Ctesias

Recommend, or otherwise, books on Alexander (fiction or non-fiction). Promote your novel here!

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agesilaos
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Joined: Mon Sep 09, 2002 3:16 pm
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Re: Ctesias

Post by agesilaos »

Yes, the despicable Doherty; other than the excuse for a theory 'Death of a God' I have tried three of his Alexander ones the two first ones written as Anna Apostoulou 'A Murder in Macedon' and 'A Murdeer in Thebes' both dire exercises in trivial plotting and crass characterisation, Jews in Macedon and the important one a woman! Then I tried the first one about Granicus, dreadful and the notes must have been copied from a really out of date 'Dictionary of Ye Classicks', it's enough to make you believe you can write that novel!

Semiramis, whilst I can appreciate Briant's point, in this country, at least, there has been such a proliferation of translation based so-called Classics degrees coupled with the closure of Latin and Greek departments; part of the drive to give anyone who can make a recognisable mark on a piece of paper a degree: that pretty soon real scholarship will become impossible. Translators are human and frequently err under the pressure of deadlines. I have Latin and Greek to some small level but stand in awe at the arguments of the Hammonds and Bosworths of this world over usage and semi-deponent middle aorist constructions (yes I have made that up) I hope Kuerht does have all the languages to that sort of level and is not just posing, might translate smatterings of German or Russian with the help of a dictionary and claim the translations as my own! No, that's just a cynicism born of envy, back to 'Teach Yourself Assyrian' for me. Ignorance is curable until it becomes institutionalised; ' Dick Camerlegg, give me back my declensions!!!!'

Apologies to the Divine Augustus :wink:
When you think about, it free-choice is the only possible option.
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