Recensione in italiano: QUI.

Hello everyone I’m Elena and thank you for being on Alessandro III di Macedonia- Alexander the Great and Hellenism. In this period I can’t find the right concentration to continue reading The impact of Alexander’s conquest because it’s very interesting but I have to give the right attention to it, so I’m reading these booklets and today I’m talking about:

Ancient Civilization: The Legacy Of Alexander – The Great King Of Macedonia

by Philip Briant

Independently published, 2022

ISBN: 979-8367427776, 59 pp.

The influence of Alexander the Great is extensive and profound. His father first succeeded in uniting the Greek city-states, and Alexander ultimately ended the Persian Empire. More significantly, Alexander’s conquests helped to disseminate Hellenism, or Greek culture, throughout his realm.

In reality, because of the strong impact Greek culture had on other cultures, Alexander’s reign marked the start of a new era known as the Hellenistic Age. Greek ideologies and culture might have remained exclusive to Greece without Alexander’s ambition.

Alexander the Great is viewed differently by several historians. Alexander had a dark side while being both smart and attractive. He had a violent temper and occasionally would kill trusted advisers and even friends at random.

Additionally, towards the conclusion of his numerous campaigns, he mindlessly killed thousands of people whose only sin was getting in his way.

Alexander the Great: Was he really all that?

To Find Out More About The Book. Why Don’t You Add It To Your Collections.

Reading time: January 24, 2023.

This book too – like that of Lazaros Georgoulas Alexander: The Rise and Fall of an Empire – is a useless purchase: is intended as introductory reading but is too fragmented to be useful and informative. Even this book doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of who Alexander the Great was and what he did. I’ll explain myself.

It seems that to write this booklet the author first found the points to deal with and then for each one he says that couple of things without however contextualizing and linking them together, so it passes from one event to another as if they were detached episodes. In addition, the information he gives is confusing, sometimes contradicting each other, he doesn’t explain it. Then there are errors both in composition and typos and in information. Not only is the information very general if not incomplete but some of it is also wrong. On page 6 according to the author “He [Alexander] eventually used Aristotle’s ideas to help him treat his new subjects in the empires he invaded and conquered”, but does he have any idea what Aristotle’s opinion was? I doubt it. On page 44 the author says that Alexander died after ten days, the page after the days become twelve. Why this discrepancy? Author’s inattention or difference in the data reported by the sources? We don’t know because the author doesn’t tell us. Furthermore, citations are reported without saying where they are taken from, without the slightest bibliographic reference. The author talks about the Seleucid Empire but has never named Seleucus, other characters are named only when they die and it isn’t clear who they are, what role they played. In the synopsis on Amazon the author promises to explain and describe things that he then doesn’t analyze, he mentions the difference between the sources but doesn’t talk about it.

To sum up, this booklet contains several errors, many information is totally missing, others are incomplete. The font used is large so it barely fills 53 pages. But why publish a booklet that seems to have been written in a couple of hours? The paper edition costs only € 5.95 but although is cheap, the expense doesn’t justify something done so badly that it can be read in half an hour. The Wikipedia page is better done and it’s free.

I don’t recommend this reading, not even for the youngest because is too fragmented to be understandable and doesn’t intrigue and even if it did there are no ideas for further insights.

If you trust what I say read something else that you won’t miss absolutely nothing.

Good day everyone,