Collected Papers on Alexander the Great

by Ernst Badian

Professor Ernst Badian (1925-2011) was one of the most influential Alexander historians of the twentieth century. His first articles on the subject appeared in 1958, and he continued for a full fifty years to reshape scholarly perception of the reign of Alexander the Great. A steady output of articles was reinforced by lectures and reviews in his own formidable style. Badian's earliest work transformed understanding of aspects of the Roman Republic, and he continued to work on that area throughout his career; but his series of studies of Alexander the Great (which he deliberately never summed up in a synoptic work) demolished the hero of his predecessors such as Droysen and Tarn, whom he regarded as starry-eyed hero-worshippers, and created an Alexander on the model of a twentieth-century tyrant. The Alexander who was a ruthless killer of his rivals and those who disagreed with him, a mass-murderer in his conquests, and perhaps even an incompetent imperialist, has superseded the Alexander whose mission it was to bring Greek civilization to the ends of the earth. These essays and articles provide a new layer in the interpretation of a figure who has not ceased to fascinate since his death in 323 BC. Many of these articles were published in out-of-the-way journals and conference volumes, and are brought together here for the first time in a collection which will provide student and scholar with a view of the full range of Badian's work on Alexander. Certain ephemeral pieces and all reviews except one have been excluded, by the wish of the author. The twenty-seven articles included were all revised by the author before his death, but there has been no other editorial intervention. The volume also includes a portrait, and an introduction by Eugene Borza surveying Badian's career and contribution. No one who works on Alexander the Great can afford to be without this book.

540 pages, Hardcover

First published January 29, 2006

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

As Ernst Badian declined to write a full history of Alexander, this volume will have to suffice for those wanting a clear-eyed view of the man, his genius, and the terribleness of his actions. I cannot judge Badian's classical scholarship (and there is much in this volume dealing with scholarly disputes), but the judgments Badian reaches about Alexander and his time, and the reasoning behind those judgments, are solid and convincing. He has a dry sense of humor, and little patience for foolishness. Where many European scholars of the 19th and 20th century saw Alexander embarking on the kind of empire-building their own countries had engaged in, taking up "the white man's burden" of the 4th century BC to bring Greek enlightenment to the savages of the far richer Persian Empire, Badian, an Austrian Jew whose family fled the Nazis, instead saw Alexander the conqueror in a much less flattering light. Whatever you think of his enterprise, Alexander's ambitions led directly to the slaughter of hundred of thousands and the infliction of cruel punishments on thousands more, not to mention betrayal of his loyal supporters. In sifting through the evidence with the sensibility of one who understands human psychology, Badian cannot avoid the conclusion that ultimately what Alexander cared most about was his own glory.