THE stage of Alexander's great drama is thronged with minor characters playing their walk-on parts or acting as heroes or villains in their own little scenes. Their names, often unknown to–or ignored by—our main sources, have been gathered with monumental diligence by Berve, who has provided a basis for some akribeia in a study traditionally befogged with generality and prejudice. In this country the study of Alexander is necessarily under the spell of Tarn's masterly work, based on a thorough discussion (...) of the sources. To agree or to disagree, we must always come back to him; and disagreement, in the main, has been confined to details. (shrink)