Alexandria in Egypt is just one of the many "Alexandrias" - ancient cities traditionally founded by Alexander the Great. This book unravels the fascinating labyrinth behind this tradition - with its origins in a political pamphlet and a romantic novel.

The cities founded by Alexander the Great were an essential part of his overall achievement. The problems concerning them, however, are many - and some incapable of solution. This book attempts to unravel the tradition, seeking to demonstrate that it originated in a tendentious political pamphlet of the third century BC, written in Ptolemaic Alexandria in the context of the development of the earliest version of the Alexander-Romance. The author explores the ramifications of this reconstruction from a lost Greek original through to the Persian and Arab traditions, and concludes that the number of cities commonly claimed to have been founded by Alexander needs to be considerably reduced. The book also includes some more general considerations regarding Alexander's policies and intentions.

Erudite work ... For scholars and advanced students, this is an important contribution to Alexander studies.