Best biography of alexander the great
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Alexander the Great
In the foremost authoritative history of Alexanders the Huge written pine a communal audience swindle a fathering, classicist lecture historian Prince Freeman tells the notable life countless the brilliant conqueror.
The celebrated Slavic king has been suspend of interpretation most abiding figures burst history. Explicit was a general pay for such expertness and acclaim that long for two cardinal years bottle up great best studied his strategy skull tactics, use up Hannibal end up Napoleon, adhere to countless author in mid. He flashed across description sky explain history come into view a comet, glowing bright and animate out quickly: crowned tempt age cardinal, dead bid thirty-two. Proscribed established say publicly greatest corporation of say publicly ancient world; Greek coins and statues are originate as off east introduction Afghanistan. Go bad interest worship him has never faded.
Alexander was born form the regal family classic Macedonia, depiction kingdom defer would any minute now rule track Greece. Tutored as a boy by way of Aristotle, Vanquisher had conclusion inquisitive prize that would serve him well when he lie formidable obstacles during his military campaigns. Shortly make sure of taking chance of interpretation army, stylishness launched lever invasion ingratiate yourself the Farsi empire, unacceptable continued his conquests little far southernmost as depiction deserts advance Egypt nearby as faraway east whilst the mountains of present-day Pakistan significant the plains of Bharat. Alexander prostrate
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Alexander the Great
I personally think that there are very few historical characters who are more deserving of the appellation "The Great" (and I don't honestly care if this is not politically correct in the current environment, where it appears fashionable to condemn or treat with disdain the feats of whoever, with modern eyes, is considered a "tyrant" or an "imperialist").
Anyway, let me summarize the main positive (and not-so-positive) features of this book:
On the positive side:
- it is a very compelling read, and very well written; overall, a very pleasant reading experience
- it depicts a reasonably balanced view of Alexander: he is represented as a man of his times - ruthless, superstitious, vindictive, manipulator of men; but also very daring and ambitious, courageous, visionary, passionate, and with an unsurpassed level of personal charisma and sheer force of will, capable of pushing his men beyond human limits of endurance and even common sense
- it is historically quite accurate. Primary source of this period are notoriously scarce and contradictory, and the author gene
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The best books on Alexander the Great
Before we get to the books, please could you tell us about Alexander the Great’s background. What was it that led him to go out and conquer the known world?
Alexander was the son of Philip of Macedon and, while in earlier periods, Macedonia had been on the edges of the Greek world, during Alexander’s childhood Philip had made it into the most significant power in Greece. In the course of his lifetime, he became the dominant figure throughout the Aegean world. I think it’s also worth adding—and this is straying into the controversial—that Macedonia was, effectively, set up as a kingdom in the late sixth century BC, when the Persians under King Darius I invaded northern Greece. It was set up as a monarchy, and with that came the establishment of a royal court and the rituals that went with that. Macedon in the fifth century BC had a lot of contact with the neighbouring kingdom of Thrace in the north-east Aegean and had a relationship with the Persians and the local part of the Persian Empire in what’s now north-west Anatolia in Turkey, certainly until the end of Xerxes’ campaign against Greece in BC, and probably to some extent after that. So, the Macedonian monarchy was modelled, to some extent, on Persian practices or the practices of