The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

THE
ANABASIS OF ALEXANDER.

THE
ANABASIS OF ALEXANDER;

OR,

LITERALLY TRANSLATED, WITH A COMMENTARY,
FROM THE GREEK OF ARRIAN THE NICOMEDIAN,

BY
E. J. CHINNOCK, M.A., LL.B., LONDON,
Rector of Dumfries Academy.

HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCLXXXIV.

Butler & Tanner,
The Selwood Printing Works,
Frome, and London.

PREFACE.

When I began this Translation, more than two years ago, I had nointention of publishing it; but as the work progressed, it occurredto me that Arrian is an Author deserving of more attention from theEnglish-speaking races than he has yet received. No edition of hisworks has, so far as I am aware, ever appeared in England, though onthe Continent many have been published. In the following Translation Ihave tried to give as literal a rendering of the Greek text as I couldwithout transgressing the idioms of our own language. My theory of theduty of a Translator is, to give the ipsissima verba of his Authoras nearly as possible, and not put into his mouth words which he neverused, under the mistaken notion of improving his diction or his way ofstating his case. It is a comparatively easy thing to give a paraphraseof a foreign work, presenting the general drift of the original; but noone, unless he has himself tried it, can understand the difficulty oftranslating a classical Author correctly without omission or mutilation.

In the Commentary which I have compiled, continual reference has beenmade to the other extant authorities on the history of Alexander,such as Diodorus, Plutarch, Curtius, Justin, and Aelian; so that Ithink I may safelyvi assert that, taking the Translation and the Notestogether, the book forms a complete history of Alexander’s reign. Muchgeographical and other material has also been gathered from Herodotus,Strabo, Pliny, and Ammianus; and the allusions to the places which arealso mentioned in the Old Testament are given from the Hebrew.

As Arrian lived in the second century of the present era, and nearlyfive hundred years after Demosthenes, it is not to be expected that hewrote classical Greek. There are, however, at least a dozen valuableGreek authors of this century whose works are still extant, and ofthese it is a safe statement to make, that Arrian is the best of themall, with the single exception of Lucian. I have noticed as many of hisdeviations from Attic Greek constructions as I thought suitable to awork of this kind. A complete index of Proper Names has been added, andthe quantities of the vowels marked for the aid of the English Reader.In the multiplicity of references which I have put into the Notes, Ishould be sanguine if I imagined that no errors will be found; but ifsuch occur, I must plead as an excuse the pressure of work which ateacher in a large school experiences, leaving him very little energyfor literary labour.

E. J. C.

DUMFRIES,
  De