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olympia
Joined: 01 Aug 2004
Posts: 37
Location: USA
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Bozy
Joined: 28 Sep 2004
Posts: 2
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 Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2004 10:16 pm Post subject: Book(s) |
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If you like novels, Valerio Massimo Manfredi's trilogy called ALEXANDER is awesome  That is what got me hooked on all this ancient history stuff  |
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vulgaren
Joined: 06 Jul 2004
Posts: 140
Location: Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
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| Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 2:10 pm Post subject: |
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| I have read Paul Cartledge bestseller book and it is great. |
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carabest
Joined: 14 Nov 2005
Posts: 39
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| Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 5:53 am Post subject: Books |
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| My favorites are the Mary Renault books and the Robin Lane Fox books. |
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philalexandros
Joined: 02 Dec 2005
Posts: 232
Location: Macedonia
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| Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 10:21 pm Post subject: |
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| I have read many books on Alexander,basically anything I have managed to get my hands on. However.. I don't think its possible to recommend the best book written on him.For me the fact is these have been written through the eyes of others.There are very few to none original works on Alexander.And for such an important man in history no books today are worthy of obtaining any honors, Alexander was truly a great. |
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carabest
Joined: 14 Nov 2005
Posts: 39
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| Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 8:08 pm Post subject: books |
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| Merry Christmas to me! My daughter bought me 2 of the Mary Renault books and the RLF book! She got used copies (first editions with book jackets). Wow ..... I'm blown away! Merry Christmas and offer up a libation to Alexander! |
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Cynisca
Joined: 01 Feb 2006
Posts: 601
Location: Living in Yorkshire UK - ê tan ê epi tas
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| Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 8:45 pm Post subject: Bargain Day |
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I went into the town centre earlier and something made me go into the 'discount' bookshop...everything £2.00 at the moment.
I have had some bargains including the hardback of Bettany Hughes's Helen Of Troy.
Browsing up and down the shelves and turned around.....there he was...not one book but TWO....I grabbed them with a grin on my face.... 
Alexander The Conqueror by Laura Foreman (forward by Eugene N. Borza)
Alexander The Great - Nick McCarty
£4.00 well spent....
Makes up for the business with the DVD and the fact that I was asked to pay an extra £40 surcharge on delivery of a kopis .. when somebody else in Yorkshire had nothing extra to pay on theirs. 
Regards
Cynisca |
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Alita
Joined: 24 May 2007
Posts: 101
Location: Melbourne
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| Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 4:17 pm Post subject: |
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This is from a friend of mine who's read every book on Alexander ever printed at least 5 times: Arrian, Plutarch and Fox are the best sources on Alexander today. Curtius is not as consistent or objective as Arrian and Borza, though something of an expert on Macedonian history, could be biased in nationalistic ways. Hopefully one day there will be a Dead Sea Scrolls-like discovery that will give us never-before-seen primary accounts on Alexander. (That's from me).  |
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apelles
Joined: 12 Mar 2005
Posts: 1149
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| Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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Amen to that Alita!I hope something thought of as lost could be recovered from the excavations of the library at Herculaneum.Apparently,not everything was destroyed in the eruption.
The best book I read this year isn't exclusively about Alexander,although he features strongly.It's "Soldiers and Ghosts;a history of battle in classical antiquity." by J.E.Lendon,published by Yale University Press.
It's a wonderful book,original,witty,fascinating and very erudite without being at all pompous or dry.Magnificent! |
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joanna
Joined: 02 Feb 2005
Posts: 1262
Location: Greece/USA/Italy/UK/
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| Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 12:01 am Post subject: |
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| Alita wrote: | | This is from a friend of mine who's read every book on Alexander ever printed at least 5 times: Arrian, Plutarch and Fox are the best sources on Alexander today. Curtius is not as consistent or objective as Arrian and Borza, though something of an expert on Macedonian history, could be biased in nationalistic ways. Hopefully one day there will be a Dead Sea Scrolls-like discovery that will give us never-before-seen primary accounts on Alexander. (That's from me). |
That would be great |
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joanna
Joined: 02 Feb 2005
Posts: 1262
Location: Greece/USA/Italy/UK/
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| Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 12:17 am Post subject: |
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| apelles wrote: | Amen to that Alita!I hope something thought of as lost could be recovered from the excavations of the library at Herculaneum.Apparently,not everything was destroyed in the eruption.
The best book I read this year isn't exclusively about Alexander,although he features strongly.It's "Soldiers and Ghosts;a history of battle in classical antiquity." by J.E.Lendon,published by Yale University Press.
It's a wonderful book,original,witty,fascinating and very erudite without being at all pompous or dry.Magnificent! |
I didn't know about this book. The title is intriguing and it sounds interesting. I will read it one day. |
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apelles
Joined: 12 Mar 2005
Posts: 1149
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| Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 5:31 pm Post subject: |
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| alexkhan wrote: | It's hard to choose just one "best" book. I've read an awful many and there is no single definitive book that stands out from the pack. Here is a list of what I've read and recommend:
NON-FICTION
Paul Cartledge - Alexander the Great: The Search for a New Past
Robin Lane Fox - Alexander the Great
Arrian - The Campaigns of Alexander
J.F.C. Fuller - The Generalship of Alexander the Great
Mary Renault - The Nature of Alexander
Guy Maclean Rogers - Alexander: The Ambiguity of Greatness
Peter G. Tsouras - Alexander: Invincible King of Macedonia
N.G.L. Hammond - The Genius of Alexander the Great
Quintus Curtius Rufus - The History of Alexander
Alan Fildes - Alexander the Great: Son of the Gods
Donald W. Engels - Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army
Partha Bose - Alexander the Great's Art of Strategy
Peter Green - Alexander of Macedon 356-323BC: A Historical Biography
Nicholas Sekunda - Alexander the Great (General Military)
W.W. Tarn - Alexander the Great
Plutarch - The Life of Alexander the Great
Ulrich Wilcken - Alexander the Great
Theodore Ayrault Dodge - Alexander: A History of the Origin and Growth of the Art of War from the Earliest Times to the Battle of Ipsus, 301 Bc, With a Detailed Account of the campaigns
Claude Mossé - Alexander: Destiny and Myth
FICTION
Mary Renault - Trilogy of Fire from Heaven, Persian Boy, and Funeral Games
Steven Pressfield - The Virtues of War
Steve E. Stylianos - The Lost Chronicles of Alexander the Great
Richard Stoneman - The Greek Alexander Romance |
Snap!! I'll go along with all of those. Here are a few more I've found useful. Some are reading around his reign to understand the historical context before and after and a few are books Alexander was probably familiar with. Like you I can't pick an absolute favourite, although some are more inspiring than others. I have a very soft spot for old General Arrian, despite the bias towards Ptolemy's version of events.
The Marshals of Alexander's Empire - Waldemar Heckel.
In the Shadow of Olympus ; The Rise of Macedon. - Eugene N. Borza.
The Legacy of Alexander. - A. B. Bosworth.
Library of History. Books 16 and 17. - Diodorus Siculus.
Women and Monarchy in Macedonia. - Elizabeth Carney.
Alexander the Great; Man and God. - Ian Worthington.
Historical Sources in Translation; Alexander the Great. - Heckel and Yardley.
Alexander the Great and Hephaistion Amyntoros; an atypical affair. - Jeanne Reames Zimmerman.
The Orations of Plutarch; On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander.
Soldiers and Ghosts; A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity. - J.E. Lendon.
Orations of Demosthenes.
Anabasis; Xenophon.
Cavalry Commander; Xenophon.
Steven Pressfield; The Afghan Campaign. (fiction)
You'll notice I've left out Docherty's biog and Justin's Epitome who seem to me to be equally untrustworthy.  But that's just MHO. |
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joanna
Joined: 02 Feb 2005
Posts: 1262
Location: Greece/USA/Italy/UK/
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| Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 3:32 am Post subject: |
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| "You'll notice I've left out Docherty's biog and Justin's Epitome who seem to me to be equally untrustworthy. But that's just MHO. " |
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apelles
Joined: 12 Mar 2005
Posts: 1149
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| Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 8:10 pm Post subject: |
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 Do you agree? Are they equally untrustworthy? |
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joanna
Joined: 02 Feb 2005
Posts: 1262
Location: Greece/USA/Italy/UK/
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| Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 2:48 pm Post subject: |
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| apelles wrote: | | Do you agree? Are they equally untrustworthy? |
Well, Justin may be right for one thing: Alexander was poisoned by Antipater giving orders to his sons to do so. |
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