The Army of Alexander the Great

The Army of Alexander the Great PDF Author: Stephen English
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1844683524
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Alexander the Great is one of the most famous men in history, and many believe he was the greatest military genius of all time (Julius Caesar wept at the feet of his statue in envy of his achievements). Most of his thirteen year reign as king of Macedon was spent in hard campaigning which conquered half the known world, during which he was never defeated in open battle and never besieged a city he did not take. Yet, while biographies of Alexander abound, there are relatively few full-length books dedicated to the Macedonian army which made his dazzling conquests possible and which proved itself the most formidable machine of the age.Stephen English investigates every aspect of the Macedonian forces, analysing the recruitment, equipment, organisation, tactics, command and control of the fighting arms (including the famous pike phalanxes, elite Hypaspists and incomparable Companion cavalry),Some of Alexander's most famous battles and sieges are described in detail to show the army in action. With forensic thoroughness he draws on recent archaeological evidence and scholarship to present a detailed portrait of the army which demonstrated a superiority over its opponents equal to (but much longer-lasting than) that enjoyed by the German forces in the blitzkrieg campaigns of 1939/40. Alexnader's navy is also covered.

The Army of Alexander the Great

The Army of Alexander the Great PDF Author: Stephen English
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1844683524
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Alexander the Great is one of the most famous men in history, and many believe he was the greatest military genius of all time (Julius Caesar wept at the feet of his statue in envy of his achievements). Most of his thirteen year reign as king of Macedon was spent in hard campaigning which conquered half the known world, during which he was never defeated in open battle and never besieged a city he did not take. Yet, while biographies of Alexander abound, there are relatively few full-length books dedicated to the Macedonian army which made his dazzling conquests possible and which proved itself the most formidable machine of the age.Stephen English investigates every aspect of the Macedonian forces, analysing the recruitment, equipment, organisation, tactics, command and control of the fighting arms (including the famous pike phalanxes, elite Hypaspists and incomparable Companion cavalry),Some of Alexander's most famous battles and sieges are described in detail to show the army in action. With forensic thoroughness he draws on recent archaeological evidence and scholarship to present a detailed portrait of the army which demonstrated a superiority over its opponents equal to (but much longer-lasting than) that enjoyed by the German forces in the blitzkrieg campaigns of 1939/40. Alexnader's navy is also covered.

Dividing the Spoils

Dividing the Spoils PDF Author: Robin Waterfield
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199931526
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
The story of the wars that led to the break-up of Alexander the Great's vast empire after his death in 323 BC and the brilliant cultural developments which accompanied this birth of a new world.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan PDF Author: Stephen Tanner
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0786722630
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
For over 2,500 years, the forbidding territory of Afghanistan has served as a vital crossroads for armies and has witnessed history-shaping clashes between civilizations: Greek, Arab, Mongol, and Tartar, and, in more recent times, British, Russian, and American. When U.S. troops entered Afghanistan in the weeks following September 11, 2001, they overthrew the Afghan Taliban regime and sent the terrorists it harbored on the run. But America's initial easy victory is in sharp contrast to the difficulties it faces today in confronting the Taliban resurgence. Originally published in 2002, Stephen Tanner's Afghanistan has now been completely updated to include the crucial turn of events since America first entered the country.

Alexander the Great at War

Alexander the Great at War PDF Author: Ruth Sheppard
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 9781849084802
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Perhaps the most famous commander of the ancient world, Alexander the Great, and his battles and victories, never cease to fascinate those with any interest in Ancient Greece. He was aged only 20 when he became king of Macedon, but he had already begun to show the military genius that would win him future victories against the mighty Persian Empire. In an epic campaign lasting 11 years, Alexander traveled thousands of miles through deserts, plains and forests, fought huge battles, and besieged many cities to become the master of a massive empire stretching from Greece to India. He died prematurely at the age of just 33, and no man could hold together the empire he had created. A god in his lifetime, his name is still world-famous millennia after his death. This book examines Alexander's campaigns in detail, and his victories - and the tactics that ensured them - are explained and described with the help of maps, illustrations and reconstructions to bring the epic career of one of the ancient civilization's greatest generals to life.

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great PDF Author: Anthony Everitt
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0425286533
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 505

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Book Description
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.

Alexander

Alexander PDF Author: Theodore Ayrault Dodge
Publisher: Tales End Press
ISBN: 1623580072
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
A classic history of one of the world's greatest military commanders. At the age of 20, Alexander the Great inherited the near-bankrupt kingdom of Macedonia and its small but revolutionary army, built around an unbreakable infantry phalanx and a shock cavalry force. In just ten years, he led this army on a march of conquest across most of the known world: Greece, Asia Minor, the Near East, Egypt, the lands of the Fertile Crescent, and on into what we now know as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Undefeated in battle, in his short life he immeasurably changed the course of history. Theodore Ayrault Dodge's account of the campaigns was first published in 1890, as part of his “Great Captains” series. The author, an experienced military officer and historian, follows the entire career of Alexander the Great, reconstructs his army, his strategy, and all of his battles, and explains his lasting impact on the art of war. The result is a classic military history and biography. This ebook edition includes an active table of contents, reflowable text, and over 200 campaign maps, battle diagrams, and illustrations.

The Generalship of Alexander the Great

The Generalship of Alexander the Great PDF Author: J. F. C. Fuller
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780756769185
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
In the 4th cent. B.C., at the age of 20, Alexander fulfilled his father's plans for freeing the Greeks of Asia Minor from Persian rule. He invaded the Persian Empire with 30,000 infantry & 5,000 cavalry & in a series of dazzling campaigns which included the battles of Issus & Gaugamela he defeated Darius & was proclaimed King of Asia. His plans to conquer India were resisted by his men, & death cut short the ambitions of one of the greatest soldiers the world has ever known. Alexander was the model for successors as notable as Julius Caesar & Napoleon Bonaparte, & his campaigns are still studied in mil. academies throughout the world. The first book devoted to the mil. achievements of this great world conqueror.” Maps & B&W photos.

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great PDF Author: Philip Freeman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416592814
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
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.

Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army

Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army PDF Author: Donald W. Engels
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520352165
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
"The most important work on Alexander the Great to appear in a long time. Neither scholarship nor semi-fictional biography will ever be the same again. . . .Engels at last uses all the archaeological work done in Asia in the past generation and makes it accessible. . . . Careful analyses of terrain, climate, and supply requirements are throughout combined in a masterly fashion to help account for Alexander's strategic decision in the light of the options open to him...The chief merit of this splendid book is perhaps the way in which it brings an ancient army to life, as it really was and moved: the hours it took for simple operations of washing and cooking and feeding animals; the train of noncombatants moving with the army. . . . this is a book that will set the reader thinking. There are not many books on Alexander the Great that do."—New York Review of Books

Intelligence in War

Intelligence in War PDF Author: John Keegan
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1400041937
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
A masterly look at the value and limitations of intelligence in the conduct of war from the premier military historian of our time, John Keegan. Intelligence gathering is an immensely complicated and vulnerable endeavor. And it often fails. Until the invention of the telegraph and radio, information often traveled no faster than a horse could ride, yet intelligence helped defeat Napoleon. In the twentieth century, photo analysts didn’t recognize Germany’s V-2 rockets for what they were; on the other hand, intelligence helped lead to victory over the Japanese at Midway. In Intelligence in War, John Keegan illustrates that only when paired with force has military intelligence been an effective tool, as it may one day be in besting al-Qaeda.