Arrian's Events After Alexander in Photius

Abstract

This study seeks to examine Photius' 9th-century summary of Arrian's Events After Alexander. The original work, which no longer survives, records the early history of the successors to Alexander's empire. While Photius' summary preserves some important details of the history, the unique context in which the summary is found (part of a collection of 280 summaries written by Photius, known as the Bibliotheca) means that a unique approach must be used when attempting to reconstruct Arrian's original work, or when comparing it to other surviving accounts of the period following Alexander's death. By examining and comparing other historical summaries found in the Bibliotheca, it will be shown that Photius' summaries are often extremely accurate at some points, but that they do not preserve the form or development of the summarized work, and focus on a diplomatic view of history indicative of Photius' Byzantine tastes.