Envy of the Gods: Alexander the Great's Ill-Fated Journey Across Asia - Softcover

Prevas, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0306814420 ISBN 13: 9780306814426

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2005

Synopsis

By the time Alexander the Great was twenty-six, he had conquered the world's mightiest empire, Persia. He was the envy of every man. But Alexander had a higher aspiration-to be the envy of the gods. And so, Alexander embarked on a long campaign of conquest across Asia. He marched his army through the mountains of Afghanistan to the Indian subcontinent. But as he pushed forward in his wild pursuit of glory and immortality, he grew increasingly unpredictable, sporadically violent, and megalomaniacal. In the end, only seven years after he had conquered Persia, Alexander the Great was defeated not by any external enemy but by himself, unable to control his passions.Writer and intrepid explorer John Prevas informs his "absorbing" (Raleigh News & Observer) narrative through a personal retracing of much of Alexander's route through what is now Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The author's research and travels bring brilliantly to life this riveting story of Alexander's decline and fall-in the land where he sought his greatest glory.

About this title

About the Author

John Prevas, writer and adventurer, holds degrees in history, political science, psychology, and forensics and has taught the classics for the last fifteen years. He is the author of Hannibal Crosses the Alps and Xenophon's March. He lives in Florida.

From Publishers Weekly

Once Alexander the Great had conquered the Mediterranean world, he turned his eyes eastward to Asia in what historian Prevas terms a "pathological compulsion" to expand his power. In a rather pedantic and workmanlike account, Prevas, who retraced Alexander's footsteps to Asia, examines this chapter of the Macedonian conqueror's life. According to Prevas (Hannibal Crosses the Alps), Alexander exhibited a dark side that his biographers rarely account for. Prey to a megalomaniac desire to rule the world unrestrained by self-control, Alexander thought of himself as divine and expected his constituents and armies to worship him as well as obey his commands, however unreasonable. Prevas recounts Alexander's unstoppable drive to conquer Persepolis in Persia and avenge his father's death, which he attributed to Darius, destroying monuments, statues, every vestige of Persian culture. In India, when his army demanded to return home, Alexander instead marched them through the Gedrosian Desert, one of the most brutal places on earth. By the time he returned to Babylon, Alexander had lost the respect of his followers, and many scholars speculate that he met his death at the hands of one of his governors. Prevas's straightforward account of these exploits reveals no new information about the ruler; readers will do better with Paul Cartledge's new Alexander the Great. 16 pages of b&w illus., maps.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0306814420
• ISBN 13: 9780306814426
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 272