The Anabasis of Alexander

Arrian

Apr 2018 · Ozymandias Press

About this ebook

The Anabasis is by far the fullest surviving account of Alexander's conquest of the Persian empire. It is primarily a military history, reflecting the content of Arrian's model, Xenophon's Anabasis; the work begins with Alexander's accession to the Macedonian throne in 336 BC, and has nothing to say about Alexander's early life (in contrast, say, to Plutarch's Life of Alexander). Nor does Arrian aim to provide a complete history of the Greek-speaking world during Alexander's reign. Arrian's chief sources in writing the Anabasis were the lost contemporary histories of the campaign by Ptolemy and Aristobulus and, for his later books, Nearchus. One of Arrian's main aims in writing his history seems to have been to correct the standard "Vulgate" narrative of Alexander's reign that was current in his own day, primarily associated with the lost writings of the historian Cleitarchus.

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About the author

Historian, philosopher, and general, Arrian was born into a wealthy Greek family in Nicomedia, in Asia Minor. He was a pupil and friend of the philosopher Epictetus, whose lectures he published at Athens. For six years, from 131 to 137, he served as governor of Cappadocia under the emperor Hadrian. It was during this time that he successfully drove back invading Alans. Arrian wrote several geographical and historical works, including the Indica, an account of a voyage to India. He is best known, however, as author of the Anabasis. A much praised and valuable account of the life of Alexander the Great, it is based on the writings of Ptolemy I and Aristobulus, two of Alexander's generals. He modeled the work on Anabasis of Xenophon. Arrian died at an advanced age during the reign of Marcus Aurelius.