The Conquests of Alexander the Great

Waldemar Heckel provides an engaging and balanced overview of the conquests of Alexander the Great.

Waldemar Heckel (Author)

9780521842471, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 November 2007

242 pages
23.4 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.49 kg

'A book on Alexander's conquests by Waldemar Heckel, one of today's leading specialists in the field, is … a welcome development. Heckel has given us a well-written and sensible book, with a good selection of facts and problems having to do with Alexander's reign and the wars he fought. Even without an overwhelming scholarly apparatus, the book can be still read with profit by professional historians and classicists, and its views generally represent a prudent compromise among the most important modern scholarly opinions.' Classical Journal

Waldemar Heckel provides a revisionist overview of the conquests of Alexander the Great. Emphasising the aims and impact of his military expeditions, the political consequences of military action, and the use of propaganda, both for motivation and justification, his underlying premise is that the basic goals of conquest and the keys to military superiority have not changed dramatically over the millennia. Indeed, as Heckel makes clear, many aristocratic and conquest societies are remarkably similar to that of Alexander in their basic aims and organisation. Heckel rejects the view of Alexander as a reincarnation of Achilles - as an irrational youth on a heroic quest for fame and immortality. In an engaging and balanced account of key military events, Heckel shows how Alexander imposed his will on the willing and how the defeated were no longer capable of resisting his military might.

Preface
1. Introduction
2. How do we know? Sources for Alexander the Great
3. The Macedonian background
4. The Persian enemy
5. Conquest of the Achaemenids
6. Resistance on two fronts
7. Conquest of the Punjab
8. The ocean and the West
9. The long road from Susa to Babylon.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]