AS IN EVERY work of fiction, the events described in this book never happened. But when you’re writing historical fiction about real people, lines become blurred. As every history book will tell you, Alexander the Great died in Babylon in June, 323 BC. He did not attack Carthage or invade Sicily, though he did contemplate such a campaign before his death.
Most historical novels are based on fictional events that are overlaid on real events. So ‘Colossus’ might not perhaps be described as an historical novel – just a story of what might have happened if Alexander had lived. It is vested in one of the parallel universes that quantum physicists tell us exist side by side with ours.
But this does not mean it is totally fictitious. I used a number of sources to form my impressions of this alternative world. For those who wish to know more about Alexander the man, I would recommend Peter Green’s excellent Alexander of Macedon. If you want to know more about the actual history of Carthage you could refer to Richard Miles’ Carthage Must Be Destroyed. John M. Kistler wrote a fascinating book about the history of war elephants, and Jeff Champion’s The Tyrants of Syracuse will explain more about the politics of Sicily long before it became famous just for being the birthplace of the Corleone family. All novels are speculation. My interpretation of Alexander is my own, based on a reading of his life, rather than pure imagination.
Whether he would have turned his attention to North Africa, had he lived, is of course open to much debate. The only thing I am convinced of is that should he have lived beyond 323 BC, his medical and mental history precludes the possibility that he would have lived to see ripe old age.