Download or read book Alexander the Great written by Philip Freeman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-10-18 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Alexander the Great A Very Short Introduction written by Hugh Bowden and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-07-24 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander the Great became king of Macedon in 336 BC, when he was only 20 years old, and died at the age of 32, twelve years later. During his reign he conquered the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the largest empire that had ever existed, leading his army from Greece to Pakistan, and from the Libyan desert to the steppes of Central Asia. His meteoric career, as leader of an alliance of Greek cities, Pharaoh of Egypt, and King of Persia, had a profound effect on the world he moved through. Even in his lifetime his achievements became legendary and in the centuries that following his story was told and retold throughout Europe and the East. Greek became the language of power in the Eastern Mediterranean and much of the Near East, as powerful Macedonian dynasts carved up Alexander's empire into kingdoms of their own, underlaying the flourishing Hellenistic civilization that emerged after his death. But what do we really know about Alexander? In this Very Short Introduction, Hugh Bowden goes behind the usual historical accounts of Alexander's life and career. Instead, he focuses on the evidence from Alexander's own time -- letters from officials in Afghanistan, Babylonian diaries, records from Egyptian temples -- to try and understand how Alexander appeared to those who encountered him. In doing so he also demonstrates the profound influence the legends of his life have had on our historical understanding and the controversy they continue to generate worldwide. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Download or read book Alexander The Great written by Henry Freeman and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-03-21 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to be great? There have been many that have come through the sands of time proclaiming their own greatness. We see it in the news every day; leaders, heroes, tyrants, and even reality star presidential candidates claim that they are great. But what about Alexander the Great? Inside you will read about... ✓ Alexander and the Happiness of Horses ✓ Aristotle and the First Day of School ✓ Philip’s Family Drama ✓ Enemies and Friends ✓ The Real Battle Begins ✓ Changing Tides ✓ Signs and Wonders ✓ In Pursuit of Darius ✓ Historical Autopsy The young man from Macedonia that took the world by storm creating one of the world’s first major empires? He singlehandedly changed the course of history within a decade. Read along with us to figure out just what made Alexander so great.

Download or read book Ancient Macedonia written by Carol J. King and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-28 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first English-language monograph on ancient Macedonia in almost thirty years, Carol J. King's book provides a detailed narrative account of the rise and fall of Macedonian power in the Balkan Peninsula and the Aegean region during the five-hundred-year period of the Macedonian monarchy from the seventh to the second century BCE. King draws largely on ancient literary sources for her account, citing both contemporary and later classical authors. Material evidence from the fields of archaeology, epigraphy, and numismatics is also explored. Ancient Macedonia balances historical evidence with interpretations—those of the author as well as other historians—and encourages the reader to engage closely with the source material and the historical questions that material often raises. This volume will be of great interest to both under- and post-graduate students, and those looking to understand the fundamentals of the period.

Download or read book Alexander the Great written by Anthony Everitt and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Alexander the Great in His World written by Carol G. Thomas and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander the Great is one of the most celebrated figures ofantiquity. In this book, Carol G. Thomas places this powerfulfigure within the context of his time, place, culture, and ancestryin order to discover what influences shaped his life andcareer. The book begins with an exploration of the Macedonia thatconditioned the lives of its inhabitants. It also traces suchinfluences on Alexander's life as his royal Argead ancestry, hisfather, Philip II, and his mother, Olympias. The author examinesAlexander's engagement with Greek culture, especially hisrelationship with Aristotle, and contemplates how other societalfactors - especially the highly militarized Macedonian kingdom andthe nature of Macedonia's relationship with neighboring states -contributed to his achievement. What was the significance of these influences on the man whosucceeded in conquering most of the known world from the AdriaticSea to the Indus River? The author focuses on this question inexploring ancient landscapes and resurrecting key figures fromantiquity in order to penetrate the motivation, goals, and innerbeing of Alexander the Great.

Download or read book Philip II and Alexander the Great written by Elizabeth Carney and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-06-24 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The careers of Philip II and his son Alexander the Great (III) were interlocked in innumerable ways: Philip II centralized ancient Macedonia, created an army of unprecedented skill and flexibility, came to dominate the Greek peninsula, and planned the invasion of the Persian Empire with a combined Graeco-Macedonian force, but it was Alexander who actually led the invading forces, defeated the great Persian Empire, took his army to the borders of modern India, and created a monarchy and empire that, despite its fragmentation, shaped the political, cultural, and religious world of the Hellenistic era. Alexander drove the engine his father had built, but had he not done so, Philip's achievements might have proved as ephemeral as had those of so many earlier Macedonian rulers. On the other hand, some scholars believe that Alexander played a role, direct or indirect, in the murder of his father, so that he could lead the expedition to Asia that his father had organized. In short, it is difficult to understand or assess one without considering the other. This collection of previously unpublished articles looks at the careers and impact of father and son together. Some of the articles consider only one of the Macedonian rulers although most deal with both, and with the relationship, actual or imagined, between the two. The volume will contain articles on military and political history but also articles that look at the self-generated public images of Philip and Alexander, the counter images created by their enemies, and a number that look at how later periods understood them, concluding with the Hollywood depiction of the relationship. Despite the plethora of collected works that deal with Philip and Alexander, this volume promises to make a genuine contribution to the field by focusing specifically on their relationship to one another.

Download or read book The Lost Book of Alexander the Great written by Andrew Young and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recounts the "History of Alexander's Conquests" of Ptolemy Lagides, a Macedonian officer who accompanied Alexander the Great during his conquests and who was later to lead the city of Alexandria in its triumph after Alexander's death.

Download or read book Who Was Alexander the Great written by Kathryn Waterfield and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-06-07 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander the Great conquers the New York Times best-selling Who Was...? series! When Alexander was a boy in ancient Macedon, he already had grand ambitions. He complained that his father, the great king of Macedon, wasn't leaving anything for him to conquer! This, of course, was not the case. King Alexander went on to control most of the known world of the time. His victories won him many supporters, but they also earned him enemies. This easy-to-read biography offers a fascinating look at the life of Alexander and the world he lived in.

Download or read book Alexander the Great written by Richard Stoneman and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) precipitated immense historical change in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. But the resonance his legend achieved over the next two millennia stretched even farther across foreign cultures, religious traditions, and distant nations. This engaging and handsomely illustrated book for the first time gathers together hundreds of the colorful Alexander legends that have been told and retold around the globe. Richard Stoneman, a foremost expert on the Alexander myths, introduces us first to the historical Alexander and then to the Alexander of legend, an unparalleled mythic icon who came to represent the heroic ideal in cultures from Egypt to Iceland, from Britain to Malaya. Alexander came to embody the concerns of Hellenistic man; he fueled Roman ideas on tyranny and kingship; he was a talisman for fourth-century pagans and a hero of chivalry in the early Middle Ages. He appears in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic writings, frequently as a prophet of God. Whether battling winged foxes or meeting with the Amazons, descending to the underworld or inventing the world s first diving bell, Alexander inspired as a hero, even a god. Stoneman traces Alexander s influence in ancient literature and folklore and in later literatures of east and west. His book provides the definitive account of the legends of Alexander the Great a powerful leader in life and an even more powerful figure in the history of literature and ideas."

Download or read book Alexander the Great written by John Gunther and published by Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.. This book was released on 2007 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some say he was the greatest warrior in history, building an empire that extended from Europe to Africa and on to India and Central Asia. In a stirring narrative, famed historian John Gunther tells the story of Alexander the Great who, at only age 21, became King of Macedonia and set off on a 12-year journey to conquer the known world and extend the boundaries of Greek civilization. Gunther takes us from Alexander’s boyhood to his victory over the Persian Empire, and, in vivid detail, describes Alexander’s battles, as well as the palace intrigues that surrounded him.

Download or read book Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction written by A. B. Bosworth and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2002 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten essays from a symposium held at Newcastle University in 1997, which examine the general themes of kingship and imperialism by focusing on the romances that surround Alexander.

Download or read book The Nature of Alexander written by Mary Renault and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “intriguing and invaluable” biography of Alexander the Great by the novelist whose fiction redefined Ancient Greece (The New York Times). Acclaimed writer Mary Renault is widely known for her provocative historical novels of Alexander the Great and his lovers. But she also authored this nonfiction classic, a fresh, illuminating look at a man whose legend has remained larger than life for more than two thousand years. From his dysfunctional family dynamics to his molding under Aristotle, from his shocking rise to power at age twenty to the staggering violence of his military campaigns, Renault is clear-eyed about Alexander’s accomplishments and his flaws. Infectious in its enthusiasm, this is a penetrating study of an unrivaled conqueror, enduring icon, and fascinating man. Hailed as both “a splendid achievement in nonfiction” (The Plain Dealer) and “the perfect companion to her Alexander novels” (The Wall Street Journal), Renault’s engrossing and accessible biography stands alone in the pantheon of Alexander the Great literature. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary Renault including rare images of the author.

Download or read book The Confessions of Alexander the Great written by Ashkan Karbasfrooshan and published by Granicus Pub. This book was released on 2004-10-01 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tells history through the eyes of the greatest military commander of all time, Alexander the Great, who died one month shy of his thirty-third birthday. Broken up into thirty-three chapters, this book offers a first-person narrative glimpse into the body, soul and mind of the most important secular figure in history.

Download or read book The Life and Times of Alexander the Great written by John Bankston and published by Mitchell Lane Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2005-03 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander the Great led soldiers from his perch atop his horse, Bucephalus. He commanded the largest army the world had ever known. He ruled a kingdom that stretched across two continents. Before he was 30, he was the richest man on the planet. Alexander would know love, he'd know loss, but he'd never know an end to his ambitions. Only his death ended his conquest. Today, over 2,000 years later, generals still study Alexander's battle plans. Manuscripts preserved at libraries he founded were used by historians to give us a record of his life. Alexander was more than just a king. He embraced the culture of the countries he invaded. He spread democracy. In many ways, Alexander was more of a liberator than a conqueror. In this new book for young adults, middle grade readers can experience the life and times of Alexander the Great.

Download or read book Alexander the Great written by Waldemar Heckel and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-09-19 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander the Great: A New History combines traditional scholarship with contemporary research to offer an innovative treatment of one of history's most famous figures. Written by leading experts in the field Looks at a wide range of diverse topics including Alexander's religious views, his entourage during his campaign East, his sexuality, the influence of his legacy, and his representations in art and cinema Discusses Alexander's influence, from his impact on his contemporaries to his portrayals in recent Hollywood films A highly informed and enjoyable resource for students and interested general readers

Download or read book A History of Macedonia written by Robert Malcolm Errington and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1990-01-01 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this single-volume history, R. Malcolm Errington provides a modern account of the political and social framework of ancient Macedon. He places particular emphasis on the structure of the Macedonian state and its functioning in different stages of historical development from the sixth to the second century B.C. Errington's main emphasis is not on the biographies of the great kings but rather on the flexible political interplay between king, nobility, and people; on the growth of cities and their political function within the state; and on the development of the army as a motor of military, social, and politicalchange.