SOURCE: “The Lost Histories,” in Arrian of Nicomedia, University of North Carolina Press, 1980, pp. 133-63.

In the essay below, Stadter surveys several of Arrian's no-longer-extant historical works, maintaining that these compositions demonstrate his wide range of interests and reveal him as a writer virtually unrivalled among his contemporaries.

The Anabasis of Alexander and the Indike reveal the clarity and competence of Arrian as a writer and historian, his straightforward narrative, and his judicious selection of sources. But for a true evaluation of the breadth of his interests, the variety of his works, and his preeminence among the writers of his generation we must examine also those works no longer preserved, but which were equally well known in antiquity and the Middle Ages, and whose quantity and excellence established his reputation. The Bithyniaca in eight books, the Parthica in seventeen books, the Events after Alexander in ten books, the...