This one is working on The Son of God: Alexander's Expedition by Arrian

Arrian's Alexander's Anabasis has been translated as The Campaigns of Alexander and The Life of Alexander the Great. In my investigation of the most remarkable warlord in human history, i have chosen a mypoic view of the conqueror using the lens of Arrian, who attempted to sort out the many accounts of Alexander's life and offered for the reader to reserve judgment on his work until they had first read his predecessors' works.

I came upon this idea while crippled and needing to spend hours a day doing physical therapy and listening to audio books, the best among them being an expert reading of the 1958 translation by Aubrey de Selincourt. Listening to the life of this conqueror while suffering the fate of many of his veterans, to be left behind due to an inability to "keep up" and thus assigned to garrison duty or discharged with honors, as i was honored by fighting men I had worked with, the ambition to come to a better understanding of Alexander overtook me like a bad idea that would not be denied.

Having read all of the other extant sources twice, Arrian's thrice, and 14 general histories of his life, I have now listened to Arrian's entire account of Alexander's military and civic exploits thrice, and Book one, today, for the 48th time.

The Son of God, I am attempting to complete in 7 parts over the next two years. Book 1, the Advent of Alexander, which describes how a man learned how to conquer a world with a small army over the course of his 21st and 22nd years is key to understanding the next 6 segments of his life.

His younger life and afterlife will be treated in each volume as prologue and epilogue, from different authors of antiquity, while his activity will be viewed as much as possible thru the works of Homer, whose Iliad Alexander employed as his life guide, through Aristotle, who was Alexander's teacher, and thru Xenophon whose own expedition as a captain and then colonel, and the martial reforms he experimented with, formed the basis for Alexander's operational attitude.

Two nights ago Adam and Hans of The Myth of the 20th Century discussed Alexander with this old tramp.

Below is a copy of Adam's email.

Thank you both, and thank you all.

james

Really enjoyed talking with you, James: