Until recently, popular biographers & most scholars viewed Alexander as a genius with a plan, a romantic figure pursuing a vision of a united world. His dream was at times characterized as a benevolent interest in a united of humanity, sometimes as a brute interest in the exercise of power. Green, Cambridge-trained classicist & novelist, portrays Alexander as both a complex personality & a single-minded general, one capable of such diverse expediencies as patricide or the massacre of civilians. Green describes his Alexander as "not only the most brilliant (& ambitious) field commander in history, but also supremely indifferent to all those administrative excellences & idealistic yearnings foisted upon him by later generations, especially those who found the conqueror, tout court, a little hard upon their liberal sensibilities." This biography begins not with one of the universally known incidents of Alexander's life, but with an account of his father, Philip of Macedonia, whose many-territoried empire was the 1st on the continent of Europe to have an effectively centralized government & military. What Philip & Macedonia had to offer, Alexander made his own. But Philip & Macedonia also made Alexander & form an important context for understanding Alexander. Yet his origins & training don't fully explain him. After he was named hegemon of the Hellenic League, many philosophers came to congratulate him, but one was conspicuous by absence: Diogenes the Cynic, an ascetic living in a clay tub. Piqued & curious, Alexander visited the philosopher, who, when asked if there was anything Alexander could do for him, made the famous reply, "Don't stand between me & the sun." Courtiers jeered, but Alexander silenced them: "If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes." This remark was as unexpected in him as it would be in a modern leader. For the general reader, the book, redolent with gritty details & fully aware of Alexander's darker side, offers a gripping tale of his career. Full backnotes, 14 maps, chronological & genealogical tables serve specialists.