Sources:
The
Real Deal on Alexander
Where did
I get the 411 on Alexander? From as close to the horse’s mouth as
possible.
Alexander didn’t write his own history, though he did write many
letters. He also had many friends and admirers who kept diaries as they
accompanied him on his adventures. Ptolemy was one of them. Their original
writings got lost but, lucky for us, ancient biographers had access to
them. And they used them to write their Alexander histories.
Almost all of the facts and quotes in this book come from these ancient
biographers—from Plutarch, Diodorus, Arrian, and Rufus. They’re
as close to the source as we can get. That’s why their ancient books
are called “primary sources.”
The endnotes in the back of the book tell you where the quotes came from.
They also give more background on the events in the story. |
Primary
Sources
Author’s note: Only Plutarch of the ancient historians wrote about
Alexander’s youth. Diodorus, Arrian, and Rufus began when he took the
throne at twenty and focused primarily on his military conquests.
Arrian, Lucius Favius. The Campaigns of Alexander.
Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. London: Penguin Classics, 1958.
Diodurus Siculus. Library of History: Books XVI-XVII.
Translated by C. Bradford Welles. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963.
Plutarch. The Age of Alexander. Translated by Ian
Scott-Kilvert. London: Penguin Books, First translation, 1973.
Rufus, Quintus Curtius. The History of Alexander.
Translated by John Yardley. London: Penguin Classics, 1984.
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Secondary
Sources on Alexander
There are a lot of excellent
books on Alexander out today. My favorites included Peter Green’s Alexander
of Macedon, Robin Lane Fox’s Alexander the Great, and Michael Wood’s
In the Footsteps of Alexander. The pictures on the latter are sumptuous!
Dodge, Theodore Ayrault. Alexander. Cambridge:
First Da Capo Press Edition, 1996 (originally published in 1890).
Engels, Donald. Alexander
the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1978.
Fildes, Alan and Fletcher,
Joann. Alexander the Great Son of the Gods. Los Angeles: Duncan
Baird Publishers/Getty Museum, 2001, 2002.
Fox, Robin Lane. Alexander
the Great. London: Penguin Books, 1973.
Green, Peter. Alexander
of Macedon a Historical Biography. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1991.
Greenblatt, Miriam. Alexander
the Great and Ancient Greece. New York: Benchmark Books, 2000.
Krensky, Stephen. Conqueror
and Hero. The Search for Alexander. New York: Little
Brown & Company, 1981.
Lamb, Harold. Alexander
of Macedon: They Journey to World’s End. New York: Doubleday
& Company, 1946.
Mixer, John. “Alexander’s
First Great Victory. Significance of the Battle of Granicus for Alexander.”
Military History. December, 1997.
Mosse', Claude. Alexander,
Destiny and Myth. Translated by Janet Lloyd. Baltimore: The John
Hopkins University Press, 2004
O’Brien, John Maxwell.
Alexander the Great, The Invisible Enemy. A Biography. London:
Routledge, 1992.
Renault, Mary.The Nature
of Alexander. New York: Pantheon Books, 1975.
Wilcken, Ulrich. Alexander
the Great. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1967.
Wood, Michael. In the
Footsteps of Alexander the Great. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1997.
Worthington, Ian. Alexander
the Great: Man and God. London: Pearson Education Limited, 2004.
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Sources
on Greek Life/The Ancient World
Cantor, Norman F. Antiquity:
The Civilization of the Ancient World. New York: Harper Collins,
2003.
Brann, Eva. Homeric Moments.
Clues to Delight in Reading the Odyssey and the Iliad. Philadelphia.
Paul Dry Books. 2002.
Connoly, Peter. The Greek
Armies. New Jersey: Silver Burdett Co., 1979.
Concise Routledge Encyclopedia
of Philosophy (Aristotle). London: Routledge, 2000. 48-51.
Grant, Michael, From
Alexander to Cleopatra. The Hellenistic World. New York: Charles
Scribner’s and Sons. 1982.
Homer, The Iliad.
Translated by W.H.D. Rouse. New York: Signet Classic, 1950.
Honderich, Ted (ed.). The
Oxford Companion to Philosophy (Aristotle). London: Oxford University
Press. 1995. 50-57.
Kugler, Anthony R. “Playtime.”
Dig. Volume 6, Number 4. April 2004: 8-10.
Neils, Jennifer. “Gym
Class.” Dig. Volume 6, Number 4. April 2004: 20-24.
Oakley, John. “School
Days.” Dig. Volume 6, Number 4. April 2004: 12-14.
Parker, Steve. Aristotle
and Scientific Thought. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1994.
Quennell, Marjorie and CHB.
Everyday Things in Ancient Greece. New York: GP Putnam’s
Sons, 1954.
Rees, Rosemary. The Ancient
Greeks. Illinois: Reed Educational Professional Publishing, 1997.
Rouse, W.H.D. Gods, Heroes
and Men of Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Signet Classics, 1957.
Schomp, Virginia. The
Ancient Greeks. New York: Benchmark Books, 1996.
Warry, John. Warfare
in the Classical World. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
2002.
What Life was Like at
the Dawn of Democracy.
New York: Time-Life Books, 1997.
Woof, Richard. The Ancient
Greek Olympics. London: Oxford University Press, 1999.
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Web Sources/Resources
www.pothos.org
A serious website for Alexander the Great scholars and lay Alex fans. Scholarly
articles, excellent discussion forum and a guide to the best books on Alexander.
www.alexanderthegreat.gr
Great resource for overview articles on Alexander. Gook links to other Alexander
sites.
www.livius.org/greece.html
Comprehensive site for articles about key people and events in the ancient
world.
www.isidore-of-seville.com/Alexanderama.html
Features over 1,000 resources
on Alexander plus 400 images (in sculpture and art) of Alexander, from the ancient
world to medieval times.