Alexander the Great

Reissued to coincide with the release of Oliver Stone's epic movie on Alexander the Great (slated for fall 2004) and the Summer Olympics in Greece, Lewis Cummings's comprehensive and readable biography of Alexander the Great gives us the full portrait of this brilliant and tyrannical leader. A sagacious ruler and a volatile, often violent commander, a sensuous youth and a paradigm of chastity, Alexander the Great of Macedonia remains one of the most fascinating and contradictory figures in world history. Son of King Philip and the tempestuous Queen Olympia, educated by Aristotle himself, a swift succession of military victories gave him an empire that extended from Greece to India. From his first conquest in northern Greece at the age of sixteen, to a swift succession of victories over Macedonia, Egypt, Persia, and Asia, Alexander possessed almost inhuman energy and hubris that defied Zeus himself, until his death at the age of thirty-two. Alexander the Great is an epic history of a man who became one of the most heralded rulers and despised geniuses of all time.