Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the Elephant Medallions
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A01=Frank L. Holt
afghanistan
alexander the great
ancient history
ancient medallions
Author_Frank L. Holt
battle of the hydaspes river
biographical
biography
Category=DNBH
Category=NHB
Category=NHC
Category=NHD
conquests
discussion books
elephant medallions
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
european history
hellenistic culture
hellenistic period
hellenistic society
historians
historical perspective
india
iraq
megalomania
myths and legends
nonfiction
numismatics
popular history
rajah porus
retrospective
supernatural success
theology of war
war
warfare
Product details
- ISBN 9780520244832
- Weight: 318g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 24 Nov 2003
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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To all those who witnessed his extraordinary conquests, from Albania to India, Alexander the Great appeared invincible. How Alexander himself promoted this appearance - how he abetted the belief that he enjoyed divine favor and commanded even the forces of nature against his enemies - is the subject of Frank L. Holt's absorbing book. Solid evidence for the "supernaturalized" Alexander lies in a rare series of medallions that depict the triumphant young king at war against the elephants, archers, and chariots of Rajah Porus of India at the Battle of the Hydaspes River. Recovered from Afghanistan and Iraq in sensational and sometimes perilous circumstances, these ancient artifacts have long animated the modern historical debate about Alexander. Holt's book, the first devoted to the mystery of these ancient medallions, takes us into the history of their discovery and interpretation, into the knowable facts of their manufacture and meaning, and, ultimately, into the king's own psyche and his frightening theology of war. The result is a valuable analysis of Alexander history and myth, a vivid account of numismatics, and a spellbinding look into the age-old mechanics of megalomania.
Frank L. Holt is Professor of History at the University of Houston. He is the author of Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria (California, 1999) and Alexander the Great and Bactria: The Formation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia (1988) and editor of The Greeks in Bactria and India (1985).
