Book description
At eighteen Alexander had conquered mainland Greece, was crowned King
of Macedonia at twenty and by twenty-six he had made himself master of
the once mighty Persian Empire. By the time of his death, aged only
thirty-three, in 323BCE he was ruler of the known world and was being
worshipped as a god by the Greeks, both at Babylon, where he died, and
further west, among the Greek cities of the Asiatic seaboard. The fruit
of a lifetime's scholarship and meticulous research, this is an
outstanding biography of one of the most remarkable rulers in history.
'A hugely impressive portrait of a towering but enigmatic figure' Saul
David, Sunday Telegraph 'A revealing, often enthralling search ... [a]
restless, exhilarating book' Observer 'Fascinating...blends all the
pleasures of Hollywood epic with those of a subtle and deeply intriguing
detective tale' Tom Holland, author of Rubicon 'Alexander the Great
provides an endless fount both of amazement and of speculation. This
gripping book examines the legends as well as the life. Most
interestingly, it invites the reader to participate in the difficult
task of separating the fact from the fiction' Norman Davies
Paul Cartledge, Professor of Greek History at the University of
Cambridge, has written and edited many articles and books, including
Spartan Reflections, Hellenistic and Roman Sparta and
The Spartans, published by Macmillan. He has acted as
academic consultant on 'The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization' for the
BBC and, more recently, 'The Spartans' for Channel 4.
