This book provides a new translation of all the surviving portions of the description of India written by Megasthenes in about 310 BCE, the fullest account of Indian geography, history and customs available to the classical world. The Indica was a pioneering work of ethnography that exemplified a new direction in Hellenistic writing; India was little-known to the Greeks before the expedition of Alexander the Great in 326-325 BCE, and Megasthenes, who resided as an ambassador in the Maurya capital Pataliputra for some time, provided the classical world with most of what it knew about India. Megasthenes' book, which became a classic in antiquity, now survives only in fragments preserved in other Greek and Latin authors. Stoneman's work offers a reliable and accessible version of all the writings that can plausibly be ascribed to Megasthenes. His subject ranges from detailed accounts of social structure and the royal household, to descriptions of elephant hunting and Indian philosophical ideas. His book is the only written source contemporary with the Maurya kingdom of Candragupta, since writing was not in use in India at this date. This translation provides a path to clearer understanding of Greek ethnography and a valuable resource on Indian history. The book will be of value not only to classical scholars with an interest in Hellenistic history and cultural attitudes, and to their students, but also to scholars working on the early history of India, who have had to rely (unless they are also Greek scholars) on scattered and dated collections of evidence.

Accompanying the first ever exhibition on the storytelling around Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, this book charts the evolution of a legend that continues to captivate audiences today. Alexander the Great acceded to the throne at the age of 20, as king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. By his death in 323 BC, he had created one of the largest empires in the world – but myth proved more powerful than historical truth, and Alexander’s life remains lost in legend. These stories permeate western and eastern cultures and religions, and have endured for more than 2,000 years. Even now, Alexander continues to appeal to new generations and his image persists today in film, theatre, literature and even video games. This book explores the stories that began shortly after Alexander’s mysterious death, and that by the Middle Ages had developed into a narrative of Alexander as the all-conquering hero who fought mythical beasts and explored the unknown using submarines and flying chariots. These incredible legends are brought to life here with exquisite original illustrations in books and manuscripts from around the globe.

Accompanying the first ever exhibition on the storytelling around Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, this book charts the evolution of a legend that continues to captivate audiences today. Alexander the Great acceded to the throne at the age of 20, as king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. By his death in 323 BC, he had created one of the largest empires in the world – but myth proved more powerful than historical truth, and Alexander’s life remains lost in legend. These stories permeate western and eastern cultures and religions, and have endured for more than 2,000 years. Even now, Alexander continues to appeal to new generations and his image persists today in film, theatre, literature and even video games. This book explores the stories that began shortly after Alexander’s mysterious death, and that by the Middle Ages had developed into a narrative of Alexander as the all-conquering hero who fought mythical beasts and explored the unknown using submarines and flying chariots. These incredible legends are brought to life here with exquisite original illustrations in books and manuscripts from around the globe.

First published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

From a respected author in the field, this second edition has been updated throughout and provides the only concise introduction to the career and impact of this great Macedonian conqueror and the main themes of his reign. Using primary and modern sources, along with archaeological and numismatic evidence, Richard Stoneman takes recent research and the current state of research on the Persian Empire into consideration, and sheds new light on this influential figure. Key topics discussed include: * the Macedonian background * Alexander's education and belief * Alexander's conquests overseas * how far Alexander's aims differed from his achievements * Alexander's influence in antiquity. With an expanded bibliography, a new index and illustrations, this excellent book will not only fascinate students, it will prove to be an invaluable resource as well.

"Alexander the Great "provides a concise introduction to the career and impact of the great Macedonian conqueror and the main themes of his reign. Richard Stoneman uses primary and modern sources, together with archaeological and numismatic evidence to shed light on this influential figure. Key topics discussed include:
*The Macedonian background
*Alexander's education and beliefs
*Alexander's conquests overseas
*How far Alexander's aims differed from his achievements
*Alexander's influence in antiquity
The second edition has been updated throughout to take into consideration recent research and the current state of research on the Persian Empire. Also included is an expanded bibliography and a new new Index.

In the last decade, Greek fiction has gained increasing attention as a result of new theoretical approaches to the subject--gender studies, narrative theory and the social analysis of ancient literature among them. This volume aims to broaden the terms of the study of Greek fiction while providing the beginner with a synoptic treatment of the most important works.
Greeks began writing prose fiction in the 4th century BC and the tradition continued for a millennium and a half. Fictional modes were used not only for entertaining romances but as a framework for Christian and Jewish religious literature and for quasi-historical works or "historical novels."
The contributors to this volume, rather than focusing on the usual roster of Greek fiction writers--Xenophon of Ephesus, Heliodorus, Longus, Chariton and Achilles Tatius among them--instead widen the terms of this debate and set new parameters for the study of Greek fiction, enabling the reader to view the spectrum of Greek fictional writing.

In his brief life, Alexander the Great gained fame as the military genius who conquered the known world. After death, his legend only increased. Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) precipitated immense historical change in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. But the resonance his legend achieved over the next two millennia stretched even farther-across foreign cultures, religious traditions, and distant nations. This engaging and handsomely illustrated book for the first time gathers together hundreds of the colorful Alexander legends that have been told and retold around the globe. Richard Stoneman, a foremost expert on the Alexander myths, introduces us first to the historical Alexander and then to the Alexander of legend, an unparalleled mythic icon who came to represent the heroic ideal in cultures from Egypt to Iceland, from Britain to Malaya. Alexander came to embody the concerns of Hellenistic man; he fueled Roman ideas on tyranny and kingship; he was a talisman for fourth-century pagans and a hero of chivalry in the early Middle Ages. He appears in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic writings, frequently as a prophet of God. Whether battling winged foxes or meeting with the Amazons, descending to the underworld or inventing the world's first diving bell, Alexander inspired as a hero, even a god. Stoneman traces Alexander's influence in ancient literature and folklore and in later literatures of east and west. His book provides the definitive account of the legends of Alexander the Great-a powerful leader in life and an even more powerful figure in the history of literature and ideas.

Throughout the millennia Turkey formed the core of several Empires - Persia, Rome, Byzantium - before becoming the center of the Ottoman Empire. All these civilizations have left their marks on the landscape, architecture and art of Turkey - a place of fascinating overlapping cultures. "Traveller's History of Turkey" offers a concise and readable account of the region from prehistory right up to the present day. It covers everything from the legendary Flood of Noah, the early civilization of Catal Huyuk seven thousand years before Christ, through the treasures of Troy, Alexander the Great, the Romans, Seljuks, Byzantines and the Golden Age of the Sultans, to the twentieth century's great changes wrought by Kemal Ataturk and the strong position Turkey now holds in the world community.

All thirteen episodes of the drama series starring Derek Jacobi as the medieval sleuth. In the opening episode 'One Corpse Too Many', Cadfael, once a man of the world, has become a man of the cloth. However, this by no means qualifies him as a saint. He discovers a murder, and sets out in pursuit of the perpertrator, assisted by a lovely young fugitive. 'The Sanctuary Sparrow' sees Brother Cadfael investigating the murder of the local goldsmith. In 'The Leper of St Giles' a great wedding is to take place in the Abbey of Shrewsbury between Baron Huon (Norman Eshley) and Iveta De Massard (Tara Fitzgerald). Iveta is a beautiful, kind soul and on the day she and her betrothed ride into the town she throws money to the lepers, but her brutish Baron beats them. On the eve of the wedding he rides off into the night never to return. Cadfael sets out to find out what is going on. In 'Monk's Hood', a landowner cuts his son-in-law out of his will, leaving his inheritance to the church. However, before the transaction is finished, Gervase Gurney (Bernard Gallagher) is poisoned whilst staying at the Abbey of Shrewsbury. Cadfael finds someone from his past as he looks into the poisoning. In 'The Virgin in the Ice' Cadfael has to prove the innocence of his novice, Oswin (Mark Charnock), who is accused of murdering a nun after he is found wandering deliriously. In 'The Devil's Novice', Cadfael is suspicious when a young man, Meriet (Christien Anholt), arrives at Shrewsbury Abbey wishing to become a Novice. Canon Eluard (Ian McNeice) shares Cadfael's doubts as to Meriet's intentions, and when the half-burned body of a colleague is discovered, Meriet is accused of murder. In 'A Morbid Taste For Bones', Cadfael reluctantly accompanies an expedition to dig up the grave of St Winifred, after one of the Shrewsbury monks has a vision. He soon finds himself investigating a murder, when Lord Rhysart (John Hallam) is found dead on a forest track with an arrow in his chest. Robert (Michael Culver) believes the culprit to be Godwin, who was having an affair with Rhysart's daughter, Sioned (Anna Friel). However, Cadfael has other ideas. In 'The Rose Rent', the recently-widowed of a rich merchant becomes an attraction for the men of Shrewsbury, until one of her suitors and a monk are murdered. In 'St Peter's Fair', conflict arises between the townspeople of Shrewsbury and visitors to the annual fair. In 'The Raven in the Foregate', Cadfael has a double murder to solve when a pregnant girl and a priest who refused to hear her confession are both killed. In 'The Holy Thief', Cadfael is on the hunt for a beautiful slave girl and the bones of St Winifred, both of which have mysteriously disappeared from the Abbey. In 'The Potter's Field', Cadfael uncovers a terrible web of jealousy, adultery and suicide pacts when he examines the past of a potter who has entered the monastery under suspicious circumstances. Finally, in 'The Pilgrim of Hate', an old man's corpse is found in a sack in the Abbey, and Cadfael must find his killer.

The Book of Alexander the Great - or the Phyllada - has for three centuries been the most popular account of Alexander's career in modern Greece. After circulating in manuscript form, it was first published in 1680 in Venice, and has been continuously in print in Greek ever since. The Phyllada broadly follows the structure of the ancient Alexander Romance, but is much better organised and is a work of popular literature reflecting the immense interest that the Conqueror has generated since earliest times. Numerous folktales and local legends kept his story alive, and many works about Alexander circulated in manuscript during the Byzantine period. The Phyllada is the culmination of this tradition. Yet it has never been translated into English: a surprising neglect which Richard Stoneman - an acknowledged expert on Alexander - makes good in this elegant rendering supplemented by a full introduction. As a piece of literature the Phyllada is among the best treatments of the Alexander legend, being full of colour and human interest. Alexander not only encounters the heroes of Troy on his adventures but wears the crown and robe of Solomon. His descent into the 'Cave of the Gods' (Greek and Egyptian gods in the Romance) becomes a visit to a hell described in Christian terms. The pagan Alexander is thus filtered through a modern lens and becomes an emblem of the good king. The sophisticated narrative structure and world view of the Phyllada account for its lasting influence. This new translation does it full justice.

An exploration of how the Greeks reacted to and interacted with India from the third to first centuries BCE When the Greeks and Macedonians in Alexander's army reached India in 326 BCE, they entered a new world. The plants were unrecognizable, the customs of the people various and puzzling. Alexander's conquest ended with his death in 323 BCE, but the Greeks would settle in the Indian region for the next two centuries. From observations about botany and mythology to social customs, The Greek Experience of India explores how the Greeks reacted to and constructed life in India during this period. Richard Stoneman offers a valuable look at Megasthenes, ambassador of the King Seleucus to Chandragupta Maurya, and provides a discussion of Megasthenes' now-fragmentary book Indica. Stoneman considers the art, literature, and philosophy of the Indo-Greek kingdom and how cultural influences crossed in both directions. The Greek Experience of India is a masterful account of the encounters between two remarkable civilizations.

Alexander III of Macedon (356-323 BC) has for over 2000 years been one of the best recognized names from antiquity. He set about creating his own legend in his lifetime, and subsequent writers and political actors developed it. He acquired the surname 'Great' by the Roman period, and the Alexander Romance transmitted his legendary biography to every language of medieval Europe and the Middle East. As well as an adventurer who sought the secret of immortality and discussed the purpose of life with the naked sages of India, he became a model for military achievement as well as a religious prophet bringing Christianity (in the Crusades) and Islam (in the Qur'an and beyond) to the regions he conquered. This innovative and fascinating volume explores these and many other facets of his reception in various cultures around the world, right up to the present and his role in gay activism.

An exploration of how the Greeks reacted to and interacted with India from the third to first centuries BCE When the Greeks and Macedonians in Alexander’s army reached India in 326 BCE, they entered a new and strange world. They knew a few legends and travelers’ tales, but their categories of thought were inadequate to encompass what they witnessed. The plants were unrecognizable, their properties unknown. The customs of the people were various and puzzling. While Alexander’s conquest was brief, ending with his death in 323 BCE, the Greeks would settle in the Indian region for the next two centuries, forging an era of productive interactions between the two cultures. The Greek Experience of India explores the various ways that the Greeks reacted to and constructed life in India during this fruitful period. From observations about botany and mythology to social customs, Richard Stoneman examines the surviving evidence of those who traveled to India. Most particularly, he offers a full and valuable look at Megasthenes, ambassador of the King Seleucus to Chandragupta Maurya, and provides a detailed discussion of Megasthenes’ now-fragmentary book Indica. Stoneman considers the art, literature, and philosophy of the Indo-Greek kingdom and how cultural influences crossed in both directions, with the Greeks introducing their writing, coinage, and sculptural and architectural forms, while Greek craftsmen learned to work with new materials such as ivory and stucco and to probe the ideas of Buddhists and other ascetics. Relying on an impressively wide variety of sources from the Indian subcontinent, The Greek Experience of India is a masterful account of the encounters between two remarkable civilizations.

For more than a thousand years, Greeks from all walks of life consulted oracles for guidance received directly from the gods. This colorful and wide-ranging survey encompasses the entire history of Greek oracles and focuses fresh attention on philosophical, psychological, and anthropological aspects of oracular consultation. It also examines how Greek oracles' practices were distinctive compared to those of their neighbors, especially in Egypt, Babylon, and Israel.

Richard Stoneman weaves a fascinating historical tapestry, taking into account the different kinds of oracles (healers, advisors, prophets, and others), their most important sanctuaries, debates about them among ancient thinkers, and Christian attacks on them. Delving into the reasons behind the oracles' enduring position at the heart of Greek culture, Stoneman offers fresh insights into pagan religious practice and the history of Greek intellectual and spiritual life.

The first full-scale account of a Persian king vilified by history Xerxes, Great King of the Persian Empire from 486-465 B.C., has gone down in history as an angry tyrant full of insane ambition. The stand of Leonidas and the 300 against his army at Thermopylae is a byword for courage, while the failure of Xerxes' expedition has overshadowed all the other achievements of his twenty-two-year reign. In this lively and comprehensive new biography, Richard Stoneman shows how Xerxes, despite sympathetic treatment by the contemporary Greek writers Aeschylus and Herodotus, had his reputation destroyed by later Greek writers and by the propaganda of Alexander the Great. Stoneman draws on the latest research in Achaemenid studies and archaeology to present the ruler from the Persian perspective. This illuminating volume does not whitewash Xerxes' failings but sets against them such triumphs as the architectural splendor of Persepolis and a consideration of Xerxes' religious commitments. What emerges is a nuanced portrait of a man who ruled a vast and multicultural empire which the Greek communities of the West saw as the antithesis of their own values.

Since his death in the third century BC, each age has woven its own legends around the figure of Alexander the Great.

If the Hebrew tradition saw him as a preacher and prophet, to the Persians he was alternately a true king and an arch-Satan, while in modern Greece he is revered more as a wise man than as a conqueror. All these very disparate traditions share roots in The Greek Alexander Romance.

One of the most influential works of late classical Greek literature, it reached Europe in the Middle Ages, and its effects are still visible to us in illuminated manuscripts and cathedral sculptures portraying Alexander’s fabulous adventures – his taming of the horse Bucephalus, the encounters with Amazons and Brahmins, the quest for the Water of Life, the ascent to heaven in a basket borne by eagles. Nowadays the Romance should be read not only as a literary masterpiece but also as fast-paced and wonderfully exuberant entertainment.

The 6th/5th century BCE Greek melic (or songwriting) poet Pindar was one of the most celebrated lyricists of antiquity. His famous victory odes offer a paean to the heroic athlete, and collectively are an attempt to encapsulate, through choral songs of exaltation, the glory of the sportsman's moment of victory - whether in athletics or horse-racing - at a variety of Panhellenic festivals and Olympian games. Yet Pindar, though still respected, is now considered a difficult poet, and is sometimes dismissed as a reactionary, celebrating an aristocratic world that was passing and that deserved to pass. In this first work on the subject for many years, Richard Stoneman shows that Pindar's works, while at first seeming obscure and fragmentary, reward further study. An unmatched craftsman with words, and witness to a profoundly religious sensibility, he is a poet who takes modern readers to the heart of Greek ideas about the gods, fleeting human achievement and fallibility. The author examines questions of performance and genre; patronage; imagery; and reception, beginning with Horace.

'How can a man become a god?' So enquired Alexander the Great of the Brahmin sages of India. And how did they reply? 'By doing what it is impossible for a man to do.' And that answer set a keynote for the Conqueror's entire career, which was characterized throughout by Alexander's attempts to achieve the unachievable: to scale the fresh heights and make the incredible real and tangible on earth. He wrestled an Indian monster larger than an elephant, fought ants the size of foxes and contested bats with human teeth. He became a Jewish convert, sailed up the Ganges and visited the Earthly Paradise. Already a legend in his own lifetime, the glittering figure of Alexander preoccupied European, Jewish and Arabic folklore until the 15th century. Richard Stoneman, who is one of his leading modern interpreters, here presents a range of Greek and Latin texts which recount the Conqueror's adventures in the east. Essential reading for students of late antique and medieval literature, these stories are still unsurpassed for sheer entertainment, opening a window onto a rumbustious world of legend as rich as that of the Arabian Nights. This revised edition offers a substantial new introduction by the editor.

Alexander the Great of Macedon was no stranger to controversy in his own time. Conqueror of the Greek states, of Egypt and of the Persian Empire as well as many of the principalities of the Indus Valley, he nevertheless became revered as well as vilified. Was he a simply a destroyer of the ancient civilizations and religions of these regions, or was he a hero of the Persian dynasties and of Islam? The conflicting views that were taken of him in the Middle East in his own time and the centuries that followed are still reflected in the tensions that exist between east and west today. The story of Alexander became the subject of legend in the medieval west, but was perhaps even more pervasive in the east. The Alexander Romance was translated into Syriac in the sixth century and may have become current in Persia as early as the third century AD. From these beginnings it reached into the Persian national epic, the Shahnameh, into Jewish traditions, and into the Quran and subsequent Arab romance. The papers in this volume all have the aim of deepening our understanding of this complex development. If we can understand better why Alexander is such an important figure in both east and west, we shall be a little closer to understanding what unites two often antipathetic worlds. This volume collects the papers delivered at the conference of the same title held at the University of Exeter from July 26-29 2010. More than half the papers were by invited speakers and were designed to provide a systematic view of the subject; the remainder were selected for their ability to carry research forward in an integrated way.

The Alexander Romance is a difficult text to define and to assess justly. From its earliest days it was an open text, which was adapted into a variety of cultures with meanings that themselves vary, and yet seem to carry a strong undercurrent of homogeneity: Alexander is the hero who cannot become a god, and who encapsulates the desires and strivings of the host cultures. The papers assembled in this volume, which were originally presented at a conference at the University of Wroclaw, Poland, in October 2015, all face the challenge of defining the Alexander Romance. Some focus on quite specific topics while others address more overarching themes. They form a cohesive set of approaches to the delicate positioning of the text between history and literature. From its earliest elements in Hellenistic Egypt, to its latest reworkings in the Byzantine and Islamic Middle East, the Alexander Romance shows itself to be a work that steadily engages with such questions as kingship, the limits of human (and Greek) nature, and the purpose of history. The Romance began as a history, but only by becoming literature could it achieve such a deep penetration of east and west.