Cities of Alexander the Great

The cities founded by Alexander the Great are an essential part of his overall achievements. The problems concerning them, however, are many - and some incapable of solution. This book is the first to unravel thoroughly the tradition, explaining how it originated in a tendentious politicalpamphlet of the third century BC, which in turn originated in Ptolemaic Alexandria in the context of the development of the earliest version of the Alexander Romance. The author explores the ramification of this reconstruction from a lost Greek original through to the Persian and Arab tradition,and concludes that the number of cities claiming to be Alexander's as recorded in ancient sources needs to be considerably reduced. The book also includes some more general new considerations regarding Alexander's policies and achievements.

P. M. Fraser is an Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and a Fellow of the British Academy.