The Diary Of Alexander The Great

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) has been considered as the greatest leader of all time. He occupies an imposing position in the public imagination and is the most universally recognised ancient monarch. His influence remains widespread in Europe, the Middle East, South East Asia and beyond. Nation states still utilise his historical presence in their lands as a standard of national existence and sovereignty, whilst his administrative methods remain obligatory reading for military strategists and leadership scholars. Although there are several sources that describe his life events and a multitude of analyses deriving from these, they have been devoid of the day-to-day context of Alexander's actions and decisions. As a consequence, whilst some of the macro-chronology of his life is known through the major life events of birth, battles and death dates, much of the micro-chronology in terms of a breakdown of day-to-day events remains unknown. This lack of a combined macro- and micro-chronology has in places resulted in warped and biased evaluation of Alexander's life and actions. This book aims to offer both a macro- and micro-chronology of Alexander's life in a diary format. It is the first of its kind to offer a holistic day-to-day view of Alexander the Great's life and actions, what he did, where he did it and how long it took. As part of the meta-chronology book series, it utilises the Anabasis of Alexander by Arrian as a core on which a myriad of additional sources are applied to calculate Alexander's day-to-day events. These sources include Classical Greek and Roman, Egyptian and Babylonian Astronomical charts in addition to modern calculations of ancient solar, lunar and astronomical events. This diary therefore presents a unique chronological perspective through which to better appraise the life and times of Alexander the Great.

In the first authoritative biography of Alexander the Great written for a general audience in a generation, classicist and historian Philip Freeman tells the remarkable life of the great conqueror. The celebrated Macedonian king has been one of the most enduring figures in history. He was a general of such skill and renown that for two thousand years other great leaders studied his strategy and tactics, from Hannibal to Napoleon, with countless more in between. He flashed across the sky of history like a comet, glowing brightly and burning out quickly: crowned at age nineteen, dead by thirty-two. He established the greatest empire of the ancient world; Greek coins and statues are found as far east as Afghanistan. Our interest in him has never faded. Alexander was born into the royal family of Macedonia, the kingdom that would soon rule over Greece. Tutored as a boy by Aristotle, Alexander had an inquisitive mind that would serve him well when he faced formidable obstacles during his military campaigns. Shortly after taking command of the army, he launched an invasion of the Persian empire, and continued his conquests as far south as the deserts of Egypt and as far east as the mountains of present-day Pakistan and the plains of India. Alexander spent nearly all his adult life away from his homeland, and he and his men helped spread the Greek language throughout western Asia, where it would become the lingua franca of the ancient world. Within a short time after Alexander’s death in Baghdad, his empire began to fracture. Best known among his successors are the Ptolemies of Egypt, whose empire lasted until Cleopatra. In his lively and authoritative biography of Alexander, classical scholar and historian Philip Freeman describes Alexander’s astonishing achievements and provides insight into the mercurial character of the great conqueror. Alexander could be petty and magnanimous, cruel and merciful, impulsive and farsighted. Above all, he was ferociously, intensely competitive and could not tolerate losing—which he rarely did. As Freeman explains, without Alexander, the influence of Greece on the ancient world would surely not have been as great as it was, even if his motivation was not to spread Greek culture for beneficial purposes but instead to unify his empire. Only a handful of people have influenced history as Alexander did, which is why he continues to fascinate us.

This definitive biography of one of history's most influential father-son duos tells the story of two rulers who gripped the world -- and their rise and fall from power. Alexander the Great's conquests staggered the world. He led his army across thousands of miles, overthrowing the greatest empires of his time and building a new one in their place. He claimed to be the son of a god, but he was actually the son of Philip II of Macedon. Philip inherited a minor kingdom that was on the verge of dismemberment, but despite his youth and inexperience, he made Macedonia dominant throughout Greece. It was Philip who created the armies that Alexander led into war against Persia. In Philip and Alexander, classical historian Adrian Goldsworthy shows that without the work and influence of his father, Alexander could not have achieved so much. This is the groundbreaking biography of two men who together conquered the world.

Learn who Alexander the Great was and what he achieved during his life.

In 2004 the author's first book, The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great, was published to the accompaniment of international media attention, since it reported the first credible suggestion as to the current whereabouts of the long-vanished corpse of the illustrious conqueror. In the intervening years, direct progress on testing of the candidate remains has been thwarted by the Church authorities, yet much new information has emerged, casting the enigma in an ever more probing light. It may turn out to be the greatest archaeological story of the century, for nobody has yet been able to refute the author's novel suggestion that the body stolen from Alexandria in AD828 and now in Venice may have acquired a false identity in the 4th century AD. This updated and extended account lays bare the forgotten secrets of one of the greatest mysteries bequeathed to us by the ancient world. Includes the author's several published academic articles on the subject as Appendices. Over 80 illustrations.

Describes the life and accomplishments of the military ruler who conquered ancient Persia and Egypt and united many cultures with one ruler, one language, and one currency.

Ten essays from a symposium held at Newcastle University in 1997, which examine the general themes of kingship and imperialism by focusing on the romances that surround Alexander.

"An unorthodox investigative literary biography of a mysterious graphomaniac whose nearly 150 diaries are rescued from a dumpster by the author"--

What can we learn from the stunning rise and mysterious death of the ancient world’s greatest conqueror? An acclaimed biographer reconstructs the life of Alexander the Great in this magisterial revisionist portrait. “[An] infectious sense of narrative momentum . . . Its energy is unflagging, including the verve with which it tackles that teased final mystery about the specific cause of Alexander’s death.”—The Christian Science Monitor More than two millennia have passed since Alexander the Great built an empire that stretched to every corner of the ancient world, from the backwater kingdom of Macedonia to the Hellenic world, Persia, and ultimately to India—all before his untimely death at age thirty-three. Alexander believed that his empire would stop only when he reached the Pacific Ocean. But stories of both real and legendary events from his life have kept him evergreen in our imaginations with a legacy that has meant something different to every era: in the Middle Ages he became an exemplar of knightly chivalry, he was a star of Renaissance paintings, and by the early twentieth century he’d even come to resemble an English gentleman. But who was he in his own time? In Alexander the Great, Anthony Everitt judges Alexander’s life against the criteria of his own age and considers all his contradictions. We meet the Macedonian prince who was naturally inquisitive and fascinated by science and exploration, as well as the man who enjoyed the arts and used Homer’s great epic the Iliad as a bible. As his empire grew, Alexander exhibited respect for the traditions of his new subjects and careful judgment in administering rule over his vast territory. But his career also had a dark side. An inveterate conqueror who in his short life built the largest empire up to that point in history, Alexander glorified war and was known to commit acts of remarkable cruelty. As debate continues about the meaning of his life, Alexander's death remains a mystery. Did he die of natural causes—felled by a fever—or did his marshals, angered by his tyrannical behavior, kill him? An explanation of his death can lie only in what we know of his life, and Everitt ventures to solve that puzzle, offering an ending to Alexander’s story that has eluded so many for so long.