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Alexandreis
The ''Alexandreis'' (or ''Alexandreid'') is a medieval Latin language, Latin epic poetry, epic poem by Walter of Châtillon, a 12th-century France, French writer and theology, theologian. It gives an account of the life of Alexander the Great, based on Quintus Curtius Rufus' ''Historia Alexandri Magni''. The poem was popular and influential in Walter's own times: according to Henry of Ghent, it was more popular than Virgil's ''Aeneid'' in thirteenth-century schools. Matthew of Vendôme and Alan of Lille borrowed from it and Henry of Settimello imitated it, but it is now seldom read. One line is sometimes quoted: :''Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim'' (You run into Scylla, desiring to avoid Charybdis) (V.301). Translations Translations were made into Old Spanish (''Libro de Alexandre''), Middle Dutch (Jacob van Maerlant's ''Alexanders Geesten'') into Old Norse (''Alexanders saga, Alexanderssaga''). In 1996, David Townsend published an English translation of the ''Alex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexanders Saga
''Alexanders saga'' is an Old Norse translation of ''Alexandreis'', an epic Latin poem about the life of Alexander the Great written by Walter of Châtillon, which was itself based on Quintus Curtius Rufus's ''Historia Alexandri Magni''. It is attributed in manuscripts of the saga to Brandr Jónsson, bishop of Diocese of Skálholt, Skálholt who is also said to have been responsible for authoring Gyðinga saga. Kirsten Wolf has commented on the saga's literary qualities thus: "''Alexanders saga'' [...] has stirred the admiration of scholars and writers for centuries because of its exceptionally imaginative use of the resources of language and its engaging narrative style." Manuscripts ''Alexanders saga'' is preserved in five medieval Icelandic manuscripts and a number of later manuscripts, of which only Stock. Papp. fol. no. 1 has independent textual value. The main manuscript source of the text is AM 519a 4to, dating from 1270-1290. A fragment of the saga appears in AM 655 XXIX ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Of Châtillon
Walter of Châtillon ( Latinized as Gualterus de Castellione) was a 12th-century French writer and theologian who wrote in the Latin language. He studied under Stephen of Beauvais and at the University of Paris. It was probably during his student years that he wrote a number of Latin poems in the Goliardic manner that found their way into the '' Carmina Burana'' collection. During his lifetime, however, he was more esteemed for a long Latin epic on the life of Alexander the Great, the '' Alexandreis, sive Gesta Alexandri Magni'', a hexameter epic, full of anachronisms; he depicts the Crucifixion of Jesus as having already taken place during the days of Alexander the Great. The ''Alexandreis'' was popular and influential in Walter's own times. Matthew of Vendôme and Alan of Lille borrowed from it and Henry of Settimello imitated it, but it is now seldom read. One line, referring to Virgil's Aeneid, is sometimes quoted: :: Many poems in his style, or borrowing his themes, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Libro De Alexandre
The ''Libro de Alexandre'' is a medieval Spanish epic poem about Alexander the Great written between 1178 and c. 1250 in the '' mester de clerecía''.Colbert Nepaulsingh, "''Libro de Alexandre''", in Germán Bleiberg, Maureen Ihrie, and Janet Pérez, edd., ''Dictionary of the Literature of the Iberian Peninsula'', pp. 40–42 (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1993). It is largely based on the ''Alexandreis'' of Walter of Châtillon, but also contains many fantastical elements common to the Alexander romance. It consists of 2,675 stanzas of '' cuaderna vía'' and 10,700 lines. The ''Libro'' is preserved in two manuscripts, called ''P'' and ''O'', neither of which appears to be an original. There are as well three fragments preserved in separate manuscripts. Manuscript ''O'' is the earlier, copied around 1300, and includes 2,510 stanzas of ''cuaderna vía'' and two epistles. It was once owned by the Duke of Osuna (whence ''O'') and was known to Íñigo López de Mendoza, 1st Marqu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quintus Curtius Rufus
Quintus Curtius Rufus (; ) was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian, probably of the 1st century, author of his only known and only surviving work, ''Historiae Alexandri Magni'', "Histories of Alexander the Great", or more fully ''Historiarum Alexandri Magni Macedonis Libri Qui Supersunt'', "All the Books That Survive of the Histories of Alexander the Great of Macedon." Much of it is missing. Apart from his name on the manuscripts, nothing else is known of him, leading philologists to believe that he had another unknown historical identity. A few theories exist and are treated with varying degrees of credibility. Meanwhile, the identity of Quintus Curtius Rufus, historian, is maintained separately. The historical ''alter ego'' Curtius' work is uniquely isolated. No other ancient work refers to it, or as far as is known, to him. Peter Pratt pointing out that the Senate and emperors frequently proscribed or censored works, suggests that Curtius had not published the manuscript befor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Susa
Susa ( ) was an ancient city in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris, between the Karkheh River, Karkheh and Dez River, Dez Rivers in Iran. One of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East, Susa served as the capital of Elam and the winter capital of the Achaemenid Empire, and remained a strategic centre during the Parthian Empire, Parthian and Sasanian Empire, Sasanian periods. The site currently consists of three archaeological mounds, covering an area of around . The city of Shush, Iran, Shush is located on the site of ancient Susa. Name The name Susa is of Elamiate origin and has appeared in many languages: *Middle *Middle and Neo- *Neo-Elamite language, Elamite and Achaemenid Empire, Achaemenid *Achaemenid Empire, Achaemenid * * * * or *New * Literary references Susa was one of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East. In Historiography, historic literature, Susa appears in the very earliest Sumerian records: for exa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babylon
Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-speaking region of Babylonia. Its rulers established two important empires in antiquity, the 19th–16th century BC Old Babylonian Empire, and the 7th–6th century BC Neo-Babylonian Empire. Babylon was also used as a regional capital of other empires, such as the Achaemenid Empire. Babylon was one of the most important urban centres of the ancient Near East, until its decline during the Hellenistic period. Nearby ancient sites are Kish, Borsippa, Dilbat, and Kutha. The earliest known mention of Babylon as a small town appears on a clay tablet from the reign of Shar-Kali-Sharri (2217–2193 BC), of the Akkadian Empire. Babylon was merely a religious and cultural centre at this point and neither an independent state nor a large city, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Arbela
The Battle of Gaugamela ( ; ), also called the Battle of Arbela (), took place in 331 BC between the forces of the Army of Macedon under Alexander the Great and the Persian Army under King Darius III. It was the second and final battle between the two kings, and is considered to be the final blow to the Achaemenid Empire, resulting in its complete conquest by Alexander. The fighting took place in Gaugamela, a village on the banks of the river Bumodus, north of Arbela (modern-day Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan). Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Army of Macedon emerged victorious due to the employment of superior tactics and the clever usage of light infantry forces. It was a decisive victory for the League of Corinth, and it led to the fall of the Achaemenid Empire and of Darius III. Background In November 333 BC, King Darius III had lost the Battle of Issus to Alexander the Great, which resulted in the subsequent capture of his wife, his mother and his two daugh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion Victoria was the deified personification of victory. She first appeared during the first Punic War, seemingly as a Romanised re-naming of Nike, the goddess of victory associated with Rome's Greek allies in the Greek mainland and in Magna Graecia. Thereafter she comes to symbolise Rome's eventual hegemony and right to rule. She is a deified abstraction, entitled to a cult. But unlike Nike, she has virtually no mythology of her own. History and iconography Victoria first appears during the first Punic War, as a translation or renaming of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory in peace or war. Nike would have become familiar to the Roman military as a goddess of Rome's Greek allies in the Punic Wars. She was worshipped in Magna Graecia and mainland Greece, and was a subject of Greek myth. Around this time, various Roman war-deities begin to receive the epithet ''victor'' (conqueror) or ''invictus'' (unconquered). By the late republican and early imper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oracle Of Ammon
The Siwa Oasis ( ) is an urban oasis in Egypt. It is situated between the Qattara Depression and the Great Sand Sea in the Western Desert, east of the Egypt–Libya border and from the Egyptian capital city of Cairo. It is famed from its role in ancient Egypt as the home to an oracle of Amun, the ruins of which are a popular tourist attraction, giving it the ancient name Oasis of Amun-Ra, after the major Egyptian deity. Geography The oasis is in a deep depression that reaches below sea level. To the west, the al Jaghbub Oasis rests in a similar depression and to the east, the large Qattara Depression is also below sea level. The depression is fertile due to both natural flowing artesian wells and irrigation. It is the site of about 200 natural springs. Siwa is directly adjacent to the Libyan Desert plateau. The geology is characterised by horizontal layers of porous limestones alternated with marls and clays dating back to the Miocene. The limestone plateau and inselbe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northern coast of Egypt, the north, the Gaza Strip of Palestine and Israel to Egypt–Israel barrier, the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to Egypt–Sudan border, the south, and Libya to Egypt–Libya border, the west; the Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast separates Egypt from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Cairo is the capital, list of cities and towns in Egypt, largest city, and leading cultural center, while Alexandria is the second-largest city and an important hub of industry and tourism. With over 109 million inhabitants, Egypt is the List of African countries by population, third-most populous country in Africa and List of countries and dependencies by population, 15th-most populated in the world. Egypt has one of the longest histories o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tyre, Lebanon
Tyre (; ; ; ; ) is a city in Lebanon, and one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It was one of the earliest Phoenician metropolises and the legendary birthplace of Europa (consort of Zeus), Europa, her brothers Cadmus and Phoenix (son of Agenor), Phoenix, and Carthage's founder Dido (Elissa). The city has many ancient sites, including the Tyre Hippodrome, and was added as a whole to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1984. The historian Ernest Renan noted that "One can call Tyre a city of ruins, built out of ruins". Tyre is the fifth-largest city in Lebanon after Beirut, Tripoli, Lebanon, Tripoli, Sidon, and Baalbek. It is the capital of the Tyre District in the South Governorate. There were approximately 200,000 inhabitants in the Tyre urban area in 2016, including many refugees, as the city hosts three of the twelve Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon: Burj el-Shamali, Burj El Shimali, El-Buss refugee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darius III Of Persia
Darius III ( ; ; – 330 BC) was the thirteenth and last Achaemenid King of Kings of Persia, reigning from 336 BC to his death in 330 BC. Contrary to his predecessor Artaxerxes IV Arses, Darius was a distant member of the Achaemenid dynasty. During his early career, he was reportedly an obscure figure among his peers and first rose to prominence during the Cadusian expedition of Artaxerxes III in the 350s BC. As a reward for his bravery, he was given the Satrapy of Armenia. Around 340 BC, he was placed in charge of the royal "postal service," a high-ranking position. In 338 BC, Artaxerxes III met an abrupt end after being poisoned by the court eunuch and chiliarch (''hazahrapatish'') Bagoas, who installed Artaxerxes' youngest son Arses on the throne. He only reigned for a few years, until Bagoas had him poisoned as well. Darius was subsequently installed on the throne and soon forced Bagoas to drink his poison after discovering that the eunuch had planned to poison him as we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
