His imperial advancement was rapid, and in ad 129 or 130 he achieved the consulship. In about ad 108 he studied philosophy under Epictetus and wrote down his sayings in the Discourses, and a summary of his teachings in a Manual.

Modern historians use the work as a means of recovering Arrian’s major sources, Ptolemy I and Aristobulus.THE CAMPAIGNS OF ALEXANDER ADVISORY EDITOR: BETTY RADICEĪrrian, or Lucius Flavius Arrianus, was a Greek born of well-to-do parents at Nicomedia, the capital of the Roman province of Bithynia, probably a few years beforeĬitizenship which enabled Arrian to take up his career in the imperial service. The work, however, does contain some fine pieces of descriptive writing, such as the account of the siege and capture of Tyre in Book II. There is little to enlighten the reader about Alexander’s motives for conquest or his ideal of the creation of a united world. Titled Anabasis, presumably in order to recall Xenophon’s work of that title, it describes Alexander’s military exploits in seven books an eighth, the Indica, tells of Indian customs and the voyage of Nearchus in the Persian Gulf, with borrowings from Megasthenes and Eratosthenes.Īrrian was clearly a great admirer of Alexander but was primarily interested in the purely military aspect of the story he was telling. He was the author of a work describing the campaigns of Alexander the Great.

160, Athens? ), Greek historian and philosopher who was one of the most distinguished authors of the 2nd-century Roman Empire.

SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!Īrrian, Latin in full Lucius Flavius Arrianus, (born c.

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The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian