Sir William Woodthorpe Tarn (February 26, 1869–November 7, 1957) was a British classical scholar and a writer. He wrote extensively on the Hellenistic world, particularly on Alexander the Great. He was a Fellow of the British Academy (1928).
Tarn made a rather idealistic interpretation of the Alexander's conquests, as being essentially driven by his vision of the "unity of mankind", in line with the interpretation of Plutarch (Alexander the Great, Vol. 1).
He also researched extensively on the history of the Greco-Bactrians and Indo-Greeks, thereby documenting a nearly lost area of history. In his book The Greeks in Bactria and India, Tarn relied on classical Western and Indian sources, as well as numismatics, to give a multi-faceted account of their dynastic rule and conquest.
Publications
- Antigonos Gonatas. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913. (Later editions: Oxford University Press, 1969 (hardcover, ISBN 0-19-814275-7); Chicago: Argonaut, 1969 (hardcover, ISBN 0-8244-0142-5)).
- The Hellenistic Age: Aspects of Hellenistic Civilisation (with Bury, J.B.; Barber, E.A.; Bevan, Edwyn). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1923.
- Hellenistic Civilisation. London: Edward Arnold & Co., 1927. (2nd, rev. ed., 1930. 3rd ed., with G.T. Griffith, 1952.)
- Seleucid-Parthian Studies (Proceedings of the British Academy; XVI). London: Humphrey Milford, 1930.
- Hellenistic Military and Naval Developments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930. (Latest ed., New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1998 (paperback, ISBN 0-8196-0169-1)).
- Alexander the Great and the Unity of Mankind. London: Humphrey Milford, 1933.
- The Greeks in Bactria & India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1938. (3rd, revised ed. Chicago Ridge, IL: Ares Publishers, 1997 (hardcover, ISBN 0-89005-524-6)).
- Alexander the Great. Vol. I, Narrative; Vol. II, Sources and Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1948. (New ed., 2002 (paperback, ISBN 0-521-53137-3)).
- Treasure of the Isle of Mist. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959.
Further reading
- Adcock, F.E. Sir William Woodthorpe Tarn, 1869–1957. London, 1959.
External links
See also
