Arrian’s Campaigns of Alexander, widely considered the most authoritative history of the brilliant leader’s great conquests, is the latest addition to the acclaimed Landmark series.

After twelve years of hard-fought campaigns, Alexander the Great controlled a vast empire that was bordered by the Adriatic sea to the west and modern-day India to the east. Arrian, himself a military commander, combines his firsthand experience of battle with material from Ptolemy’s memoirs and other ancient sources to compose a singular portrait of Alexander. This vivid and engaging new translation of Arrian will fascinate readers who are interested in classical studies, the history of warfare, and the origins of East–West tensions still swirling in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan today. Enriched by the series’ trademark comprehensive maps, illustrations, and annotations, and with contributions from the preeminent classical scholars of today, The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander is the definitive edition of this essential work of ancient history.

“The most thrilling volume in this fine series.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A sumptuously annotated and lavishly illustrated new edition of The Campaigns of Alexander. . . . Arrian is by far our best and most reliable source for the events he describes.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Pamela Mensch’s new translation is both literal and fast-paced. . . . An ideal introductory text to the career of Alexander, [that] will introduce readers to an accessible ancient historian.” —The New Criterion

“Illuminating. . . . Alexander’s conquests stretched across the known world—this is the first edition of Arrian to show that world in all its vastness.” —The National

Praise for the Landmark Series

The Landmark Xenophon’s Hellenika

“Lavish. . . . Outstanding. . . . There is nothing else like [it].” —The New York Review of Books

“Truly worthy of the series name. . . . Strassler and the other contributors bring Xenophon to life.” —Sacramento Book Review

The Landmark Herodotus

“The most densely annotated, richly illustrated, and user-friendly edition of his Histories ever to appear.” —Daniel Mendelsohn, The New Yorker

“A real service. . . . Considerably improves accessibility by integrating hundreds of maps and extensive timelines . . . [and] amplifies the first historian’s own epic accomplishment.” —Forbes

The Landmark Thucydides

“Without question, this is the finest edition of Thucydides’ history ever produced. It is a treasure.” —The Washington Times

“The editor and his contributors have asked themselves the fundamental question: how can one best present and interpret the work of one of the most fascinating but difficult of ancient authors to a modern audience? They have answered this question brilliantly.” —The Classical Quarterly

Arrian, or Lucius Flavius Arrianus, was a Greek born of well-to-do parents at Nicomedia, the capital of the Roman province of Bithynia, probalbly a few years before A.D. 90. His father had been granted Roman citizenship which enabled Arrian to take up his career in the imperial service. In about A.D. 108 he studied philosophy under Epictetus and wrote down his sayings in the Discourses, and a summary of his teachings in a Manual. His imperial advancement was rapid, and in A.D. 129 or 130 he achieved the consulship. But it was his appointment as governor of the border province of Cappadocia a year later which shows how greatly the Emperor Hadrian trusted his undoubted military and administrative abilities. His command included two Roman legions and numerous auxiliary troops, a rare, perhaps unexampled, responsibility for a Greek at that time. In A.D. 134 he drove the invading Alans out of Armenia in a campaign he describes in The Formation against the Alans. He also wrote a Tactical Manual for cavalry, and the Circumnavigation of the Black Sea, an account of the voyage he undertook from Trapezus to Dioscurias in 131-2. He retired or was recalled before the death of Hadrian in 138, and devoted the rest of his life to writing, living at Athens. He became an Athenian citizen and rose to be chief magistrate in 145, which qualified him to become a member of the Areopagus, the chief governing body of Athens. Nothing further is known for certain of his life. The surviving works of Arrian's Athenian period are a handbook, On the Chase, The Campaigns of Alexander in seven books, and the Indica, an account of the voyage of Alexander's fleet form India to the Perisian Gulf. View titles by Arrian