The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander

The only relevant extant source on Alexander is a fantastic read. We don't get to know the person however, and it would seem that even Arrian, who wrote about him with all the then extant sources—like Ptolemy's lost writings for example—were unable to get a grasp on him either. Too bad.

But what we do get, is a breathtaking description of his conquests and campaigns. Arrian is a bit arrogant, he knows what a great writer he is and is not afraid to inform us of this either, as he tells us in the beginning of book one. He focuses on the colossal scale of the enterprise—it is colossal even by modern standards—and the military genius of the young commander and his generals. Alexander's goal was to revenge the sacking of Athens by the show more Persians, as recounted by Herodotus in his book “Histories”.

This was how the whole enterprise was sold to the Greeks, Arrian tells us, and we get to follow the young soon to be king as he and his father makes several important campaigns into modern day northern Greece, Macedonia, and the Balkans. This is where the legend of Alexander the General is born. Thirteen years later, after the goal of revenge had been met—Persia ceased to exist as a country, never mind as a superpower after Alexander ravaged it—he dies in Babylon in modern day Iraq after having conquered the known world. Never having lost a single battle.

Alexander was the Great for a reason.

Were it not for young Alexander, leader of Greece, our world as we know it would not exist. Alexander is likely the singular most significant individual in recorded history. Without him the Hellenistic age would never have happened, entire cities or even countries would not exist, there would never have been a Caesar or a Jesus, and most certainly, you and I would never have been born. (nod to Kenneth Harl)

A one hundred percent enjoyable read with fabulous extras such as maps (there is one map every three to five pages) and pictures of places as they look today, historical artefacts from archaeology, and add to all of that above: numerous essays on various aspects of the known world at that time. show less

Arrian's Anabasis Alexandrou in Pantheon's beautiful Landmark series with many footnotes, side-notes, maps, battle plans and grayscale images of locales, coins, and archeological finds. There are a series of modern essays as appendices. [The very last appendix reveals that Arrian was the student whose notes are what we have of Epictetus.] Arrian has his own criticisms of Alexander, but still, he was the great revered conqueror and leader of antiquity. To modern eyes it seems like a long way to go to find new people to kill and enslave, but it must have been all Alexander thought about since he was a child - defeat Persia and why stop there? If his "Last Plans" are authentic, then he was planning to take Arabia next and to interchange show more Greek and Asian peoples to make the civilized world homogeneous. Fortunately or unfortunately something like typhoid fever intervened. show less

Everything you need to know is all wrapped up in this book....outstanding!

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