Alexander is the towering hero of the classical world. His fame has grown for
well over two millenia and embraces Eastern and Western cultures alike. In
Alexander the Great, Paul Cartledge, the distinguished scholar and historian
long acknowledged as perhaps the preeminent authority on Sparta and Greece,
glowingly illuminates the brief but iconic life of Alexander (356- 323 BC), king
of Macedon, conqueror of the Persian Empire and founder of a new world order.
Cartledge's book is, above all, a hunt for a new past to counter the myths,
legends, and often skewed history that have been passed down to us.
At the age of twenty, Alexander inherited the mantle of this father, Philip
of Macedon, becoming master of the Greek world east of the Adriatic. A mere six
years later, he had conquered the mighty Persian Empire, and by the time he was
thirty he had taken his victorious armies even further, ruling an empire that
stretched from the Mediterranean to the Hindu Kush. But before his thirty -
third birthday Alexander was dead.
Alexander's legacy has had a major impact on military tacticians, scholars,
statesmen, adventurers, authors, visual artists, and filmmakers. In his own
lifetime and in ours he has been seen as hero, holy man, Christian saint, a new
Achilles, philosopher, scientist, prophet, and visionary. Cartledge brilliantly
evokes Alexander's remarkable political and military accomplishments, following
the geographical path of his victorious armies and charting the tremendous field
of this warrior - hero's influence. With attack and brio, he cogently explains
why and how Alexander is endlessly fascinating, providing a view to a better
understanding of such fundamental topics as charismatic leadership, imperialism,
and Middle Eastern geopolitics.
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Praise for Alexander the Great
"Cartledge stands out with his ability to connect our world with this ancient
society... [he] displays a marvelous ability to make the reader care."
- USA Today
"An absorbing tale.... Cartledge's crystalline prose, his vivacious story
telling and his lucid historical insights combine here to provide a fist - rate
history of the Spartans."
- Publishers Weekly (starred)