Alexander: Selected Texts from Arrian, Curtius and Plutarch

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Inspired in his leadership, fearless in battle, and boundless in his ambition, Alexander the Great inherited his father's empire at the age of 20 and resolved to expand it. By the time of his death at 32, his empire covered most of the known world - from Greece to India - and comprised 2 million square miles. His achievement was - and remains - unparalleled. He was worshipped as a god in his lifetime and his legend has only grown with time. A chronological selection of extracts taken from Arrian's The Campaigns of Alexander, Plutarch's The Age of Alexander, Quintus Curtus Rufus's History of Alexander.

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Contents

Establishing Power in Macedonia Greece
12
The Persian Campaign 1 from the Hellespont
29
The Persian Campaign 2 from Cappadocia
45
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

PLUTARCH. c.46--c.125 Considered by many to be the most important Greek writer of the early Roman period, Plutarch was a member of a well-to-do Greek family, a chief magistrate, a priest at Delphi, and an exceptionally well-read individual. His philosophical views were based on those of Plato and, although a Greek, he esteemed the achievements and attributes of the Romans. By the time Plutarch's works were published for the first time in the eleventh century, some had already been lost. He wrote innumerable essays on philosophical, historical, political, religious, and literary subjects, 78 of which survive today and are known collectively as the "Moralia." He is known primarily, however, for his Parallel Lives of Greeks and Romans, which consists of 50 biographies---23 of prominent Greeks, 23 of Roman leaders, and 4 separate lives---accompanied at intervals by short comparative essays. Although historical information is included in the work, Plutarch wrote it originally to inspire emulation in youth, so the emphasis is on character, moral choice, and anecdote. Sir Thomas North's 1579 translation into English of Parallel Lives became an important source for William Shakespeare which he used for three plays, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus.

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