Alexander by Peter G. Tsouras

[jan]

This is an excellent book about Alexander which I have just begun reading. The author wrote an article for Military History on the Lone Stand of Alexander at the Battle of Hydapses. He is a military intelligence officer in the USArmy, and has an interesting style and presentation. I noticed that he gave Jona Lendering credit for one of the photos in the illustrations section, a photo on Mieza. That same photo can be seen on the Alexander-Macedon website at Yahoogroups.

[agesilaos]

Alexander's lone stand? Did he mean the mythical single combat with Poros portrayed on the famous dodekadrachms?

[jan]

Yes, he did. The cover of the magazine had a picture painted by Lovell with Alexander fighting the elephants. Probably inspired Stone too in his movie on Alexander to be released this November. I notice that a famous saying by Porus is often misquoted. When Alexander asked him what he wished, it is usually said that he said to be treated like a king. But I just read, according to Arrian in his Campaigns, that King Porus said to be treated as a king OUGHT. And Arrian continued to comment that Alexander treated him as a king ought.

[marcus]

Hi Jan,Thanks for that - I had no idea that Tsouras had written a book, but I've just done an Amazon search and found it (interesting that it never showed up when I searched for "Alexander" on Amazon).Interesting, however, that the picture on the cover of the book (at least the one shown by Amazon) is of Philip II, even though the book is about Alexander...All the bestMarcus

[jona]

I've given some photos to the author, who is a gentle person and kindly sent me a copy of his book. Yet, I can not deny that I felt a bit disappointed hecause it is a bit old-fashioned. Of course there is nothing wrong with focusing on the military side of Alexander's career (after all, Tsouras is a military specialist); yet, a general is so much more than a warrior, and I would have liked to read more about the brilliant tactician who failed on the more political-strategic level. Alexander defeated his enemies but was not always able to win their hearts (e.g., Sogdia, India, and the Zoroastrians of Persia).But all this being said - it is certainly not a bad book and you can do a lot worse than read this publication.Jona

[jona]

"Interesting, however, that the picture on the cover of the book (at least the one shown by Amazon) is of Philip II"
Be assured, there's a nice picture of Alexander with an elephant scalp on the real book.Jona