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Darius in the shadow of Alexander /Pierre Briant ; translated by Jane Marie Todd.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Original language: French Publication details: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, (c)2015.Description: 1 online resource (xv, 579 pages) : illustrationsContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • computer
Carrier type:
  • online resource
ISBN:
  • 9780674744608
Subject(s): Genre/Form: LOC classification:
  • DS284 .D375 2015
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
Contents:
Translator's note -- Introduction: Between remembering and forgetting -- Part I. The impossible biography -- A shadow among his own -- Darius past and present -- Part II. Contrasting portraits -- "The last Darius, the one who was defeated by Alexander" -- Arrian's Darius -- A different Darius or the same one? -- Darius between Greece and Rome -- Part III. Reluctance and enthusiasm -- Upper king and lower king -- Iron helmet, silver vessels -- The great king's private and public lives -- Part IV. Darius and Dara -- Dara and Iskandar -- Death and transfiguration -- Part V.A final assessment and a few proposals -- Darius in battle : variations on the theme "images and realities" -- Abbreviations -- Greek and Roman sources.
Scope and content: "The last of Cyrus the Great's dynastic inheritors and the legendary enemy of Alexander the Great, Darius III ruled over a Persian Empire that stretched from the Mediterranean to the Indus River. Yet despite being the most powerful king of his time, Darius remains an obscure figure. As Pierre Briant explains in the first book ever devoted to the historical memory of Darius III, the little that is known of him comes primarily from Greek and Roman sources, which often present him in an unflattering light, as a decadent Oriental who lacked the masculine virtues of his Western adversaries. Influenced by the Alexander Romance as they are, even the medieval Persian sources are not free of harsh prejudices against the king Dara, whom they deemed deficient in the traditional kingly virtues. Ancient Classical accounts construct a man who is in every respect Alexander's opposite--feeble-minded, militarily inept, addicted to pleasure, and vain. When Darius's wife and children are captured by Alexander's forces at the Battle of Issos, Darius is ready to ransom his entire kingdom to save them--a devoted husband and father, perhaps, but a weak king. While Darius seems doomed to be a footnote in the chronicle of Alexander's conquests, in one respect it is Darius who has the last laugh. For after Darius's defeat in 331 BCE, Alexander is described by historians as becoming ever more like his vanquished opponent: a Darius-like sybarite prone to unmanly excess"--Provided by publisher.
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Includes bibliographies and index.

Preface to the English-language edition -- Translator's note -- Introduction: Between remembering and forgetting -- Part I. The impossible biography -- A shadow among his own -- Darius past and present -- Part II. Contrasting portraits -- "The last Darius, the one who was defeated by Alexander" -- Arrian's Darius -- A different Darius or the same one? -- Darius between Greece and Rome -- Part III. Reluctance and enthusiasm -- Upper king and lower king -- Iron helmet, silver vessels -- The great king's private and public lives -- Part IV. Darius and Dara -- Dara and Iskandar -- Death and transfiguration -- Part V.A final assessment and a few proposals -- Darius in battle : variations on the theme "images and realities" -- Abbreviations -- Greek and Roman sources.

"The last of Cyrus the Great's dynastic inheritors and the legendary enemy of Alexander the Great, Darius III ruled over a Persian Empire that stretched from the Mediterranean to the Indus River. Yet despite being the most powerful king of his time, Darius remains an obscure figure. As Pierre Briant explains in the first book ever devoted to the historical memory of Darius III, the little that is known of him comes primarily from Greek and Roman sources, which often present him in an unflattering light, as a decadent Oriental who lacked the masculine virtues of his Western adversaries. Influenced by the Alexander Romance as they are, even the medieval Persian sources are not free of harsh prejudices against the king Dara, whom they deemed deficient in the traditional kingly virtues. Ancient Classical accounts construct a man who is in every respect Alexander's opposite--feeble-minded, militarily inept, addicted to pleasure, and vain. When Darius's wife and children are captured by Alexander's forces at the Battle of Issos, Darius is ready to ransom his entire kingdom to save them--a devoted husband and father, perhaps, but a weak king. While Darius seems doomed to be a footnote in the chronicle of Alexander's conquests, in one respect it is Darius who has the last laugh. For after Darius's defeat in 331 BCE, Alexander is described by historians as becoming ever more like his vanquished opponent: a Darius-like sybarite prone to unmanly excess"--Provided by publisher.

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