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Alexander the Great

The Brief Life and Towering Exploits of History's Greatest Conqueror

Author Arrian, Plutarch, Quintus Curtius Rufus

Introduction by Michael Wood

Edited by Tania Gergel

Paperback

$24.00 US

Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books

5.1"W x 7.7"H x 0.5"D | 5 oz | 68 per carton

On sale Sep 28, 2004 | 176 Pages | 9780142001400

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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.

Arrian, or Lucius Flavius Arrianus, was a Greek born of well-to-do parents at Nicomedia, the capital of the Roman province of Bithynia, probalbly a few years before A.D. 90. His father had been granted Roman citizenship which enabled Arrian to take up his career in the imperial service. In about A.D. 108 he studied philosophy under Epictetus and wrote down his sayings in the Discourses, and a summary of his teachings in a Manual. His imperial advancement was rapid, and in A.D. 129 or 130 he achieved the consulship. But it was his appointment as governor of the border province of Cappadocia a year later which shows how greatly the Emperor Hadrian trusted his undoubted military and administrative abilities. His command included two Roman legions and numerous auxiliary troops, a rare, perhaps unexampled, responsibility for a Greek at that time. In A.D. 134 he drove the invading Alans out of Armenia in a campaign he describes in The Formation against the Alans. He also wrote a Tactical Manual for cavalry, and the Circumnavigation of the Black Sea, an account of the voyage he undertook from Trapezus to Dioscurias in 131-2. He retired or was recalled before the death of Hadrian in 138, and devoted the rest of his life to writing, living at Athens. He became an Athenian citizen and rose to be chief magistrate in 145, which qualified him to become a member of the Areopagus, the chief governing body of Athens. Nothing further is known for certain of his life. The surviving works of Arrian's Athenian period are a handbook, On the Chase, The Campaigns of Alexander in seven books, and the Indica, an account of the voyage of Alexander's fleet form India to the Perisian Gulf. View titles by Arrian

Plutarch (c.50-c.120 AD) was a writer and thinker born into a wealthy, established family of Chaeronea in central Greece. He received the best possible education in rhetoric and philosophy, and traveled to Asia Minor and Egypt. Later, a series of visits to Rome and Italy contributed to his fame, which was given official recognition by the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Plutarch rendered conscientious service to his province and city (where he continued to live), as well as holding a priesthood at nearby Delphi. His voluminous surviving writings are broadly divided into the ‘moral’ works and the Parallel Lives of outstanding Greek and Roman leaders. The former (Moralia) are a mixture of rhetorical and antiquarian pieces, together with technical and moral philosophy (sometimes in dialogue form). The Lives have been influential from the Renaissance onwards. View titles by Plutarch

Quintus Curtius Rufus View titles by Quintus Curtius Rufus

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Alexander the GreatChronology
Introduction
Map: Alexander's Empire
A Note on the Texts

1. The Early Years
2. Establishing Power in Macedonia, Greece, and Northern Europe
3. The Persian Campaign(I) - from Hellespont to Gordium
4. The Persian Campaign(II) - from Cappadocia to Egypt
5. The Persian Campaign(III) - Victory in Persia
6. To the North-east Frontiers of the Persian Empire
7. East to India - the Uncompleted Campaign
8. The Retreat - from India back to Persia
9. Alexander's Final Months

Sources
Glossary of Main Characters

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