Arrian’s Alexandrou Anabasis constitutes the most reliable account
at our disposal about Alexander the Great's campaign in Asia. However,
whereas the work has been thoroughly studied as a historical source,
its literary qualities have been relatively neglected, with no
autonomous monograph existing on this matter. Vasileios Liotsakis
fills this gap in the studies of Alexander the Great’s literary
tradition, by offering the first monograph on Arrian’s compositional
strategies. Liotsakis focuses on the narrative techniques and verbal
choices, through which Arrian allows praise and criticism to
intermingle in his portrait of the Macedonian king. His main point of
argument is that Arrian systematically exploits an abundance of
narrative means (military descriptions, presentation of peoples,
march-narratives, anachronies, and epic elements) in order to draw the
reader’s attention not only to Alexander’s intellectual skills but
also to the fact that the king was gradually corrupted by his success.
This book puts Arrian’s literary contrivances under the microscope,
sheds new light on unexplored aspects of the Anabasis’ narrative
arrangement, and contributes to the studies of Alexander’s
prosopography in Classical historiography.
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A Literary Portrait
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9783110659979
Publisert
2023
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
De Gruyter
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter