Soldier, Priest, and God

A Life of Alexander the Great

By: F. S. Naiden

Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies

Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Whatever we may think of Alexander - whether Great or only lucky, a civilizer or a sociopath - most people do not regard him as a religious leader. And yet religion permeated all aspects of his career. When he used religion astutely, he and his army prospered. In Egypt, he performed the ceremonies needed to be pharaoh, and thus became a god as well as a priest. Babylon surrendered to him partly because he agreed to become a sacred king. When Alexander disregarded religion, he and his army suffered. In Iran, for instance, where he refused to be crowned and even destroyed a shrine, resistance against him mounted. In India, he killed Buddhists, Jains, and Hindus by the hundreds of thousands until his officers, men he regarded as religious companions, rebelled against him and forced him to abandon his campaign of conquest. Although he never fully recovered from this last disappointment, he continued to perform his priestly duties in the rest of his empire. As far as we know, the last time he rose from his bed was to perform a sacrifice.

In the last 30 years, knowledge of Alexander's time in the Near East has increased. Egyptologists and Assyriologists have written the first thorough accounts of Alexander's religious doings in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Recent archaeological work has also allowed scholars to uncover new aspects of Macedonian religious policy. Soldier, Priest, and God, the first religious biography of Alexander, incorporates this recent scholarship to provide a vivid and unique portrait of a remarkable leader.

©2019 Oxford University Press (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Interesting read

I’ve read many books on Alexander and this is a very interesting read. Definitely pick this up if you have any interest in him or the ancient world

a different way to look at a legend

Naiden takes a figure countless things are written about, and finds a different angle. He focuses on Alexander's religious practices. In many way it was a secret weapon in his conquests but did him in as well when he went astray. Very interesting and informative. I highly recommend it

Great writing. Terrible narrator.

I really loved the new outlook on studying Alexander III of Macedon, but almost turned it off to go buy the print version. The narrator mispronounces so many words... Not just names and places but normal, everyday, sorts of words. I found myself uncontrollably yelling the correct versions of the words at the audio book while it was playing. Has the author even listened to this?