Syriac Alexander Romance

Not to be confused with Syriac Alexander Legend.

The Syriac Alexander Romance (known in Syriac as the Tašʿītā d̄ʾAleksandrōs) is an anonymous Christian text in the tradition of the Greek Alexander Romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes, potentially translated into Syriac the late sixth or early seventh century. Just like the Res gestae Alexandri Macedonis of Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius, the Armenian Alexander Romance and the Historia de preliis of Leo the Archpriest, the Syriac Romance belongs to the α recension of the Greek Romance, as is represented by the Greek manuscript A (Paris. 1711).[1] Another text, the Syriac Alexander Legend, appears as an appendix in manuscripts of the Syriac Alexander Romance, but the inclusion of the Legend into manuscripts of the Romance is the work of later redactors and does not reflect an original relationship between the two.[2]

The Syriac Romance had an enormous influence, with versions of it being produced across late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the early modern period in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In one study by Friedrich Pfister, over two hundred derivations, translations, and versions of it were recorded.[3]

The text was first translated into English in 1889 by E. A. Wallis Budge.[4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Tesei 2023, p. 10.
  3. ^ Nawotka, Krzysztof (2018-04-26), "Syriac and Persian Versions of the Alexander Romance", Brill's Companion to the Reception of Alexander the Great, Brill, pp. 525–542, doi:10.1163/9789004359932_022, ISBN 978-90-04-35993-2, retrieved 2024-03-25
  4. ^ E. A. Wallis Budge. The History of Alexander the Great, being the Syriac version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes. pp. 1–143.