Hi I’m Elena from Italy and thanks to be here on Alessandro III di Macedonia -your source on Alexander the Great and Hellenism! Today I’m announcing all the new releases for June involving Alexander the Great and among them there are also two paperbacks from Routledge! These releases aren’t to be missed and they are:

Masculine Ideals and Alexander the Great. An Exemplary Man in the Roman and Medieval World

by Jaakkojuhani Peltonen

Publishing date: June 27, 2025

From premodern societies onward, humans have constructed and produced images of ideal masculinity to define the roles available for boys to grow into, and images for adult men to imitate. The figure of Alexander the Great has fascinated people both within and outside academia. As a historical character, military commander, cultural figure and representative of the male gender, Alexander’s popularity is beyond dispute. Almost from the moment of his death Alexander’s deeds have had a paradigmatic aspect: for over 2300 years he has been represented as a paragon of manhood – an example to be followed by other men – and through his myth people have negotiated assumptions about masculinity.

This work breaks new ground by considering the ancient and medieval reception of Alexander the Great from a gender studies perspective. It explores the masculine ideals of the Greco-Roman and medieval past through the figure of Alexander the Great, analysing the gendered views of masculinities in those periods and relates them to the ways in which Alexander’s masculinity was presented. It does this by investigating Alexander’s appearance and its relation to definitions of masculinity, the way his childhood and adulthood are presented, his martial performance and skill, proper and improper sexual behaviour, and finally through his emotions and mental attributes.

Masculine Ideals and Alexander the Great will appeal to students and scholars alike as well as to those more generally interested in the portrayal of masculinity and gender, particularly in relation to Alexander the Great and his image throughout history.

Jaakkojuhani Peltonen is a postdoctoral researcher at the Tampere University. A significant part of the research work for the present book was done while a visiting researcher at King’s College, London (2018-2020). His expertise includes the use of history, Alexander the Great, ideas of masculinity, and ideology of war in ancient Rome. His previous book in English, Alexander the Great in the Roman Empire. 150 BC to AD 600 was published by Routledge in 2019. He is an author and editor of several publications on Alexander the Great, legitimization of war, and the use of history in long term perspective.

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. The Visage and Stature of an Idealized Young Male
3. A Mature Boy, Heroic Youngster and an Unbalanced Young Man
4. Manliness in Warfare
5. Proper Male Sexuality
6. Masculine Emotion Display and State Of Mind
7. The Ideal of Masculine Dominance and Self-Control
8. Epilogue

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The Visual Legacy of Alexander the Great from the Renaissance to the Age of Revolution

by Víctor Mínguez, Inmaculada Rodríguez-Moya

Publishing date: June 27, 2025

This is an analysis of the diverse facets of Alexander the Great’s image from the Renaissance era through the Baroque into the nineteenth century.

Perceived as the first sovereign ruler of the world, for centuries Alexander became an exemplar for the most ambitious kings and emperors. This cultural phenomenon flourished above all in the Renaissance while extending into the nineteenth century. Early modern monarchs’ identification with Alexander associated them with ideas of kingly wisdom. Yet this admiration waned on occasions. Napoleon was Alexander of Macedonia’s most ardent critic. During the nineteenth century, the Macedonian hero was viewed as an individual who won control of the Achaemenid empire, but also underwent a progressive moral decline that converted him into a tyrant.

The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history and iconography.

Víctor Mínguez is Full Professor in the University Jaume I, Spain.
Inmaculada Rodríguez-Moya is Full Professor in the University Jaume I, Spain.

Table of contents:

1. Literary Preface: “Like Alexander”  2. Imitatio Alexandri: The sovereign of the world  3. Alexander and Fame: The best of nine  4. Alexander and Destiny: Alexandrian emblems for humanist princes  5. Alexander the Conqueror: Issus, West against East  6. Alexander, King of Asia: “Virtue is worthy of the empire of the world”  7. Alexander the Clement: The royal virtue of clemency and its representation in the guise of Alexander in European courts  8. Alexander in the Palace: Scenes from court life  9. Alexander and Architecture: One empire and eight architectural wonders  10. Alexander’s Cadaver: The king beholds the king’s corpse, melancholy and vanitas regia 11. Archaeological Epilogue: A re-encounter at Gaugamela with the Alexander of Antiquity

Those who were interested but couldn’t afford the hardback editions can now buy the paperbacks, but they are texts for specialists and students and it is normal that they have higher prices anyway. Keep following me for more updates coming soon!

Have a nice day everyone,

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