Citanda: The Deadly Styx River and the Death of Alexander
I don’t think we mentioned that, subsequent to all the news coverage about the possible poisoning of Alexander, Adrienne Mayor’s ‘working paper’ on the subject became available at the Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics site: The Deadly Styx River and the Death of Alexander (pdf) Here’s the abstract: Plutarch, Arrian, Diodorus, Justin, and other ancient [...]
Puddle Question: What Killed Alexander the Great?
Image by brewbooks via Flickr Those who teach grade-school level math or science are familiar with the concept of a ‘puddle question’. These are usually word problems of some sort which have more than one possible answer. From a teacher point of view, they are designed to assess how a student approaches a problem, comes [...]
Linothorax from Pompeii?
Twice in the past I have tried to blog about a project involving Linothorax, and twice the post has vanished into the ether. Hopefully, the third time’s a charm. Anyhoo, Linothorax is not some gruff, activisitic Dr Suess character … it’s a type of armour made from linen which was supposedly light and very strong. [...]
Alexander the Great’s Tunnel?
Interesting question over at Ask MetaFilter: I can’t find much info about it online, the only information I can find is that he supposedly tunneled through Rosh Hanikra after having conquered Tyre, and the tunnel was large enough for him to march his entire army through. But why is it that can no one find [...]
Richard Stoneman on Alexander the Great
Richard Stoneman is the guest in a podcastish sort of thing from Australia’s ABC … not sure what the shelf life of it is: Alexander the Great: a life in legend – RN Book Show – 10 May 2010.
The Little Mermaid — The Greek Version
Image by lyng883 via Flickr Folks might be aware that the ‘Little Mermaid’ from Copenhagen’s harbour is temporarily residing at the Shanghai World Expo. Some press coverage includes this little tidbit: “Different cultures have different interpretations of the Mermaid. We have another story of the Mermaid,” said Flora Kotzia, a visitor from Greece. According to [...]
Hellenistic Coin Hoard from Syria
Interesting item from the Global Arab Network: A collection of Hellenistic coins dating back to the era of Alexander the Great were found near Najm Castle in the Manbej area in Aleppo governorate (northern Syria ). The coins were found by a local man as he was preparing his land for construction, uncovering a bronze [...]
Bipolar Alexander?
The incipit of a piece in the Telegraph: Clever children are almost four times more likely to suffer from the condition, which is also known as manic depression. The latest finding, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, supports a commonly held belief that exceptional intellectual ability is associated with the mental illness. Famous sufferers [...]
Citanda: Following in Alexander’s Afghan footsteps
Following in Alexander’s Afghan footsteps. … from the Times-Colonist
Alexander Gemstone!
The spectacular finds continue to pour in! This time, it’s the discovery of what should probably be called an intaglio depicting Alexander the Great … from Tel Dor! Here’s the Arutz Sheva coverage: Excavations in Tel Dor have turned up a rare and unexpected work of Hellenistic art: a precious stone bearing the miniature carved [...]
“Alexander” from Alexandria followup
Putting together Explorator I note that Al Alhram has a much better photo of the statue we mentioned last week (as part of a montage of photos of recent finds in Egypt): Sorry … that’s an athlete in the midst of his athleting; it’s a stretch to make that into an Alexander, no matter what [...]
Alexander Statue from Alexandria?
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to lend any credence to claims of artifacts from the period of our purview being found in Egypt. After all that Cleopatra business of a few weeks ago (about which I might blog some more items that I’ve been sitting on), we get this item from the Egyptian State Information Service: [...]
Alexander Tomb Update
Some must-reading in the wake of last week’s silliness … it’s clear that there’s even sillier stuff going on in FYROM/Macedonia: Macedonia: Alexander the Great as Media Bait (Global Voices)
If It’s Tuesday, Alexander’s Grave Must Be In …
FYROM … er … Macedonia … er … somewhere it has no business being. Or at least that’s the impression we’re being given from a couple of sources. First, MINA came out with this tantalizingly brief brief: MiNa was not able to verify this information with the Macedonian Government nor with archeologists in Skopje, and [...]
Alexander the Great Inscription?
As often with items from Bulgaria, something seems to have been lost in translation. An initial report from the Focus news agency suggested: Unique marble slab with the image of Alexander the Great and a passage of an inscription was discovered in archaeological excavations in the ancient Baktriya, Baktriya Press Agency informed. The slab represents [...]
Alexander the Great’s Tomb … In Australia?
When I first read this I had to double check the calendar and make sure it wasn’t April Fool’s Day … it wasn’t, but apparently it was a very slow news day for the ABC folks … or perhaps it was a very busy day for something so freakin’ bizarre to make it past the [...]
The Height of Alexander
A review of Simon Sebag-Montefiore , Heroes: History’s Greatest Men and Women at Mercator.net concludes thusly: There was one glaring error: Alexander the Great’s height is given as 4’ 6”; but would make him the same height as the crippled poet Alexander Pope, and is never mentioned by the ancient authorities; surely the author means 5’ [...]
