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Historiography of Alexander the Great

April 14, 2023

There are numerous surviving ancient Greek and Latin sources on Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, as well as some Asian texts. The five main surviving accounts are by Arrian, Plutarch, Diodorus Siculus, Quintus Curtius Rufus, and Justin.[1] In addition to these five main sources, there is the Metz Epitome, an anonymous late Latin work that narrates Alexander's campaigns from Hyrcania to India. Much is also recounted incidentally by other authors, including Strabo, Athenaeus, Polyaenus, Aelian, and others. Strabo, who gives a summary of Callisthenes, is an important source for Alexander's journey to Siwah.[2]

Contemporary sources

Most primary sources written by people who actually knew Alexander or who gathered information from men who served with Alexander are lost, but a few inscriptions and fragments survive.[1] Contemporaries who wrote accounts of his life include Alexander's campaign historian Callisthenes; Alexander's generals Ptolemy and Nearchus; Aristobulus, a junior officer on the campaigns; and Onesicritus, Alexander's chief helmsman.[1] Finally, there is the very influential account of Cleitarchus who, while not a direct witness of Alexander's expedition, used sources which had just been published.[1] His work was to be the backbone of that of Timagenes, who heavily influenced many historians whose work still survives. None of his works survived, but we do have later works based on these primary sources.[1]

The five main sources

Arrian

  • Anabasis Alexandri (The Campaigns of Alexander in Greek) by the Greek historian Arrian of Nicomedia, writing in the 2nd century AD, and based largely on Ptolemy and, to a lesser extent, Aristobulus and Nearchus. It is generally considered one of the best sources on the campaigns of Alexander as well as one of the founders of a primarily military-based focus on history. Arrian cites his source by name and he often criticizes them. He is not interested in the King's private life, overlooking his errors. That Alexander should have committed errors in conduct from impetuosity or from wrath, and that he should have been induced to comport himself like the Persian monarchs to an immoderate degree, I do not think remarkable if we fairly consider both his youth and his uninterrupted career of good fortune. I do not think that even his tracing his origin to a god was a great error on Alexander's part if it was not perhaps merely a device to induce his subjects to show him reverence. (Arrian 7b 29)
  • Indica, written in the 2nd century AD, mainly describes the voyage of Alexander the Great's officer Nearchus from the Indus to the Persian Gulf following Alexander's conquest of much of the Indus Valley.

Plutarch

  • Life of Alexander (see Parallel Lives) and two orations On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great (see Moralia), by the Greek historian and biographer Plutarch of Chaeronea in the second century, based largely on Aristobulus and especially Cleitarchus. Plutarch devotes a great deal of space to Alexander's drive and desire and strives to determine how much of it was presaged in his youth. He also draws extensively on the work of Lysippus, Alexander's favorite sculptor, to provide what is probably the fullest and most accurate description of the conqueror's physical appearance.

Diodorus

  • Bibliotheca historica (Library of world history), written in Greek by the Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus, from which Book 17 relates the conquests of Alexander, based almost entirely on Cleitarchus and Hieronymus of Cardia. It is the oldest surviving Greek source (1st century BC). Diodorus regarded Alexander like Caesar as a key historical figure and chronological marker.

Curtius

  • Historiae Alexandri Magni, a biography of Alexander in ten books, of which the last eight survive, by the Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus, written in the 1st century AD, and based largely on Cleitarchus through the mediation of Timagenes, with some material probably from Ptolemy. His work is fluidly written, but reveals ignorance of geography, chronology, and technical military knowledge, focusing instead on the character. According to Jona Lendering: ..the real subject was not Alexander, but the tyranny of Tiberius and Caligula. (It can be shown that Curtius Rufus' description of the trial of Philotas is based on an incident during the reign of Tiberius)...Curtius copies Cleitarchus' mistakes, although he is not an uncritical imitator.[3]

Justin

Letters

Main article: Letters of Alexander the Great

Alexander wrote and received numerous letters, but no originals survive. A few official letters addressed to the Greek cities survive in copies inscribed in stone and the content of others is sometimes reported in historical sources. These only occasionally quote the letters and it is an open question how reliable such quotations are. Several fictitious letters, some perhaps based on actual letters, made their way into the Romance tradition.[4]

Ephemerides of Alexander the Great

The Ephemerides of Alexander were journals describing Alexander's daily activities. Mentioned by ancient writers, but only fragments survive today.[5][6]

Lost works

Greek epigraphy

Non-Greco-Roman sources

Babylonian Chronicles

  • Alexander Chronicle mentions the battle of Gaugamela and the incident of Bessus, who was pursued by Aliksandar.[16]
  • Alexander and Arabia Chronicle refers to events concerning the last years of the King.[17]

Zoroastrian texts

Main article: Book of Arda Viraf

They say that, once upon a time, the pious Zartosht made the religion, which he had received, current in the world; and till the completion of 300 years, the religion was in purity, and men were without doubts. But afterward, the accursed evil spirit, the wicked one, in order to make men doubtful of this religion, instigated the accursed Alexander, the Rûman,[18] who was dwelling in Egypt, so that he came to the country of Iran with severe cruelty and war and devastation; he also slew the ruler of Iran, and destroyed the metropolis and empire, and made them desolate.[19]

The Bible

Main article: 1 Maccabees

Daniel 8:5–8 and 21–22 states that a King of Greece will conquer the Medes and Persians but then die at the height of his power and have his kingdom broken into four kingdoms. This is sometimes taken as a reference to Alexander.

Alexander is briefly mentioned in the first Book of the Maccabees. In chapter 1, verses 1–7 are about Alexander and serve as an introduction of the book. This explains how the Greek influence reached the Land of Israel at that time.

The Quran

Main article: Alexander the Great in the Quran

There is evidence to suggest that orally transmitted legends about Alexander the Great found their way to the Quran.[20] In the story of Dhu al-Qarnayn, "The Two-Horned One" (chapter al-Kahf, verse 83–94), Dhu al-Qarnayn is identified by most Western and traditional Muslim scholars as a reference to Alexander the Great.[21][22][23]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Green, 2007, pp xxii–xxviii
  2. ^ Cartledge, P., Alexander the Great (Vintage Books, 2004), p. 290.
  3. ^ "Curtius – livius.org". www.livius.org.
  4. ^ Lionel I. C. Pearson (1955), "The Diary and the Letters of Alexander the Great", Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 3(4): 429–455, at 443–450. JSTOR 4434421
  5. ^ Samuel, Alan E. (1965). "Alexander's 'Royal Journals'". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. 14 (1): 1–12. JSTOR 4434864. Retrieved 15 March 2023 – via JSTOR.
  6. ^ Anson, Edward M. (1996). "The "Ephemerides" of Alexander the Great". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. 45 (4): 501–504. JSTOR 4436444. Retrieved 15 March 2023 – via JSTOR.
  7. ^ Cartledge 2007, p. 278.
  8. ^ "SOL Search". www.cs.uky.edu. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  9. ^ Owen Jarus (7 February 2023). "AI is deciphering a 2,000-year-old 'lost book' describing life after Alexander the Great". livescience.com. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  10. ^ The Hellenistic Settlements in Europe, the Islands, and Asia Minor Page 94 by Getzel M. Cohen ISBN 0520083296
  11. ^ "Error - PHI Greek Inscriptions". epigraphy.packhum.org. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  12. ^ From the end of the Peloponnesian War to the battle of Ipsus By Phillip Harding Page 135 ISBN 0521299497
  13. ^ . epigraphy.packhum.org. Archived from the original on 20 March 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  14. ^ The Greek world after Alexander, 323-30 B.C. Page 37 By Graham Shipley ISBN 0415046181
  15. ^ New terms for new ideas By Michael Lackner, Iwo Amelung, Joachim Kurtz Page 124 ISBN 9004120467
  16. ^ "The Alexander Chronicle (ABC 8)". www.livius.org.
  17. ^ "Chronicle concerning Alexander and Arabia (BCHP 2)". www.livius.org.
  18. ^ Alexander the Great was called "the Ruman" in Zoroastrian tradition because he came from Greek provinces which later were a part of the eastern Roman empire – The archeology of world religions By Jack Finegan Page 80 ISBN 0415221552
  19. ^ "The Book of Arda Viraf". www.avesta.org.
  20. ^ Stoneman, Richard (2003). "Alexander the Great in Arabic Tradition". In Panayotakis, Stelios; Zimmerman, Maaike; Keulen, Wytse (eds.). The Ancient Novel and Beyond. Brill Academic Publishers NV. p. 3. ISBN 978-90-04-12999-3.
  21. ^ Bietenholz, Peter G. (1994). Historia and fabula: myths and legends in historical thought from antiquity to the modern age. Brill. pp. 122–123. ISBN 978-9004100633.
  22. ^ Stoneman 2003, p. 3.
  23. ^ EI2, p. 127.

Further reading

  • Zambrini, Andrea (2017). "The Historians of Alexander the Great". In Marincola, John (ed.). A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography. Blackwell Publishing (published 12 September 2017). pp. 193–202. doi:10.1002/9781405185110.ch17. ISBN 978-1405102162.
  • Hammond, Nicholas G. L. (2007) [1st pub. 1983]. The Historians of Alexander the Great: The So-Called Vulgate Authors, Diodorus, Justin, and Curtius. Cambridge Classical Studies. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521036535.

April 14, 2023
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There are numerous surviving ancient Greek and Latin sources on Alexander the Great king of Macedon as well as some Asian texts The five main surviving accounts are by Arrian Plutarch Diodorus Siculus Quintus Curtius Rufus and Justin 1 In addition to these five main sources there is the Metz Epitome an anonymous late Latin work that narrates Alexander s campaigns from Hyrcania to India Much is also recounted incidentally by other authors including Strabo Athenaeus Polyaenus Aelian and others Strabo who gives a summary of Callisthenes is an important source for Alexander s journey to Siwah 2 Contents 1 Contemporary sources 2 The five main sources 2 1 Arrian 2 2 Plutarch 2 3 Diodorus 2 4 Curtius 2 5 Justin 3 Letters 4 Ephemerides of Alexander the Great 5 Lost works 6 Greek epigraphy 7 Non Greco Roman sources 7 1 Babylonian Chronicles 7 2 Zoroastrian texts 7 3 The Bible 7 4 The Quran 8 References 9 Further readingContemporary sources EditMost primary sources written by people who actually knew Alexander or who gathered information from men who served with Alexander are lost but a few inscriptions and fragments survive 1 Contemporaries who wrote accounts of his life include Alexander s campaign historian Callisthenes Alexander s generals Ptolemy and Nearchus Aristobulus a junior officer on the campaigns and Onesicritus Alexander s chief helmsman 1 Finally there is the very influential account of Cleitarchus who while not a direct witness of Alexander s expedition used sources which had just been published 1 His work was to be the backbone of that of Timagenes who heavily influenced many historians whose work still survives None of his works survived but we do have later works based on these primary sources 1 The five main sources EditArrian Edit Anabasis Alexandri The Campaigns of Alexander in Greek by the Greek historian Arrian of Nicomedia writing in the 2nd century AD and based largely on Ptolemy and to a lesser extent Aristobulus and Nearchus It is generally considered one of the best sources on the campaigns of Alexander as well as one of the founders of a primarily military based focus on history Arrian cites his source by name and he often criticizes them He is not interested in the King s private life overlooking his errors That Alexander should have committed errors in conduct from impetuosity or from wrath and that he should have been induced to comport himself like the Persian monarchs to an immoderate degree I do not think remarkable if we fairly consider both his youth and his uninterrupted career of good fortune I do not think that even his tracing his origin to a god was a great error on Alexander s part if it was not perhaps merely a device to induce his subjects to show him reverence Arrian 7b 29 Indica written in the 2nd century AD mainly describes the voyage of Alexander the Great s officer Nearchus from the Indus to the Persian Gulf following Alexander s conquest of much of the Indus Valley Plutarch Edit Life of Alexander see Parallel Lives and two orations On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great see Moralia by the Greek historian and biographer Plutarch of Chaeronea in the second century based largely on Aristobulus and especially Cleitarchus Plutarch devotes a great deal of space to Alexander s drive and desire and strives to determine how much of it was presaged in his youth He also draws extensively on the work of Lysippus Alexander s favorite sculptor to provide what is probably the fullest and most accurate description of the conqueror s physical appearance Diodorus Edit Bibliotheca historica Library of world history written in Greek by the Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus from which Book 17 relates the conquests of Alexander based almost entirely on Cleitarchus and Hieronymus of Cardia It is the oldest surviving Greek source 1st century BC Diodorus regarded Alexander like Caesar as a key historical figure and chronological marker Curtius Edit Historiae Alexandri Magni a biography of Alexander in ten books of which the last eight survive by the Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus written in the 1st century AD and based largely on Cleitarchus through the mediation of Timagenes with some material probably from Ptolemy His work is fluidly written but reveals ignorance of geography chronology and technical military knowledge focusing instead on the character According to Jona Lendering the real subject was not Alexander but the tyranny of Tiberius and Caligula It can be shown that Curtius Rufus description of the trial of Philotas is based on an incident during the reign of Tiberius Curtius copies Cleitarchus mistakes although he is not an uncritical imitator 3 Justin Edit The Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus by Justin is highly compressed version of an earlier history by Trogus with the selections governed by Justin s desire to make moralistic points rather than with an eye for the history itself 1 Letters EditMain article Letters of Alexander the Great Alexander wrote and received numerous letters but no originals survive A few official letters addressed to the Greek cities survive in copies inscribed in stone and the content of others is sometimes reported in historical sources These only occasionally quote the letters and it is an open question how reliable such quotations are Several fictitious letters some perhaps based on actual letters made their way into the Romance tradition 4 Ephemerides of Alexander the Great EditThe Ephemerides of Alexander were journals describing Alexander s daily activities Mentioned by ancient writers but only fragments survive today 5 6 Lost works EditLife of Alexander by Aesopus Works of Anaximenes of Lampsacus Works of Aristobulus of Cassandreia Geographical work of Androsthenes of Thasos Deeds of Alexander by Callisthenes the official historian Personal Notebooks or Hypomnemata by Alexander himself possibly inauthentic 7 History of Alexander by Cleitarchus On the empire of the Macedonians by Criton of Pieria Histories also listed as Macedonica and Hellenica by Duris of Samos Work of Ephippus of Olynthus Works of Strattis of Olynthus 8 Work of Hagnothemis upon which Plutarch rested the belief that Antipater poisoned Alexander Work of Hieronymus of Cardia On the education of Alexander and Macedonian history by Marsyas of Pella Work of Medius of Larissa Work of Nearchus the primary source of Arrian s Indica How Alexander was Educated and geographical works by Onesicritus Work of Ptolemy I Soter Work of Nicobule History of Alexander by Timagenes Historiae Philippicae by Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus In 2023 researched with the help of Artificial intelligence managed to read a small part of a book from the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum which was heavily damaged in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD It seems that it is a lost work which contains the names of a number of Macedonian dynasts and generals of Alexander and several mentions of Alexander himself 9 Greek epigraphy EditDecree of Philippi ca 335 330 BC Alexander arbitrates a boundary dispute between local Thracian tribes and the city of Philippi A dedicatory inscription to Apollo was found at Toumbes Kalamotou Thessaloniki regional unit it records a list of priests of Asclepius who had fulfilled their duties from the time when King Alexandros gave Kalindoia and the villages around to Makedones 10 A dedicatory inscription to Olympian Zeus by Philonides of Crete in which he is mentioned as King Alexandros hemerodromos cursor and bematist of Asia 11 12 Lindos Chronicle King Alexandros having defeated Darius in battle and become lordkuriosof Asia sacrificed to Athena of Lindos 13 14 boukephala ox heads and hopla armour 15 Antigonus son of Callas hetairos from Amphipolis commemorates his victory in hoplite racing at Heraclean games after the Conquest of Tyrus Non Greco Roman sources EditBabylonian Chronicles Edit Alexander Chronicle mentions the battle of Gaugamela and the incident of Bessus who was pursued by Aliksandar 16 Alexander and Arabia Chronicle refers to events concerning the last years of the King 17 Zoroastrian texts Edit Main article Book of Arda Viraf They say that once upon a time the pious Zartosht made the religion which he had received current in the world and till the completion of 300 years the religion was in purity and men were without doubts But afterward the accursed evil spirit the wicked one in order to make men doubtful of this religion instigated the accursed Alexander the Ruman 18 who was dwelling in Egypt so that he came to the country of Iran with severe cruelty and war and devastation he also slew the ruler of Iran and destroyed the metropolis and empire and made them desolate 19 The Bible Edit Main article 1 Maccabees Daniel 8 5 8 and 21 22 states that a King of Greece will conquer the Medes and Persians but then die at the height of his power and have his kingdom broken into four kingdoms This is sometimes taken as a reference to Alexander Alexander is briefly mentioned in the first Book of the Maccabees In chapter 1 verses 1 7 are about Alexander and serve as an introduction of the book This explains how the Greek influence reached the Land of Israel at that time The Quran Edit Main article Alexander the Great in the Quran There is evidence to suggest that orally transmitted legends about Alexander the Great found their way to the Quran 20 In the story of Dhu al Qarnayn The Two Horned One chapter al Kahf verse 83 94 Dhu al Qarnayn is identified by most Western and traditional Muslim scholars as a reference to Alexander the Great 21 22 23 References Edit a b c d e f Green 2007 pp xxii xxviii Cartledge P Alexander the Great Vintage Books 2004 p 290 Curtius livius org www livius org Lionel I C Pearson 1955 The Diary and the Letters of Alexander the Great Historia Zeitschrift fur Alte Geschichte 3 4 429 455 at 443 450 JSTOR 4434421 Samuel Alan E 1965 Alexander s Royal Journals Historia Zeitschrift fur Alte Geschichte 14 1 1 12 JSTOR 4434864 Retrieved 15 March 2023 via JSTOR Anson Edward M 1996 The Ephemerides of Alexander the Great Historia Zeitschrift fur Alte Geschichte 45 4 501 504 JSTOR 4436444 Retrieved 15 March 2023 via JSTOR Cartledge 2007 p 278 SOL Search www cs uky edu Retrieved 15 March 2023 Owen Jarus 7 February 2023 AI is deciphering a 2 000 year old lost book describing life after Alexander the Great livescience com Retrieved 15 March 2023 The Hellenistic Settlements in Europe the Islands and Asia Minor Page 94 by Getzel M Cohen ISBN 0520083296 Error PHI Greek Inscriptions epigraphy packhum org Retrieved 15 March 2023 From the end of the Peloponnesian War to the battle of Ipsus By Phillip Harding Page 135 ISBN 0521299497 Error PHI Greek Inscriptions epigraphy packhum org Archived from the original on 20 March 2019 Retrieved 17 January 2019 The Greek world after Alexander 323 30 B C Page 37 By Graham Shipley ISBN 0415046181 New terms for new ideas By Michael Lackner Iwo Amelung Joachim Kurtz Page 124 ISBN 9004120467 The Alexander Chronicle ABC 8 www livius org Chronicle concerning Alexander and Arabia BCHP 2 www livius org Alexander the Great was called the Ruman in Zoroastrian tradition because he came from Greek provinces which later were a part of the eastern Roman empire The archeology of world religions By Jack Finegan Page 80 ISBN 0415221552 The Book of Arda Viraf www avesta org Stoneman Richard 2003 Alexander the Great in Arabic Tradition In Panayotakis Stelios Zimmerman Maaike Keulen Wytse eds The Ancient Novel and Beyond Brill Academic Publishers NV p 3 ISBN 978 90 04 12999 3 Bietenholz Peter G 1994 Historia and fabula myths and legends in historical thought from antiquity to the modern age Brill pp 122 123 ISBN 978 9004100633 Stoneman 2003 p 3 EI2 p 127 sfn error no target CITEREFEI2 help Further reading EditZambrini Andrea 2017 The Historians of Alexander the Great In Marincola John ed A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography Blackwell Publishing published 12 September 2017 pp 193 202 doi 10 1002 9781405185110 ch17 ISBN 978 1405102162 Hammond Nicholas G L 2007 1st pub 1983 The Historians of Alexander the Great The So Called Vulgate Authors Diodorus Justin and Curtius Cambridge Classical Studies Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0521036535 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Historiography of Alexander the Great amp oldid 1147274108, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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