10 Awesome Alexander the Great Books for You Now
Book ListsThe most famous individual from Greco-Roman antiquity? The most famous military leader? Check out our curation of 10 of the best books on Alexander the Great.
Links to purchase or find a copy in your library are available for each book listing. (Note: books are listed in reverse-chronological order).
For more Greek book lists, check out our book lists on Cleopatra and Ancient Greece, or our other book lists.
1. Ogden, Daniel, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Alexander the Great. Cambridge University Press, 2024.
Publisher Description
“Has any ancient figure captivated the imagination of people over the centuries so much as Alexander the Great? In less than a decade he created an empire stretching across much of the Near East as far as India, which led to Greek culture becoming dominant in much of this region for a millennium. Here, an international team of experts clearly explains the life and career of one of the most significant figures in world history. They introduce key themes of his campaign as well as describing aspects of his court and government and exploring the very different natures of his engagements with the various peoples he encountered and their responses to him. The reader is also introduced to the key sources, including the more important fragmentary historians, especially Ptolemy, Aristobulus and Clitarchus, with their different perspectives. The book closes by considering how Alexander’s image was manipulated in antiquity itself.”
Editor and Contributors
- Editor: Daniel Ogden, University of Exeter
DANIEL OGDEN is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Exeter. His previous publications include: Polygamy, Prostitutes and Death: The Hellenistic Dynasties (1999; 2nd ed., 2023); (ed.) The Hellenistic World: New Perspectives (2002); (co-ed. with Elizabeth Carney) Philip and Alexander: Father and Son, Lives and Afterlives (2010); Alexander the Great: Myth, Genesis and Sexuality (2011); and The Legend of Seleucus (Cambridge, 2017). - Contributors: Daniel Ogden, Borja Antela Bernárdez, Ed Anson, Timothy Howe, Sabine Müller,Richard Stoneman, Joseph Roisman, Carol J. King, Bill Greenwalt, Jeanne Reames, Elizabeth Carney, Hugh Bowden, Carolyn Willekes, F. S. Naiden, Kyle Erickson, Maxim Kholod, Ignacio Molina Marín, Daniel W. Leon, Philip Bosman, Elizabeth Baynham, Frances Pownall, Luisa Prandi, Christian Djurslev, Daniel Ogden, Sulochana Asirvatham, Christian Djurslev, Aleksandra Kleczar, Agnieszka Fulińska
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2. Naiden, F. S. Soldier, Priest, and God: A Life of Alexander the Great. Oxford University Press paperback edition. Oxford University Press, 2020.
Publisher Description
“Whatever we may think of Alexander–whether Great or only lucky, a civilizer or a sociopath–most people do not regard him as a religious leader. And yet religion permeated all aspects of his career. When he used religion astutely, he and his army prospered. In Egypt, he performed the ceremonies needed to be pharaoh, and thus became a god as well as a priest. Babylon surrendered to him partly because he agreed to become a sacred king. When Alexander disregarded religion, he and his army suffered. In Iran, for instance, where he refused to be crowned and even destroyed a shrine, resistance against him mounted. In India, he killed Buddhists, Jains, and Hindus by the hundreds of thousands until his officers, men he regarded as religious companians, rebelled against him and forced him to abandon his campaign of conquest. Although he never fully recovered from this last disappointment, he continued to perform his priestly duties in the rest of his empire. As far as we know, the last time he rose from his bed was to perform a sacrifice.
Ancient writers knew little about Near Eastern religions, no doubt due to the difficulty of travel to Babylon, India, and the interior of Egypt. Yet details of these exotic religions can be found in other ancient sources, including Greek, and in the last thirty years, knowledge of Alexander’s time in the Near East has increased. Egyptologists and Assyriologists have written the first thorough accounts of Alexander’s religious doings in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Recent archaeological work has also allowed scholars to uncover new aspects of Macedonian religious policy. Soldier, Priest, and God, the first religious biography of Alexander, incorporates this recent scholarship to provide a vivid and unique portrait of a remarkable leader.”
Author
F. S. Naiden is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the author of Ancient Supplication, and a former New York subway motorman.
Links
3. Heckel, Waldemar. In the Path of Conquest: Resistance to Alexander the Great. Oxford University Press, 2020.
Publisher Description
“This book offers a fresh insight into the conquests of Alexander the Great by attempting to view the events of 336-323 BCE from the vantage point of the defeated. The extent and form of the resistance of the populations he confronted varied according to their previous relationships with either the Macedonian invaders or their own Achaemenid rulers. The internal political situations of many states–particularly the Greek cities of Asia Minor–were also a factor. In the vast Persian Empire that stretched from the Aegean to the Indus, some states surrendered voluntarily and others offered fierce resistance. Not all regions were subdued through military actions. Indeed, as the author argues, the excessive use of force on Alexander’s part was often ineffective and counterproductive.
In the Path of Conquest examines the reasons for these varied responses, giving more emphasis to the defeated and less to the conqueror and his Macedonian army. In the process, it debunks many long-held views concerning Alexander’s motives, including the idea that his aim was to march to the eastern limits of the world. It also provides a fresh reevaluation of Darius III’s successes and failures as a commander. Such a study involves rigorous analysis of the ancient sources, and their testimony is presented throughout the book in the form of newly translated passages. A unique portrait of a well-known age, In the Path of Conquest will significantly alter our understanding of Alexander’s career.”
Author
Waldemar Heckel is Professor Emeritus of Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Calgary. His previous books include The Conquests of Alexander the Great, Who’s Who in the Age of Alexander, and Alexander’s Marshals.
Links
4. Holt, Frank L. The Treasures of Alexander the Great: How One Man’s Wealth Shaped the World. Oxford University Press, 2018.
Publisher Description
“War, the most profitable economic activity in the ancient world, transferred wealth from the vanquished to the victor. Invasions, sieges, massacres, annexations, and mass deportations all redistributed property with dramatic consequences for kings and commoners alike. No conqueror ever captured more people or property in so short a lifetime than Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BC.
For all its savagery, the creation of Alexander’s empire has generally been hailed as a positive economic event for all concerned. Even those harshly critical of Alexander today tend to praise his plundering of Persia as a means of liberating the moribund resources of the East. To test this popular interpretation, The Treasures of Alexander the Great investigates the kinds and quantities of treasure seized by the Macedonian king, from gold and silver to land and slaves. It reveals what became of the king’s wealth and what Alexander’s redistribution of these vast resources can tell us about his much-disputed policies and personality.
Though Alexander owed his vast fortune to war, battle also distracted him from competently managing his spoils and much was wasted, embezzled, deliberately destroyed, or idled unprofitably. The Treasures of Alexander the Great provides a long-overdue and accessible account of Alexander’s wealth and its enormous impact on the ancient world.”
Author
Frank L. Holt is Professor of History at the University of Houston and the author of Lost World of the Golden King, Into the Land of Bones, Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the Elephant Medallions, and Thundering Zeus.
Links
5. Bowden, Hugh. Alexander the Great: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Publisher Description:
“Alexander the Great became king of Macedon in 336 BC, when he was only 20 years old, and died at the age of 32, twelve years later. During his reign he conquered the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the largest empire that had ever existed, leading his army from Greece to Pakistan, and from the Libyan desert to the steppes of Central Asia. His meteoric career, as leader of an alliance of Greek cities, Pharaoh of Egypt, and King of Persia, had a profound effect on the world he moved through. Even in his lifetime his achievements became legendary and in the centuries that following his story was told and retold throughout Europe and the East. Greek became the language of power in the Eastern Mediterranean and much of the Near East, as powerful Macedonian dynasts carved up Alexander’s empire into kingdoms of their own, underlaying the flourishing Hellenistic civilization that emerged after his death.
But what do we really know about Alexander? In this Very Short Introduction, Hugh Bowden goes behind the usual historical accounts of Alexander’s life and career. Instead, he focuses on the evidence from Alexander’s own time — letters from officials in Afghanistan, Babylonian diaries, records from Egyptian temples — to try and understand how Alexander appeared to those who encountered him. In doing so he also demonstrates the profound influence the legends of his life have had on our historical understanding and the controversy they continue to generate worldwide.”
Author
Hugh Bowden is Professor of Ancient History at King’s College London. He is an internationally recognised expert on Alexander the Great, and also on religious experience in the Greek world. He is co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook on Ancient Mystery Cults (*OUP). His books include Mystery Cults in the Ancient World (2010), and Classical Athens & the Delphic Oracle: Divination and Democracy (2005). He has also published many articles and book chapters on ancient Greek religion and on Alexander the Great.
Links
6. Martin, Thomas R., and Christopher W. Blackwell. Alexander the Great: The Story of an Ancient Life. Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Publisher Description
“Everything we know about Alexander comes from ancient sources, which agree unanimously that he was extraordinary and greater than everyday mortals. From his birth into a hyper competitive world of royal women through his training under the eyes and fists of stern soldiers and the piercing intellect of Aristotle; through friendships, rivalries, conquests and negotiations; through acts of generosity and acts of murder, this book explains who Alexander was, what motivated him, where he succeeded (in his own eyes) and where he failed, and how he believed that he earned a new “mixed” nature combining the human and the divine. This book explains what made Alexander “Great” according to the people and expectations of his time and place and rejects modern judgments asserted on the basis of an implicit moral superiority to antiquity.”
Authors
Thomas R. Martin, College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts
Thomas R. Martin is the Jeremiah W. O’Connor, Jr Professor in Classics at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is the author of Ancient Greece and (with Ivy Sui-yuen) Herodotus and Sima Qian.
Christopher W. Blackwell, Furman University, South Carolina
Christopher W. Blackwell is the Louis G. Forgione University Professor of Classics at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. He is the author of In the Absence of Alexander: Harpalus and the Failure of Macedonian Authority and (with Amy Hackney Blackwell) Mythology for Dummies.
Links
7. Worthington, Ian. Alexander the Great: A Reader. 2nd ed. Routledge, 2012.
Publisher Description
“This exciting new edition is an indispensable guide for undergraduates to the study of Alexander the Great, showing the problems of the ancient source material, and making it clear that there is no single approach to be taken.
The twelve thematic chapters contain a broad selection of the most significant published articles about Alexander, examining the main areas of debate and discussion:
- The Sources
- Alexander’s Influences and the Macedonian Background
- Alexander’s Aims
- Alexander’s Battles and Generalship
- Alexander and the Greeks
- Alexander and the Persian Empire
- Alexander, India and the Gedrosian Desert
- From Mass Marriage to Death
- Alexander and the ‘Unity of Mankind’
- Alexander and Deification
- Alexander and Conspiracies
- Alexander: The ‘Great’?
The Reader has the distinctive feature of translating a substantial number of the more inaccessible primary sources; each chapter is also prefaced with a succinct introduction to the topic under consideration.”
Editor
Ian Worthington is Professor of History at the University of Missouri. He has published 15 sole-authored and edited books and over 100 articles and essays on Greek history, epigraphy and oratory. In 2005 he won the Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Research and Creativity in the Humanities, in 2007 the Student-Athlete Advisory Council Most Inspiring Professor Award and in 2010 the William H. Byler Distinguished Professor Award.
Links
8. Briant, Pierre. Alexander the Great and His Empire: A Short Introduction. Translated by Amélie Kuhrt. Princeton University Press, 2012.
Publisher Description
“This is the first publication in English of Pierre Briant’s classic short history of Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian empire, from the Mediterranean to Central Asia. Eschewing a conventional biographical focus, this is the only book in any language that sets the rise of Alexander’s short-lived empire within the broad context of ancient Near Eastern history under Achaemenid Persian rule, as well as against Alexander’s Macedonian background. As a renowned historian of both the Macedonians and the Persians, Briant is uniquely able to assess Alexander’s significance from the viewpoint of both the conquerors and the conquered, and to trace what changed and what stayed the same as Alexander and the Hellenistic world gained ascendancy over Darius’s Persia.
After a short account of Alexander’s life before his landing in Asia Minor, the book gives a brief overview of the major stages of his conquest. This background sets the stage for a series of concise thematic chapters that explore the origins and objectives of the conquest; the nature and significance of the resistance it met; the administration, defense, and exploitation of the conquered lands; the varying nature of Alexander’s relations with the Macedonians, Greeks, and Persians; and the problems of succession following Alexander’s death.
For this translation, Briant has written a new foreword and conclusion, updated the main text and the thematic annotated bibliography, and added a substantial appendix in which he assesses the current state of scholarship on Alexander and suggests some directions for future research. More than ever, this masterful work provides an original and important perspective on Alexander and his empire.”
Author
Pierre Briant is the Professor of the History and Civilization of the Achaemenid World and the Empire of Alexander the Great at the Collège de France. His many books include From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire.
Links
9. Ogden, Daniel. Alexander the Great: Myth, Genesis and Sexuality. University of Exeter Press, 2011.
Publisher Description
“What are ancient texts saying to us when they describe Alexander the Great’s romantic relationship with his wife Barsine, or comment on his homosexual relationship with Hephaestion? What did it mean when the ancient writers told that Alexander had been sired by a thunderbolt or by a gigantic snake? What did it mean when they represented his mother Olympias as a witch? These questions and others are addressed in Alexander the Great: Myth and Sexuality. In this book, Daniel Ogden discusses the mythologizing of procreation and sex in the ancient traditions surrounding Alexander.
From the author’s Introduction:
‘A quick review of […] chapter titles will suggest that the first half […] answers the title’s promise of ‘myth’ and the second half that of ‘sexuality’, but in fact the entire volume is devoted to what may be termed ‘myth’ of one sort or another. Its central and unifying subject is the mythologizing of procreation and sex in the traditions surrounding the figure of Alexander the Great: accordingly, it comprises both treatments of the narratives spun around his own siring and birth on the one hand, and treatments of the narratives spun around the king’s own procreative and sexual career on the other. A significant amount of this mythologizing […] took root in Alexander’s own age. The remainder of it is the product of subsequent tradition, a tradition that was evidently in vigorous development already within a few years of Alexander’s death.'”
Author
Daniel Ogden is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Exeter. He has published substantially on the ancient world; his previous books include ‘Greek Bastardy in the Classical and Hellenistic Periods’ (OUP, 1996), ‘The Crooked Kings of Ancient Greece’ (Duckworth, 1997), ‘Greek and Roman Necromancy’ (Princeton University Press, 2001), ‘Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: a Sourcebook’ (OUP USA, 2002), ‘A Companion to Greek Religion’ (edited, Blackwell, 2007).
Links
10. Heckel, Waldemar, and J. C. Yardley, eds. Alexander the Great: Historical Sources in Translation. Wiley-Blackwell, 2008.
Publisher Description
“This source book presents new translations of the most important ancient writings on the life and legacy of Alexander the Great.
- Provides comprehensive coverage of Alexander, from his family background to his military conquests, death and legacy.
- Includes substantial extracts of texts written by historians, geographers, biographers and military writers.
- A general introduction and introductions to each chapter set the sources in context.
- Also includes a bibliography of modern works, visual sources and a map of Alexander’s expedition”
Editors
Waldemar Heckel is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Calgary. He was a founding editor of the Ancient History Bulletin and is the author of numerous books and articles, including The Last Days and Testament of Alexander the Great (1988), The Marshals of Alexander’s Empire (1992), and The Wars of Alexander the Great (2002).
J. C. Yardley is Professor of Classics at the University of Ottawa and a past President of the Classical Association of Canada. His publications include translations of Quintus Curtius’ History of Alexander, Livy 31–40, and Justin’s Epitome of Trogus. His latest work is Justin and Pompeius Trogus (2003).
Links
Written by Chris Thoms-Bauer
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