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Robin Lane Fox was the main historical advisor to Oliver Stone on his Alexander film, and took part in many of its most dramatic re-enactions. He has been University Reader in Ancient History at Oxford University since 1990 and Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at New College, Oxford, since 1977. His books and articles include major works on the relation between the pagan and early Christian religions of the Roman Empire and his forthcoming History of the Ancient World will be published by Penguin in autumn 2005.
Alexander could be said to have pioneered the blitzkrieg form of warfare thousands of years before Hitler came along. While still in his twenties he led vast armies on a sweep of the East, conquering one nation after another and leaving new cities to his glory wherever he went. All that is documented history, but in this updated version of a book first published in 1973, Fox looks behind the ancient accounts and sets out to find what kind of a person Alexander really was. Some of his conclusions are startling. Once seen with a human face, the fixated warrior assumes a new persona that is sometimes scary, sometimes winning. Fox also looks at the people behind Alexander, including his mother whom, he conjectures, may have conspired to have her husband murdered. The book is erudite and finely detailed, peeling back centuries of history to show one of the truly epic figures in a bold new light.(Kirkus UK)
