Sir William Woodthorpe Tarn (February 26, 1869–November 7, 1957) was a British classical scholar

Classics

Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...

 and a writer. He wrote extensively on the Hellenistic world, particularly on Alexander the Great. He was a Fellow of the British Academy

British Academy

The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...

 (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

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

 (Alexander the Great, Vol. 1).

Dr. Jeanne Reames remarked that "Tarn's portrait of Alexander turned the Macedonian conqueror into a proper Scottish gentleman (as was Tarn himself). Engaging in sometimes elaborate apologetics to explain away Alexander's questionable decisions, Tarn painted him as the original philosopher in armor, a chivalrous young king who brought higher Greek culture to the poor benighted barbarians.(...)
[Tarn's] two-volume biography of Alexander and his article in the "Cambridge Ancient History" influenced the popular thinking of future generations even after in scholarly circles his theories had been torpedoed by Harvard's Ernst Badian

Ernst Badian

Ernst Badian was an Austrian-born classical scholar who served as a professor at Harvard University from 1971 to 1998....

. In fact, portrayals of Alexander in some high school and college world history text books still reflect Tarn more than anyone who has come after". Reames also saw Tarn's strong influence in Mary Renault

Mary Renault

Mary Renault born Eileen Mary Challans, was an English writer best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece...

's trilogy of historical novels about Alexander - though Renault's acknowledged Alexander's homo-erotic tendencies, while Tarn had regarded references to them in ancient sources as "defamations" which the Macedonian king had to be defended against .

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

Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...

 Western

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

 and Indian

History of India

The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from...

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.

External links

• Times Obituary for W.W. Tarn.