The Anabasis of Alexander
A history of Alexander’s campaigns in seven books, written in Greek in the second century AD. Arrian built it on the lost accounts of Ptolemy and Aristobulus, who served under Alexander.
Read the text at en.wikisource.org ↗Greek text, edited by A. G. Roos (Perseus) ↗
Arrian came from Nicomedia in Bithynia, held the Roman consulship and governed Cappadocia under the emperor Hadrian. He wrote his history of Alexander some four and a half centuries after the events. In his preface he names his chief authorities: Ptolemy son of Lagus and Aristobulus, both of whom took part in the expedition and wrote after Alexander’s death. Where the two agree he follows them, and where they differ he chooses the version he finds more credible. Their books are lost.
He dates the great turning points by the Athenian month and archon, which is how the siege of Tyre and the death of Alexander are fixed to a year. His account of Syria and Palestine covers the sieges of Tyre and Gaza in detail and says nothing of Jerusalem; see Alexander the Great Conquers the Near East.
Cited in
- 332 BC, firm date