ebook img

Curtius Rufus, Histories of Alexander the Great PDF

289 Pages·2009·1.23 MB·English
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview Curtius Rufus, Histories of Alexander the Great

CLARENDON ANCIENT HISTORY SERIES General Editors BRIANBOSWORTH MIRIAMGRIFFIN DAVIDWHITEHEAD SUSANTREGGIARI The aim of the CLARENDON ANCIENT HISTORY SERIES is to provideauthoritativetranslations,introductions,andcommentaries to a wide range of Greek and Latin texts studied by ancient histor- ians. Thebookswillbeofinteresttoscholars,graduatestudents,and advancedundergraduates. CURTIUS RUFUS Histories of Alexander the Great Book 10 Translatedby J. C. YARDLEY withIntroductionandHistoricalCommentaryby J. E. ATKINSON 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto WithoYcesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork qJ.C.YardleyandJ.E.Atkinson2009 Themoralrightsoftheauthorsandhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2009 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby BiddlesLtd.,King’sLynn,Norfolk ISBN 978–0–19–955762–2 ISBN 978–0–19–955763–9(Pbk.) 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Preface Curtius Rufus’ Histories of Alexander the Great Book 10 justiWes a specialedition,asitincludesthefullestaccountofeventsinBabylon immediatelyafterAlexander’sdeath.Thisisnottosay that Curtius’ account is therefore the best guide to what really happened at that time,butthefullnessofCurtius’versiondoessetitapartandcallsfor separate treatment. It also covers some key events in the last 18 months of Alexander’s life, including the ‘reign of terror’ and the mutinyof the Macedonian troops; and it gives Curtius’ Wnal assess- mentofAlexander’squalitiesandfailures. CurtiusdrawsattentiontosimilaritiesbetweentheeventsinBaby- lon and the situation in Rome before the accession of the new emperor, whoever he may be; he is also careful to point out where thecomparisonstops.ThusCurtiusintendedhistexttobeseenasof somerelevancetothereadersofhisday.Throughouttheworkthere isevidenceofRomancolouring,butBook10hasspecialsigniWcance in this regard, and indeed has to be studied by anyone interested in lookingforevidenceofCurtius’dates.Sothehistoricalproblemsare notlimitedtotheperiodwhichisthesubjectofCurtius’history. WhileCurtiushasbeenvariouslydatedtoperiodsfromthetimeof Augustus’ establishment of the Principate through to the fourth century, most scholars treat him as a writer of the Wrst century, or possiblyof the early second century. I must declare that in myview theemperoreulogizedin10.9.1–5isClaudius,butinthiscommen- taryIhavetriedtobeeven-handed,recognizingthatthereisastrong counter-viewthatCurtiuswroteearlyinthereignofVespasian,and thatotheremperorsareseriouspossibilities. ThisworkhasgenerallybeenlocatedsomewherebetweenLivyand Tacitus in linguistic, literary, and historiographical terms, and it therefore has some importance as a Latin text of the Wrst century. ThusIhavenoted,ortransmittedfromearlierstudies,usages,inter- textual references, and common motifs that link Curtius with other writersoftheperiod,suchasValeriusMaximus,VelleiusPaterculus, Seneca,Lucan,andSiliusItalicus,aswellasLivyandTacitus. vi Preface The Histories is a literary work, and this book provides ample scope for demonstrating the literary nature of Curtius’ historiog- raphy.Rutz,MacLCurrie,Baynhamandothershaveshownwhatcan be achieved by looking at Curtius’ narrative style. I have therefore soughttomarry thisapproachwiththemorehistoricalapproach. The major sources on Alexander the Great are well covered by commentaries in English, with Bosworth’s commentary on Arrian (2 volumes in print, and the third in progress) and Brunt’s well annotated edition of Arrian in the Loeb series, Hamilton’s Plutarch Alexander,C.B.Welles’seditionofDiodorus,Bk.17(withthemore limited scope of the traditional Loeb edition), and Heckel’s com- mentary on Yardley’s translation of Justin in their Justin, Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, vol. 1: Books 11–12. I have published commentaries on Curtius Books 3 to 4 and 5 to 7.2, and the remainder is covered in the second volume of my edition of Curtius for the Fondazione Lorenzo Valla/Mondadori series on Greek and Latin authors, but that is in Italian and the commentary on Book 10 is on a much smaller scale than what is oVered here. Otherwise there is not a generally available commentary in English onBook10:Dempsie’sadmirablecommentaryhasunfortunatelynot madethetransitionfromitsappearanceasathesisfortheUniversity of St Andrews to a published version. His work complements this volume in that he places greater emphasis on issues of textual problems,language,andliterary parallels. The translation is an adaptation of John Yardley’s version in the Penguinseries,andIamverygratefultohimforallowingmetouse hisworkandforhisassistanceinsomerephrasingtosuittheneedsof this commentary. Some adaptation was also necessary because he, underinstructionsfromthePenguinserieseditor,hadusedtheBude´ textproducedby Bardon (1965), while I haveworked to the critical edition which I produced for Mondadori. I based my version on Mu¨ller’s edition of 1954, which is generally regarded as superior to Bardon’stext,butislessaccessible.ThetextusedheredoesnotreXect thenumeroustextualemendationsproposedbyDempsie(1991)and (1995),buttheyaregenerallyofmoreconcerntothestudentofLatin and palaeography than to the historian, and would not materially aVect this commentary. W. S. Watt was more inclined to venture emendations that had a bearing on the historical meaning, and we Preface vii wereabletoexchangeideasoveraperiodoftime.Itwasalsomygood fortune to be able to seek advice from Michael Winterbottom on textual and linguistic matters. I was further sensitized to the problems of interpretation by collaboration with Tristano Gargiulo, while he was engaged in translating the Latin text—and then my commentary—into Italian. By the end of that exercise we were notching up several Email messages per day, and my admiration for theskillofthetranslatorgrewevenstronger. The Commentary is intended to meet the requirements of the Series to serve senior undergraduates, graduate students and scholars. As a function of the Wrst degree is to awaken interest in research and to introduce research methodology, it is indeed hoped thatthisvolumewillbeusefulattheundergraduatelevel.Ittherefore errs on the side of fullness to serve as a stand-alone edition (as opposed to a volume in a series of commentaries on the author), and,whereappropriateandpossible,asaone-stopreferenceworkfor the‘hit-and-run’user. It is hoped that the references and bibliography provide an adequate introduction to the scholarly debate on the various issues raised by the text. Further references can be picked up from Holger Koch’s excellent survey of a century of Curtian scholarship (1899–1999), and from surveys in Aufstieg und Nie- dergang der ro¨mischen Welt, Teil II, Band 32.4 and 34. 4, by Rutz (1986) and Atkinson (1998b) respectively. On historical matters the bibliography can be supplemented from i.a. Bosworth (2002), Roisman (2003), and Heckel (2006), and of course by judicious use of the Web. My greatest debt of gratitude is to Ernst Badian, who got me interested in Alexander studies as an undergraduate in Durham, and who generously acted for the University of Cape Town as my doctoral supervisor, and later enabled me to spend a period of sabbaticalleaveatHarvard. MyworkmustalsoreXect theinXuence of my Wrst Head of Department, in what was then the University Collegeof RhodesiaandNyasaland,Tom Carney, whose wide range ofresearchinterests,analyticaltechniques,andsheerindustrywerea powerful challenge and inspiration. Over the years I have been fortunate to have had, at various times or over extended periods, encouragement and advice, not to mention a wealth of oVprints, viii Preface from a great number of scholars working in the Weld of Alexander and related studies, including Elizabeth Baynham (best known for her monograph on Curtius, and the local organizer of the highly successfulsymposiumonAlexanderstudiesheldinNewcastle,NSW,in 1997),EdmundBloedow,ErnstFredricksmeyer,JonGissel,Waldemar Heckel, Simon Hornblower,DianeSpencer, ShapurShahbazi, Adrian Tronson, the late Ursula Vogel-Wiedemann, Gerhard Wirth, Ian Worthington, and John Yardley (to whom I am very grateful for his workontheLatinofTrogus,Justin,andCurtius,andalsoforhisrolein organizingastimulatingsymposiumonAlexanderinOttawa). I must also thank my colleague at UCT, David Wardle, who has beenaneverreliableguidetocurrentscholarshipontheearlyRoman Empire,andaverysharpandcriticalreaderofwhateverdraftsIhave triedoutonhim. IamverygratefultoMiriamGriYnandDavidWhitehead,whoas editors of the Clarendon Ancient History Series, looked at and commented on sections of this work. Most of all I must expressmy deepest gratitude to Brian Bosworth for his special role in initiating thisprojectandguidingmetoitsfruition.Thoughovertheyearswe havedisagreedonmanypointsofinterpretation,theinXuenceofhis amazing range of publications and the depth of his scholarship will beapparentonalmostevery pageofthiscommentary. As ever it should not be assumed that those I have thanked for looking at my work approve of the style and content of all that appears here. I carry the responsibility for any errors, omissions, oddities,andobscuritiesthatremain. AttheinstitutionallevelIamindebtedtoAlexd’Angelo,theHead of the Humanities Section of the UCT Library, who is indeed an information scientist, but has still remained a librarian, and a very helpful one. I am also very grateful to the staV of the library of the Institute of Classical Studies in London, who have given me ready assistance in the precious periods of time when I have been able to workthere. MywifeValerie,appropriatelyne´eAlexander,hashadtocopewith hergreatnamesakeformostofourmarriedlife,andfromtypewriter andwaxedstencilstoPentiumwhateverandUSBs.Nodoubtshewill bepleasedto seethe backof himnow that,from theCape,wehave Preface ix deliveredhim,ifnottoCairo,atleasttoMemphis.Iamverygrateful toherforherpatienceandpracticalassistanceover theyears. J.A. UniversityofCapeTown Rondebosch,S.Africa April2008

Description:
This book presents a translation, with commentary, of a major Roman source on the end of the reign of Alexander the Great. Book 10 of Curtius' Histories covers the reign of terror and mutiny that followed upon Alexander's return from India; and offers the fullest account of the power struggle that b
See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.