PENGUIN The History of Alexander

My daughter needed this and she was very happy with it

History has given us both shining heroes (Jesus, Socrates, Joan of Arc) and deep-dyed villains (Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot), but perhaps most interesting are the morally ambiguous characters. Depending on your perspective, Alexander the Great was either an enlightened statesman and general or a drunken, power-mad sociopath. I suspect the truth is somewhere in between. Quintus Curtius Rufus, a Roman historian writing in the first century A.D., gives us perhaps the most rounded portrait of Alexander as a good man corrupted by success. Alexander's virtues were his own, his faults the result of his good fortune. Curtius is sometimes confused about names, dates, and places, and sometimes he plays fast and loose with the facts, but over all he wrote an exciting, fast-paced narrative full of gripping battle scenes, harrowing accounts of bravery and cruelty, and unforgettable characters. One feels that Curtius, living as he did during the time of the deranged Julio-Claudian emperors, uses Alexander's story to express truths about his own period that could not be openly stated. Most likely he wrote during the reign of Claudius, who in addition to being an alcoholic and a womanizer was also a sadist--all faults for which Curtius criticizes Alexander. He is especially troubled by Alexander's insistence on being worshipped as a god--this at a time when the emperor cult was in its early stages.One gets the impression that Alexander was losing it at the end, becoming increasingly reckless while falling under the spell of the eunuch Bagoas. Unfortunately, "The History of Alexander" is incomplete. The first two books and the beginning of the sixth are missing, and the later books all have lacunae of increasing severity. The whole drama of Alexander's return to Babylon, the death of Hephaestion, and Alexander's own final illness and death is missing. The work ends with the onset of the wars that broke out over the disputed succession to Alexander's throne, resulting in the splintering of the Macedonian empire.John Yardley has produced a readable translation with a helpful introduction and notes by Waldemar Heckel. Included are bibliography, list of abbreviations, appendices, maps, and an index to maps. Overall an exciting account of one of history's most legendary figures.

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One of the few sources of information on Alexander the Great. Much of the original work has been lost but what remains is important to an understanding of the man and his amazing life.

This book is required reading to understand Alexander the Great and his personality. It gives a personal insight into the complex person that was Alexander the Great.