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А.А. Kleymenov (Tula) – Foreign Heroes of the Dying Empire: the Image of Darius III’s Greek Generals in the Work of Curtius Rufus

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Abstract

The specifics of images of Greek military leaders who served Darius III in the work of Quintus Curtius Rufus “Historiae Alexandri Magni Macedonis” is discussed. In some cases, the Roman writer conveyed the material from earlier sources relatively accurately. This narrative was characterized by the opposition of competent and loyal Greek commanders to the envious and treacherous Persian nobles, who were unable to counteract Alexander. To the greatest extent, these ideas infl uenced the assessment of the activities of Memnon of Rhodes presented in the work and the story about the participation of the Phocian Patron in the events preceding the overthrow of Darius. Nevertheless, Curtius Rufus had a tendency to transform the information of his predecessors. He focused on the problem of the negative infl uence of fortune and unlimited power on the human personality. Following his literary plan, the author dramatized the narrative. There is also a change in the sequence of events, a change in the plot in accordance with literary patterns, attribution of the actions of some persons to others, independently determined the motives of the personages and the content of their speeches. These trends were especially noticeable in the episodes reporting about the interaction of the Persian king with the Athenian Charidemus and the Mentor’s son Thimodes.

Keywords

Curtius Rufus, Darius III, Cleitarchus, Persia, mercenaries, ancient Roman literature.

Аleksandr А. Kleymenov

Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University, Tula, Russian Federation

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