INVESTIGATING MACEDON IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND: THE ST ALBANS COMPILATION, THE PHILIPPIC HISTORIES, AND THE RECEPTION OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

For many who took up his story in the Middle Ages Alexander the Great was not so much a historical ruler of Macedon as he was a legendary figure of adventure and conquest. Yet twelfth-century England witnessed an investigation that frustrates us still: finding an accurate history of Alexander amidst so much fiction. The genesis of this movement is found in the unedited St Albans Compilation, a compendium of classical histories of Macedon. Among its sources, none proved as influential in subsequent centuries as the Philippic Histories. This forthright narrative based on the long line of Macedonian tyranny and Alexander's devolution into luxuriant "Eastern" living and madness was recast in St. Albans as a history of transgression and downfall on a massive scale. Following the efforts there, English writers would repeatedly question Alexander romances and subscribe instead to Roman warnings against the corruptive nature of power and success.