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17 - Alexander in the Long Eighteenth Century (c.1660–1830)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2022

By
Pierre Briant
Edited by
Richard Stoneman
Richard Stoneman
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Summary

At Christmas 1833 a History of Alexander the Great (Geschichte des Alexanders des Groẞen) appeared in Berlin, consisting of almost 600 densely printed pages and accompanied by about 650 learned notes. The author, Johan Gustav Droysen, was an exceptionally gifted young scholar aged twenty-five. Two years previously he had defended his thesis on Lagid Egypt, and had been the pupil, at the University of Berlin, of distinguished teachers, in the areas of Altertumswissenschaft (August Boeckh), historical geography (Carl Ritter) and philosophy of history (Georg Wilhelm Hegel). This Alexander was followed in 1836 and 1843 by two other volumes devoted to what we today call the Hellenistic world (Hellenismus). Although in the meantime Droysen had turned his attention to the modern and contemporary history of Prussia, these three volumes were reissued in 1877 as a Geschichte des Hellenismus.

Keywords

MontesquieuBaron de Sainte-CroixWilliam RobertsonJohn GilliesWilliam VincentCarsten NiebuhrNearchus‘Oriental despotism’PersiaIndia
Type
Chapter
Information
A History of Alexander the Great in World Culture , pp. 375 - 399
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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