Talk:Anabasis of Alexander

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Title

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Arrian wrote in Greek and the title of his work (in Greek) is "Anabasis Alexandru". This has been Latinized to the form "Anabasis Alexandri so often encountered but not correct in either Latin or Greek. Before invoking the "Google Test" for either form please consider note that Wikipedia sindrome kicks in for the second form; many hits for Anabasis ALexandru are from WIkipedia mirrors.

There isn't really a commonly used English title for the work. Loeb translates as "Anabasis of Alexander" [1], Oxford University Press calls it "History of Alexander" [2] and so on.

Per the old maxim "Latina Latine, Graeca Graece" this should be at its Greek title. 82.26.170.64 16:22, 5 February 2006 (UTC)Reply

I disagree. It is sanctioned by tradition to use Latin titles for ancient Greek works, and it's not up to us to change usage. Look around wikipedia: Greek works have either English or Latin titles. Aldux 16:39, 5 February 2006 (UTC)Reply
I disagree still further. It's not only that we have a Latinized title; we actually have a mixed title, as anabasis is very clearly a Greek word and Alexandri is clearly the Latin version of Alexander's Greek name. For that reason, it should be in one language or the either (with my vote being cast for the Greek). A redirect link could be established for the "half-and-half" title and some of the English renderings (which are, in fact, quite different). In disagreement with the above rendering of that Greek form, the Greek genitive for the second declension masculine nouns (Alexandros in this case) ends in -ou, not just -u.
Actually "anabasis" is not only a Greek word, but also a Latin loan word from Greek. For this most editions have been comfortable with "Anabasis Alexandri". Also, keep in mind, the guideline WP:GREEK.--Aldux 17:02, 26 January 2007 (UTC)Reply
This. Anabasis is perfectly straightforward Latinized Greek, but doesn't matter what the Greek or Latin is. We follow the COMMON ENGLISH name, whatever that is. We certainly don't start making up titles and translations, as recent editors seem to have begun doing.
Ngram lists "Arrian's *" giving "account", "history", and "History" as the most common forms and that's probably where this page should be moved to. (Google Scholar agrees: 300-odd results for Arrian's History of Alexander versus 40-odd for Arrian's Anabasis of Alexander; Arrian's Anabasis tout suite is in the 250s, though, and might eventually be more popular. Anabasis didn't make the list overall but is almost as popular as History over the last 10 years or so.) In the meantime, per WP:LEAD, we start the first sentence with the article's name, not some random preference translation. — LlywelynII 04:56, 10 August 2015 (UTC)Reply

Move

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As per the research above and the sources listed on this page itself, "Anabasis of Alexander" is not remotely this thing's common name.

Right now, History of Alexander or The History of Alexander still is, but the scholarly consensus seems to be shifting to Arrian's Anabasis or Anabasis (Arrian). Any of those is preferable to wasting space in an already cluttered lead on a form of the name few people actually use. — LlywelynII 05:27, 10 August 2015 (UTC)Reply

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