Historical Sciences Studies

Tarn’s Alexander and the Dream of a United World

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Seyed zein al abedin Majidi
Roozbeh Zarrinkoob

Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22059/jhss.2021.324053.473408
Abstract
In 1927 a British historian by the name of William Tarn (1869-1957) with the appearance of a biography of Alexander in the sixth volume of The Cambridge Ancient History produced ideal views about the personality of Macedonian General. The most pivotal and, at the same time, the most debated of Tarn’s views about Alexander was the attribution of the idea of “the unity and brotherhood of mankind” to him. According to his view of Arrian’s account, Tarn interpreted Alexander’s prayer at the Opis banquet (324 B. C.) for harmony and partnership in rule between Macedonians and Persians formal declaration of the unity of all men and named it as “Homonoia” (unity of hearts). Tarn, in 1933 (essay of “Alexander the Great and the Unity of Mankind”) and 1948 (biography of Alexander the Great, two vols), expressed his ideal view about Alexander again and asserted it without any revision. In spite of many criticisms leveled at Tarn’s ideal views, his idea of “the unity and brotherhood” about Alexander influenced the area of Alexander’s historiography in the west to the late 1950s, until his idea was rejected finally by Ernst Badian in 1958. The consideration of Tarn’s view and modern scholar’s statements indicates that prevailing conditions over time of this historian have brought his ideal idea about Alexander about to form.
 

Keywords

Alexander
Tarn
Unity
Brotherhood
Homonoia
Arrian
The Opis banquet

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Historical Sciences Studies
Volume 13, Issue 3
Autumn 2021
Pages 105-126

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