Despite Alexander the Great's unprecedented accomplishments, during the last seven years of his life, this indomitable warrior became increasingly unpredictable, sporadically violent, megalomaniacal, and suspicious of friends as well as enemies. What could have caused such a lamentable transformation? This biography seeks to answer that question by assessing the role of alcohol in Alexander the Great's life, using the figure of Dionysus as a symbol of its destructive effects on his psyche. The unique methodology employed in this book explores various aspects of Alexander's life while maintaining an historical framework. The exposition of the main theme is handled in such a way that the biography will appeal to general readers as well as scholars.
`O'Brien has combined faultless scholarship with poetic vision to penetrate the events of Alexander's extraordinary life and reveal the tragic pattern obscured by these tumultous events. This is not only biography; it is art.' F Salvidio
Despite Alexander the Great's unprecedented accomplishments, during the last seven years of his life, this indomitable warrior became increasingly unpredictable, sporadically violent, megalomaniacal, and suspicious of friends as well as enemies. What could have caused such a lamentable transformation? This biography seeks to answer that question by assessing the role of alcohol in Alexander the Great's life, using the figure of Dionysus as a symbol of its destructive effects on his psyche. The unique methodology employed in this book explores various aspects of Alexander's life while maintaining an historical framework. The exposition of the main theme is handled in such a way that the biography will appeal to general readers as well as scholars.
Professor Ernst Badian (1925-2011) was one of the most influential Alexander historians of the twentieth century. His first articles on the subject appeared in 1958, and he continued for a full fifty years to reshape scholarly perception of the reign of Alexander the Great. A steady output of articles was reinforced by lectures and reviews in his own formidable style. Badian's earliest work transformed understanding of aspects of the Roman Republic, and he continued to work on that area throughout his career; but his series of studies of Alexander the Great (which he deliberately never summed up in a synoptic work) demolished the hero of his predecessors such as Droysen and Tarn, whom he regarded as starry-eyed hero-worshippers, and created an Alexander on the model of a twentieth-century tyrant. The Alexander who was a ruthless killer of his rivals and those who disagreed with him, a mass-murderer in his conquests, and perhaps even an incompetent imperialist, has superseded the Alexander whose mission it was to bring Greek civilization to the ends of the earth. These essays and articles provide a new layer in the interpretation of a figure who has not ceased to fascinate since his death in 323 BC. Many of these articles were published in out-of-the-way journals and conference volumes, and are brought together here for the first time in a collection which will provide student and scholar with a view of the full range of Badian's work on Alexander. Certain ephemeral pieces and all reviews except one have been excluded, by the wish of the author. The twenty-seven articles included were all revised by the author before his death, but there has been no other editorial intervention. The volume also includes a portrait, and an introduction by Eugene Borza surveying Badian's career and contribution. No one who works on Alexander the Great can afford to be without this book.
As fitting for the 21st century as von Clausewitz's "On War" was in its own time, "Invisible Armies" is a complete global history of guerrilla uprisings through the ages.
If you want to learn about one of history’s greatest military commanders and uncover some of his secrets of drive—drive that enabled him and his small army to first subdue all of Greece and then the mighty Persian Empire—then you want to read this book. Some people like to think that geniuses are so inherently extraordinary that they navigate their journeys with clairvoyant ease. This simply isn’t true. Greatness does not come lightly. It requires that you make sacrifices of time, interests, and—sometimes—possessions. The further you move toward greatness, the more greatness demands from you. But all barriers yield to one mythical quality: drive. The will to persist and overcome. To never give up. To never accept defeat. Few stories better illustrate this better than the life of one of the most extraordinary warriors the world has even known; a man of legendary ambition, will, and grit: Alexander the Great. In this book, you’ll be taken on a whirlwind journey through Alexander’s life and conquests, and not only learn about the successes and mistakes of one of history’s greatest conquerors, but also how to awaken a fire in your own life and adventures. Read this book now and learn lessons from Alexander the Great on why drive is so vital to awakening your inner genius, and learn insights into the real power of purpose, how to defeat the insidious force of “Resistance” that holds us back, and more.
A haunting, fast-paced war memoir, Chasing Alexander is Christopher Martin's account of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A failing college student obsessed with Alexander the Great, Martin enlists in the US Marines to become a different sort of man, a man like Alexander. From his difficulty at boot camp to his disappointing deployment to Iraq, Martin fears he may never follow in Alexander's footsteps. Then, after a strategy change, Martin and his unit arrive in Marjah, "the bleeding ulcer" of Afghanistan. There he faces heat, fleas, and a hidden enemy. As the casualties mount, Martin struggles to control his emotions and his newfound sense of power. Chasing Alexander looks unflinchingly at the seductive side of war, and its awful consequences.
Telling the story of a man who stood against the overwhelming power of the mighty Roman empire, Hannibal is the biography of a man who, against all odds, dared to change the course of history. Over two thousand years ago one of the greatest military leaders in history almost destroyed Rome. Hannibal, a daring African general from the city of Carthage, led an army of warriors and battle elephants over the snowy Alps to invade the very heart of Rome's growing empire. But what kind of person would dare to face the most relentless imperial power of the ancient world? How could Hannibal, consistently outnumbered and always deep in enemy territory, win battle after battle until he held the very fate of Rome within his grasp? Hannibal appeals to many as the ultimate underdog—a Carthaginian David against the Goliath of Rome—but it wasn't just his genius on the battlefield that set him apart. As a boy and then a man, his self-discipline and determination were legendary. As a military leader, like Alexander the Great before him and Julius Caesar after, he understood the hearts of men and had an uncanny ability to read the unseen weaknesses of his enemy. As a commander in war, Hannibal has few equals in history and has long been held as a model of strategic and tactical genius. But Hannibal was much more than just a great general. He was a practiced statesman, a skilled diplomat, and a man deeply devoted to his family and country. Roman historians—on whom we rely for almost all our information on Hannibal—portray him as a cruel barbarian, but how does the story change if we look at Hannibal from the Carthaginian point of view? Can we search beneath the accounts of Roman writers who were eager to portray Hannibal as a monster and find a more human figure? Can we use the life of Hannibal to look at the Romans themselves in an unfamiliar way— not as the noble and benign defenders of civilization but as ruthless conquerors motivated by greed and conquest?
