Product Description

To all those who witnessed his extraordinary conquests, from Albania to India, Alexander the Great appeared invincible. How Alexander himself promoted this appearance - how he abetted the belief that he enjoyed divine favor and commanded even the forces of nature against his enemies - is the subject of Frank L. Holt's absorbing book. Solid evidence for the "supernaturalized" Alexander lies in a rare series of medallions that depict the triumphant young king at war against the elephants, archers, and chariots of Rajah Porus of India at the Battle of the Hydaspes River. Recovered from Afghanistan and Iraq in sensational and sometimes perilous circumstances, these ancient artifacts have long animated the modern historical debate about Alexander. Holt's book, the first devoted to the mystery of these ancient medallions, takes us into the history of their discovery and interpretation, into the knowable facts of their manufacture and meaning, and, ultimately, into the king's own psyche and his frightening theology of war. The result is a valuable analysis of Alexander history and myth, a vivid account of numismatics, and a spellbinding look into the age-old mechanics of megalomania.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #416000 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 217 pages

Review
"Fascinating detective work...A chilling psychological profile of Alexander. Holt's scholarship is superb, his prose style elegant and crystalline." - Peter Green, Times Literary Supplement (tls)"

About the Author
Frank L. Holt is Professor of History at the University of Houston. He is the author of Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria (California, 1999) and Alexander the Great and Bactria: The Formation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia (1988) and editor of The Greeks in Bactria and India (1985).

Customer Reviews

A fascinating and extremely well-written book - read it!
Frank Holt probably did not set out to promote himself as a polymath when he wrote “Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the Elephant Medallions”. But that is the end result. He has created a fascinating detective story which sets out to solve the problem of the “Porus Medallion” (although he refrains from calling it by this name himself); and he weaves into it people and subjects as varied and diverse as: Sherlock Holmes, Charles Darwin, Heinrich Schliemann and ‘Bokhara’ Burnes; the First and Second Afghan Wars and the Great Game; Shakespeare and his Roman precedents; contemporary Indian nationalism; basic (and not so basic) numismatics; Twentieth Century forgery techniques; Medieval art history… and more!
This might make “Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the Elephant Medallions” sound like a confusion of ideas, but Holt shows a real skill in drawing together all the strands of his argument to produce an enthralling (and therefore enjoyable) book. By the time I had read the first three chapters I felt educated, and it only got better after that. Chapter 5 includes an insightful review of Alexander historiography, which everyone should read before, during and after digesting any modern scholarship on the great Macedonian. By the time I reached the final chapter I was at a service station on the motorway, and I was so engrossed that I stayed longer than I intended, I was so keen to finish the book.
Holt is a good writer – even the rather mundane specifics of numismatics were fascinating, and his style is easy, comradely, and at times plain humorous. I had previously enjoyed “Alexander the Great and Bactria”, and this new book is every bit as good. Do not look to learn anything new about Alexander, because the book is not really about him. But I heartily recommend it, not least because of what we can learn about historical research from it, and also because I do not believe anyone could come away from it without feeling one has learned a lot in the process of reading it.

Compulsive, readable and fascinating
Ever since the film, people have been looking for new angles on the Alexander story - and most have failed. This book, however, succeeds admirably. Holt takes the mystery of the 'Porus medallion' and unravels not just the story of the coins themselves and the circumstances in which they were created, but also the use of coins as political and cultural propaganda and what that reveals about Alexander's leadership and personality. To write about such complex subjects with the thrill and excitement of a thriller writer is an enviable skill and Holt has it. Utterly fascinating.

An Historical Detective Story
This is perhaps the most narrowly focussed book on Alexander that I know of, dealing as it does with just one set of three coin types of the King. Surprisingly, however, it ranks alongside Mary Renault's more general biography of Alexander as a compulsively good read. This is a great story, skillfully told with a convincing and satisfying denouement. It was also a considerable pleasure to see some of the more ridiculous modern character assassinations of Alexander expertly debunked. (And I'm not at all influenced in my opinions by the fact that one of my articles is among Holt's references!)