Valerio Massimo Manfredi · 1998 · overland

The second volume: Alexander crosses into Asia. From the tomb of Achilles at Troy to the Granicus, Halicarnassus and the knot at Gordium; from Issus, where Darius flees his own field, to the mole flung out to Tyre and the towers of Gaza; and at last into Egypt, where he is crowned Pharaoh, paces out Alexandria, and walks into the Libyan desert to ask the oracle of Ammon who his father was.

1. 1
   Thebes

   The Greek city that rises against him and is razed to the ground - every house but the poet Pindar's - as a lesson to Greece before he turns his back on it forever.

2. 2
   The Hellespont

   The narrow water between two worlds, where the army passes from Europe into Asia and Alexander hurls his spear into the far shore and claims the continent as spear-won land.

3. 3
   Troy

   At Ilium he runs the course around the walls and lays a wreath on the tomb of Achilles, taking the sacred shield from the temple - the hero of his childhood, whose short and glorious life he means to repeat.

4. 4
   The Granicus

   The muddy river where the satraps of Darius wait on the far bank; the first great victory, won by a charge that nearly kills him - Cleitus the Black cuts down the arm that would have split his skull.

5. 5
   Halicarnassus

   The great Carian fortress, held for Darius by Memnon of Rhodes - the one opponent Alexander believes worthy of him. The city burns, but Memnon slips away by sea, and it is poison, not the battlefield, that ends him.

6. 6
   Gordium

   Wintering in snow-covered Anatolia, he comes to the wagon of Midas and the knot no man can untie, whose loosing is prophesied to give Asia to the man who does it - and he does it his own way.

7. 7
   Issus

   In the narrow ground between mountain and sea Darius offers battle and is beaten, fleeing and leaving his mother, his wife and his daughters in Alexander's camp; twice the Great King sues for peace, and twice he is refused.

8. 8
   Tyre

   The island city that will not open its gates, taken after seven months by a mole flung out across the sea and by the Phoenician fleet turned against its own.

9. 9
   Gaza

   The last gate into Egypt, and the last to fall; Alexander is wounded here.

10. 10
    Memphis

    Egypt opens to him as a deliverer, and in the ancient capital on the Nile he is crowned Pharaoh.

11. 11
    Alexandria

    On the strip between the sea and Lake Mareotis he paces out the plan of a city with barley meal - the first and greatest of his Alexandrias, and one he will never see built.

12. 12
    Siwa

    Out across the Libyan sand to the oasis of the ram-god. Alexander comes to ask who murdered his father; the oracle answers by claiming to be his father. The book's title, and the hinge of his life.