about Alexander the Great (2004), and "* The Afghan Campaign, about Alexander the Great's conquests in Afghanistan (2006), " by Steven Pressfield. Irish playwright Aubrey Thomas de Vere wrote Alexander the Great, a Dramatic Poem. Historiography Apart from a few inscriptions and fragments, texts written by people who actually knew Alexander or who gathered information from men who served with Alexander were all lost. Contemporaries who wrote accounts of his life included Alexander's campaign historian Callisthenes; Alexander's generals Ptolemy and Nearchus; Aristobulus, a junior officer on the campaigns; and Onesicritus, Alexander's chief helmsman. Their works are lost, but later works based on these original sources have survived. The earliest of these is Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC), followed by Quintus Curtius Rufus (mid-to-late 1st century AD), Arrian (1st to 2nd century AD), the biographer Plutarch (1st to 2nd century AD), and finally Justin, whose work dated as late as the 4th century. Of these, Arrian is generally considered the most reliable, given that he used Ptolemy and Aristobulus as his sources, closely followed by Diodorus. See also Ancient Macedonian army Military tactics of Alexander the Great Bucephalus Chronology of European exploration of Asia Theories about Alexander the Great in the Quran Ptolemaic cult of Alexander the Great Gates of Alexander List of biblical figures identified in extra-biblical sources List of people known as The Great References Notes Citations Sources Primary sources . Secondary sources Further reading , also (1974) New York: E. P. Dutton and (1986) London: Penguin Books. External links . Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6. . . . In Our Time: Alexander the Great BBC discussion with Paul Cartledge, Diana Spencer and Rachel Mairs hosted by Melvyn Bragg, first broadcast 1 October 2015. Alexander the Great by Kireet Joshi 356 BC births 323 BC deaths 4th-century BC Babylonian kings 4th-century BC Macedonian monarchs 4th-century BC Pharaohs Ancient LGBT people Ancient Macedonian generals Ancient Pellaeans Argead kings of Macedonia City founders LGBT military personnel Deified people Hellenistic-era people Monarchs of Persia People in the deuterocanonical books Pharaohs of the Argead dynasty Shahnameh characters Kayanians LGBT royalty