Battling without Beards: Synesius of Cyrene’s Calvitii encomium, Arrian’s Anabasis Alexandri and the Alexander discourse of the fourth century AD

This paper explores the literary tradition of the curious chreia that Alexander ordered his men to shave off their beards before battle. The story is represented by various sources from the imperial period but most prominently in the Encomium of Baldness by Synesius of Cyrene. The latter source posi...

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Autor principal:	Christian Djurslev
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EL EN ES FR IT
Publicado:	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Ciències de l’Antiguitat i l’Edat Mitjana. 2018
Materias:	Alexander the Great Synesius of Cyrene Arrian Anabasis Fourth-Century BC Greece Ancient history D51-90 Archaeology CC1-960
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c7d0d9ed0b534c0192115cc00aec3bbe
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c7d0d9ed0b534c0192115cc00aec3bbe2021-12-02T13:15:14ZBattling without Beards: Synesius of Cyrene’s Calvitii encomium, Arrian’s Anabasis Alexandri and the Alexander discourse of the fourth century AD2604-61992604-3521https://doaj.org/article/c7d0d9ed0b534c0192115cc00aec3bbe2018-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://revistes.uab.cat/karanos/article/view/5https://doaj.org/toc/2604-6199https://doaj.org/toc/2604-3521This paper explores the literary tradition of the curious chreia that Alexander ordered his men to shave off their beards before battle. The story is represented by various sources from the imperial period but most prominently in the Encomium of Baldness by Synesius of Cyrene. The latter source posits that the story comes from the History of Alexander by Ptolemy, son of Lagus, but this claim cannot be true when Synesius’ version is compared to other extant uses of the chreia. This paper exemplifies some of Synesius’ methods of working, arguing that we need to invest more energy in appreciating the wider tradition of Alexander in late antiquity to understand our earlier texts. Christian DjurslevUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Ciències de l’Antiguitat i l’Edat Mitjana.articleAlexander the GreatSynesius of CyreneArrianAnabasisFourth-Century BC GreeceAncient historyD51-90ArchaeologyCC1-960ELENESFRITKaranos, Vol 1 (2018)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EL EN ES FR IT
topic	Alexander the Great Synesius of Cyrene Arrian Anabasis Fourth-Century BC Greece Ancient history D51-90 Archaeology CC1-960
spellingShingle	Alexander the Great Synesius of Cyrene Arrian Anabasis Fourth-Century BC Greece Ancient history D51-90 Archaeology CC1-960 Christian Djurslev Battling without Beards: Synesius of Cyrene’s Calvitii encomium, Arrian’s Anabasis Alexandri and the Alexander discourse of the fourth century AD
description	This paper explores the literary tradition of the curious chreia that Alexander ordered his men to shave off their beards before battle. The story is represented by various sources from the imperial period but most prominently in the Encomium of Baldness by Synesius of Cyrene. The latter source posits that the story comes from the History of Alexander by Ptolemy, son of Lagus, but this claim cannot be true when Synesius’ version is compared to other extant uses of the chreia. This paper exemplifies some of Synesius’ methods of working, arguing that we need to invest more energy in appreciating the wider tradition of Alexander in late antiquity to understand our earlier texts.
format	article
author	Christian Djurslev
author_facet	Christian Djurslev
author_sort	Christian Djurslev
title	Battling without Beards: Synesius of Cyrene’s Calvitii encomium, Arrian’s Anabasis Alexandri and the Alexander discourse of the fourth century AD
title_short	Battling without Beards: Synesius of Cyrene’s Calvitii encomium, Arrian’s Anabasis Alexandri and the Alexander discourse of the fourth century AD
title_full	Battling without Beards: Synesius of Cyrene’s Calvitii encomium, Arrian’s Anabasis Alexandri and the Alexander discourse of the fourth century AD
title_fullStr	Battling without Beards: Synesius of Cyrene’s Calvitii encomium, Arrian’s Anabasis Alexandri and the Alexander discourse of the fourth century AD
title_full_unstemmed	Battling without Beards: Synesius of Cyrene’s Calvitii encomium, Arrian’s Anabasis Alexandri and the Alexander discourse of the fourth century AD
title_sort	battling without beards: synesius of cyrene’s calvitii encomium, arrian’s anabasis alexandri and the alexander discourse of the fourth century ad
publisher	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Ciències de l’Antiguitat i l’Edat Mitjana.
publishDate	2018
url	https://doaj.org/article/c7d0d9ed0b534c0192115cc00aec3bbe
work_keys_str_mv	AT christiandjurslev battlingwithoutbeardssynesiusofcyrenescalvitiiencomiumarriansanabasisalexandriandthealexanderdiscourseofthefourthcenturyad
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Battling without Beards: Synesius of Cyrene’s Calvitii encomium, Arrian’s Anabasis Alexandri and the Alexander discourse of the fourth century AD

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