Cleitarchus reconstruction

Project for the Reconstruction of the History of Alexander by Cleitarchus

Introduction

• Nature and date of Cleitarchus; feasibility of the project (pdf: 13 kbytes)
  

Background Information

• Plan for Reconstruction: Modus Operandi (pdf: 9 kbytes)
• Fragments of Cleitarchus from Jacoby (pdf: 1.923 Mbytes)
• Identifications of Cleitarchus Fragments by N.G.L. Hammond

• A)    Diodorus, Justin, Curtius and Plutarch (pdf: 1.909 Mbytes)

• B)    Arrian Legomena (pdf: 27 kbytes)

• Other and Newly Identified Fragments (pdf: 12 kbytes)
• Ancillary Modern References (pdf: 10 kbytes)

Reconstruction

**Updated 26/05/2008**

A synthesis of the evidence for Concerning Alexander by Cleitarchus of Alexandria is given in the following pdf file. This is the first phase of the reconstruction proper and is now virtually complete. The evidence can be seen to be surprisingly extensive and sufficient to support an eventual reconstruction of the text covering almost all major episodes. There is relatively less evidence at the beginning and end of the reign due to losses from our text of Curtius. The Metz Epitome turns out to be an important control on Curtius, especially in the major lacuna of Diodorus 17. Nearly all the fragments of Cleitarchus from Jacoby have been located in this synthesis. The decision to split the reconstruction into 13 books, one for each year of Alexander’s reign, has increasingly been vindicated as the research has proceeded. It transpires that Cleitarchus tended to indulge in digressions at the beginnings and endings of his books.

The latest update incorporates the list of parallels between Curtius and Diodorus published by Schwartz. Further analysis of the evidence has shown that the boundary between books 4 and 5 should follow the siege of Tyre rather than precede it.

• Synthesis of Concerning Alexander by Cleitarchus of Alexandria (pdf: 153kB)

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