Book Review - Anabasis of Alexander by Arrian

Anabasis of Alexander by Arrian. English translation by P. A. Brunt (in 2 Vols, including Indica)

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1976

Have you ever had that strange feeling when you drive past the site of a recently demolished building in your neighbourhood and you can't remember what was there? That makes it even more amazing to me that we still know so much about the life of Alexander the Great. The fact that we do so is due to the survivial of this work of Arrian, amongst others.

The Loeb Classics two volume edition, which also includes the Indica is a fine edition on many levels. For the properly educated, one can compare the Ancient Greek to the English translation, and for us lesser mortals, the copious notes, appendices and informative introduction ensure we know what to make of the text, and where controviersies arise in comparing this work to other surviving sources. There is also a useful index.

All of us know, or think we know, the story of Alexander's conquest of most of the known world, so it's fascinating to go back to authors such as Arrian and Curtius and see what they wrote. Arrian saw himself as writing the definitive history of Alexander, combining all sources available to him and choosing the most reliable, sometimes putting down all he'd found out when he couldn't decide where the truth lay. What is interesting is that he obviously didn't know of Curtius' history, even though the scholars think it was written a hundred years earlier than Arrian's work.

The image of Alexander's army rampaging through the Near East is in fact only partly true - much (most?) of his conquests were peaceful, in the sense that cities and kingdoms surrendered without a fight, rather that risk defeat under arms. The reason so many took this option was that Alexander was often magniminous to those who surrendered, and could (and did) destroy utterly those who bore arms against him.

Things that stand out for me on reading Arrian is how few actual Macedonian troops Alexander had for much of his conquests: as he moved further away from home he relied more and more on local levies of troops and on arrogating to himself troops that once fought for Persia. The other point that I feel I hadn't adequately considered before reading this was just how Alexander ran the lands he conquered. He appointed trusted generals as satraps and on occasion even local rulers got to continue their rule, after paying obesiance and tribute to Alexander. It is interesting how often Arrian (who on the whole is a supporter of Alexander) describes how recently conquered territories had risen in revolt against Alexander, and needed to be repressed. The idea of Alexander rolling across the Near East and crushing all resistance is in some ways a false one.

The sense of Alexander one is left with after reading Arrian is of a man who was perhaps not interested in the art of governing. He was interested in conquering and winning battles, and as long as someone was keeping the rear in check and getting enough money for him to keep his army on the go, he was happy with that. Certainly after his death the empire quickly crumbled, as each kingdom quickly reverted to local rule, apart from some exceptions (Ptolemy in Egypt, for example).

One gets a whiff from Arrian (something which is more emphasised in Curtius), that Alexander's conquests eventually debauched his character: he moves from being a great and noble commander into an "Oriental tyrant". Whatever the thoughts about his character, none can detract from his deeds - a hero to some, a monster to others.

The Loeb edition also includes Arrian's Indica, which is a narrative of Nearchus' voyage from India to Persia. This perhaps is more interesting as a historical document, and would have been even more so when Arrian wrote it, as much of that part of the world was a mystery to most Greeks.

I've enjoyed reading Arrian, perhaps more than I expected.

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell

Book review - Alexander the Great by Peter Green

Alexander the Great by Peter Green

London : Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1970.                                            ISBN 0297000071

Alexander the Great - the fascination he holds for us has never dimmed, right from the moment he died through to the 21st century - as I write this in 2014 there is a six-part television series being broadcast, hosted by an Australian, looking for the remains of Alexander's Asian empire. This is the latest in many television documentaries, films, and untold books about the man who has variously been seen as a liberator or a devil, and who was indisputably one of the finest military commanders of all time.

Peter Green, in the book under review, has written a concise, well-reasoned account of the life of Alexander as it has come down to us, emphasising Alexander's military prowess, his leadership skills, and also his increasing slide into megalomania and perhaps even madness.

It's incredible to think that by the time he died at the age of 32, Alexander had risen from being the King of Macedonia, considered one of the backwaters of Ancient Greece, to being the major figure in Greece, the Pharaoh of Egypt, the King of Persia and the King of Asia, with an empire that spread from Macedonia in the North, Egypt in the South and as far east as Indus River. The achievement is so amazing it can hardly be believed, and in fact might go some way to explaining why Alexander at the end thought of himself as a God.

There is no doubt that Alexander was a driven man - initially driven to surpass his father (whom he may have had killed), his ostensible reason for war against Persia was to revenge the Persian defeat of Greek forces the century before Alexander's rise to power. Once he defeated the Persians at the Battles of Issus and Gaugamela, he had to think of new reasons to cloak his increasing thirst for conquest - these were various and not very convincing.

Green points out that money was one thing that drove Alexander on. War has always been expensive (look at the billions upon billions recently spent in Iraq and Afghanistan by the United States of America) and Alexander financed his by looting conquered territories of their treasure - treasure he needed not only to feed, equip and pay his troops, but to bribe potential enemies and his Macedonian levies, who grew increasingly bitter about being away from home for so long.

Green is at his best when he writes about the internal workings of Alexander's army - we see that far from being a homogeneous unit, the army was riven with factions and hatreds, which only grew worse as Alexander introduced more and more troops from the Persian Empire into its ranks. In fact Green suggests that Alexander was working on a project to rid his army of Macedonians entirely, in a move to become King of Asia and not merely a Greek conqueror. His adoption of Persian ways of living and ruling estranged him from his most loyal companions, and yet did little to endear him to his conquered peoples.

While Alexander was a brilliant military tactician and strategist, he was a poor administrator. He tended to let his appointed governors and satraps run his conquered territories, with more or less garrisons assigned to them as he saw fit. The amount of treasure embezzled by these men was fantastic, enough for them to employ armies of their own. While Alexander lived these men were kept in check, but as soon as he died they squabbled over the spoils, and in less that a lifetime after his death, Alexander's empire had fallen apart.

His legacy though, is incalculable: one wonders if the Roman Empire would have become what it did without the model of Alexander to show what was possible: he joined East and West in ways that had never occurred before, and even in seemingly simple ways - such as the introduction of cotton to the West - his life changed the way the World lived, and lives.

Green's book is a good introduction to Alexander and his world - relatively short and to the point, with a good bibliography, this edition is in a larger quarto format with plenty of good photographs and some useful maps.

Enjoyable.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell