Roman Alexander : Reading a Cultural Myth / Edition 1

by Diana Spencer

Overview

If Alexander the Great had not existed, then he would have to have been invented. But the "Alexander" that still fascinates now is far more than the sum of the mainstream biographical tradition. This book offers an insight into a world where to think about Alexander was to engage with the buring ideological issues of Rome during the first centuries BCE and CE, a period of intense and often political and cultural change.

The author has made a selection of the diverse mentions of Alexander, comparisons with Alexander and cultural paradigms that have collected around him, in order to reveal the story of the peoples who have been interested in him - a novel investigation of power and national identity in the Roman world. The book explores and sythesises a selection of key texts, drawn from verse and prose, history, epic and oratory, to form the basis of a series of themed discussions investigating the cultural significance of Alexander for Rome. The book provides translations, an extensive critical bibliography and full notes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780859896788
Publisher:	Liverpool University Press
Publication date:	01/28/2002
Series:	University of Exeter Press - Exeter Studies in History
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Diana Spencer is a Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Birmingham.

Table of Contents

List of Readings List of Illustrations Acknowledgements

Introduction: The Empty Bottle
Map 1: The Roman World Chronology of Alexander Map 2: Alexander's Journey
1. History into Story
What's in a Name?
Alexander and the Successors: Making History Rome and the 'East': Cultural Context The Legacy of the Punic Wars Rome in the First Century BCE Augustus and the Succession History and Identity
2. Readings—Alexander Rex
Alexander v. Rome? What if . . .
Plain Speaking: Autocracy and Freedom of Speech Flattery and Excess: The Collapse of Language
3. Readings—Living Fast, Dying Young . . .
Drinking-Up Time Angry Young Man . . .
4. Readings—Imaging Alexander
Words, Memory and Myth: The Making of Kings Frontiers, Limits and a Rhetoric of Conquest: Acknowledging the Power of Words Africa Dreaming . . .
5. Autocracy—The Roman Alexander Complex
Style of Command Eastward Ambitions: The Politics of Victory
6. Alexander after Alexander
Modern Alexanders

Notes Bibliography General Index Index of chief passages discussed

Editorial Reviews

"Diana Spencer's provocative book reminds us that almost all of the texts that convey the image, or rather images, of Alexander belong to the Roman Empire."—The International History Review

"Spencer offers a number of subtle and stimulating interpretations ... This is a stimulating book, filled with imaginative and suggestive ideas."—The International History Review

"This well-presented book (with Andy Warhol's Alexander the Great on the cover) examines the image of Alexander as developed and utilised by the Romans."—Joint Association of Classical Teachers JACT

"... her purpose is an exegesis of the key passages and an historical account of the development of political themes associated with Alexander. In this she has admirably succeeded, and has made a useful contribution to the study of the Alexander myth, and to the study of political discourse in the late Republic and early Principate."—Scholia Reviews

"This important study provides a valuable resource for serious scholars of Alexander as well as for teachers and students. The Latin text is preceded by English translations throughout the volume, and there is a bibliography of modern Alexanders ... Written in an engaging academic style, the book calls for a new approach to the history and reception of Alexander."—The Historian

"Spencer's achievement lies in her innovative analysis of Alexander as a mythical figure in order to assess his cultural impact upon the Romans."—The Historian

From the Publisher