Peter GreenAlexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography

An outstanding book. Green's perspective combines unemotional history with rare analytical rigour not often seen in biographies. His book strips away the glorifying aura around Alexander and lays bare the man behind the King. Compelling reading.

The author, a historian and novelist at the University of Texas, presents a highly readable biography of Alexander the Great. Due to the author's work as a novelist, the book is a page-turner and, although stuffed with information, is not dragged down by overly academic prose.Macedonia was a "barbarian" feudal on the northern borderlands of the Ancient Greek world. This began to change under Alexander's father, Philip, who had spent his youth as a hostage in Thebes and learned a lot from that city-state's military expertise. Upon becoming king, Philip united the Macedonians and subjugated the Greeks. Philip also pushed Macedonian culture in a more Greek direction, with Alexander even being tutored by the legendary Aristotle.Philip was eventually murdered, perhaps with the involvement of Alexander. Before his death, Philip had planned an invasion of modern-day Turkey, at that time ruled by the Persian Empire, to "liberate" the Greek populations of the region. Alexander immediately commenced this invasion, but he did not stop there. He moved into Egypt, which he "liberated" from the Persians (much to the joy of the local populace). From there, Alexander marched his forces into the Iranian heartland of the Persian empire and killed the Persian king.After killing the Persian king, Alexander marched his forces into Afghanistan, where they spent several years fighting a brutal guerrilla war in the mountains (something the Soviets and the Americans would do thousands of years later). When he finally subjugated the remaining Persian forces in Afghanistan, Alexander took his troops to Pakistan, where they defeated several local kingdoms. Alexander hoped to reach the "Ocean" which, in the inaccurate geography of the Macedonians of his day, was thought to be not far from Pakistan.However, Alexander's forces were growing weary. First, the troops had been on campaign for nearly decade. Second, the monsoon weather and horrifying battles with war elephants had traumatized the troops. And third, Alexander's newfound role as "king of Asia" alienated his Macedonian troops, as Alexander embraced oriental despotism (such as having subjects prostrate before him and presenting himself as a god) and steadily replaced Macedonian fighters with Persians.Alexander's weary troops mutinied and demanded to return home. Begrudgingly, Alexander agreed, although he began planning expeditions to the western Mediterranean: Italy, Libya, Spain. But on the journey home, he died of a mysterious illness -- very likely poisoning by his increasingly angry and frightened subordinates.

Excellent.

Great book

Passionnant. Un livre qui se lit comme un roman sur la destinée extraordinaire d'un homme hors du commun. Trame chronologique classique, clarté d'exposition, l'idéal!

A great book to learn about the legendary king! Found it in the school library first and was fascinated by it. The maps are very helpful for understanding the battles and the language is easy to understand and engaging, even for a non-native speaker like me. It's written in a way to engage the reader so i didn't fall asleep halfway through (like i did with many other historical biographys) and it didn't lack details from the ancient sources. In a word, great for academic studies and casual interest!