The Campaigns of Alexander

Introduction

Of all the ancient works on Alexander the Great, Arrian's is the most reliable. Drawing mainly on two eyewitnesses, Alexander's general Ptolemy, later king of Egypt, and the expedition's engineer Aristobulus, it tells the twelve years of campaigning from Alexander's accession to his death: the crossing of the Hellespont, the defeat of the Persian armies at the Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela, the march into Central Asia and India, and his early death at Babylon. Himself a general who had led troops, Arrian describes battles with clarity and professional understanding.