Arrian

Arrian was a Greek historian, senior Roman administrator and experienced military commander writing more than four centuries after Alexander the Great’s death. Although he could not interview participants, he had access to earlier histories that have since been lost. His principal authorities were Ptolemy, one of Alexander’s officers and the later ruler of Egypt, and Aristobulus, who had accompanied the Macedonian expedition. In the introduction to his Anabasis of Alexander, Arrian explains that he preferred these eyewitnesses when their accounts agreed and selected what he considered the more credible version when they differed. He also drew on writers such as Nearchus, Alexander’s naval commander, particularly for the voyage from India. Arrian therefore preserves information derived from people who had witnessed the campaigns, even though their original works no longer survive.

Arrian was also unusually well qualified to interpret military evidence. He served as a Roman senator, consul and governor of Cappadocia, where he commanded legions and prepared to confront an incursion by the Alans. His writings on cavalry tactics and battle formations demonstrate a practical understanding of reconnaissance, logistics, terrain, discipline and command. This experience helped him explain Alexander’s marches, sieges and battlefield decisions with greater technical clarity than many ancient biographers. Nevertheless, the Anabasis is not an impartial eyewitness record: Ptolemy and Aristobulus had reasons to protect their own reputations, Arrian admired Alexander, and he sometimes favoured accounts that presented the king as a rational and exemplary commander. His work is therefore indispensable but must be compared with other surviving traditions, including Plutarch, Diodorus and Curtius Rufus.

In non-fiction, Arrian is discussed in Arrian’s The Campaigns of Alexander. Arrian’s The Campaigns of Alexander approaches the subject through military command and battlefield decision-making.