MARC Record from Library of Congress

LEADER: 03537cam a2200373 i 4500
001 2014018170
003 DLC
005 20150708082453.0
008 140606s2015 maua b 001 0beng
010 $a 2014018170
020 $a9780674493094 (alkaline paper)
040 $aDLC$beng$cDLC$erda$dDLC
041 1 $aeng$hfre
042 $apcc
043 $aa-ir---
050 00 $aDS284.7$b.B7513 2015
082 00 $a935/.705092$aB$223
100 1 $aBriant, Pierre,$eauthor.
240 10 $aDarius dans l'ombre d'Alexandre.$lEnglish
245 10 $aDarius in the shadow of Alexander /$cPierre Briant ; translated by Jane Marie Todd.
264 1 $aCambridge, Massachusetts :$bHarvard University Press,$c2015.
300 $axv, 579 pages :$billustrations ;$c25 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$bnc$2rdacarrier
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520 2 $a"The last of Cyrus the Great's dynastic inheritors and the legendary enemy of Alexander the Great, Darius III ruled over a Persian Empire that stretched from the Mediterranean to the Indus River. Yet despite being the most powerful king of his time, Darius remains an obscure figure. As Pierre Briant explains in the first book ever devoted to the historical memory of Darius III, the little that is known of him comes primarily from Greek and Roman sources, which often present him in an unflattering light, as a decadent Oriental who lacked the masculine virtues of his Western adversaries. Influenced by the Alexander Romance as they are, even the medieval Persian sources are not free of harsh prejudices against the king Dara, whom they deemed deficient in the traditional kingly virtues. Ancient Classical accounts construct a man who is in every respect Alexander's opposite--feeble-minded, militarily inept, addicted to pleasure, and vain. When Darius's wife and children are captured by Alexander's forces at the Battle of Issos, Darius is ready to ransom his entire kingdom to save them--a devoted husband and father, perhaps, but a weak king. While Darius seems doomed to be a footnote in the chronicle of Alexander's conquests, in one respect it is Darius who has the last laugh. For after Darius's defeat in 331 BCE, Alexander is described by historians as becoming ever more like his vanquished opponent: a Darius-like sybarite prone to unmanly excess"--Provided by publisher.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 0 $aPreface to the English-language edition -- Translator's note -- Introduction: Between remembering and forgetting -- Part I. The impossible biography -- A shadow among his own -- Darius past and present -- Part II. Contrasting portraits -- "The last Darius, the one who was defeated by Alexander" -- Arrian's Darius -- A different Darius or the same one? -- Darius between Greece and Rome -- Part III. Reluctance and enthusiasm -- Upper king and lower king -- Iron helmet, silver vessels -- The great king's private and public lives -- Part IV. Darius and Dara -- Dara and Iskandar -- Death and transfiguration -- Part V. A final assessment and a few proposals -- Darius in battle : variations on the theme "images and realities" -- Abbreviations -- Greek and Roman sources.
600 00 $aDarius$bIII,$cKing of Persia,$d-330 B.C.
651 0 $aIran$xKings and rulers$vBiography.
651 0 $aIran$xHistory$yTo 640.
600 00 $aAlexander,$cthe Great,$d356 B.C.-323 B.C.
700 1 $aTodd, Jane Marie,$d1957-$etranslator.