Cities of Alexander the Great

[susan]

I've just bought myself a treat - PM Fraser's Cities of Alexander the Great. Once I've read it I'll review it and I can answer questions on it. Has anyone else got it ?Susan

[Linda]

Yes - I bought it, but haven't read it yet. I have a book-buying fetish. It looked hard-going but worthwhile. I bought :Women in Ancient Persia, 559-331 BC (Oxford Classical Monographs)
Maria Brosiusyesterday, and I thought I might post some excerpts. I am not really confident enough to review it, but if I found anything relevant I could post it here, if anyone was interested.Linda

[susan]

I nearly bought that one on Sunday at Blackwells in Oxford. There looked to be lots of intersting stuff in it.I think that if we understood more about the role of women in Persia, much of Alexander's relations with women would become much clearer. For instance I think that Barsine had a political or ceremonial role - she was a 'woman of the court' and so played a part in normalising Alexander's relations with the Persian aristocracy after Issus. Being bilingual would certainly have helped her.Susan

[maciek]

Hi Susan!I have a small question: is there in this book anything about archeological excavations in places where the citys were? Or it's just based on sources and others books?Maciek

[marcus]

Hi Susan,I bought it a couple of years ago. I must confess that I haven't finished reading it yet - it's *very* hard going!There are a lot of references to Persian and other sources that (a) I'd never even heard of and (b) that Fraser assumes we have heard of... which makes it quite difficult to penetrate.But it's a great book, and there's some very interesting stuff towards the end that appears to show which foundations are real, and which are fictional... and whether they were original foundations or 'refoundations'.All the bestMarcus

[susan]

It's the detail that fascinates me ... I think there's every chance of finding new and fairly illuminating stuff - OK not new battles, but odds and ends. I found an obscure reference to Roxana's family in an old book at SOAS the other day which if true, is something I've never heard mention of before. I suppose the holy grail for Alexander studies is the discovery of a new source or legend; I don't think such a finding would change the overall picture that much but it would be an exciting challenge to get it accepted.
RegardsSusan

[Linda]

OK Susan - what whas the reference..? :)Did you get access to SOAS, in the end? I remember you had problems before.Linda

[susan]

I'm keeping the reference quiet until I work out if there's anything in it. I'm sure all the Persian scholars will pour scorn on it anyway.It was easy getting into SOAS, I just walked in - you don't need any accreditation after all. Looking at the vast numbers of books on central Asia made me realise how we are just skimming the surface of the published works on Alexander.Susan

[Linda]

OK, we'll wait for the monograph... :)Are most of the works in SOAS translated into English?Linda

[susan]

No, a lot are in German or Russian which I can't read. It's rather tantalising, you can recognise names , that's all.
There are also many books in central Asian script - such as Georgian, and I think Sogdian. I wonder what's in these - some look as if they're unread.Susan

[maciek]

Hmmm maybe all my posts are invisible????Maciek

[susan]

Hi MaciekI'm not ignoring you, the book is extremely dense to read and I'm cooking my son's dinner at present (chicken in an authentic Cuban sauce, according to the recipe). The answer is that it is mainly from sources, as far as I can tell on a quick browse through it. There are actually quite a few old travel books that tell you about explorations in Afghanistan - everyone who travels there seems to find yet another Greek ruin, and have another theory as to where the sites are. We've got a large wallchart of Afghanistan marking various places.I'm trying to get together all these references, even after studying it for years I still have a very hazy idea of what happened in Central Asia.The book is written as if it is definitive, but the next scholar who comes alomg has a different view so it's difficult to judge.Best regards
Susan

[maciek]

Sorry Susan but I had a strange feeling that no one can see my psots or those posts are so boring that no one would like to write just one word to give some impression of disscussion...All right thanx for answering. I asked this question because I'm interesting in those informations which I heard in Michael Woods movie (or maybe in discovery channel?) that in every city founded by Alexander in Asia can be found ruins which shows that all citys was pure greek style. This can be the proof that Alexander founded the cities not only as a military garrisons but as a cultural centers. It is again very interesting seeing that history from so long time ago can change it's shape even today.Maciek

[maciek]

Hey Susan I was so happy because of Your answer that I mest a place of the post. hmm...Maciek - confused...

[susan]

Sorry for confusing you.... Some weeks I hardly post at all, other weeks I post messages all day.You should never regard your posts as boring because no-one has answered them, instead you should think that you have posted an unanswerable question or you have provided the definitive answer - and nobody else can add to it! That's how I feel anyway.Tonight I've been trying to work out how many cities that Alexander visited are involved in this coming war - there's Iskenderun where the US hope to land their troops, there's Baghdad of course. I imagine Alexander and Hephaestion are sitting watching the war on a cloud, with a plentiful supply of drink, as if it's a Saturday-night video. RegardsSusan