Source texts for Alexander's life
Posted: Mon May 15, 2023 8:23 pm
SOURCE TEXTS FOR ALEXANDER’S LIFE
This paragraph is a list of written sources on Alexander the Great.
If you want to know more, please refer to A.B. Bosworth, Conquest and Empire (Cambridge University Press, 1993), page 295-300. Also useful are J.R. Hamilton's introduction in Arrian's Campaigns of Alexander (Penguin Classics, 1982), page 13-34; Bosworth's introduction in his Commentary on Arrian's History of Alexander II (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995), page 1-11; the introduction in Waldemar Heckel's and John Yardley's edition of Justin's Epitome (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997), page 1-41; Waldemar Heckel's introduction in Curtius' History of Alexander (Penguin Classics, 1984), page 1-15; and Richard Stoneman's introduction in The Greek Alexander Romance (Penguin Classics, 1991), page 1-32.
Callisthenes
Title: Deeds of Alexander
Date: around 330 B.C.
Genre: eye-witness account
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: Alexander's court historian, writing the official record of Alexander's campaign; Callisthenes was executed in 327 B.C.; he was a nephew of Aristotle
Coverage: official account up to the battle of Gaugamela (331 B.C.) or the death of Darius (330 B.C.)
Tradition: court tradition
Sources: none
Used By: probably Cleitarchus, Curtius and Plutarch
Anaximenes
Title: On Alexander
Date: during Alexander's lifetime
Genre: unknown; two books
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: no details available
Coverage: probably up to the battle of Issus and beyond
Tradition: unknown
Sources: unknown
Used By: unknown
Onesicritus
Title: How Alexander was educated
Date: very shortly after Alexander's death
Genre: eye-witness account
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: Alexander's chief helmsman, who was a Cynic philosopher and a pupil of Diogenes
Coverage: might have emphasized on the Indian stages of the campaign
Tradition: Onesicritus presented Alexander as a 'philosopher in arms'; his influence on tradition might be negligible; he was dismissed as a liar
Sources: none
Used By: Diodorus Siculus; Strabo and Pliny (citations); also the Pseudo-Callisthenes
Nearchus
Title: unknown, probably "Indike"
Date: very shortly after Alexander's death
Genre: eye-witness account
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: Alexander's naval commander
Coverage: Indian campaigns and the ocean voyage of the fleet
Tradition: court tradition; Nearchus is believed to have written in order to dispute Onesicritus' statements
Sources: none
Used By: Arrian (major source for both his "Alexander" and "Indica") and Strabo (their works reveal a fair picture of the contents of Nearchus' original); also Diodorus Siculus
Pseudo-Callisthenes
Title: generally referred to as the "Romance"
Date: early version composed in Alexandria shortly after Alexander's death; the work was edited, retold and extended during many centuries, the last 'original' being a publication in Venice as late as 1529 A.D.
Genre: romance (historical fiction)
Language: Greek
Status: many manuscripts from late Antiquity and the Middle Ages survive in a kaleidoscope of languages including Hebrew, Russian and Scots; oldest surviving manuscript is from the third century A.D.; modern English translation available by Richard Stoneman
Author: unknown; to add credibility the work has throughout history been attributed to Callisthenes (impossible, as Callisthenes had died in 327 B.C.)
coverage: Alexander's entire life, including many fantastic tales which never happened
Tradition: romance
Sources: none accredited
Used By: many - the later Persian epics of Nizami and Firdausi drew heavily upon the Romance
Chares
Title: Histories of Alexander
Date: after Alexander's death
Genre: eye-witness account
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: chamberlain of Alexander
Coverage: later years of Alexander's reign
Tradition: unknown; emphasis on extravagant details
Sources: none
Used By: Plutarch; excerpts in Athenaeus
Ptolemy
Title: unknown
Date: anywhere in between 320 B.C. and 283 B.C.
Genre: eye-witness account
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: commander in Alexander's army and later successor king of Egypt, founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty that ended with famous Queen Cleopatra in 30 B.C.
Coverage: entire reign of Alexander with a focus on military achievements
Tradition: court tradition
Sources: none
Used By: Arrian - first major source for his "Alexander"
Aristobulus
Title: unknown
Date: shortly after the battle of Ipsus, 301 B.C.
Genre: eye-witness account, autobiography
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: Aristobulus was member of Alexander's staff of engineers; he had an humble rank and is attested for the assigment to restore Cyrus' tomb at Pasargadae
Coverage: entire reign of Alexander
Tradition: court tradition
Sources: none
Used By: Arrian - second major source for his "Alexander"; quotations in Strabo, Plutarch and Athenaeus
Cleitarchus
Title: unknown
Date: shortly before or after 310 B.C.
Genre: history (at least twelve books)
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: historian living in Alexandria, not having taken part in Alexander's campaigns
Coverage: entire reign of Alexander with a focus on sensationalism
Tradition: vulgate
Sources: first-hand reports, notably Callisthenes, Onesicritus and Nearchus
Used By: Curtius Rufus and Diodorus Siculus as possibly their major source; Plutarch; Justin, Pompeius Trogus and the Metz Epitome; Cleitarchus' influence should not be underestimated
Hieronymus
Title: unknown
Date: during the lifetime of Eumenes, Antigonus and Pyrrhus (until around 270 B.C.)
Genre: history
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: associate of Eumenes and Antigonus
Coverage: last two years of Alexander's reign and events after Alexander down to the death of Pyrrhus
Tradition: unknown; emphasis on political analysis
Sources: unknown
Used By: major source of Diodorus Siculus
Royal Diaries (Ephemerides)
Title: idem
Date: uncertain; allegedly Alexander's lifetime, but probably a later forgery
Genre: romance
Language: Greek
Status: lost (execept for fragments)
Author: unknown; probably originating from the Macedonian court
Coverage: the last ten years of Alexander's reign
Tradition: romance
Sources: unknown
Used By: citations in Plutarch and Arrian
Diodorus Siculus
Title: Library of History (a.k.a. Universal History) Book XVII
Date: somewhere shortly after 50 B.C.
Genre: history (in forty books; book XVII is devoted to Alexander)
Language: Greek
Status: books I to V and books XI to XX are preserved; fragments of the rest exist; book XVII available in modern English translation by C.B. Welles
Author: historian living on Sicily (80 B.C. to 20 B.C.); Diodorus is known as an uncritical composer but using reliable source material
Coverage: Alexander's entire reign; the preceeding book XVI is one of our major sources on Alexander's father Philip II
Tradition: vulgate
Sources: Cleitarchus (and Hieronymus); also allegedly Onesicritus, Nearchus, Aristobulus and Callisthenes; Diodorus' sources are still subject to debate
Used By: Diodorus is one of the five major sources of our knowledge about Alexander
Pompeius Trogus
Title: Philippic Histories
Date: probably around 20 B.C.
Genre: history (in forty-four books; books XI and XII were devoted to Alexander)
Language: Latin
Status: lost
Author: historian from southern Gaul (Provence) of an important family that achieved Roman citizenship under Pompey
Coverage: from Assyrian times up to emperor Augustus with a strong focus on the Diadochi
Tradition: vulgate
Sources: Cleitarchus (and others)
Used By: Justin
Quintus Curtius Rufus
Title: uncertain, but generally believed to have been "The History of Alexander the Great of Macedon"
Date: probably around 40 A.D.
Genre: history (in ten books)
Language: Latin
Author: politician (proconsul) in North-Africa (Tunesia) under Roman administration; may have come from humble origins (a gladiator's son has been suggested)
Status: preserved (except for books 1 and 2 and omissions in books 5, 6 and 10); avaible in modern English translation by J. Yardley
Coverage: Alexander's entire reign, except the omissions (the surviving account starts in winter 334/333 B.C.)
Tradition: vulgate
Sources: Cleitarchus (also Ptolemy and a certain Timagenus); some details and speeches recorded in Curtius are believed to represent personal inventions using Herodotus as a model
Used By: Curtius is one of the five major sources of our knowledge about Alexander; his work recently became more appreciated
Plutarch
Title: Life of Alexander (part of two "Parallel Lives", matching Alexander with Julius Caesar)
Date: around 100 A.D.
Genre: biography
Language: Greek
Author: Greek native of Chaeronea, philosopher, government official in Greece under the Roman admistration of emperor Hadrian; lived approximately 46 A.D. to 120 A.D.
Status: preserved; available in Penguin Classics (The Age of Alexander, English translation by Ian Scott-Kilvert)
Coverage: an analysis of Alexander's personality and character
Tradition: considered part of the vulgate
Sources: Callisthenes, Chares, Aristobulus, Cleitarchus, Royal Diaries
Used By: Plutarch is one of the five major sources of our knowledge about Alexander
Arrian
Title: unknown; the suggested title "Anabasis Alexandri" is disputed
Date: around 140 A.D.
Genre: history
Language: Greek
Author: Greek native of north-western Turkey, consul of Cappadocia under Roman administration and army commander against the Alans; retired around 138 B.C. and moved to Athens, devoting his life to literature; Arrian lived from before 90 A.D. until after 173 A.D.
Status: preserved; available in modern English translation by A. de Sélincourt
Coverage: entire reign of Alexander; a separate work, the "Indica", is dedicated to Alexander's Indian exploits
Tradition: court tradition
Sources: Ptolemy and Aristobulus; also Nearchus (and occasionally the Royal Diaries)
Used bB: Arrian is considered the major source of our knowledge about Alexander, representing the official court tradition based on eye-witness accounts as opposed to the vulgate picture of a young king corrupted by good fortune
Justin
Title: Epitome of the Philippic Histories of Pompeius Trogus
Date: around 200 A.D.
Genre: history
Language: Latin
Author: probably from North-Africa; Justin composed his synopsis of Trogus during a visit to Rome
Status: preserved in over two hundred Medieval manuscripts; modern English translation by J. Yardley available
Coverage: world history, including the reigns of Alexander and Philip II
Tradition: vulgate
Sources: Pompeius Trogus; Justin abridged Trogus' extensive historical work into a handsome format that eclipsed the original and became extremely popular in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Used By: Justin is considered the fifth of our major sources of knowledge about Alexander; other parts of his Epitome are important for our knowledge of Philip II
Metz Epitome
Title: unknown
Date: late Antiquity
Genre: history
Language: Latin
Author: unknown
Status: preserved; no English translation available
Coverage: Alexander's campaign from Hyrcania to India
Tradition: vulgate
Sources: probably Cleitarchus
Used By: unknown
Other
Authors: Hegesias, Aristus, Diognetus, Amyntas, Baeton, Timagenes
Status: all lost; except for fragments or quotes
Used By: Curtius used Timagenes (who wrote around 55 B.C.); other authors are attested by references in remaining sources
Babylonian Sources
Please check Jona Lendering's article on the Babylonian cuneiform Astronomical Diaries.
This paragraph is a list of written sources on Alexander the Great.
If you want to know more, please refer to A.B. Bosworth, Conquest and Empire (Cambridge University Press, 1993), page 295-300. Also useful are J.R. Hamilton's introduction in Arrian's Campaigns of Alexander (Penguin Classics, 1982), page 13-34; Bosworth's introduction in his Commentary on Arrian's History of Alexander II (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995), page 1-11; the introduction in Waldemar Heckel's and John Yardley's edition of Justin's Epitome (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997), page 1-41; Waldemar Heckel's introduction in Curtius' History of Alexander (Penguin Classics, 1984), page 1-15; and Richard Stoneman's introduction in The Greek Alexander Romance (Penguin Classics, 1991), page 1-32.
Callisthenes
Title: Deeds of Alexander
Date: around 330 B.C.
Genre: eye-witness account
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: Alexander's court historian, writing the official record of Alexander's campaign; Callisthenes was executed in 327 B.C.; he was a nephew of Aristotle
Coverage: official account up to the battle of Gaugamela (331 B.C.) or the death of Darius (330 B.C.)
Tradition: court tradition
Sources: none
Used By: probably Cleitarchus, Curtius and Plutarch
Anaximenes
Title: On Alexander
Date: during Alexander's lifetime
Genre: unknown; two books
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: no details available
Coverage: probably up to the battle of Issus and beyond
Tradition: unknown
Sources: unknown
Used By: unknown
Onesicritus
Title: How Alexander was educated
Date: very shortly after Alexander's death
Genre: eye-witness account
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: Alexander's chief helmsman, who was a Cynic philosopher and a pupil of Diogenes
Coverage: might have emphasized on the Indian stages of the campaign
Tradition: Onesicritus presented Alexander as a 'philosopher in arms'; his influence on tradition might be negligible; he was dismissed as a liar
Sources: none
Used By: Diodorus Siculus; Strabo and Pliny (citations); also the Pseudo-Callisthenes
Nearchus
Title: unknown, probably "Indike"
Date: very shortly after Alexander's death
Genre: eye-witness account
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: Alexander's naval commander
Coverage: Indian campaigns and the ocean voyage of the fleet
Tradition: court tradition; Nearchus is believed to have written in order to dispute Onesicritus' statements
Sources: none
Used By: Arrian (major source for both his "Alexander" and "Indica") and Strabo (their works reveal a fair picture of the contents of Nearchus' original); also Diodorus Siculus
Pseudo-Callisthenes
Title: generally referred to as the "Romance"
Date: early version composed in Alexandria shortly after Alexander's death; the work was edited, retold and extended during many centuries, the last 'original' being a publication in Venice as late as 1529 A.D.
Genre: romance (historical fiction)
Language: Greek
Status: many manuscripts from late Antiquity and the Middle Ages survive in a kaleidoscope of languages including Hebrew, Russian and Scots; oldest surviving manuscript is from the third century A.D.; modern English translation available by Richard Stoneman
Author: unknown; to add credibility the work has throughout history been attributed to Callisthenes (impossible, as Callisthenes had died in 327 B.C.)
coverage: Alexander's entire life, including many fantastic tales which never happened
Tradition: romance
Sources: none accredited
Used By: many - the later Persian epics of Nizami and Firdausi drew heavily upon the Romance
Chares
Title: Histories of Alexander
Date: after Alexander's death
Genre: eye-witness account
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: chamberlain of Alexander
Coverage: later years of Alexander's reign
Tradition: unknown; emphasis on extravagant details
Sources: none
Used By: Plutarch; excerpts in Athenaeus
Ptolemy
Title: unknown
Date: anywhere in between 320 B.C. and 283 B.C.
Genre: eye-witness account
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: commander in Alexander's army and later successor king of Egypt, founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty that ended with famous Queen Cleopatra in 30 B.C.
Coverage: entire reign of Alexander with a focus on military achievements
Tradition: court tradition
Sources: none
Used By: Arrian - first major source for his "Alexander"
Aristobulus
Title: unknown
Date: shortly after the battle of Ipsus, 301 B.C.
Genre: eye-witness account, autobiography
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: Aristobulus was member of Alexander's staff of engineers; he had an humble rank and is attested for the assigment to restore Cyrus' tomb at Pasargadae
Coverage: entire reign of Alexander
Tradition: court tradition
Sources: none
Used By: Arrian - second major source for his "Alexander"; quotations in Strabo, Plutarch and Athenaeus
Cleitarchus
Title: unknown
Date: shortly before or after 310 B.C.
Genre: history (at least twelve books)
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: historian living in Alexandria, not having taken part in Alexander's campaigns
Coverage: entire reign of Alexander with a focus on sensationalism
Tradition: vulgate
Sources: first-hand reports, notably Callisthenes, Onesicritus and Nearchus
Used By: Curtius Rufus and Diodorus Siculus as possibly their major source; Plutarch; Justin, Pompeius Trogus and the Metz Epitome; Cleitarchus' influence should not be underestimated
Hieronymus
Title: unknown
Date: during the lifetime of Eumenes, Antigonus and Pyrrhus (until around 270 B.C.)
Genre: history
Language: Greek
Status: lost (except for fragments)
Author: associate of Eumenes and Antigonus
Coverage: last two years of Alexander's reign and events after Alexander down to the death of Pyrrhus
Tradition: unknown; emphasis on political analysis
Sources: unknown
Used By: major source of Diodorus Siculus
Royal Diaries (Ephemerides)
Title: idem
Date: uncertain; allegedly Alexander's lifetime, but probably a later forgery
Genre: romance
Language: Greek
Status: lost (execept for fragments)
Author: unknown; probably originating from the Macedonian court
Coverage: the last ten years of Alexander's reign
Tradition: romance
Sources: unknown
Used By: citations in Plutarch and Arrian
Diodorus Siculus
Title: Library of History (a.k.a. Universal History) Book XVII
Date: somewhere shortly after 50 B.C.
Genre: history (in forty books; book XVII is devoted to Alexander)
Language: Greek
Status: books I to V and books XI to XX are preserved; fragments of the rest exist; book XVII available in modern English translation by C.B. Welles
Author: historian living on Sicily (80 B.C. to 20 B.C.); Diodorus is known as an uncritical composer but using reliable source material
Coverage: Alexander's entire reign; the preceeding book XVI is one of our major sources on Alexander's father Philip II
Tradition: vulgate
Sources: Cleitarchus (and Hieronymus); also allegedly Onesicritus, Nearchus, Aristobulus and Callisthenes; Diodorus' sources are still subject to debate
Used By: Diodorus is one of the five major sources of our knowledge about Alexander
Pompeius Trogus
Title: Philippic Histories
Date: probably around 20 B.C.
Genre: history (in forty-four books; books XI and XII were devoted to Alexander)
Language: Latin
Status: lost
Author: historian from southern Gaul (Provence) of an important family that achieved Roman citizenship under Pompey
Coverage: from Assyrian times up to emperor Augustus with a strong focus on the Diadochi
Tradition: vulgate
Sources: Cleitarchus (and others)
Used By: Justin
Quintus Curtius Rufus
Title: uncertain, but generally believed to have been "The History of Alexander the Great of Macedon"
Date: probably around 40 A.D.
Genre: history (in ten books)
Language: Latin
Author: politician (proconsul) in North-Africa (Tunesia) under Roman administration; may have come from humble origins (a gladiator's son has been suggested)
Status: preserved (except for books 1 and 2 and omissions in books 5, 6 and 10); avaible in modern English translation by J. Yardley
Coverage: Alexander's entire reign, except the omissions (the surviving account starts in winter 334/333 B.C.)
Tradition: vulgate
Sources: Cleitarchus (also Ptolemy and a certain Timagenus); some details and speeches recorded in Curtius are believed to represent personal inventions using Herodotus as a model
Used By: Curtius is one of the five major sources of our knowledge about Alexander; his work recently became more appreciated
Plutarch
Title: Life of Alexander (part of two "Parallel Lives", matching Alexander with Julius Caesar)
Date: around 100 A.D.
Genre: biography
Language: Greek
Author: Greek native of Chaeronea, philosopher, government official in Greece under the Roman admistration of emperor Hadrian; lived approximately 46 A.D. to 120 A.D.
Status: preserved; available in Penguin Classics (The Age of Alexander, English translation by Ian Scott-Kilvert)
Coverage: an analysis of Alexander's personality and character
Tradition: considered part of the vulgate
Sources: Callisthenes, Chares, Aristobulus, Cleitarchus, Royal Diaries
Used By: Plutarch is one of the five major sources of our knowledge about Alexander
Arrian
Title: unknown; the suggested title "Anabasis Alexandri" is disputed
Date: around 140 A.D.
Genre: history
Language: Greek
Author: Greek native of north-western Turkey, consul of Cappadocia under Roman administration and army commander against the Alans; retired around 138 B.C. and moved to Athens, devoting his life to literature; Arrian lived from before 90 A.D. until after 173 A.D.
Status: preserved; available in modern English translation by A. de Sélincourt
Coverage: entire reign of Alexander; a separate work, the "Indica", is dedicated to Alexander's Indian exploits
Tradition: court tradition
Sources: Ptolemy and Aristobulus; also Nearchus (and occasionally the Royal Diaries)
Used bB: Arrian is considered the major source of our knowledge about Alexander, representing the official court tradition based on eye-witness accounts as opposed to the vulgate picture of a young king corrupted by good fortune
Justin
Title: Epitome of the Philippic Histories of Pompeius Trogus
Date: around 200 A.D.
Genre: history
Language: Latin
Author: probably from North-Africa; Justin composed his synopsis of Trogus during a visit to Rome
Status: preserved in over two hundred Medieval manuscripts; modern English translation by J. Yardley available
Coverage: world history, including the reigns of Alexander and Philip II
Tradition: vulgate
Sources: Pompeius Trogus; Justin abridged Trogus' extensive historical work into a handsome format that eclipsed the original and became extremely popular in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Used By: Justin is considered the fifth of our major sources of knowledge about Alexander; other parts of his Epitome are important for our knowledge of Philip II
Metz Epitome
Title: unknown
Date: late Antiquity
Genre: history
Language: Latin
Author: unknown
Status: preserved; no English translation available
Coverage: Alexander's campaign from Hyrcania to India
Tradition: vulgate
Sources: probably Cleitarchus
Used By: unknown
Other
Authors: Hegesias, Aristus, Diognetus, Amyntas, Baeton, Timagenes
Status: all lost; except for fragments or quotes
Used By: Curtius used Timagenes (who wrote around 55 B.C.); other authors are attested by references in remaining sources
Babylonian Sources
Please check Jona Lendering's article on the Babylonian cuneiform Astronomical Diaries.