Envy of the Gods: Alexander the Great's Ill-fated Journey Across Asia - Hardcover

An engaging account-told for the first time-of the decline and ruin of Alexander the Great as he sought to conquer faraway lands in Asia and subdue his own growing megalomania. Alexander the Great accomplished more than any ordinary human could even hope to dream, yet at the end of his life, his empire, his army, and even his own life were unraveling. While the world knows well how the Macedonian king conquered the Persian Empire, few people know the full story of his decline and fall as he sought to bring the most remote areas of the Persian empire under his control. Alexander was a complicated mix of ruthless tyrant and incurable romantic. This schizophrenic interplay of conflicting psychic forces characterized his rise to power and was largely responsible for his downfall. In the last seven years of his life, Alexander the Great grew increasingly unpredictable, sporadically violent, megalomaniacal, and suspicious of friends as well as enemies. In the end Alexander the Great was not defeated by any external enemy but by himself.

John Prevas brings this riveting story of the fall of Alexander to life with a compelling narrative informed by his personal retracing of much of the route trod by Alexander through what is now Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

John Prevas, writer and adventurer, holds degrees in history, political science, psychology, and forensics and has taught the classics for the last fifteen years. He is the author of Hannibal Crosses the Alps and Xenophon's March . He lives in Florida.