The Anabasis of Alexander

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
(Redirected from Anabasis Alexandri)
Jump to: navigation, search

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Macedonian Army Thessalian

The Anabasis of Alexander (Latin: Anabasis Alexandri; Greek: Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἀνάβασις, Alexándrou Anábasis), also known as the History, Campaigns, or Expeditions of Alexander[1] (De Expeditione Alexandri, abbr. De Exp. Alex.;[2] Ἱστορίαι Ἀναβάσεως 'Αλεξάνδρον, Historíai Anabáseōs Alexandron), was a history of the campaigns or expeditions ("anabasis")[4] into the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great. It was composed centuries after the fact by the historian Arrian. This work consists of seven books and was Arrian's most important work.[5]

It is one of the few surviving complete accounts of the Macedonian conqueror's expedition. It is primarily a military history and has little to say about Alexander's personal life, his role in Greek politics or the reasons why the campaign against Persia was launched in the first place. Arrian was able to use sources which are now lost, such as the contemporary works by Callisthenes (the nephew of Alexander's tutor Aristotle), Onesicritus, Nearchus, and Aristobulus, and the slightly later work of Cleitarchus. Most important of all, Arrian had the biography of Alexander by Ptolemy, one of Alexander's leading generals and possibly his half-brother.[citation needed]

Details

The work was written in the second century AD (ref.- p.xiii), and pertains to the life of Alexander III (ref. - p.xi),[6] who died in 323 BC (ref. - p. 389),[7] of which Arrian's account of the life of him is the best extant,[8] in that it is the most complete and reliable (E. Borza).[9]

Written in Attic Greek, it is addressed to the Philhellene elite (Carlsen 2014).[10]

Structure

A structural analysis shows the work to be divided in one case, into seven books. Book one has twenty chapters, book two has twenty-seven chapters, book three has thirty chapters, book four has thirty chapters, book five has twenty-nine chapters, book six has thirty chapters, book seven has thirty chapters.[11] In another case the work is divided into twelve books.[1]

According to the Smith division, he further states that all twelve books survived apart from a gap in the twelfth chapter of the seventh book, a factor which is present in all extant MSS.[1]

Criticism

A. B. Bosworth,[12][13] criticized what he viewed as Arrian's hagiography in Errors in Arrian (1976).[14]

J.R.Hamilton's analysis of the text of the Anabasis faults Arrian for two things: a tendency to be narrow and to omit the details of Alexander's activities, specifically where they were less promoting of his subject; and a failure to mention the leader's intentions.[15]

History of transmission & editions

Earlier history

The earliest extant copy is from about 1200 CE (CA Evans 2011).[16]

William Smith shows an early translation made in 1508 by B.Facius; both E.J.Chinnock and Smith state the editio princeps was by Trincavelli in Venice c.1535.[1][17]

Further editions of the History [18] were made by Gerbel (1539),[1] an edition was translated into Italian by Leo of Modena and printed within Venice in 1554,[19][20] H.Stephens edition was printed in Paris 1575,[1] Claudius Vitart translated the History into French which was printed in Paris in 1581,[19][21] and additionally a version reprinted three times was made by Ablancourt.

The Blancard edition was printed in Amsterdam in 1688. The Gronovius edition was published in Leyden in 1704, the K.A.Schmidt edition in 1757, and the Schneider edition in 1798 in Leipzig.[1][19]

It has four Latin translations, the first by Nicolaus Saguntinus, the second by Petrus Paulus Vergerius, the third by Bartholomæus Facius, the fourth by Bonaventure Vulcanius. The Vulcanius edition was most highly esteemed according to Rooke.[19]

Modern editions

J.E.Ellendt published Regimontii in 1832, and an edition by C.W.Krüger was published in Berlin in 1835.[1] E.J. Chinnock made a translation which was published by George Bell and Sons in 1893.[22]

The edition used by the Perseus Digital Library online is the A.G. Roos edition published at Leipzig in 1907.[23][24]

The Aubrey de Sélincourt translation was published in its first edition by Penguin Publishing in its Penguin Classics series in 1958.[25]

A translation was made by the late P.A.Brunt, Volume I was published by Harvard University Press as Loeb Classical Library 236 in 1976.[26]

A new translation was made by Martin Hammond published as Oxford World's Classics by Oxford University Press in 2013.[27]

Sources

Arrian stated Ptolemy son of Lagos (a commander in Alexander's army [28]) and Aristobulus son of Aristobulus (an architect [28]) as the primary sources for information for the contents of the piece (DL Smith 2012),[29] both of these accompanied Alexander on the anabasis.[30]

Arrian was comptemtuous of Callisthenes account of Alexander, because he conceived him a 'flatterer' of Alexander,[31] and he criticized him because of his stating he would make Alexander great through his writing rather than Alexander had already done through his own acts, for he held self-promotion to compromise an authors abilities to write truthfully, producing distortions in any account written about Alexander.[32]

Ptolemy

Was a friend during childhood, and both were educated by Aristotle.[33]

He was amongst the closest accompanying persons to the body of the leader apres l'mort de Hephaistion (ref. - p. 161).[34]

He witnessed the defeat of Darius III in 333, and was present at the time of the taking of control of Egypt.[35]

During the actual anabasis he was given command of cavalry to go receive Bessus as a prisoner (ref. - p. 58).[36]

Aristobulus

He was from Cassandreia.[37]

Additional sources

Other sources were Diodotus of Erythrae, Eumenes of Cardia (who kept a so called royal diary [38]), Nearchus of Crete, Megasthenes,[1] Eratosthenes, Aristus, and Asclepiades[disambiguation needed]. He also made use of the letter's of Alexander.[38]

See also

References

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Cite error: Invalid <references> tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.

Use <references />, or <references group="..." />

Further reading

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=The_Anabasis_of_Alexander&oldid=1979255"