First Line Friday is hosted by Carrie @ Reading Is My Superpower.
The Friday 56 is hosted by Anne @ My Head is Full of Books while Freda @ Freda’s Voice is on hiatus.
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First Line Friday
where each week we share the first line of our current read(s)
More than two millennia have elapsed, but Alexander the Great is still a household name.
The Friday 56
where each week we share a snippet from page 56 or 56%
The city’s lifeline to the Black Sea and Scythian grain supplies remained intact, but was vulnerable, for Philip was now in a position to close the Hellespond whenever he wanted. The Athenians would think twice before annoying him again.
What can we learn from the stunning rise and mysterious death of the ancient world’s greatest conqueror? An acclaimed biographer reconstructs the life of Alexander the Great in this magisterial portrait.
More than two millennia have passed, but Alexander the Great is still a household name. His life was an adventure story and took him to every corner of the ancient world. His memory and glamour persist, and his early death at thirty-three has kept him evergreen in our imaginations with a legacy that meant something different to every age: in the Middle Ages he became an exemplar of knightly chivalry, he was a star of Renaissance paintings, and by the early twentieth century he even came to resemble an English gentleman. But who was he in his own time?
In Alexander the Great, Anthony Everitt judges Alexander’s life against the criteria of his own age and considers all his contradictions. We meet the Macedonian prince who was naturally inquisitive and fascinated by science and exploration, who enjoyed the arts and used the poet Homer’s great epic, the Iliad, as a bible. As his empire grew, stretching from Greece and Macedonia to Ancient Egypt and Persia and all the way to India, Alexander exhibited respect for the traditions of his new subjects and careful judgment in administering rule over a vast territory. But his career also had a dark side. An inveterate conqueror, who in his short life built the largest empire to that point in history, Alexander glorified war and was known to commit acts of great cruelty.
As debates continue about the meaning of his life, Alexander’s death remains an unsolved mystery. Did he die of natural causes, felled by a fever, or did his marshals, angered by his tyrannical behavior, kill him? An explanation of his death can lie only in what we know of his life, and Everitt ventures to solve that puzzle, offering an ending to Alexander’s story that has eluded so many for so long.
What do you think of the snippets I featured today?
Have you read this book? Do you want to?
Ooh, you know, I’ve shelved this book a hundred times at the bookstore where I work, but it’s one of the few I haven’t actually flipped open on a slow day. What a great first line–and I’m sure the rest that follows is good, too. Might have to actually check it out now…
It was a bit of a rough start for me but it turned into a page-turner for me!
I can’t say Alexander the Great is a household name in my house, lol, but I do love the second snippet, it draws you into the story😁
I think the author meant that pretty much everyone has at least heard of Alexander the Great? But it has been an interesting read so far and I don’t have many pages left 😀
Very interesting!
Yes yes 😀
Alexander-the-Great. I know his name but nothing about him. Is the book interesting? Hope so.
Thanks for joining Friday56 today.
It is interesting and I can’t believe everything Alexander did in his short life but it is a pretty “academic” read so I haven’t been reading as fast as I’d like.
I am not a huge reader of history so I haven’t read this one. I hope you enjoy it. Have a great weekend!
Alexander the Great really is a fascinating character. I think i’d be curious enough to read more of this biography. Hope you’re enjoying it!
I haven’t read it but that seems fascinating!
Definitely a powerful first line!
Great snippets. I will join these two first line memes. I love them.
I just finished a book by Alexander the Great by Philip Freeman which was also very good. Such a fascinating character, and all the things he achieved at such a young age.