pothos.org

A translation of this is available here https://archive.org/details/southgate-1 ... 8/mode/2up. I haven't read it yet.

it's a hefty tome and it's good that its been made easily accessible. but its a long read and before embarking on that, could someone more knowledgable than me put this text into context? what, if anything can be taken from it? is it a reference work, should I read it cover to cover?

I've only read the introduction which says there is a lot of repetition, particularly of Alexander going in disguise to an enemy city and conquering by diplomacy. Like the other Romances, I suspect it seems to start off reasonably, but then descends more and more into fantasy. Sometimes though, you suspect that there might be a grain of truth behind some of the tales. Like in the Greek Romance, the story of Alexander going to the Olympic games at 15 and getting into a row with someone (though not killing him), sounds like a distinct possibility, and Alexander visiting an island in the Indian ocean is very possible. The stories of fantastic beasts and strange people must have arisen from tales brought back by the army from India of things they had never seen or heard of before.

If I get round to reading it, I'll let you know.