Historiography of Alexander the Great

Last updated November 01, 2024

There are numerous surviving ancient Greek and Latin sources on Alexander the Great , king of Macedon, as well as some Asian texts. The five main surviving accounts are by Arrian, Plutarch, Diodorus Siculus, Quintus Curtius Rufus, and Justin.^[1] In addition to these five main sources, there is the Metz Epitome , an anonymous late Latin work that narrates Alexander's campaigns from Hyrcania to India. Much is also recounted incidentally by other authors, including Strabo, Athenaeus, Polyaenus, Aelian, and others. Strabo, who gives a summary of Callisthenes, is an important source for Alexander's journey to Siwah.^[2]

Contemporary sources

Most primary sources written by people who actually knew Alexander or who gathered information from men who served with Alexander are lost, but a few inscriptions and fragments survive.^[1] Contemporaries who wrote accounts of his life include Alexander's campaign historian Callisthenes; Alexander's generals Ptolemy and Nearchus; Aristobulus, a junior officer on the campaigns; and Onesicritus, Alexander's chief helmsman.^[1] Finally, there is the very influential account of Cleitarchus who, while not a direct witness of Alexander's expedition, used sources which had just been published.^[1] His work was to be the backbone of that of Timagenes, who heavily influenced many historians whose work still survives. None of his works survived, but we do have later works based on these primary sources.^[1]

The five main sources

Arrian

Anabasis Alexandri (The Campaigns of Alexander in Greek) by the Greek historian Arrian of Nicomedia, writing in the 2nd century AD, and based largely on Ptolemy and, to a lesser extent, Aristobulus and Nearchus. It is generally considered one of the best sources on the campaigns of Alexander as well as one of the founders of a primarily military-based focus on history. Arrian cites his source by name and he often criticizes them. He is not interested in the King's private life, overlooking his errors. "That Alexander should have committed errors in conduct from impetuosity or from wrath, and that he should have been induced to comport himself like the Persian monarchs to an immoderate degree, I do not think remarkable if we fairly consider both his youth and his uninterrupted career of good fortune. I do not think that even his tracing his origin to a god was a great error on Alexander's part if it was not perhaps merely a device to induce his subjects to show him reverence". (Arrian 7b 29)
Indica , written in the 2nd century AD, mainly describes the voyage of Alexander the Great's officer Nearchus from the Indus to the Persian Gulf following Alexander's conquest of much of the Indus Valley.

Plutarch

Life of Alexander (see Parallel Lives ) and two orations On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great (see Moralia ), by the Greek historian and biographer Plutarch of Chaeronea in the second century, based largely on Aristobulus and especially Cleitarchus. Plutarch devotes a great deal of space to Alexander's drive and desire and strives to determine how much of it was presaged in his youth. He also draws extensively on the work of Lysippus, Alexander's favorite sculptor, to provide what is probably the fullest and most accurate description of the conqueror's physical appearance. Plutarch also admits the impossibility of pure accuracy, noting that his sources are likely unreliable and that the purpose of his work is to give a moralistic and heroic interpretation of Alexander's life, stating: "For it is not Histories that I am writing, but Lives."^[3]

Diodorus

Bibliotheca historica (Library of world history), written in Greek by the Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus, from which Book 17 relates the conquests of Alexander, based almost entirely on Cleitarchus and Hieronymus of Cardia. It is the oldest surviving Greek source (1st century BC). Diodorus regarded Alexander like Caesar as a key historical figure and chronological marker.

Curtius

Historiae Alexandri Magni , a biography of Alexander in ten books, of which the last eight survive, by the Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus, written in the 1st century AD, and based largely on Cleitarchus through the mediation of Timagenes, with some material probably from Ptolemy. His work is fluidly written, but reveals ignorance of geography, chronology, and technical military knowledge, focusing instead on the character. According to Jona Lendering: .."the real subject was not Alexander, but the tyranny of Tiberius and Caligula. (It can be shown that Curtius Rufus' description of the trial of Philotas is based on an incident during the reign of Tiberius)...Curtius copies Cleitarchus' mistakes, although he is not an uncritical imitator".^[4]

Justin

The Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus by Justin, is highly compressed version of an earlier history by Trogus, with the selections governed by Justin's desire to make moralistic points, rather than with an eye for the history itself.^[1]

Letters

Alexander wrote and received numerous letters, but no originals survive. A few official letters addressed to the Greek cities survive in copies inscribed in stone and the content of others is sometimes reported in historical sources. These only occasionally quote the letters and it is an open question how reliable such quotations are. Several fictitious letters, some perhaps based on actual letters, made their way into the Romance tradition.^[5]

Ephemerides of Alexander the Great

The Ephemerides of Alexander were journals describing Alexander's daily activities. Mentioned by ancient writers, but only fragments survive today.^[6]^[7]

Suda writes that one of the works of Strattis of Olynthus was called "On the ephemerides of Alexander" and were five books.^[8]

Lost works

Life of Alexander by Aesopus
Works of Anaximenes of Lampsacus
Works of Aristobulus of Cassandreia
Geographical work of Androsthenes of Thasos
Deeds of Alexander by Callisthenes (the official historian)
Personal Notebooks, or Hypomnemata, by Alexander himself (possibly inauthentic)^[9]
History of Alexander by Cleitarchus
On the empire of the Macedonians by Criton of Pieria
Histories (also listed as Macedonica and Hellenica) by Duris of Samos
Work of Ephippus of Olynthus
Works of Strattis of Olynthus ^[8]
Work of Hagnothemis upon which Plutarch rested the belief that Antipater poisoned Alexander.
Work of Hieronymus of Cardia
On the education of Alexander and Macedonian history by Marsyas of Pella
Work of Medius of Larissa
Work of Nearchus, the primary source of Arrian's Indica
How Alexander was Educated and geographical works by Onesicritus
Work of Ptolemy I Soter
Work of Nicobule ^[10]
Work of Antidamas ^[11]
History of Alexander by Timagenes
Historiae Philippicae by Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus
"Σταθμοί τῆς Ἀλεξάνδρου πορείας" (Stages in Alexander's Journey/Stations of the march of Alexander), a work of Baeton (the Bematist of Alexander the Great).^[12]^[13]
Work of Chares of Mytilene. Ten books about the life of Alexander.^[14]
In 2023, researchers with the help of machine learning managed to read a small part of a book from the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum which was heavily damaged in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It seems that it is a lost work which contains the names of a number of Macedonian dynasts and generals of Alexander and several mentions of Alexander himself.^[15]

Greek epigraphy

Decree of Philippi (ca.335-330 BC) Alexander arbitrates a boundary dispute between local Thracian tribes and the city of Philippi.
A dedicatory inscription to Apollo was found at Toumbes Kalamotou, Thessaloniki regional unit; it records a list of priests of Asclepius who had fulfilled their duties from the time when King Alexandros gave Kalindoia and the villages around to Makedones.^[16]
A dedicatory inscription to Olympian Zeus by Philonides of Crete in which he is mentioned as King Alexandros' hemerodromos (cursor) and bematist of Asia.^[17]^[18]
Lindos Chronicle. King Alexandros having defeated Darius in battle and become lord kurios of Asia, sacrificed to Athena of Lindos .^[19]^[20] boukephala (ox-heads) and hopla (armour)^[21]
Antigonus (son of Callas) hetairos from Amphipolis, commemorates his victory in hoplite racing at Heraclean games after the Conquest of Tyrus.

Non-Greco-Roman sources

Babylonian Chronicles

Alexander Chronicle mentions the battle of Gaugamela and the incident of Bessus, who was pursued by Aliksandar.^[22]
Alexander and Arabia Chronicle refers to events concerning the last years of the King.^[23]

Zoroastrian texts

They say that, once upon a time, the pious Zartosht made the religion, which he had received, current in the world; and till the completion of 300 years, the religion was in purity, and men were without doubts. But afterward, the accursed evil spirit, the wicked one, in order to make men doubtful of this religion, instigated the accursed Alexander, the Rûman,^[24] who was dwelling in Egypt, so that he came to the country of Iran with severe cruelty and war and devastation; he also slew the ruler of Iran, and destroyed the metropolis and empire, and made them desolate.^[25]

The Bible

Daniel 8:5–8 and 21–22 states that a King of Greece will conquer the Medes and Persians but then die at the height of his power and have his kingdom broken into four kingdoms. This is sometimes taken as a reference to Alexander.

Alexander is briefly mentioned in the first Book of the Maccabees. In chapter 1, verses 1–7 are about Alexander and serve as an introduction of the book. This explains how the Greek influence reached the Land of Israel at that time.

The Quran

There is evidence to suggest that orally transmitted legends about Alexander the Great found their way to the Quran.^[26] In the story of Dhu al-Qarnayn, "The Two-Horned One" (chapter al-Kahf, verse 83–94), Dhu al-Qarnayn is identified by most Western and traditional Muslim scholars as a reference to Alexander the Great.^[27]^[28]^[29]

Related Research Articles

Alexander III of Macedon, most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to the throne in 336 BC at the age of 20 and spent most of his ruling years conducting a lengthy military campaign throughout Western Asia, Central Asia, parts of South Asia, and Egypt. By the age of 30, he had created one of the largest empires in history, stretching from Greece to northwestern India. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered to be one of history's greatest and most successful military commanders.

The cutting of the Gordian Knot is an Ancient Greek legend associated with Alexander the Great in Gordium in Phrygia, regarding a complex knot that tied an oxcart. Reputedly, whoever could untie it would be destined to rule all of Asia. In 333 BC Alexander was challenged to untie the knot. Instead of untangling it laboriously as expected, he dramatically cut through it with his sword, thus exercising another form of mental genius. It is thus used as a metaphor for a seemingly intractable problem which is solved by exercising brute force.

Ptolemy I Soter was a Macedonian Greek general, historian, and successor of Alexander the Great who went on to found the Ptolemaic Kingdom centered on Egypt. Ptolemy was basileus and pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 305/304 BC to his death in 282 BC, and his descendants continued to rule Egypt until 30 BC. During their rule, Egypt became a thriving bastion of Hellenistic civilization and Alexandria a great seat of Greek culture.

Cleitarchus or Clitarchus was one of the historians of Alexander the Great. Son of the historian Dinon of Colophon, he spent a considerable time at the court of Ptolemy Lagus. He was active in the mid to late 4th century BCE.

Nearchus or Nearchos was one of the Greek officers, a navarch, in the army of Alexander the Great. He is known for his celebrated expeditionary voyage starting from the Indus River, through the Persian Gulf and ending at the mouth of the Tigris River following the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great, in 326–324 BC.

Callisthenes of Olynthus was a Greek historian in Macedon with connections to both Aristotle and Alexander the Great. He accompanied Alexander the Great during his Asiatic expedition and served as his historian and publicist. He later opposed Alexander’s adoption of Persian culture and was arrested after being implicated in a plot on the king's life; he died in prison. During his life, he authored several works on Greek history and a biography of Alexander the Great.

The Battle of Issus occurred in southern Anatolia, on 5 November 333 BC between the Hellenic League led by Alexander the Great and the Achaemenid Empire, led by Darius III. It was the second great battle of Alexander's conquest of Asia, and the first encounter between Darius III and Alexander the Great. The battle resulted in the Macedonian troops defeating the Persian forces.

The Battle of Gaugamela, also called the Battle of Arbela, took place in 331 BC between the forces of the Army of Macedon under Alexander the Great and the Persian Army under King Darius III. It was the second and final battle between the two kings, and is considered to be the final blow to the Achaemenid Empire, resulting in its complete conquest by Alexander.

The Battle of the Granicus in May 334 BC was the first of three major battles fought between Alexander the Great of Macedon and the Persian Achaemenid Empire. The battle took place on the road from Abydus to Dascylium, at the crossing of the Granicus in the Troad region, which is now called the Biga River in Turkey. In the battle Alexander defeated the field army of the Persian satraps of Asia Minor, which defended the river crossing. After this battle, the Persians were forced on the defensive in the cities that remained under their control in the region.

The Anabasis of Alexander was composed by Arrian of Nicomedia in the second century AD, most probably during the reign of Hadrian. The Anabasis is a history of the campaigns of Alexander the Great, specifically his conquest of the Persian Empire between 336 and 323 BC. Both the unusual title "Anabasis" and the work's seven-book structure reflect Arrian's emulation of the Greek historian Xenophon, whose own Anabasis in seven books concerned the earlier campaign "up-country" of Cyrus the Younger in 401 BC.

Laomedon was a Greek military commander, native of Mytilene and son of Larichus. He was one of Alexander the Great's generals, and appears to have enjoyed a high place in his confidence even before the death of Philip II, as he was one of those banished by that monarch for taking part in the intrigues of the young prince.

Aristobulus of Cassandreia, Greek historian, son of Aristobulus, probably a Phocian settled in Cassandreia, accompanied Alexander the Great on his campaigns. He served throughout as an architect and military engineer as well as a close friend of Alexander, enjoying royal confidence, and was entrusted with the repair of the tomb of Cyrus the Great in Pasargadae. He wrote an account, mainly geographical and ethnological. It survives only in quotations by others, which may not all be faithful to the original. His work was largely used by Arrian. Plutarch also used him as a reference.

The Achaemenid dynasty was a royal house that ruled the Persian Empire, which eventually stretched from Egypt and Thrace in the west to Central Asia and the Indus Valley in the east.

The Partition of Babylon was the first of the conferences and ensuing agreements that divided the territories of Alexander the Great. It was held at Babylon in June 323 BC. Alexander’s death at the age of 32 had left an empire that stretched from Greece all the way to India. The issue of succession resulted from the claims of the various supporters of Philip Arrhidaeus, and the as-of-then unborn child of Alexander and Roxana, among others. The settlement saw Arrhidaeus and Alexander’s child designated as joint kings with Perdiccas serving as regent. The territories of the empire became satrapies divided between the senior officers of the Macedonian army and some local governors and rulers. The partition was solidified at the further agreements at Triparadisus and Persepolis over the following years and began the series of conflicts that comprise the Wars of the Diadochi.

Boukephala and Nikaia (Νίκαια) were two cities founded by Alexander the Great on either side of the Hydaspes during his invasion of the Indian subcontinent. The cities, two of many founded by Alexander, were built shortly after his victory over the Indian king Porus at the Battle of the Hydaspes in early 326 BC.

The historical and literary tradition describes several of Alexander's relations, some of which are the subject of question among modern historians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian campaign of Alexander the Great</span> Ancient Greek military campaign

The Indian campaign of Alexander the Great began in 327 BC and lasted until 325 BC. After conquering the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the Macedonian army undertook an expedition into the northwestern Indian subcontinent. Within two years, Alexander expanded the Macedonian Empire to include present-day Punjab and Sindh in what is modern-day Pakistan, surpassing the earlier frontiers that had been established by the Persian conquest of the Indus Valley.

The Histories of Alexander the Great is the only surviving extant Latin biography of Alexander the Great. It was written by the Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus in the 1st-century AD, but the earliest surviving manuscript comes from the 9th century.

The History of Alexander, also known as Perì Aléxandron historíai, is a lost work by the late-fourth century BC Hellenistic historian Cleitarchus, covering the life and death of Alexander the Great. It survives today in around thirty fragments and is commonly known as The Vulgate, with the works based on it known as The Vulgate Tradition. These works consist primarily of that of Diodorus, the Bibliotheca historica, and Quintus Curtius Rufus, with his Historiae Alexandri Magni.

Little from the letters written by and to Alexander the Great is preserved today, and much of what purports to be his correspondence is in fact fictitious. The autograph manuscripts are all lost. Only a few official letters addressed to the Greek cities survive because they were inscribed on stone, although some of these are official instructions (writs) and not true letters. The content of others is sometimes reported in historical sources, such as Diodorus Siculus, Arrian and Plutarch, but only occasionally do these sources seem to quote such letters. Only a small fraction of Alexander's correspondence is thus accessible today, and even less of his actual words.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 Green, 2007, pp xxii–xxviii
↑ Cartledge, P., Alexander the Great (Vintage Books, 2004), p. 290.
↑ Life of Alexander 1.1
↑ "Curtius – livius.org". www.livius.org.
↑ Lionel I. C. Pearson (1955), "The Diary and the Letters of Alexander the Great", Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte3(4): 429–455, at 443–450. JSTOR 4434421
↑ Samuel, Alan E. (1965). "Alexander's 'Royal Journals'". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. 14 (1): 1–12. JSTOR 4434864 . Retrieved 15 March 2023– via JSTOR.
↑ Anson, Edward M. (1996). "The "Ephemerides" of Alexander the Great". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. 45 (4): 501–504. JSTOR 4436444 . Retrieved 15 March 2023– via JSTOR.
1 2 "SOL Search". www.cs.uky.edu. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
↑ Cartledge 2007, p. 278.
↑ A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Nicobula
↑ A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Antidamas
↑ A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Baeton
↑ Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, Book 10
↑ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chares". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 859.
↑ Owen Jarus (7 February 2023). "AI is deciphering a 2,000-year-old 'lost book' describing life after Alexander the Great". livescience.com. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
↑ The Hellenistic Settlements in Europe, the Islands, and Asia Minor Page 94 by Getzel M. Cohen ISBN 0520083296
↑ "Error - PHI Greek Inscriptions". epigraphy.packhum.org. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
↑ From the end of the Peloponnesian War to the battle of Ipsus By Phillip Harding Page 135 ISBN 0521299497
↑ "Error - PHI Greek Inscriptions". epigraphy.packhum.org. Archived from the original on 20 March 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
↑ The Greek world after Alexander, 323-30 B.C. Page 37 By Graham Shipley ISBN 0415046181
↑ New terms for new ideas By Michael Lackner, Iwo Amelung, Joachim Kurtz Page 124 ISBN 9004120467
↑ "The Alexander Chronicle (ABC 8)". www.livius.org. Archived from the original on 19 January 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
↑ "Chronicle concerning Alexander and Arabia (BCHP 2)". www.livius.org.
↑ Alexander the Great was called "the Ruman" in Zoroastrian tradition because he came from Greek provinces which later were a part of the eastern Roman empire – The archeology of world religions, by Jack Finegan, p. 80 ISBN 0415221552
↑ "The Book of Arda Viraf". www.avesta.org.
↑ Stoneman, Richard (2003). "Alexander the Great in Arabic Tradition". In Panayotakis, Stelios; Zimmerman, Maaike; Keulen, Wytse (eds.). The Ancient Novel and Beyond. Brill Academic Publishers NV. p. 3. ISBN 978-90-04-12999-3.
↑ Bietenholz, Peter G. (1994). Historia and fabula: myths and legends in historical thought from antiquity to the modern age. Brill. pp. 122–123. ISBN 978-9004100633.
↑ Stoneman 2003, p. 3.
↑ Montgomery Watt, W. (1978). "al-Iskandar". In van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch. & Bosworth, C. E. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume IV: Iran–Kha. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 127. OCLC 758278456.