Alexandria

[Colin]

About how many cities did Alexander name after himself, and if possible supply a reliable source

[nick]

Your question is so complicated that someone managed to write an entire book about it: Peter Fraser, Cities of Alexander the Great.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... e&n=507846
This is one of the few omissions in our "Book Reviews" page, probably because at 75 USD it is one of the most expensive books around about Alexander.
In Conquest and Empire Bosworth spends some five pages on Alexander as a founder of cities, but tells us we have no real clue about the exact number of foundations (especially the number in Central Asia). Bosworth only says the foundations came in 'waves': Alexandria in 332 BC, another wave in the 330/329 BC Bactrian campaign (securing the empire against the Scythians), and e.g. another wave during the 326/325 BC Indian campaign.Regards -
Nick

[marcus]

I have a copy of Fraser's book but I have to confess that I have never finished reading it (and therefore didn't write a review for the review section).It is very hard reading but if you can fathom out what Fraser is talking about it is fascinating.But the good news is that he does provide a fairly definitive list of cities. If I recall correctly there are only something like 12 cities that are 'definite' but, off the top of my head, I can't say which they are. They do include, of course:Alexandria in Egypt
Alexandria in the Caucasus
Alexandria in Arachosia
Alexandria Eschate
Alexandria in Areia
Boukephala
Nicaeabut I can't remember what the others are...All the bestMarcus