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Birth of Alexander the Great from BL Royal 20 C III, f. 15
Summary
Miniature of Olympias giving birth to Alexander the Great, with two eagles on the roof of the palace (foretelling Alexander's two empires in Europe and Asia). The temple of Diana at Ephesus burns in the background as a portent of Alexander's revenge on the Persians for their invasion of Greece under Xerxes in 480 BC. Image taken from f. 15 of Historia Alexandri Magni. Written in French.
The BL Royal Manuscript Collection, also known as the Royal Collection, consists of over 2,000 manuscripts that were once owned by the British monarchs, including English and later British kings and queens from the late 12th to the 19th centuries. These manuscripts are notable for their historical and artistic value.
The collection was initially stored in various royal libraries and palaces, such as the Tower of London and Westminster Palace. During the English Civil War in the 17th century and the subsequent Interregnum, many royal treasures, including manuscripts, were dispersed and sold. Some manuscripts were lost, destroyed, or ended up in private hands.
In 1757, King George II donated the Old Royal Library to the British Museum (which later became the British Library), where the manuscripts were integrated into the museum's collections. This marked the formal establishment of the Royal Manuscript Collection within the British Museum.
Quintus Curtius Rufus, probably of the 1st century, was an author of Historiae Alexandri Magni, "Histories of Alexander the Great", or more fully Historiarum Alexandri Magni Macedonis Libri Qui Supersunt, "All the Books That Survive of the Histories of Alexander the Great of Macedon." Much of the book is missing. Apart from his name on the manuscripts, nothing else certain is known of the author. Curtius' work is uniquely isolated. No other ancient work refers to it, or as far as is known, to him, suggesting, that the booc was censored by the Senate and Emperor. The provinces of the ex-Macedonian Empire were difficult to govern, on the point of rebellion. The work of Curtius, Pratt conjectures, was not politically appropriate because it would have encouraged independence. The earliest opportune moment to publish the book was the year 167, when the campaign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius against the Parthian Empire had failed, and the returning troops were in bad morale and infected with the Antonine Plague. The emperor attempted to build national pride among the former Macedonian states. The manuscript, by this time damaged and partly destroyed, was finally published, accounting for the previous lack of references to it. As the emperors probably had surmised, it was immediately popular. Most credible identity of the author is Quintus Curtius Rufus, a member of the Curtii Rufi branch of the Curtii family, one of the original nobility of Rome. He could have written the Histories in the year or two before his consulship. Tacitus says that he was on the staff of the Quaestor of Africa during that time, which would have given him the opportunity to use the Library of Alexandria.
Alexander the Great was born in the Pella region of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia on July 20, 356 B.C., to parents King Philip II of Macedon and Queen Olympia, daughter of King Neoptolemus. In 343 B.C., King Philip II hired the philosopher Aristotle to tutor Alexander at the Temple of the Nymphs at Meiza. After Alexander completed his education in 340 B.C., he became a soldier and embarked on his first military expedition. Since then, Alexander was constantly battling for his kingdom and its expansion. Here is the list of his counterparts: - Athenian and Theban armies at Chaeronea. - Hith mother-in-law Cleopatra - region of Thessaly - Thracian Triballians - City of Thebes - Persian King Darius III' - Gaza - Egypt - Persians - Eastern Iran - Northern India While preparing the conquests of Carthage and Rome, Alexander the Great died of malaria in Babylon (now Iraq), on June 13, 323 B.C. He was just 32 years old. His empire collapsed. Later, cultures of Greece and the Orient synthesized and thrived as Panhellenism - a side effect of Alexander's empire.
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