Good morning everyone, happy weekend, I’m Elena from Italy and thank you for being on Alessandro III di Macedonia- your source about Alexander the Great and Hellenism. Today I’d like to point out a book that I just discovered has been released and it’s one of those books that I absolutely must buy:
Legacy of the East and Legacy of Alexander
by Krzysztof Nawotka and Wojciechowska Agnieszka (Editors)
Harrassowitz Verlag, 2024
From the Hellenistic period until the Muslim Middles Ages, the words and deeds of Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) reverberated through the centuries. The tradition of his conquests and legends, which are best preserved in countless versions of the Alexander Romance, was a focal point of the conference in Wrocław 2019, the results of which are contained in this publication. The encounters between the European conquerors and the nations and cultures of the East, which are reflected in writings and works of art from East and West, enable us to gain a deep mutual understanding, even of the misunderstandings.
Contributions in this volume compare classical literary sources with non-European writings, epigraphic, archaeological and numismatic evidence. They explore the complexity of the classical source tradition in order to look beyond the boundaries of the time in which they were written down. By drawing on the methodology of the ‘literary turn’ in historiography, they draw our attention to ancient authors as conscious artists with their own agenda. An attempt is made to examine the Iranian background of Alexander’s politics and to verify modern hypotheses about his legacy in Iran and Central Asia. In Iran there was cultural continuity from the Achaemenid through the Hellenistic era, just as in Egypt, whose art absorbed non-native influences from the Saite period onwards. It is argued that the western influence or Hellenization that Alexander’s conquests brought to the heartland of the Persian Empire, its eastern part and Egypt, was limited. It shows that the last Persian king of Egypt, Darius III, and the first Macedonian pharaoh Alexander had more in common than is generally recognized. This book basically advocates the idea that a balance must be established between continuity and change, both in Egypt and in the East under Alexander and Hellenistic kings.
Contents
Krzysztof Nawotka & Agnieszka Wojciechowska – Legacy of the East and Legacy of Alexander: The Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX
Claudia Horst – Alexander’s Misunderstanding: Myth and Philosophy between East and West . . 1
Łukasz Szeląg – Early-Hellenistic Boiotia – Philip’s or Alexander’s Heritage? Epigraphic Curve and the Destruction of Thebes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Nicholas Sekunda – The Battle of Gaugamela and the Oblique Approach: A Preliminary Study . . . . . 35
Joseph Roisman – Alexander’s Expectations of Commanders and Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Timothy Howe – The Wounds of War: Inter- and Intratextuality in Ptolemy’s Account of Alexander in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Pierfrancesco Callieri – The Archaeology of Fars from Late Achaemenid to Early Hellenistic Times . . . . 77
Milinda Hoo – Baktria in Early Hellenistic Times and the Question of ‘Alexandrian Legacy’ . . . 103
Frances Pownall – Alexander versus his Veterans: The Graeco-Roman Source Tradition on Alexander’s “Orientalism” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 129
Julian Degen – Accessibility to the Argead Ruler: The Court of Alexander III between Macedonian Traditions and Persian Influences . . . . .. 155
Sabine Müller – After Susa: Persian Women and the Alexander Historiographers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Krzysztof Nawotka – Alexander the Great and the Macedonian and Persian Elite: The Mass-marriages in Susa in Context . . . . . . . .. . . 199
Olga Kubica – The Interpreters of Alexander in the Remote Provinces of the Great King . . . . . . 219
Melanie Wasmuth – The Impact of Alexander Historiography on Contemporary Sources: The Tomb of Petosiris . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 229
Alan B. Lloyd – Timeo Danaos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Ivan Ladynin – The Stela Bucheum 2 (British Museum EA1697+1719) and The Egyptian Perception of the Achaemenid Rule under Alexander the Great . . 263
Alexa Rickert – Thutmosis, Alexander – und Nektanebos? Überlegungen zur Nutzungsgeschichte des „sanctuaire du faucon de calcaire“ in Karnak . . . . . . . . 285
Damien Agut-Labordère – Alexander, “Prince of the Two Deserts”: The Geopolitical Significance of the Trip to Siwa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Joanna Porucznik – Herakles in a Lion Skin: Connecting Alexander Tetradrachms and Tauric Chersonesos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Chris Chism – Alexander at the Edge of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Richard Stoneman – Kalayavana, the Black Greek: A Reflection of Alexander in Indian Literature? . . 345
Gościwit Malinowski – Fromo Kesaro, King Gesar of gLing and the New Rome in Inner Asia . . . . . . . . 355
Su Fang Ng – Alexander’s Diving Bell in Malay Waters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Tal Ilan – The Name Alexander among the Jews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
pages/dimensions: XXI, 444 pages, 41 ill., 6 diagram, 7 tables
language: English
binding: Book (Hardback)
dimensions: 17.00 × 24.00 cm
weight: 1245 g
publishing date: 10.04.2024
prices: 98,00 Eur[D] / 100,80 Eur[A]
ISBN: 978-3447121323
DOI: 10.13173/9783447121323
You can find the digital version of the book in Open Access on the Harrassowitz Verlag’s website, but as a true crazy collector, I want the paper version and sooner or later I really hope to be able to get it.
I know I’m repetitive in these cases, but when it comes to a book made up of many contributions from world-famous scholars regarding a specific theme, for me it’s a book worth buying. Unfortunately the price is high and I’ll try to buy it as soon as I find it discounted, hoping that will happen. If you take a look at the summary you’ll see that the theme of Alexander the Great’s figure seen in the Oriental world is very specific but for this very reason is a book to read for me and I’m sure it will be a challenging but important read.
Thanks to everyone, have a nice weekend,
Alessandro III di Macedonia 