The Afghan Campaign

The Afghan Campaign

First edition
Author	Steven Pressfield
Language	English
Subject	Alexander the Great
Genre	Historical novel
Published	2006 (Doubleday)
ISBN	978-0-7679-2238-8

The Afghan Campaign is a historical novel by the American writer Steven Pressfield. It was first published in 2006 by Doubleday.^[1] It is the story of Alexander the Great's invasion of the Afghan kingdoms (the Afghanistan of today) in 330 BC through the eyes of Matthias (Μαντίθεος in Greek), a young soldier from Macedonia, who narrates the adventures of the Macedonian army against the Eastern warriors. Matthias fights for Alexander the Great's infantry confronting ferocious people who, determined to defend their homeland, follow tough war methods.

Many pages of the book are dedicated to Alexander's army's fight against the Persian Spitamenes (Σπιταμένης in Greek), the Wolf of the Desert, whose army follows the barbarian war method contrary to their rivals who make war in array. Pressfield presents the brutalities and ferocities of both parties while he does not omit to refer to the vanity and voraciousness of Alexander the Great who in the last pages of the novel marries the Bactrian Roxane (Ρωξάνη in Greek), daughter of Oxyartes. Having thus safeguarded his rights in the kingdoms of Orient, he sets off to conquer India crossing the mountains of Indian Caucasus. He leaves behind him many thousands of footmen and horsemen (one fifth of his army) to deter the indigenous people from possible insurrections and outbreaks within the conquered land.