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Author: Michael Wood
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520231924
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262
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Book Description
The author follows Alexander the Great's 22,000 mile expedition from Greece to India, recreating the epic marches and battles.
Author: Michael Wood
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520231924
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262
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Book Description
The author follows Alexander the Great's 22,000 mile expedition from Greece to India, recreating the epic marches and battles.
Author: Michael Wood
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1473530105
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
Michael Wood retraces Alexander the Greats amazing journey from Greece to India, searching for the truth behind the legend and experiencing the tremendous scale of his achievements. Using the ancient historians as his guides, Wood follows Alexanders journey as closely as possible, crossing deserts and rivers, from Turkey to war-torn Afghanistan. As the journey progresses, he recreates the drama of Alexanders epic marches and bloody battles. All along the way he finds proof of the survival of the legends surrounding Alexander, a leader whose life has excited the worlds imagination for the 2,000 years. 'Wood tells a glorious story with some very dark shadows.' New York Times 'Wood is a perceptive, entertaining and enthusiastic companion.' Sunday Times 'Wood is a lively storyteller.' The Washington Post
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.
Author: Krzysztof Nawotka
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443818119
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 435
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Book Description
This book is possibly the most comprehensive biography of Alexander in print. It presents his story strictly on the basis of ancient sources, making use as much as possible of contemporary Greek inscriptions, coins, and of non-western evidence (Babylonian tablets, Egyptian papyri, Bactrian parchments). The latter in particular change our understanding of how the Achaemenid state was run and how the Macedonian conquests were perceived from the Oriental perspective. The book’s protagonist was the first in Western Civilization to be hailed Great. The specific aura and charisma of this young ruler, the scale of his conquests and the exotic landscapes and peoples encountered during a tireless trek of over 35,000 km spanning three continents is what the broader public have always found particularly appealing. The author travelled extensively in the footsteps of Alexander and made use of other geographical accounts to elucidate the spatial perspective of his conquests. Space and politics define the dynamics of his story. The author presents Alexander as a component of the historical processes in his epoch and considers his influence on developments in Greece, Macedonia, the Persian Empire and neighbouring countries. The book tries to steer clear of both idealizing Alexander the Great, typical of some earlier modern biographies, and of deconstructing his personality, which mars the minimalist approach of today’s scholarship.
Author: Elizabeth Baynham
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 9780472108589
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 260
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Book Description
The literary tradition surrounding the Macedonian conqueror is rich, contradictory and complex. Much of what we know comes from the history of Quintus Curtius, who wrote a history of Alexander in the first century AD. Baynham explores Curtius' historical style and his presentation of the legendary king. She examines his use of ancient sources, and discusses why Curtius chose to preserve the information about Alexander that he did. She demonstrates that his work was a carefully planned narrative, and that he was not only interested in presenting Alexander as a clever ruler and accomplished tactician, but also as a human subject to the whims of chance, of fortuna .
Author: Pat Wheatley
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019883604X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 517
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Book Description
Demetrius the Besieger offers the first historical and historiographical biography of Demetrius Poliorcetes (336-282 BC) to be published in English. Also known as 'The Besieger of Cities', Demetrius is the most fascinating and high profile of the Successors to Alexander the Great, an outstanding, yet enigmatic figure famous for his siege warfare and his legendary womanising: this volume charts the many triumphs and disasters during his career and hispivotal role in the formation of the so-called 'Hellenistic' age.
Author: Denis Belliveau
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 0742557375
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289
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Book Description
Did Marco Polo reach China? This richly illustrated companion volume to the public television film chronicles the remarkable two-year expedition of explorers Denis Belliveau and Francis O'Donnell as they sought the answer to this controversial 700-year-old question. With Polo's book, The Travels of Marco Polo, as their guide, they journeyed over 25,000 miles becoming the first to retrace his entire path by land and sea without resorting to helicopters or airplanes. Surviving deadly skirmishes and capture in Afghanistan, they were the first Westerners in a generation to cross its ancient forgotten passageway to China, the Wakhan Corridor. Their camel caravan on the southern Silk Road encountered the deadly singing sands of the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts. In Sumatra, where Polo was stranded waiting for trade winds, they lived with the Mentawai tribes, whose culture has remained unchanged since the Bronze Age. They became among the first Americans granted visas to enter Iran, where Polo fulfilled an important mission for Kublai Khan. Accompanied by 200 stunning full-color photographs, the text provides a fascinating account of the lands and peoples the two hardy adventurers encountered during their perilous journey. The authors' experiences are remarkably similar to descriptions from Polo's account of his own travels and life. Laden with adventure, humor, diplomacy, history, and art, this book is compelling proof that travel is the enemy of bigotry—a truth that resonates from Marco Polo's time to our own.
Author: Thomas R. Martin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521767482
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 209
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Book Description
This book explains what made Alexander 'Great' according to the people and expectations of his time and place.
Author: Peter G. Tsouras
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1612340490
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 153
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Book Description
Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.E.), who reigned as king of Macedonia for only thirteen years, set a flame of conquest that introduced the dynamism of Hellenism to the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and South Asian worlds. Re-creating their ossified cultures, he established a standard of leadership and military conquest that the most successful of Roman emperors, medieval knights, and steppe barbarians would never truly match. Julius Caesar wept that he could not surpass Alexander, while Napoleon could only dream of such invincibility. Alexander had the great fortune to be born the able son of Philip II, one of the most talented men of war and politics produced by the Hellenic world, who created for Alexander the foundation of the Macedonian state and army that would be the tools of his future greatness. Alexander's invincibility was the product of his profound genius - the perfection of body, boundless energy, imagination, daring, intellect, and vision in one man. He was a master tactician, strategist, logistician, diplomat, and statesman, with an ability to win the affection and quick obedience of others. Even his enemies fell victim to his valor and charm. His personal attributes and accomplishments were so far removed from those of ordinary men that he achieved almost superhuman status within his lifetime. Above all, he was the preeminent man of war. Even today, as the noise of battle rattles Kandahar, a city in Afghanistan that Alexander named for himself, war clings to his name.
Author: Arrian
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0142001406
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 177
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Book Description
Inspired in his leadership, fearless in battle, and boundless in his ambition, Alexander the Great was worshiped as a god during his lifetime, and his legend has only grown since. Inheriting his father's empire at the age of twenty, Alexander resolved to expand it, and by the time of his death at thirty-two, his empire streched from Greece to India, spanning three continents and encompassing two million square miles. Comprising selections from the writings of Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius Rufus, this definitive biography of the greatest conqueror in history features an introduction on Alexander's enduring legacy by acclaimed British television personality and Princeton University Professor Michael Wood.
