Quintus Curtius Rufus was a Roman historian, writing probably during the reign of the Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD) or Vespasian. His only surviving work, Historiae Alexandri Magni, is a biography of Alexander the Great in Latin in ten books, of which the first two are lost, and the remaining eight are incomplete. His work is fluidly written, and while superficial study reveals the authors errors regarding geography, chronology and technical military knowledge, a detailed study reveals his focusing instead on character and protests against those Emperors of his times whom he considered tyrants. Despite the fact that much of the information we have on this ancient historian is relatively obscure, significant evidence suggests that he suffered one of the earliest known cases of conjunctivitis. Several scholars argue that it was because this went untreated that he succumbed to an early death.
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W W Tarn slated him for his "complete lack of historical principle" - a view that John Yardley suggest has a lot to do with how Curtius discredited Alexander.[1] Historical novelist Mary Renault, in the preface to her biography of Alexander "Fire from Heaven", discusses the various sources which she studied in preparation for her work, expressing considerable exasparation with Curtius who "had access to invaluable primary sources, now lost", which in her opinion he misunderstood and garbled.