Arrian

Lucius Flavius Arrianus, known as Arrian, was a Greek born at Nicomedia in Bithynia, in north-western Asia Minor, around AD 86. He studied under the Stoic teacher Epictetus at Nicopolis, and later wrote down his master’s lectures and compiled the short handbook known as the Enchiridion.

He entered Roman public life, became a Roman senator and consul, and around AD 131 was appointed governor of the province of Cappadocia, where he organised its defence against the Alani. He later settled in Athens and held office there; he is last recorded around 145/146.

Arrian wrote in Greek on military and historical subjects, including a treatise on tactics and an account of India. His chief work, the Anabasis of Alexander, narrates the campaigns of Alexander the Great and rests mainly on the lost histories of Ptolemy son of Lagus and of Aristobulus, who both served with Alexander.