History of Alexander the Great

Flora Kimmich has translated J.G. Droysen's classic study into English for the first time. Through her masterly rendering she brings this foundational work of modern historiography of the ancient world to a new audience. Based entirely on ancient sources, this is an exhaustive, beautifully narrated account of Alexander from the origins of the ancient Macedonian kingdom to Alexander's death in Babylon in 323 B.C. Droysen's interpretation of Alexander, first published in 1833 by a 25-year-old Privatdozent, is colored both by the idealistic exuberance of German romanticism and the wars of liberation and, in a substantially revised second edition published in 1877, by the imperial optimism of a newly consolidated Germany. This translation of the 1877 edition, with complete notes, does full justice to Droysen's celebrated prose style. The monograph is enhanced with special introductory sections by Glen W. Bowersock and Brian Bosworth. Map.