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Cleitarchus
Cleitarchus or Clitarchus () was one of the historians of Alexander the Great. Son of the historian Dinon of Colophon, he spent a considerable time at the court of Ptolemy Lagus. He was active in the mid to late 4th century BCE. Quintilian (''Institutio Oratoria''. x. I. 74) credits him with more ability than trustworthiness, and Cicero (''Brutus'', II) accuses him of giving a fictitious account of the death of Themistocles. But there is no doubt that his history was very popular, and much used by Diodorus Siculus, Quintus Curtius, Justin and Plutarch, and the authors of the Alexander romances. His unnatural and exaggerated style became proverbial. His work, the ''History of Alexander'', is almost completely lost and has survived only in some thirty fragments preserved by ancient authors, especially by Aelian and Strabo. A recent papyrological find from Oxyrhynchus (P.Oxy. LXXI 4808) records that he was a tutor () of Ptolemy IV Philopator, r.221–205 BCE, and suggests that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
History Of Alexander
The ''History of Alexander'', also known as ''Perì Aléxandron historíai'', is a lost work by the late-fourth century BC Hellenistic historian Cleitarchus, covering the life and death of Alexander the Great. It survives today in around thirty fragments and is commonly known as ''The Vulgate'', with the works based on it known as ''The Vulgate Tradition''. These works consist primarily of that of Diodorus, the ''Bibliotheca historica'', and Quintus Curtius Rufus, with his '' Historiae Alexandri Magni''. Completed at some point between 309 and 301 BC, it was the most popular work depicting Alexander in its time, but is valuable today for its unique perspective on the conqueror, in particular his psychological disposition and specifics of how the soldiers under him lived. It is considered an unreliable source, with modern scholars considering Cleitarchus to have been more dedicated to writing an entertaining story than a reliable historical account. This dedication was also chal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |