Given the nature of our sources, retrospective psychoanalysis of Alexander is impossible. Arrian tells us nothing about his childhood, his relations with his parents. Plutarch devotes only a few chapters to the first two thirds of Alexander's life. This is enough for the novelist Mary Renault to write an excellent novel, Fire from Heaven, but not enough for the historian.   more »

ARLT Summer School members have been arriving this afternoon at St John's, College, Durham.   more »