Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past

by Paul Cartledge • 2004

"In Alexander the Great, Paul Cartledge describes the brief but iconic life of Alexander (356-323 B.C.), 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 his 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, adventures, 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 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."--BOOK JACKET.