Sunday, October 18, 2026

The Landmark Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, Anabasis Alexandrou -- Arrian -- Pamela Mensch -- c. 2012

Bactria: Central Asia -- Bactria is divided today primarily among northern Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, with parts extending into Turkmenistan.

Scythia: modern day Ukraine and southern Russia. 

October 20, 2026:

After reading Book One of Arrian, I felt I needed to go back and re-read the introduction/first chapter of Dividing The Spoils, Robin Waterfield, to read again what Philip II had accomplished allowing his son Alexander to succeed. Without Philip II, there is not Alexander the Great. See AI links below for more. 

October 18, 2026.

First post: October 18, 2026. 

The Landmark Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, Anabasis Alexandrou, a new translation by Pamela Mensch, edited by James Romm, series editor Robert B. Strassler, with an introduction by Pal Cartledge, original c. 2010, my softcover c. 2012. 

  • Arrian: wiki. 68 - 173 AD -- 73 years old.
  • Pamela Mensch: acclaimed American translator of ancient Greek literature based in New York City. Frequent collaborator with James Romm, Bard College.
  • Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, United States. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District and is a National Historic Landmark. Ninety (90) miles north of NYC. Returning resident: about $100,000 / year. Due west of the state line between Massachusetts and Connecticut. Wow, what a beautiful setting. 

All seven books.

Appendices A - R. 

Gemini AI links:

BOOK ONE

  • Raises the army
  • Begins his attack on Persia
  • First: Athens and Sparta
  • Then, the rest of Greece
  • Crosses the Hellespont easily
  • Takes southwest Turkey 

BOOK TWO  

  • begins with Persia taking the battle to several famous Greek islands off the coast of Asia Minor
  • introduces King Darius and Memnon in control of the entire Persian fleet; Memnon suddenly dies and his nephew is temporarily appointed to take Memnon's place; significantly slows Persian progress
  • the Gordion knot: the palace of Gordios and his son Midas
  • Alexander to Cappadocia
  • Cilician Gates
  • Alexander keeps advancing; Darius flees
  • Alexander goes down the coast of Phoenicia, Gaza
  • page 95: Alexander now decided to launch his expedition to Egypt; autumn 332 BC
  • Alexander's wound proved difficult to treat: probably the wound to his thigh mentioned some pages earlier
  • Tyre taken earlier; now Gaza to be taken
  • ends with Gaza taken and Alexander using Gaza as a stronghold for conducting the war

BOOK THREE 

  • first line: Alexander now started for Egypt
  • Darius' man in Greece amicably greets Alexander
  • Alexander sails up the Nile; notes a perfect location for a new city: Alexandria

BOOK FOUR

  • Tanais River: northeast corner of Black Sea; border between Europe and Asia in this area during Alexander's campaigns; allowed a stepping-off point for Alexander if he decided to invade Scythia: modern day Ukraine and southern Russia. That's where the chapter begins.
  • the book ends with Alexander advancing to the Indus; again elephants a big part of the story
  • built ships to convey down the Indus to the bridge Hephaistion and Perdikkas had built for him long before

BOOK FIVE

  • begins with the city of Nysa, between the River Kophen and the Indus.
  • crosses the Indus into India
  • describes the borders in this part of Asia, page 204
  • describes building the bridge over the Indus -- page 205 - 206
  • crosses the Hydaspes River: in modern-day Pakistan, far north near Afghanistan / Tajikistan
  • a victory over the Indians
  • then the River Akesinos; then the Hydraotes, another river than joins the Indus;
  • describes giving Hephaistion a portion of his army -- page 223
  • chapter ends with Alexander organizing/taking control of this area

BOOK SIX

  • begins with Alexander's plan to sail down the Hydaspes river to the Great Sea (Indus River flows into what we call the Arabian Sea, an arm of the Indian Ocean but here Alexander refers to it as the Indian Gulf -- page 237 -- this is an important point in Alexander's campaigns, beginning his trip back home?
  • his famous story about crocodiles, p 237
  • Hephaistioin, Krateros, Philip and their forces, elephants crossed the Hydaspes along with Polyperkhon's battalion -- page 241
  • part of his still making his was to the Indian Gulf
  • meanwhile Alexander on land back toward Persia, specifically, Pasargadae, in Persia, about 50 miles northeast of Shiraz and 300 miles south of Tehran which is much farther north; Cyrus is said to be buried in Pasargadae -- discussed on page 267
  • Alexander appointed his general Peukestas to take the satrapy of Media; Media and Persia were two closely related ancient Iranian civilizations that united to form the foundation of the first great Persian Empire (the Achaemenid Empire) in the 6th century BC ... Media to the north; Persia to the south.

BOOK SEVEN 

  • Alexander unsettled by Romans' increasing strength
  • Arrian not sure what Alexander planned next; perhaps Alexander himself was unsure
  • this chapter appears to cover the last year of Alexander in Persia 
  • Hephaistion falls ill, p. 292, autumn 324
  • Alexander went berserk over the death of Hephaistion
  • the Arab gods: Ouranos, Dionysos, and now Alexander thinks he should be worshipped by the Arabs as a third god -- page 303
  • page 309 -- "But Alexander's end was near" -- spending his time in Babylon...
  • Alexander's death: begins on page 311 or thereabouts
  • Alexander died "in the 114th Olympiad, during the archonship of Hegesias at Athens."  
  • see this link: https://share.google/aimode/dNYUGooGxVTQdeiGd.  

Epilogue: written by James Romm, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York

  • begins with the Diadochoi, or Successors -- began with Diodorus who dubbed them the diadochoi
  • page 319: the immediate departure of new leaders, with Perdikkas trying to run the empire
  • Perdikkas murdered by his own men led by a cabal of officer led by Seleukos, his former head of staff. In the late fourth century, Seleukos came to control the greatest portion of Alexander's fragmenting empire; so it was --
    • Antipater/Craterus in Macedon
    • Ptolemy in Egypt
    • Seleucid in Persia
  • paragraph 15 is a key paragraph -- page 323 
  • Ptolemy: died of old age in 283, not quite the last of Alexander's generals but certainly the most successful. His dynasty, called Ptolemaic because every heir to the throne invariably took the name Ptolemy, endured for almost 300 years until its last monarch, Cleopatra VII, surrendered it to the Roman conqueror Julius Caesar. 
  • the other provinces of what was once Alexander's empire, including Macedonia itself, had gradually succumbed to Rome or to internal conflict during the second century BC. 

Appendix A: Arrian's Sources and Reliability

Appendix B: Greek and Macdonian Ethnicity

Appendix C: Alexander the Man (and God?)

Appendix D: Alexander's Army and Military Leadership

Appendix E: Alexander's Inner Circle

Appendix F: Money and Finance in the Campaigns of Alexander

Appendix G: The Persian Empire and Alexander

Appendix H: Alexander at Persepolis

Appendix I: Alexander in Central Asia

Appendix J: The Indian Campaign

Appendix K: Alexander's Policy of Perso-Macedonian Fusion

Appendix L: The Alexander Romance

Appendix M: Alexander and the Greeks

Appendix N: Alexander's Geographic Notions

Appendix O: Alexander's Death: A Medical Analysis

Appendix P: Alexander's Death: The Poisoning Rumors

Appendix Q: The Royal Macedonian Tombs at Aigeai

Appendix R: Arrian's Life and Works     

 

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