Synopses & Reviews
This book collects together ten contributions by leading scholars in the field of Alexander studies which represent the most advanced scholarship in this area. They span the gamut between historical reconstruction and historiographical research, and, viewed as a whole, represent a wide spectrum of methodology. This first English collection of essays on Alexander includes a comparison of the Spanish conquest of Mexico with the Macedonians in the east which examines the attitudes towards the subject peoples and the justification of conquest, an analysis of the attested conspiracies at the Macedonian and Persian courts, and studies of panhellenic ideology and the concept of kingship. There is a radical new interpretation of the hunting fresco from Tomb II at Vergina, and a new date for the pamphlet on Alexander's death which ends the Alexander Romance. Three chapters on historiography address the problem of interpreting Alexander's attested behavior, the indirect source tradition used by Polybius, and the resonances of contemporary politics in the extant histories.
Review
"Bosworth presents an excellent overview of the current state of Alexander scholarship, including the problems of the paucity of ancient source material and the bias found within what has survived...Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction is essential reading for all Alexander scholars and enthusiasts."--History: Reviews of New Books
"A necessary volume for anyone interested in the continuing and growing mountain of modern scholarship on Alexander, the Macedonians, and the Hellenistic period."--Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Synopsis
Ten essays from a symposium held at Newcastle University in 1997, which address the body of romance that surrounds Alexander and to examine the themes of Kingship and imperialism. Political analyses compare Alexander's eastern campaign with the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the early 16th century and study the darkside of Alexander's kingship as well as its ultimate expression in the absolute monarchy of Asia. Other papers search for the historic Alexander behind the iconography and literary propoganda, notably second-hand Greek and Roman histories, and examine the controversy surrounding the interpretation of the Vergina Tomb II.
Table of Contents
Introduction,
Brian BosworthA Tale of Two Empires: Alexander the Great and Hernán Cortés, Brian Bosworth
Conspiracies, Ernst Badian
Alexander the Great and Panhellenism, Michael Flower
Alexander the Great and the Kingdom of Asia, Ernst Fredricksmeyer
Hephaestion's Pyre and Alexander's Royal Hunt, Olga Palagia
Ptolemy and the Will of Alexander, Brian Bosworth
A Baleful Birth in Babylon: The Significance of the Prodigy in the Libre de Morte. An Investigation of Genre, Elizabeth Baynham
Artifice and Alexander History, Elizabeth Carney
Polybius, Alexander the Great and Hieronymous of Cardia, Richard Billows
Originality and its Limits in the Alexander Sources of the Early Empire, John Atkinson