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Darius in the Shadow of Alexander

by: Briant, P.

Price: 33,50 EURO

(in stock)
 
Category: Greek History
Code: 20120
ISBN-13: 9780674493094 / 978-0-674-49309-4
ISBN-10: 0674493095 / 0-674-49309-5
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication Date: 2015
Publication Place: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Binding: Cloth
Pages: 579
Book Condition: New

 The last of Cyrus the Great's dynastic inheritors and the legendary enemy of Alexander the Great, Darius III ruled over a Persian Empire that stretched from the Mediterranean to the Indus River. Yet despite being the most powerful king of his time, Darius remains an obscure figure. As Pierre Briant explains in the first book ever devoted to the historical memory of Darius III, the little that is known of him comes primarily from Greek and Roman sources, which often present him in an unflattering light, as a decadent Oriental who lacked the masculine virtues of his Western adversaries. Influenced by the Alexander Romance as they are, even the medieval Persian sources are not free of harsh prejudices against the king Dara, whom they deemed deficient in the traditional kingly virtues. Ancient Classical accounts construct a man who is in every respect Alexander's opposite--feeble-minded, militarily inept, addicted to pleasure, and vain. When Darius's wife and children are captured by Alexander's forces at the Battle of Issos, Darius is ready to ransom his entire kingdom to save them--a devoted husband and father, perhaps, but a weak king. While Darius seems doomed to be a footnote in the chronicle of Alexander's conquests, in one respect it is Darius who has the last laugh. For after Darius's defeat in 331 BCE, Alexander is described by historians as becoming ever more like his vanquished opponent: a Darius-like sybarite prone to unmanly excess

Preface to the English-language edition
Translator's note
Introduction: Between remembering and forgetting
Part I. The impossible biography
A shadow among his own
Darius past and present
Part II. Contrasting portraits
"The last Darius, the one who was defeated by Alexander"
Arrian's Darius
A different Darius or the same one?
Darius between Greece and Rome
Part III. Reluctance and enthusiasm
Upper king and lower king
Iron helmet, silver vessels
The great king's private and public lives
Part IV. Darius and Dara
Dara and Iskandar
Death and transfiguration
Part V.A final assessment and a few proposals
Darius in battle : variations on the theme "images and realities"
Abbreviations
Greek and Roman sources

Subjects:
Alexander III. Makedonien, König v356-v323
Alexander, the Great, 356 B.C.-323 B.C
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Historical
Biographies
Darius III, King of Persia, -330 B.C
Darius III. Iran, König -v330
HISTORY Ancient Greece
HISTORY Civilization
History
Iran
Iran Histoire Jusqu'à 651
Iran History To 640
Iran Kings and rulers Biography
Kings and rulers
To 640
collective biographies

 

 
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Darius in the Shadow of Alexander

by: Briant, P.

  • ISBN-13: 9780674493094 / 978-0-674-49309-4
  • ISBN-03: 0674493095 / 0-674-49309-5
  • Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2015

Price: 33,50 EURO

(in stock)