In which I continue to use my blog as a personal notebook… A link to an outstanding article on and review of George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis. His fluency in German and Russian, as well as his knowledge of those countries’ histories and literary traditions, combined with a commanding, if […]
I started reading John Williams’ Augustus this week and promptly ran into a problem—finding a particular section in an epistolary novel told from many sources could take quite a while. Since there was no index I thought I would create my own and share it here. (Any misspellings are due to a chronic lack of […]
I participated in the Reading Odyssey‘s reading of Arrian’s The Campaigns of Alexander this year and wanted to gather all the conference calls in one place. Reading Odyssey “is a partnership between scholars and readers” aiming “to reignite curiosity and lifelong learning.” I enjoyed participating in this program and highly recommend future programs. The listed […]
November is proving it will be a rather rough month so I’m going to take a break from any scheduled posts. Lots of forthcoming news that will interest no one else, but nothing I can share yet. Hopefully I’ll still find time to read and make the occasional post this month, although I’ve only read […]
The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander Edited by James Romm, Series Editor Robert B. Strassler, Translation by Pamela Mensch, Introduction by Paul CartledgeIf you haven’t noticed by now, I am a huge fan of the Landmark series, created by Robert B. Strassler. If you haven’t picked up a volume in the series, check out […]
Though I have myself had occasion to find fault with some of Alexander’s deeds in the course of my history of them, I am not ashamed to admire Alexander himself. If I have condemned certain acts of his, I did so out of my own regard for truth and also for the benefit of mankind. […]
Anyone who reproaches Alexander should not simply cite those deeds that deserve to be reproached. Instead, after collecting in one place all of Alexander’s qualities, let his critic then consider who he is and what sort of fortune he has had that he reproaches Alexander, a man who became so great and attained such a […]
”I was now going to send back those of you who are unfit for war, to be envied by those at home. But since you all wish to go, be gone, all of you, and report, when you get home, that Alexander, your king, who conquered the Persians, Medes, Bactrians, and Sacae, who subjugated the […]
Alexander’s return from IndiaIn an attempt to get back on track with Arrian and the Reading Odyssey book group I’ll do a post for Book Six on Arrian’s The Campaigns of Alexander. With so much material, one post obviously won’t cover everything but I’ll highlight a few things I found interesting. The first topic occurs […]
Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the War for Crown and Empire by James Romm Knopf, 341 pp., $28.95 This book covers in gripping detail the events that began on June 1, 323 B.C., when Alexander the Great became ill with what would be a fatal fever, and ended seven […]