in Arrian’s ›Anabasis‹

Author: Vasileios Liotsakis

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2019-05-06

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 3110659972

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Arrian’s Alexandrou Anabasis constitutes the most reliable account at our disposal about Alexander the Great's campaign in Asia. However, whereas the work has been thoroughly studied as a historical source, its literary qualities have been relatively neglected, with no autonomous monograph existing on this matter. Vasileios Liotsakis fills this gap in the studies of Alexander the Great’s literary tradition, by offering the first monograph on Arrian’s compositional strategies. Liotsakis focuses on the narrative techniques and verbal choices, through which Arrian allows praise and criticism to intermingle in his portrait of the Macedonian king. His main point of argument is that Arrian systematically exploits an abundance of narrative means (military descriptions, presentation of peoples, march-narratives, anachronies, and epic elements) in order to draw the reader’s attention not only to Alexander’s intellectual skills but also to the fact that the king was gradually corrupted by his success. This book puts Arrian’s literary contrivances under the microscope, sheds new light on unexplored aspects of the Anabasis’ narrative arrangement, and contributes to the studies of Alexander’s prosopography in Classical historiography.


The Landmark Arrian

The Landmark Arrian

Author: Arrian

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2012-01-17

Total Pages: 562

ISBN-13: 1400079675

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Arrian’s Campaigns of Alexander, widely considered the most authoritative history of the brilliant leader’s great conquests, is the latest addition to the acclaimed Landmark series. After twelve years of hard-fought campaigns, Alexander the Great controlled a vast empire that was bordered by the Adriatic sea to the west and modern-day India to the east. Arrian, himself a military commander, combines his firsthand experience of battle with material from Ptolemy’s memoirs and other ancient sources to compose a singular portrait of Alexander. This vivid and engaging new translation of Arrian will fascinate readers who are interested in classical studies, the history of warfare, and the origins of East­–West tensions still swirling in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan today. Enriched by the series’ trademark comprehensive maps, illustrations, and annotations, and with contributions from the preeminent classical scholars of today, The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander is the definitive edition of this essential work of ancient history.


The Campaigns of Alexander

The Campaigns of Alexander

Author: Arrian

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 1971

Total Pages: 666

ISBN-13: 0140442537

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Although written over four hundred years after Alexander's death, Arrian's 'Campaigns of Alexander' is our best source of knowledge of the man and his deeds. Arrain had himself been a military commander, and his record of the exploits of the world's greatest conqueror reveals sympathy for his subject, without the adulation or contempt which so often mar other histories of the time. Arrain's unaffected style of writing, with its matter-of-fact tone, offsets the remarkable career and paradoxical nature of Alexander, giving us a fair, clear report about a man who was worshipped as a god in his own lifetime.


Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great

Author: Arrian

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2013-02-14

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 0191633143

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'He was a man like no other man has ever been' So Arrian sums up the career of Alexander the Great of Macedon (356-323 BC), who in twelve years that changed the world led his army in conquest of a vast empire extending from the Danube to the rivers of the Punjab, from Egypt to Uzbekistan, and died in Babylon at the age of 32 with further ambitions unfulfilled. Arrian (c. 86-161 AD), a Greek man of letters who had experience of military command and of the highest political office in both Rome and Athens, set out to write the definitive account of Alexander's life and campaigns, published as the Anabasis and its later companion piece the Indica . His work is now our prime and most detailed extant source for the history of Alexander, and it is a dramatic story, fast-moving like its main subject, and told with great narrative skill. Arrian admired Alexander and was fascinated by him, but was also alive to his faults: he presents a compelling account of an exceptional leader, brilliant, ruthless, passionate, and complex. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.


Alexander The Great

Alexander The Great

Author: James Romm

Publisher: Hackett Publishing

Published: 2005-03-15

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 1603840621

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Comprising relevant selections from the four ancient writers whose portraits of Alexander the Great still survive--Arrian, Diodorus, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius--this volume provides a complete narrative of the important events in Alexander's life. The Introduction sets these works in historical context, stretching from the conclusion of the Peloponnesian War through Alexander's conquest of Asia, and provides an assessment of Alexander's historical importance as well as a survey of the central controversies surrounding his personality, aims and intentions. This edition includes a timeline, maps, a bibliography, a glossary, and an index.


Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great

Author: Arrian

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2004-09-28

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 0142001406

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Inspired in his leadership, fearless in battle, and boundless in his ambition, Alexander the Great was worshiped as a god during his lifetime, and his legend has only grown since. Inheriting his father's empire at the age of twenty, Alexander resolved to expand it, and by the time of his death at thirty-two, his empire streched from Greece to India, spanning three continents and encompassing two million square miles. Comprising selections from the writings of Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius Rufus, this definitive biography of the greatest conqueror in history features an introduction on Alexander's enduring legacy by acclaimed British television personality and Princeton University Professor Michael Wood.


From Arrian to Alexander

From Arrian to Alexander

Author: A. B. Bosworth

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780198148630

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This book provides a new perspective on the sources of Alexander's reign by rigorously examining the methods of historians of the time, particularly those of Arrian. Revealing Arrian's attitude toward his subject matter, approach to sources, techniques in writing speeches, and the degree to which he imposed his own judgement of his subject matter, Bosworth presents a clearer and more accurate picture of the persona of Alexander the Great, while offering new insights into two vital problems of documentation--the Royal Journals and the purported Last Plans.


Arrian the Historian

Arrian the Historian

Author: Daniel W. Leon

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2021-04-20

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1477321861

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During the first centuries of the Roman Empire, Greek intellectuals wrote a great many texts modeled on the dialect and literature of Classical Athens, some 500 years prior. Among the most successful of these literary figures were sophists, whose highly influential display oratory has been the prevailing focus of scholarship on Roman Greece over the past fifty years. Often overlooked are the period’s historians, who spurned sophistic oral performance in favor of written accounts. One such author is Arrian of Nicomedia. Daniel W. Leon examines the works of Arrian to show how the era's historians responded to their sophistic peers’ claims of authority and played a crucial role in theorizing the past at a time when knowledge of history was central to defining Greek cultural identity. Best known for his history of Alexander the Great, Arrian articulated a methodical approach to the study of the past and a notion of historical progress that established a continuous line of human activity leading to his present and imparting moral and political lessons. Using Arrian as a case study in Greek historiography, Leon demonstrates how the genre functioned during the Imperial Period and what it brings to the study of the Roman world in the second century.