Books by Sulochana R. Asirvatham
The Courts of Philip II and Alexander the Great: Monarchy and Power in Ancient Macedonia
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This sourcebook collects texts and images concerning Alexander the Great, a figure of world-histo... more This sourcebook collects texts and images concerning Alexander the Great, a figure of world-historical importance whose legendary status was cemented in his lifetime and has lasted over the course of over two millennia. The book includes a significant amount of the earliest source-material on Alexander—itself written centuries after his death during the rise of Rome and the Roman empire—but also incorporates elements of the highly mythologized literature and art that was spawned by the Greek Alexander Romance, a piecemeal work formed over the course of many centuries (3rd c. BCE to 3rd c. CE), whose influence has stretched from antiquity through the modern era from the Byzantine East and Latin West to Iran, Iceland, Israel, and beyond, as well as examples of contemporary Alexander-reception (for example, in film and novels).
The book is unique in that it treats artistic and material objects as primary texts and not just as supplements. It contains all the primary material an instructor needs to provide an overview of Alexander’s life and accomplishments, but also delves deeply into Alexander’s afterlife in the world’s imagination. It is conceived as core/required texts. Students using this book will have a chance to mine original sources for Alexander-history while thinking critically about the limitations of our knowledge given the lateness of our sources. They will also enjoy contemplating—and are likely to be amazed by—Alexander’s pull on the imaginations of so many writers, artists, filmmakers and composers over time.
Book Chapters and Articles by Sulochana R. Asirvatham
The centrality of the phalanx to Philip’s and Alexander’s military successes prompts questions ab... more The centrality of the phalanx to Philip’s and Alexander’s military successes prompts questions about how the Macedonian infantry incorporated non-Macedonians into its forces as it helped conquer new lands, and the degree to which these forces were willing allies, compelled subjects, or a combination of the two. The answers vary according to ethnicity, as foreign forces joined Philip’s and Alexander’s armies at different times and for different reasons. This chapter catalogues our evidence for Greek, Balkan, and Asian infantrymen in Philip’s and/or Alexander’s armies, and briefly considers the question of to the degree to which we can see them as “loyal allies” in a strongly positive sense. It is only in the cases of two bodies of soldiers—the Agrianian akontists (javelin-wielding peltasts) and the Persian Epigoni, 30,000 youths outfitted as Macedonian soldiers—that this seems to apply. They enter the army under highly different circumstances and for very different reasons, and they appear very differently in the sources: one is a faceless but steadfast presence at war; the other, a sign of Alexander’s increasingly Persian proclivities. It is possible, however, that the Agrianes were also, like the Epigoni, recipients of Alexander’s favoritism, specifically over the Macedonian soldiery.
Cambridge Companion to Alexander the Great
The Intellectual Climate of Cassius Dio Greek and Roman Pasts, eds. Adam Kemezis, Colin Bailey, and Beatrice Poletti (Brill), 2022
Cassius Dio wrote his 80-book Roman History in Attic Greek prose at a time when others were also ... more Cassius Dio wrote his 80-book Roman History in Attic Greek prose at a time when others were also creating gargantuan works in Attic Greek prose. As such, Dio is often referred to as a writer of the “Second Sophistic”, despite lacking some other important stereotypical features usually associated with the label, such as an obsession with the classical Greek past, and despite the fact that he writes from a senatorial viewpoint. He does, however, show least one overt sign of language-consciousness: an emphasis on Greek-Latin bilingualism of emperors. Importantly, bilingualism is not a guarantee of good imperial rule. Dio’s concern with the role of Greek in the senate suggests that, for him, the Greek language is as essential for governing Rome as Latin, and that the instrument of government most capable of this is the bilingual senate rather than the unstable office of the emperor.
A History of Alexander the Great in World Culture, ed. R. Stoneman (Cambridge University Press), 2022
Affective Relations and Personal Bonds in Hellenistic Antiquity: Studies in Honor of Elizabeth D. Carney, 2020
There is a brief but memorable moment in Arrian when Alexander, after murdering Cleitus, laments ... more There is a brief but memorable moment in Arrian when Alexander, after murdering Cleitus, laments his action against his friend as well as the pain this has caused Cleitus’s sister Lanice, his one-time wet-nurse who lost her only two (unnamed) sons fighting for him at Miletus (4.9.3). Curtius also records the lament over “Hellanice” and refers to the loss of her two sons (8.1.21; 8.2.8–9); Justin tells the story without naming the sister (126.10–11). We hear of Lanice in only one other context: as the mother of Proteas, Alexander’s famous drinking buddy and syntrophos (Ath. 5.2, followed by Ael. 12.26), who cannot be one of the two sons who died before Cleitus’s death. I suggest that there were two separate traditions about Lanice that exploited her role as a “wet-nurse” in different ways, reflecting both the romanticizing and the judgmental aspects of ancient discourse that surrounded the practice of wet-nursing. In the first, the figures of Lanice and her sons are “protectors” of Alexander, and as such may have called to mind for the audience the story of protector nymphs such as Amalthea who nursed infants in trouble, such as Zeus and Dionysus (with whom, as we know, Alexander had a special relationship), and the ecstatic dancing soldiers who assisted her. A second, sensationalist version, seen in Athenaeus and Aelian, saw her as the mother of one drunk, Proteas, and τροφός of another, Alexander.
The Impact of Xenophon's Kyroupaideia, eds. Bruno Jacobs and Robert Rollinger (Classica et Orientalia series, Harrosowitz) , 2020
Cassius Dio: the Impact of Violence, War, and Civil War. eds. Carsten Lange and Andrew Scott (Brill), 2020
Illinois Classical Studies 44:1, 2019
In Coriolanus 1.4, Plutarch criticizes the Romans for having only one term to encompass all of vi... more In Coriolanus 1.4, Plutarch criticizes the Romans for having only one term to encompass all of virtue: virtūs, which, with its the “manly” vir- root, directly translates Greek ἀνδρεία, but leaves out much of the entire range of virtues represented by Greek ἀρετὴ. Through his manipulation of ἀνδρεία and related words, Plutarch asserts not only that virtūs is as Greek as it is Roman, but also that virtūs alone is not enough to make a vir. Plutarch ultimately appears to identify masculinity self-reflexively, as the ability to wield intellectual authority over all spheres of ἀρετὴ, including ethical, political, and military.
The Brill Companion to the Reception of Alexander the Great, ed. K. Moore (Brill, 2018), 2018
Ancient Macedonians in the Greek And Roman Sources. From History to Historiography (Classical Press of Wales), 2018
The historiographical writings of Arrian, Appian, Herodian, and Cassius Dio pose interesting chal... more The historiographical writings of Arrian, Appian, Herodian, and Cassius Dio pose interesting challenges to how we characterize Second Sophistic literature. With its ostensible goal of telling the truth about the past, imperial Greek historiography seems incompatible with the large bulk of imperial Greek writing that is more obviously inspired by declamation and whose main goal is the virtuosic display of erudition, or paideia. Furthermore, inasmuch as this historiography focuses primarily on Roman history, it hardly fulfills the stereotype of Second Sophistic literature as thematically Hellenocentric, even if it is similarly characterized by linguistic Atticism. This chapter therefore argues for an expanded definition of the Second Sophistic that can meaningfully accommodate the peculiarly hybrid nature of historiography on the levels of both genre and cultural politics-as "earnest" history somewhat dominated by rhetoric, and as work better described as "Greco-Roman" than as essentially "Greek."
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Books by Sulochana R. Asirvatham
The book is unique in that it treats artistic and material objects as primary texts and not just as supplements. It contains all the primary material an instructor needs to provide an overview of Alexander’s life and accomplishments, but also delves deeply into Alexander’s afterlife in the world’s imagination. It is conceived as core/required texts. Students using this book will have a chance to mine original sources for Alexander-history while thinking critically about the limitations of our knowledge given the lateness of our sources. They will also enjoy contemplating—and are likely to be amazed by—Alexander’s pull on the imaginations of so many writers, artists, filmmakers and composers over time.
Book Chapters and Articles by Sulochana R. Asirvatham
The book is unique in that it treats artistic and material objects as primary texts and not just as supplements. It contains all the primary material an instructor needs to provide an overview of Alexander’s life and accomplishments, but also delves deeply into Alexander’s afterlife in the world’s imagination. It is conceived as core/required texts. Students using this book will have a chance to mine original sources for Alexander-history while thinking critically about the limitations of our knowledge given the lateness of our sources. They will also enjoy contemplating—and are likely to be amazed by—Alexander’s pull on the imaginations of so many writers, artists, filmmakers and composers over time.