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Alexander the Great: His Life and His Mysterious Death Kindle Edition
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“[An] infectious sense of narrative momentum . . . Its energy is unflagging, including the verve with which it tackles that teased final mystery about the specific cause of Alexander’s death.”—The Christian Science Monitor
More than two millennia have passed since Alexander the Great built an empire that stretched to every corner of the ancient world, from the backwater kingdom of Macedonia to the Hellenic world, Persia, and ultimately to India—all before his untimely death at age thirty-three. Alexander believed that his empire would stop only when he reached the Pacific Ocean. But stories of both real and legendary events from his life have kept him evergreen in our imaginations with a legacy that has meant something different to every era: in the Middle Ages he became an exemplar of knightly chivalry, he was a star of Renaissance paintings, and by the early twentieth century he’d even come to resemble an English gentleman. But who was he in his own time?
In Alexander the Great, Anthony Everitt judges Alexander’s life against the criteria of his own age and considers all his contradictions. We meet the Macedonian prince who was naturally inquisitive and fascinated by science and exploration, as well as the man who enjoyed the arts and used Homer’s great epic the Iliad as a bible. As his empire grew, Alexander exhibited respect for the traditions of his new subjects and careful judgment in administering rule over his vast territory. But his career also had a dark side. An inveterate conqueror who in his short life built the largest empire up to that point in history, Alexander glorified war and was known to commit acts of remarkable cruelty.
As debate continues about the meaning of his life, Alexander's death remains a mystery. Did he die of natural causes—felled by a fever—or did his marshals, angered by his tyrannical behavior, kill him? An explanation of his death can lie only in what we know of his life, and Everitt ventures to solve that puzzle, offering an ending to Alexander’s story that has eluded so many for so long.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherRandom House
- Publication date27 Aug. 2019
- File size25129 KB
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Review
"Everitt, an expert storyteller, has written a riveting narrative that restores Alexander to his own context--and takes a whack at solving the remaining mysteries. . . . Along the way, he takes us on a spirited passage through the ancient world, from the Balkans to South Asia."--BookPage
"Ancient history expert Everitt attacks the young Macedonian king's astonishing conquests on three continents--Africa, Asia, and Europe--with relish. . . . This detailed account of the intriguing ancient military genius will fascinate military history readers eager to learn more about Alexander's motivation and the lifelong fearlessness that propelled him to near-mythic status."--Publishers Weekly
Praise for Anthony Everitt
The Rise of Rome
"Fascinating history and a great read."--Chicago Sun-Times
"Everitt writes for the informed and the uninformed general reader alike, in a brisk, conversational style, with a modern attitude of skepticism and realism."--The Dallas Morning News
Cicero
"An excellent introduction to a critical period in the history of Rome . . . Cicero comes across much as he must have lived."--The Wall Street Journal
"Riveting . . . a clear-eyed biography [offering] vivid lessons about the viciousness that can pervade elected government."--Chicago Tribune
Augustus
"Fascinating and brisk to read . . . All the stuff of adventure is here, from court intrigue to roving armies to shipwreck."--The Washington Post Book World
"A narrative of sustained drama and skillful analysis . . . an accomplished biography." --The Philadelphia Inquirer
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Goat Kings
July 20 in the year 356 B.C. was a great day for Philip, and it marked a high point in his life so far.
An intelligent and charismatic young man in his midtwenties, he had been king of Macedonia for the past two years. This was no sinecure, for he was surrounded by enemies. On the day in question, he was with his army on campaign; three messengers arrived one after another at his camp, each bearing wonderful news.
The first rider brought a report from his trusty and talented general Parmenion, who had scored a victory against Macedonia’s hereditary foes, the fierce, wild Illyrians. Then came a dispatch from southern Greece, where the Olympic Games were being held. Philip had entered a horse in one of the equestrian events. Only the very wealthy could afford the training and upkeep of two- or four-horse chariots, but financing a competitor in a four-and-a-half-mile horse race was costly enough. Philip’s investment had paid off, for his mount came in first. The publicity would give a shine to his embattled reputation.
But the last messenger arrived from Pella, his capital city. His wife Olympias had given birth to a healthy boy. The official seers or soothsayers said that the arrival of a son timed to coincide with these other successes augured well. When he grew up he would surely be invincible. For his father, there was the prospect of continuing the dynasty.
The infant’s name was to be Alexander.
The baby crown prince faced the prospect of a daunting inheritance. He soon came to understand the realities of life and death as a member of the royal family. Being a clever and observant child, he remembered what he saw, and early lessons set the pattern of his adult attitudes.
Here are some of the things he must have learned.
The rocky and vertiginous geography of Macedon was hostile to good governance. The kingdom lay to the north of Mount Olympus, traditional home of Zeus and the other anthropomorphic divinities of the Hellenic pantheon. Its center was a fertile alluvial plain bordered by the wooded mountains of northern Macedonia. Its coastline was interrupted by the three-fingered peninsula of Chalcidice, which was peppered with Greek trading settlements.
Macedonia was inhabited by unruly tribes which devoted their time and energy to stock-raising and hunting. They regularly moved sheep to and from grazing grounds—the lowlands in winter and the highlands in summer. They paid as little attention as possible to central authority. There was a myriad of villages and very few settled urban communities.
The kingdom had one important raw material in almost limitless amounts—high-quality timber. Trade increased around the Aegean Sea, for travel or transport by sea was easier by far than to go by land. There was growing demand for merchant ships and war galleys and, it followed, for planking and oars. The tall trees of Macedonia were ideal for the purpose, unlike the stunted products of the Greek landscape. Pitch was also exported for caulking boats.
Life, even for despots, was basic. The “father of history,” Herodotus, who flourished in the fifth century b.c., writes of the primitive Macedonian monarchy. His contemporaries would have recognized the simplicity of the royal lifestyle, which had changed little over the centuries. The king lived in a farmhouse with a smoke hole in the roof, and the queen did the cooking. Herodotus, who probably visited Macedonia, commented: “In the old days ruling houses were poor, just like ordinary people.”
Up to Philip’s day and beyond, the monarch adopted an informal way of life. At home he hunted and drank with his masculine Companions, or hetairoi. In the field he fought at the head of his army and was surrounded by a select bodyguard of seven noblemen, the somatophylaxes. His magnificent armor inevitably attracted enemy attacks.
He mingled easily with his subjects and eschewed titles, being addressed only by his given name or “King.” He had to put up with impertinence from the rank and file, just as Agamemnon, commander-in-chief at Troy, was obliged to hear out Homer’s Thersites, a bowlegged and lame troublemaker, whose head was filled “with a store of disorderly words.”
In effect, a king like Philip was not an autocrat but a tribal leader, and his success or failure would largely depend on his performance in war and his magnanimity in peace. It was important that he be generous with personal favors, together with gifts of estates, money, and loot on campaign.
Like Agamemnon, he was wise to consult his senior officers. Philip suited the role very well, ruling with a relaxed sense of humor on the surface and adamantine determination underneath. An anecdote epitomizes his style. At the end of one campaign, he was superintending the sale of prisoners into slavery. His tunic had ridden up, exposing his private parts. One of the prisoners claimed to be a friend of his father and asked for a private word. He was brought forward to the king and whispered in his ear: “Lower your tunic a little, for you are exposing too much of yourself the way you are sitting.” And Philip said, “Let him go free, for I’d forgotten he is a true friend indeed.”
Little is known about a king’s constitutional rights, but it seems that he was appointed by acclamation, at an assembly of citizens or of the army. Capital punishment of a Macedonian had to be endorsed by an assembly. But even if his powers were limited, a canny ruler could almost invariably get his way. The eldest son usually—but by no means always, as we shall see—inherited the throne.
The philosopher Aristotle, whose father was official physician at the Macedonian court, was thinking about Philip when he observed that “kingship?.?.?.?is organized on the same basis as aristocracy: [by] merit—either individual virtue, or birth, or distinguished service, or all these together with a capacity for doing things.”
Successive rulers tried again and again, without conspicuous success, to impose their will on their untamable subjects. Then, toward the end of the sixth century b.c., the outside world intervened in the shape of Darius I, absolute lord of the vast, sprawling Persian empire, which stretched from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean to the gates of India, from Egypt to Anatolia. It has been well described as a desert punctuated by oases. There were well-watered plains, often more abundant than today, and arid wastes. Rugged mountain ranges and broad rivers made travel—and for that matter warfare—complicated and challenging.
The empire was founded by Cyrus the Great in the middle of the fifth century b.c. The Persians were originally nomads, and even in their heyday as an imperial power, their rulers were always on the move between one or other of their capital cities, Susa, Persepolis, and Ecbatana. Their great throne halls were versions of the royal traveling tent in stone. Like all nomads, they were enthusiastic horsemen and their mounted archers were ferocious in battle.
It has been estimated that the empire was home to about fifty million inhabitants. They came from a variety of cultures, spoke a medley of languages, and practiced a wide array of religions; wisely, they were governed with a light touch. However, if they rebelled against the central authority, they could only expect fire, rapine, and slaughter. In the last resort, the empire was a military monarchy.
The Great King, as he was usually called, wanted to secure the northwestern corner of his wide domains by establishing an invulnerable frontier, the river Danube. This would entail subjugating Thrace, the large extent of land between the Balkan mountains, the Black Sea, and the Sea of Marmara. On today’s political map, it includes portions of Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey.
Product details
- ASIN : B07L2HP9N4
- Publisher : Random House (27 Aug. 2019)
- Language : English
- File size : 25129 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 456 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: 169,487 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer reviews:
About the author
Anthony Everitt, visiting professor in the visual and performing arts at Nottingham Trent University, has written extensively on European culture, and is the author of Cicero and Augustus. He has served as secretary general of the Arts Council of Great Britain. Everitt lives near Colchester, England's first recorded town, founded by the Romans.
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Customers find the book well-written and accessible. They describe it as a decent biography of Alexander the Great covering his life and times.
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Customers find the book easy to read and well-written. They say it covers the whole story and is one of the most accessible accounts on Alexander the Great's life.
"...It is certainly one of the most accessible accounts on the great man’s life, and a book I would recommend...." Read more
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"A very worthwhile read going into all aspects of Alexander’s life and death." Read more
"Well, finally a decent biography of Alexander. Well written and covering the whole story not just slices of an amazing life." Read more
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Top reviews from United Kingdom
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 March 2023A wonderful text on the life and times of Alexander the Great. I have read a number of books on Alexander the Great and this one by the historian Anthony Everitt must rate as one of the best. It is certainly one of the most accessible accounts on the great man’s life, and a book I would recommend.
I hope you find my review helpful.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 July 2020For anyone wanting to discover the story of Alexander the Great then this book really does help the reader get to know the real story behind the man. A great read.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 August 2022A very worthwhile read going into all aspects of Alexander’s life and death.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 January 2020Well, finally a decent biography of Alexander. Well written and covering the whole story not just slices of an amazing life.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 December 2019Great book about phenomenal man.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 September 2024If this is your first Alexander Biography, sure.
But if it isn't. You can skip it. It regurgitates content from other biographies, both ancient and modern; cascades opinions from others that are often times contradicting without offering a critical analysis.
Worst, it straight out takes ancient anecdotes out of context and mounts it on other events, which the authors seems to like to add drama to the event. (And the author also invents conversation that are no where documented in any historical sources...)
I wonder if this is a history book or historical fiction at times. Too inaccurate for one and too boring for the other.
Top reviews from other countries
- JohnReviewed in the United States on 14 November 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars A full and satisfactory biography on Alexander
I love Everitt’s writing style. He does an excellent job of bringing Alexander and his to life in a way that is extremely interesting and engaging.
This biography is very easy to read and great for a casual reader or more serious students of history which is true for all of Everitt’s books.
A linear and straight forward biography that is also interesting and introduces the important people in Alexander’s lives without ever getting dull or boring.
If you’re looking for a full biography and interesting biography on Alexander, this is the one
- RyanReviewed in the United States on 30 August 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Favorite
The best book on Alexander aside from Philip and Alexander.
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United States on 9 July 2021
4.0 out of 5 stars Good research done on an obscure time in history
The author wrote this book being as accurate as he could without leaving out the most important events during Alexander the Great's conquest. He put lots of work into it. What concerned me was that lots of vocabulary I didn't understand, to where I had to constantly refer to a dictionary. Could of used terms easier to understand. Sentence structures were at times a little odd as well. Otherwise, the book is very informative about what happened during this time, the characters involved etc.
- steven souderReviewed in the United States on 8 July 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars I love history !
A great insight as to the lives of the people in that time period.
Hard for me to comprehend the life style of Greek or Macidonian cultures. I agree that Alexander likely was bred to be a leader , warrior, and King. He did not disappoint me . What a life. scs
- SteveReviewed in the United States on 11 June 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it
I'm hard to please when it comes to reading books. This is one of my favorite books of all time. It's very well written, except for how some of the battles are explained, but the rest is so good that I give it 5 stars.