ARRIAN: NEITHER CONTRARIAN NOR MADAM LIBRARIAN

Always judge a book by its cover

Arrian (i.e. Lucius Flavius Arrianus "Xenophon," or Ἀρριανός) wrote the Alexandrou Anabasis (Ἀλεξάνδρου ἀνάβασις), published by Landmark as The Campaigns of Alexander. Arrian -- something of a fan-boy -- sought to emulate Xenophon, whom he name-drops repeatedly, both in style, mode and title, not to mention taking the name "Xenophon" itself as a preferred pseudonym. Almost in spite of himself, however, Arrian manages to create a unique work chronicling Alexander's romp across the Asian landmass. One interesting thing he does is incorporate material from differing sources (remember he wrote nearly four centuries after Alexander's death) and insert all of it in his own text, meaning certain events either play out in several different ways or certain statements contradict one another. This creates a neat sort of literary as well as scholarly effect. At times he draws attention to where his sources derive from (actually he opens, with rather audacious sobriety for a second-century A.D. work on Alexander, with a list of his principal sources (Ptolemy, Aristoboulos)) and considers their possible biases. Always fun to see a little rudimentary historiography. Probs his weakest pt, particularly in comparison to the Polybius (the Spielberg of classical historians), is his rather unclear descriptions of battles -- the Landmark annotations suggest this is a result of his sources being primarily firsthand and therefore muddled in the middle of a battle, a fortiori his crystal clear descriptions of the orders of battle. But Arrian's Greek is supposedly superb, so I'm looking forward to rereading it in the original at some pt in the near-ish future. Next up: Peter Green's translation of the Argonautika!

i. TAKING A GANDER AT ALEXANDER, ii. LINKS, AND iii. SANTA SIMIA (WITH KITTEN)

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Just finished Book IV of Landmark's Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander (Ἀλεξάνδρου ἀνάβασις). The account is terse and succinct except when it isn't, and Arrian goes soaring off into a flight of rhetoric and fancy, rather like my image of a business-like, no-nonsense Alexander occasionally succumbing to a wild storm of irrationality. Perhaps Alexander was a bottler of emotions as well as a drinker. Arrian may've more/less thought this as well, although he takes pains early on to emphasis Alexander's virtue.

Favorite moment #1. The Siege of Tyre was spellbinding.

Favorite moment(s) #2. Alexander's favorite seer Aristandros pops up almost at random through Book IV to prophecy and interpret omens. The sudden, offhand way he just interjects Aristrandros adds an almost comedic element to the narrative, "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!"-style.

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Because who needs an excuse to post a link of vintage travel posters.

Fantastic interview with Gérard Diffloth (the god-, grand- and allfather of Austroasiatic language studies).

Also, thesis from a student at the Uni of Birmingham I may speed read at some pt. Because dreams.

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And, last but not least, Discarding Images posted the (16th century) illumination below. Gotta love the beatific expression on the monkey's face.

Santa Simia