Thomas Leland (1722 - 1785) was an Irish historian, translator and academic. He is author of the early gothic novel "Longsword, Earl of Salisbury: An Historical Romance", published in 1762. He was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College, where he became Professor of Oratory in 1763. He translated the Orations of Demosthenes in three volumes. Also he wrote an influential "History of Ireland from the Invasion of Henry II" in 1773. His portrait, by John Dean, is held by the National Portrait Gallery.
"The History of the life and reign of Philip King of Macedon; the Father of Alexander" (Vol. I) by Thomas Leland, London 1758.
Analysis of some important excerpts:
(On pg. 6) - "Caranus, an Argian by birth, and a descendant from Hercules..."
- Legend for Caranus (founder of Macedonian royal house) and his blood connection with ancient Greek hero Hercules. According to this excerpt, Leland stuff was that Macedonian royal house is Hellenic by blood.
(On pg. 7) - "As the head of chosen band of Greeks... In commemoration of this event, Caranus, now the lord of the city, changed its name to Aegae: and goats, which are called by that name among the Greeks... but proved unequal to Caranus and his valiant Greeks... Among the other princes, against whom Caranus was obliged to turn his arms, he attacked Cissaeus, the sovereign of a small territory, south of his new kingdom, and having defeated him, erected a trophy according to the Grecian custom."
- Leland described Caranus as leader of the Greeks and he confirmed his Greek customs.
(On pg. 12) - "... than to the virtues and abilities of Alexander himself, which were known and celebrated through Greece"
- Thomas Leland admits Alexander's I of Macedon celebrity in whole Greece, after episodes of Greco-Persian war, written by Herodotus.
(On pg. 18) - "The prince of Lyncestae, a neighbouring people, then independent on Macedon, Amyntas contrived to attach firmly to his interest, by his espousal of Eurydice, the grand-daughter of that prince, and one of the family of the Bacchidae of the royal race of Corinth."
- Excerpt when Leland admits Greek origin from Corinth of Lyncestian royal house.
(On pg. 91) - "The honour of assisting the Aleuadae, who were descended from the same race with him..."
- Aleuadae were an ancient Thessalian family of Larissa. The Aleuadae were the noblest and most powerful among all the families of Thessaly, whence Herodotus calls its members "rulers" or "kings" (βασιλεῖς). Thomas Leland admits that Aleaudae and Philip II of Macedon were people from same race, as Greeks.
Discovered by M.P.
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