Green's book

[dean]

Hello,
Just finished reading Peter Green's biography about Alexander and thought that there were a number of things that made the book quite special.Loved the perspective on the Granikus at the end of the book which stated that Aristobulus and Ptolemy may have tried to hide the fact that the afternoon attack was hotched and that a new dawn attempt was thereafter successful.Also thought that the perspective regarding the omens shortly before Alexander's death could have been simply spread to make it seem more plausible that his death had been an act of the gods(rather than an assassination). He says that one possibility is that Aristotle prepared the poison, Antipater sent it via Cassander and Iollas handed it to Alexander. Most interesting hypothesis!!!Book scores high with me,
Best regards,
Dean.

[marcus]

Hi Dean,It's a great book, and one I've always enjoyed re-reading.I have a dim recollection that Green has in more recent years recanted somewhat on his analysis of the Granicus. What he says in the book has always seemed plausible to me, but I haven't spent the necessary time studying the battle myself to come down firmly on one side or the other - hedging my bets, as it were!I don't subscribe to the poison theory myself, but what Green says about Aristotle, Cassander and Iollus basically follows what Arrian says was the prevalent story. Even though I don't subscribe to it, it's still more convincing than that Roxane or Ptolemy were responsible for his death, as proposed by Graham Phillips or Paul Doherty! :-)All the bestMarcus

[xxx]

Green's book is a good read but he has a lot of opinions not consistent with the histories than marr it in my view.He has changed his opinion on the Granicus, which is a good thing.

[dean]

Hello,
Yes there are so many hypothesis around regarding his death... In fact there is a book that I have had on my shelf for ages that I have been meaning to read for a while and finally today I have pulled it down. In the introduction the author- a monsieur Roger Caratini states categorically that he died of a mosquito bite which then produced malaria- how supposed experts can say such things so surely is beyond me!!!!Best regards,
Dean.

[marcus]

Well, there must be about 15 different theories by now, including the different types of poison used as well as the multifarious natural diseases he succumbed to. People seem completely to have forgotten Mary Renault's theory, too, which was that he died of pleurisy ... does that make it 16?All the bestMarcus

[maciek]

Hello!
Green changed his opinion on Granicus but I'm not shure in what point. I've just read this part of newest edition of his book and there is once again repeated the sentence which follows like this: If Alexander started his attack like it is described in Arrian and Plutarch he had to be definetly defeated. Well if I can say so - I can't agree with such sentence - Alexander was so great because he didn't use schemes in everything what he did. I'm sure he could win this battle attacking acros the river for exemple in way Fuller showed in his book - this is very good idea how it could look like.
Regards
Maciek