Alexander and Africa (332-331 BC and beyond): the facts, the traditions and the problems

Abstract

This survey lays out the main facts and problems of Alexander's principal associations with Africa, in life, in death and in the imagination of the later ancients (it does not venture into the realm of so-called Reception Studies). Of the themes inevitably treated here two above all, the foundation of Alexandria and the visit to Siwah, are well established chestnuts of Alexander scholarship, and will be handled rather more circumspectly than they might otherwise be. The shadow of Ptolemy, both as a rival actor and as a re-packager of the deeds of Alexander, in the development of political propaganda and the writing of history alike, hangs over much of the discussion.