Reddit reviews The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander
We found 4 Reddit comments about The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Anchor Books
Thanks! I hope you enjoy it.
Unfortunately I don't know ancient Greek, so I had to rely on translations. I tried to use several translations and compare and contrast. My two favorites: The Oxford World Classics and The Landmark Arrian.
So I didn't look for linguistic similarities, but more subject matter similarities and what I knew to be Ptolemy's bias.
The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian
Pretty much all of the books about Alexander the Great are based on Arrian, Plutarch, and (had to look it up) Rufus. I found Arrian very readable, and now that there is a Landmark Arrian, you might as well read it. There are maps on almost every page. It's pretty sweet.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Landmark-Arrian-Campaigns-Alexander/dp/1400079675
I'm interested in this period too and have seen recommended for the immediate aftermath and wars 'Ghost on the Throne' and 'Dividing the Spoils'. If you're interested in the wider historical aftermath for the period and have the appetite for a 1000 page tome then you might want to look at 'From Alexander to Actium'.
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Unfortunately for this time period (the 'Hellenistic Period') we don't have a good narrative history from early sources like we do for some other periods. Herodotus, Thucydidesand Xenephon tell us the story of Greece from roughly 500-362, then we have a frustrating gap for the rise of Philip II (Alexander's father and seen by many ancients as more impressive than Alexander), then various accounts such as Arrian's of Alexander's conquests 336-323. But then there's a big 60 year gap after Alexander until Polybius's histories start in 264 (by which time this is the story of how the Successor Kingdoms and Carthage alike are ultimately defeated by Rome).
[Links in para above are to excellent scholarly versions: Landmark editions in particular are fantastic with maps, good footnotes and annexes etc. But as these are all ancient and so out of copyright you can probably get old translations for free on kindle etc.]