Anabasis

work by Arrian

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June 18, 2026

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Arrian's Anabasis is a historical work detailing the military campaigns of Alexander the Great. Written in seven books, with an additional book, the Indica, focusing on Indian customs and a voyage, Arrian's primary interest was the military aspects of Alexander's conquests. The work is a valuable source for understanding Alexander's military exploits, such as the Battle of the Granicus, and modern historians use it to reconstruct Arrian's own sources, including those of Ptolemy I and Aristobulus. Arrian, a Greek historian and philosopher of the 2nd century AD, was a disciple of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus.12

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Arrian
Titled Anabasis, presumably in order to recall Xenophon’s work of that title, it describes Alexander’s military exploits in seven books; an eighth, the Indica, tells of Indian customs and the voyage of Nearchus in the Persian Gulf, with borrowings from Megasthenes and Eratosthenes.
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Titled Anabasis, presumably in order to recall Xenophon’s work of that title, it describes Alexander’s military exploits in seven books; an eighth, the Indica, tells of Indian customs and the voyage of Nearchus in the Persian Gulf, with borrowings from Megasthenes and Eratosthenes.
Read More