Alexander The Great Ancient Authors

AAEEANAPOY

The five main surviving accounts and sources of Alexander The Great are by Arrian, Plutarch, Diodorus, Curtius and Justin.

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) Indike

Anabasis Alexandri by Arrian from E.J Chinnock, 1893 in English
Αρριανού Ανάβασις Αλεξανδρή editit Carolus Sintenis
Anabasis Alexandri by Arrian (Published as History of Alexander and Indica by Robson, E. I. (Edgar Iliff), 1871 contains English and Greek side by side)

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 favourite sculptor, to provide what is probably the fullest and most accurate description of the conqueror's physical appearance.

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. Diodorus' immense work has not survived intact: we have the first five books and books 11 through 20. The rest exists only in fragments preserved in Photius and the excerpts of Constantine Porphyrogenitus.

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 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.

Justin

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

In addition to these five main sources some scholars, there is the Metz Epitome, an anonymous late Latin work that narrates Alexander's campaigns from Hyrcania to India, and much is also recounted incidentally by other authors, including Strabo, Athenaeus, Polyaenus, Aelian, and others.

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)
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
Ephemerides (royal journal) of the royal secretary Eumenes
Work of Ephippus of Olynthus
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
History of Alexander by Timagenes
Historiae Philippicae by Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus

PAGAN

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