3 Review(s)

James Romm, a brilliant classicist and storyteller and editor of The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander, brings to life the struggle for control of the ancient world's biggest empire that followed the death of the Macedonian king. At the time of his death at age thirty-two, Alexander the Great's empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea in the west all the way to modern-day India, in the east. In an unusual compromise, both of his heirs--a mentally damaged half brother, Philip III, and a posthumously born son, Alexander IV--were granted the kingship. But six of Alexander's Macedonian generals, spurred by their own thirst for power and the legend that Alexander bequeathed his rule "to the strongest," struggled their way toward the throne. The generals fought for control over the successors, each one hoping to be bestowed with legitimacy by his ruler, and ascend to power. There were also defenders of the throne, the most fascinating--and conniving--being Alexander's former Greek secretary, now transformed into a general himself, who became the determining factor in the precarious fortunes of the royal family. About the Author James Romm is James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics at Bard College. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. He has written two books on the ancient Greek world, The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought and Herodotus, and edited Arrian's Campaigns of Alexander, part of the distinguished Landmark series of works by ancient Greek historians.