Alexander the Great in Arrian s Anabasis

Arrian's Alexandrou Anabasis constitutes the most reliable account at our disposal about Alexander the Great's campaign in Asia. However, whereas the work has been thoroughly studied as a historical source, its literary qualities have been relatively neglected, with no autonomous monograph existing on this matter. Vasileios Liotsakis fills this gap in the studies of Alexander the Great's literary tradition, by offering the first monograph on Arrian's compositional strategies. Liotsakis focuses on the narrative techniques and verbal choices, through which Arrian allows praise and criticism to intermingle in his portrait of the Macedonian king. His main point of argument is that Arrian systematically exploits an abundance of narrative means (military descriptions, presentation of peoples, march-narratives, anachronies, and epic elements) in order to draw the reader's attention not only to Alexander's intellectual skills but also to the fact that the king was gradually corrupted by his success. This book puts Arrian's literary contrivances under the microscope, sheds new light on unexplored aspects of the Anabasis' narrative arrangement, and contributes to the studies of Alexander's prosopography in Classical historiography.

Autorentext

Vasileios Liotsakis, Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg, Germany.

Klappentext

Arrian s Alexandrou Anabasis constitutes the most reliable account at our disposal about Alexander the Great's campaign in Asia. However, whereas the work has been thoroughly studied as a historical source, its literary qualities have been relatively neglected, with no autonomous monograph existing on this matter. Vasileios Liotsakis fills this gap in the studies of Alexander the Great s literary tradition, by offering the first monograph on Arrian s compositional strategies. Liotsakis focuses on the narrative techniques and verbal choices, through which Arrian allows praise and criticism to intermingle in his portrait of the Macedonian king. His main point of argument is that Arrian systematically exploits an abundance of narrative means (military descriptions, presentation of peoples, march-narratives, anachronies, and epic elements) in order to draw the reader s attention not only to Alexander s intellectual skills but also to the fact that the king was gradually corrupted by his success. This book puts Arrian s literary contrivances under the microscope, sheds new light on unexplored aspects of the Anabasis narrative arrangement, and contributes to the studies of Alexander s prosopography in Classical historiography.

Zusammenfassung

"[Liotsakis'] book contains rich pickings both for historians and for students of ancient historiography, constituting a reminder to the former-if one is needed nowadays-of the often rhetorical quality of the latter. Despite L.'s manifest ease in the milieu of 'literary theory and the classics,' the book is readable and surprisingly jargon-free. Its originality makes it a landmark in its field of study." Tony Spawforth in: Classics For All, https://classicsforall.org.uk/book-reviews/alexander-the-great-in-arrians-anabasis/ , (22.11.2019)