Download or read book Dividing the Spoils written by Robin Waterfield and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping account of one of the great forgotten wars of history, revealing how Alexander the Great's vast empire was torn asunder in the years after his death
Download or read book Alexander the Great at War written by Ruth Sheppard and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 2011-03-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Origins Of War written by Arther Ferrill and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-04 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When did war begin? Standard military accounts tend to start with the Graeco-Persian wars, laying undue emphasis on the preeminence of Greek heavy infantry. But, as this strikingly original and entertaining book shows, the origins of war can be traced back not to the Iron Age, or even to the Bronze Age, but to the emergence of settled life itself nearly 10,000 years ago. The military revolution that occurred then?the invention of major new weapons, the massive fortifications, the creation of strategy and tactics?ultimately gave rise to the great war machines of ancient Egypt, Assyria, and Persia that dominated the Near East until the time of Alexander the Great.It is Arther Ferrill's thesis that in the period before Alexander there were two independent lines of military development?a Near Eastern one culminating in the expert integration of cavalry, skirmishers, and light infantry and a Greek one based on heavy infantry. When Philip and Alexander blended the two traditions in their crack Macedonian army, the result was a style of warfare that continued, despite technological changes, down to Napoleon.This newly revised edition presents detailed and copiously illustrated accounts of all the major battles on land and sea up to the fourth century b.c., analyzes weapons from the sling to the catapult, and discusses ancient strategy and tactics, making this a book for armchair historians everywhere.
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 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 written by Christian Cameron and published by Orion. This book was released on 2013-02-21 with total page 1027 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ultimate historical adventure novel: the life of Alexander the Great in a single, epic volume. To many he was a god. To others he was a monster. The truth is even more extraordinary. As a boy, Alexander dreamed of matching the heroic feats of Achilles. At eighteen he led the Macedonian cavalry to a stunning victory against the Greeks. By twenty-five he had crushed the Persians in three monumental battles and was the master of the greatest empire the world had ever seen. Men began to call him a god. But behind the legend was another, more complex story. Narrated by his boyhood friend Ptolemy, this is the story of Alexander as you have never heard it before: raw, intimate, thrilling - a story of extraordinary daring and unimaginable endurance; of wanton destruction and murderous intrigue - the epic tragedy of a man who aimed to be more than human.
Download or read book The Afghan Campaign written by Steven Pressfield and published by Crown. This book was released on 2007-06-05 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2,300 years ago an unbeaten army of the West invaded the homeland of a fierce Eastern tribal foe. This is one soldier’s story . . . The bestselling novelist of ancient warfare returns with a riveting historical novel that re-creates Alexander the Great’s invasion of the Afghan kingdoms in 330 b.c. In a story that might have been ripped from today’s combat dispatches, Steven Pressfield brings to life the confrontation between an invading Western army and fierce Eastern warriors determined at all costs to defend their homeland. Narrated by an infantryman in Alexander’s army, The Afghan Campaign explores the challenges, both military and moral, that Alexander and his soldiers face as they embark on a new type of war and are forced to adapt to the methods of a ruthless foe that employs terror and insurgent tactics. An edge-of-your-seat adventure, The Afghan Campaign once again demonstrates Pressfield’s profound understanding of the hopes and desperation of men in battle and of the historical realities that continue to influence our world.
Download or read book Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army written by Donald W. Engels and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1978 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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.
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 The Treasures of Alexander the Great written by Frank Lee Holt and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates the kinds and quantities of treasure seized by Alexander the Great, from gold and silver to land and slaves, and reassesses the widespread belief that the Macedonian king used the profits of war to improve the ancient economies he conquered. It reveals what became of the king's wealth and what Alexander's redistribution of these vast resources can tell us about his much-disputed policies and personality.
Download or read book By the Spear written by Ian Worthington and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique military and cultural history that chronicles the reigns of Philip and Alexander the Great in one sweeping narrative.
Download or read book Ghost on the Throne written by James Romm and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-11-13 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-two, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea in the west all the way to modern-day India in the east. In an unusual compromise, his two heirs—a mentally damaged half brother, Philip III, and an infant son, Alexander IV, born after his death—were jointly granted the kingship. But six of Alexander’s Macedonian generals, spurred by their own thirst for power and the legend that Alexander bequeathed his rule “to the strongest,” fought to gain supremacy. Perhaps their most fascinating and conniving adversary was Alexander’s former Greek secretary, Eumenes, now a general himself, who would be the determining factor in the precarious fortunes of the royal family. James Romm, professor of classics at Bard College, brings to life the cutthroat competition and the struggle for control of the Greek world’s greatest empire.
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 Emulating Alexander written by Glenn Barnett and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2017-07-19 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gives an account of the Roman relationship with Persia and how it was shaped by the actions of Alexander the Great long before the events. Numerous Roman emperors led armies eastward against the Persians, seeking to emulate or exceed the glorious conquests of Alexander. Some achieved successes but more often the result was ignominious defeat or death. Even as the empire declined, court propagandists and courtiers looked for flattering ways to compare their now-throne-bound emperors with Alexander. All the while there was a small segment of the Roman intelligentsia who disparaged Alexander and his misdeeds.While the Romans dreamed of conquering the Persian realm, the Persians of the Parthian and Sasanian dynasties dreamed of regaining the lands of the eastern Mediterranean snatched from their Achaemenid ancestors by Alexander. Echoes of this revanchist policy can be seen in Iran's support of Shiites in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon. Glenn Barnett draws comparisons between the era-long struggle of Rome and Persia with the current wars in the Middle-East where they once fought.
Download or read book The Virtues of War written by Steven Pressfield and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2005-09-27 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I have always been a soldier. I have known no other life. So begins Alexander’s extraordinary confession on the eve of his greatest crisis of leadership. By turns heroic and calculating, compassionate and utterly merciless, Alexander recounts with a warrior’s unflinching eye for detail the blood, the terror, and the tactics of his greatest battlefield victories. Whether surviving his father’s brutal assassination, presiding over a massacre, or weeping at the death of a beloved comrade-in-arms, Alexander never denies the hard realities of the code by which he lives: the virtues of war. But as much as he was feared by his enemies, he was loved and revered by his friends, his generals, and the men who followed him into battle. Often outnumbered, never outfought, Alexander conquered every enemy the world stood against him–but the one he never saw coming. . . . BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Steven Pressfield's The Profession.
Download or read book Into the Land of Bones written by Frank L. Holt and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-10-03 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The so-called first war of the twenty-first century actually began more than 2,300 years ago when Alexander the Great led his army into what is now a sprawling ruin in northern Afghanistan. Frank L. Holt vividly recounts Alexander's invasion of ancient Bactria, situating in a broader historical perspective America's war in Afghanistan.
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.
