Suggested Reading and Resources

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Short list of recommended resources, Compiled by Chuck Sieloff, PhD

This list is for those who would like to do a little background research for the upcoming program about Alexander and Alexandria, but don't have much time. The emphasis is on resources that are concise, easily accessible in a variety of formats, and aimed at a general (rather than scholarly) audience.

There are, of course, innumerable biographies of Alexander the Great, but if you are looking for a short, readable, and lavishly illustrated introduction to his life and historical impact, try Alexander the Great: Son of the Gods by Alan Fildes and Joann Fletcher (Paperback, 2004; 176pp). Alexander’s life has also been the subject of many TV and video documentaries, of variable quality. The History Channel’s The True Story of Alexander the Great (2004; 2hrs 30min; available on Netflix) gives a reasonably balanced account drawing on both ancient and modern sources with high-quality production values.

Alexandria: Jewel of Egypt by Jean-Yves Empereur (part of the excellent Discoveries series) provides a concise, but richly illustrated, overview of Alexandria’s history from its founding in 331 BCE to its modern role as Egypt’s second city and includes selected extracts from historical documents and literary sources. (Paperback, 2002; 158 pp.) A thorough historical analysis of Alexandria’s role as the center of Hellenistic culture may be found in The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern World by Justin Pollard and Howard Reid (Paperback, 2006; 329pp; also available in Kindle and Audiobook formats).

The Egyptology Online website provides a capsule history of the city, while the significance of the ancient Library and its modern re-incarnation are discussed on the travel-oriented site, Sacred Destinations.

Primary Sources

De Selincourt, Aubrey (transl).  Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander. Penguin Classics, 1987.

Justin. Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus. Transl. with notes by Rev. John Selby Watson. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853. Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum, a digital library of Latin literature.

Scott-Kilvert, Ian (transl). Plutarch, The Age of Alexander. Penguin Classics, 1988.

Romm, James (ed.). Alexander the Great: Selections from Arrian, Diodorus, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius. Transl.by Pamela Mensch and James Romm. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2005.

Secondary Sources

Borza, Eugene N. Makedonika, Essays by Eugene N. Borza. Ed. Carol G. Thomas. Regina Press, 1995.

--- and Laura Foreman. Alexander: The Conqueror. The Epic Story of the Young Warrior King. Cambridge: Perseus, 2004.

Burn, Lucilla. Hellenistic Art: From Alexander the Great to Augustus. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust Publications, 2005.

Canfora, Luciano. The Vanished Library: A Wonder of the Ancient World. Berkeley, Los Angeles: U. of California Press, 1990.

Cartledge, Paul. Alexander the Great. The Hunt for a New Past. NY: Overlook Press, 2004.

Charbonneaux, Jean, Jean Martin and Roland Villard. Hellenistic Greece. NY: Brazilier, 1973.

Clarie, Thomas. Pharos: A Lighthouse for Alexandria. Portsmouth, NH: Back Channel Press, 2009.

Cohen, Ada. Art in the Era of Alexander the Great: Paradigms of Manhood and Their Cultural Traditions. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge U. Press, (forthcoming).

---. The Alexander Mosaic: Stories of Victory and Defeat. Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 1997.

David, Rosalie. Discovering Ancient Egypt. London: Michael O'Mara Books, 1993.

Empereur, Jean-Yves. Alexandria: Jewel of Egypt. NY: Henry N. Abrams, 2002.

Fox, Robin Lane. Alexander the Great. Allen Lane, 1973; Penguin, 1994, 2004.

Fraser, P.M. Cities of Alexander the Great. Clarendon Press, 1966.

Goddio, A.B., E. Bernard, and I. Darwish. Alexandria, Egypt: The Submerged Royal Quarters. Periplus Publishing, 1998.

Green, Peter. Alexander to Actium. The Hellenistic Age. University of California Press,1990.

---. The Hellenistic Age. A Short History. The Modern Library, 2007.

---.  Hellenistic History and Culture. Berkeley, Los Angeles: U. of California Press, 1993.

---. Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 BC: A Historical Biography. Berkeley, Los Angeles: U. of California Press, 1992.

Gruen, Erich. Diaspora: Jews Among Greeks and Romans. Cambridge: Harvard, 2004.

---. Heritage and Hellenism: The Reinvention of Jewish Tradition. Berkeley, Los Angeles: U. of California Press, 1998.

Hammond, N. G. L. The Macedonian State: Origins, Institutions, and History. Oxford: Oxford U. Press, 1989.

Hassan, Fekri (ed.). The Alexandria Greco-Roman Museum: A Thematic Guide. The National Center for Documentation of Cultural and National Heritage (CULTNAT), 2003.

Levine, Lee. Judaism and Hellenism in Antiquity. Seattle: U. of Washington Press, 1998.

McKenzie, Judith. The Architecture of Alexandria and Egypt, 300 BC-AD 700. New Haven: Yale U. Press, 2008.

McLeod, Roy (ed). The Library of Alexandria: Centre of Learning in the Ancient World. London: I. B. Tauris, revised edition, 2005.

Musee du Petit Palais. The Glory of Alexandria, Egypt from Alexander to Cleopatra, 1999.

Pollard, Justin and Howard Reid. The Rise and Fall of Alexandria, Birthplace of the Modern World. NY: Penguin Group, 2006.

Pollitt, Jerome J. Art in the Hellenistic Age. Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 1986.

Rajak, T. Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora. Oxford U. Press, 2009.

Renault, Mary. The Nature of Alexander the Great. NY: Pantheon, 1975, 2001.

Samuel, Alan E. The Shifting Sands of History: Interpretations of Ptolemaic Egypt. Publications of the Association of Ancient Historians, No. 2, 1989.

Shipley, Graham. The Greek World After Alexander, 323-30 BC. Fergus Millar, Ed., London and NY: Routledge, 2000.

Stevens, Susan. Seeing Double: Intercultural Poetics in Ptolemaic Alexandria. Berkeley, Los Angeles: U. of California Press, 2003.

Stewart, Andrew. Classical Greece and the Birth of Western Art. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge U. Press, 2008.

---. Faces of Power: Alexander’s Image and Hellenistic Politics. Berkeley, Los Angeles: U. of California Press, 1993.

Stoneman, Richard. Alexander the Great: A Life in Legend. New Haven: Yale U. Press, 2008.

---.  Alexander the Great. London, NY: Routledge, 2004.

--- and Pseudo-Callisthenes. The Greek Alexander Romance. Penguin Classics, 1999.

Alexandria in Literature
   
Al-Kharrat, Edwar. City of Saffron. Transl. by Frances Liardet, 1989.

Cavafi, C. P. C. P. Cavafi: Collected Poems. Transl. by Daniel Mendelsohn. NY, Knopf, 2009.

Durell, Lawrence. The Alexandria Quartet. 1962. (Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea)

---.  Collected Poems. 1980.

Flaubert. Gustave. Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour. Penguin, 1996.

Forster, E. M. Alexandria, A History and A Guide. 1922, 1982.

---. Pharos and Pharillon, An Evocation of Alexandria. 1923, 1983.

Ibn-Battuta. Travels in Asia and Africa. 1325-1354, transl.by H. A. R. Gibb, 1983.

Keeley, Edmund. Cavafy’s Alexandria. Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1995. 

Liddell, Robert. Unreal City. 1993.

Mahfouz, Naguib. Miramar, translated by Fatima Moussa Mahmoud, 1993.

Tsirkas, Stratis. Drifting Cities, transl. by Kay Cicellis, 1974.

Ungaretti, Giuseppe. Life of Man, introduction by Allen Mandelbaum, 1958.

---. Selected Poems. Transl. by Patrick Creagy, 1971.



Interesting Links:

Humanities Interactive, Texas

K12IMC : Instructional Media Center:, a Virtual Library for K12.

Egyptology Online 

Destinations:

Bibliotheca Alexandrina


Other Links to Egypt Sites

The American Research Center in Egypt ARCE) Northern California Chapter has a page with summaries of lectures delivered at its membership meetings, as well as links to selected Egypt websites.


The House of Ptolemy