The Nature of Alexander (36 page)

Pella,
20
,
30
,
38
,
43
,
60
,
77
,
89
,
243
,
249

Pelopidas,
20

Peloponnesian War,
35
,
47
,
131

Perdiccas III,
19
,
20-1
,
73
,
75

Perdiccas (general),
6
,
64
,
84
,
89
,
91
,
190
,
196
,
206
,
208
,
244
,
259
,
265
,
266
,
267

Pericles,
37
,
50
,
51

Perinthus,
46
,
47

Persepolis,
139
,
144
ff.,
153
,
160
,
221
ff.,
248

Persian War,
61

Persis,
144

Peucestas,
206
,
207
,
208
,
221
,
223
,
230
,
250
,
253
,
264
,
266

Pharnaces,
204-5

Phidias,
94

Philip II,
8
,
10
,
17
,
19-26
,
27
,
29
,
30
,
32
ff.,
44
ff.,
71
,
73
ff.,
79
,
82
,
84
ff.,
88-9
,
97
,
99
,
108
,
109
,
121
,
123
,
159
,
168
,
177
,
178
,
184
,
234
,
238

Philip (doctor),
99
,
241

Philostratus,
198

Philotas,
60
,
79
,
81
,
83
,
91
,
96
,
110
,
122-3
,
144
,
162-4
,
165-6

Phocians,
47
,
49
,
50
,
83
,
84
,
85
,
145

Phoenicians,
107
,
112
,
114
,
215

Phoenix,
28
,
113

Pindar,
85

Pixodorus,
59
,
60
,
94-5
,
96-7

Plataeans,
50
,
83
,
84
,
85

Plato,
10
,
39
,
40
,
42
,
43
,
45
,
54
,
73

Plutarch,
13
,
23
,
29-30
,
34
,
41
,
44
,
45
,
59
,
60
,
63
,
65
,
69
,
73
,
76
,
85
,
90
,
98
,
104
,
105
,
109
,
113-14
,
125
,
128
,
129
,
131
,
134
,
142
,
143
,
147
,
148
,
153
,
154
,
155
,
160
,
162
,
164
,
180
,
220
,
224
,
237
,
239
,
241
,
242
,
249
,
250
,
258
,
259-60
,
262
,
267

Porus,
9
,
193
,
194
,
195
,
196
,
197-9
,
204

Poseidon,
89
,
180-1
,
213
,
231

Pseudo-Callisthenes,
14
,
159
,
242
,
243
,
261

Ptolemy I,
5-7
,
13
,
30-2
,
43
,
48
,
79
,
84
,
86
,
89
,
91
,
101
,
111
,
120
,
147
,
148
,
155
,
161
,
164
,
170
,
174
,
179
,
187
,
191
,
192
,
194-5
,
196
,
198
,
204
ff.,
218
,
219
,
224
,
226
,
227
,
234
,
243
ff.

Punjab,
189
,
190
,
193
,
200
,
203
,
214

Pythagoras,
256

Red Sea,
250
,
251

Roman d’Alexandre
,
16

Rome, Romans,
7
,
11-12
,
15
,
73
,
78
,
101
,
108
,
127
,
134
,
140
,
188
,
221
,
223
,
233
,
236
,
245
,
250

Roxane,
3
,
16
,
17
,
110
,
183-5
,
186
,
190
,
204
,
211
,
220
,
221
,
226
,
227
,
239
,
243
,
247
,
248
,
250
,
267-8

Royal Journal,
256
,
261

Royal Kindred,
173
,
176
,
235

Royal Road,
5
,
139
,
142
,
233
,
247

Sacred Band,
20
,
34
,
51
,
52
,
53
,
83
,
85

Sacred League,
47
,
49
,
51
,
75

Sambus of Sind,
212

Samarkand,
171
,
178

Samos,
231

Samothrace,
19
,
21

Sangala,
200

Sarapis,
243
,
264

Sardis,
82
,
93
,
96
,
109

Sarpedon,
52

Satibarzanes,
168

Scythians,
47
,
171
,
172
,
245

Seleucus,
196
,
226

Semiramis,
211
,
219

Shakespeare, William,
71
,
97

Sicily,
115
,
131
,
250

Sidon,
110
,
111
,
112
,
113
,
114

Sisygambis,
104
,
105
,
106
,
128
,
132
,
137
,
144
,
153
,
225
,
246
,
253
,
268

Siwah,
57
,
120
,
243
,
258

Socrates,
36
,
37
,
39
,
41
,
71
,
73
,
108
,
264

Sogdiana,
129
,
171
,
182-3
,
184
,
185
,
190
,
203

Sparta, Spartans,
20
,
25
,
35
,
49
,
54
,
110
,
112
,
126
,
173
,
223
,
230
,
249

Speusippus,
39

Spitamenes,
182
,
226

Stagira,
40
,
46

Stateira,
104-5
,
131-2
,
154
,
205

Stateira-Barsine.
See
Barsine-Stateira

Stein, Sir Aurel,
192

Stories of Alexander
(Chares),
226

Strabo,
194

Successors,
230
,
235

Susa,
139
,
142
,
143
,
144
,
146
,
147
,
221
,
224
,
225
,
227
,
229
,
230
,
238
,
239
,
244
,
246
,
247
,
248

Syria,
5
,
6

Syrian seer,
186-7

Tarn, Sir William,
17
,
89
,
148

Tarsus,
99

Taxila,
190
,
193
,
198
,
204
,
210
,
211

Thais,
147
,
148

Theagenes,
85

Thebes,
19-20
,
34
,
36
,
49
,
50
,
51
,
53
,
76
,
82-3
,
84-5
,
86
,
89
,
110
,
120

Theophrastus,
11

Thermopylae,
49
,
75
,
144

Thessaly,
26
,
35
,
49
,
75
,
82
,
198

Thettalus,
59
,
60-1
,
123
,
227

Thrace, Thracians,
22
,
24
,
26
,
32
,
40
,
44
,
45
,
46
,
47
,
76
,
77
,
80
,
84
,
86
,
98
,
174
,
196

Tigris,
5
,
129
,
130
,
131
,
233
,
246

Triballians,
47
,
76
,
78

Troy, Trojans,
22
,
24
,
44
,
52
,
68
,
89-90
,
207
,
221

Trojan War,
159

Tyre, Tyrians,
6
,
112
,
113
,
114-15
,
123
,
140

Uxians,
144

Valerius, Julius,
14-15

Vasco of Lucena,
16

Warburton, Sir Robert,
190
,
191

Wilcken, Ulrich,
116
,
142

Williams, John,
67

Xenocrates,
54

Xenophon,
33-4
,
71-3
,
79
,
92
,
101
,
102
,
106
,
107
,
126
,
127
,
131
,
133
,
139
,
147
,
169
,
170
,
222

Xerxes I, the Great,
49
,
108
,
116
,
140
,
144
,
146
,
147
,
246

Zeus,
8
,
24
,
57
,
67
,
80
,
87
,
93-4
,
120
,
122
,
143
,
180
,
231

Zoroaster,
9
,
154

Mary Renault (1905–1983) was an English writer best known for her historical novels on the life of Alexander the Great:
Fire from Heaven
(1969),
The Persian Boy
(1972), and
Funeral Games
(1981).

Born Eileen Mary Challans into a middle-class family in a London suburb, Renault enjoyed reading from a young age. Initially obsessed with cowboy stories, she became interested in Greek philosophy when she found Plato’s works in her school library. Her fascination with Greek philosophy led her to St Hugh’s College, Oxford, where one of her tutors was J. R. R. Tolkien. Renault went on to earn her BA in English in 1928.

Renault began training as a nurse in 1933. It was at this time that she met the woman that would become her life partner, fellow nurse Julie Mullard. Renault also began writing, and published her first novel,
Purposes of Love
(titled
Promise of Love
in its American edition), in 1939. Inspired by her occupation, her first works were hospital romances. Renault continued writing as she treated Dunkirk evacuees at the Winford Emergency Hospital in Bristol and later as she worked in a brain surgery ward at the Radcliffe Infirmary.

In 1947, Renault received her first major award: Her novel
Return to Night
(1946) won an MGM prize. With the $150,000 of award money, she and Mullard moved to South Africa, never to return to England again. Renault revived her love of ancient Greek history and began to write her novels of Greece, including
The Last of the Wine
(1956) and
The Charioteer
(1953), which is still considered the first British novel that includes unconcealed homosexual love.

Renault’s in-depth depictions of Greece led many readers to believe she had spent a great deal of time there, but during her lifetime, she actually only visited the Aegean twice. Following
The Last of the Wine
and inspired by a replica of a Cretan fresco at a British museum, Renault wrote
The King Must Die
(1958) and its sequel,
The Bull from the Sea
(1962).