Dividing the Spoils The War for Alexander the Great's Empire

by Waterfield, Robin

• ISBN13: 9780199931521
• ISBN10: 0199931526
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-11-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Alexander the Great conquered an enormous empire - stretching from Greece to the Indian subcontinent - and his death triggered forty bloody years of world-changing events. These were years filled with high adventure, intrigue, passion, assassinations, dynastic marriages, treachery, shiftingalliances, and mass slaughter on battlefield after battlefield. And while the men fought on the field, the women, such as Alexander's mother Olympias, schemed from their palaces and pavilions.Dividing the Spoils serves up a fast-paced narrative that captures this turbulent time as it revives the memory of the Successors of Alexander and their great contest for his empire. The Successors, Robin Waterfield shows, were no mere plunderers. Indeed, Alexander left things in great disarray atthe time of his death, with no guaranteed succession, no administration in place suitable for such a large realm, and huge untamed areas both bordering and within his empire. It was the Successors - battle-tested companions of Alexander such as Ptolemy, Perdiccas, Seleucus, and Antigonus theOne-Eyed - who consolidated Alexander's gains. Their competing ambitions, however, eventually led to the break-up of the empire. To tell their story in full, Waterfield draws upon a wide range of historical materials, providing the first account that makes complete sense of this highly complexperiod.Astonishingly, this period of brutal, cynical warfare was also characterized by brilliant cultural achievements, especially in the fields of philosophy, literature, and art. A new world emerged from the dust and haze of battle, and, in addition to chronicling political and military events,Waterfield provides ample discussion of the amazing cultural flowering of the early Hellenistic Age.

Author Biography

Robin Waterfield is an independent scholar and translators. In addition to translating numerous Greek classics, he is the author of Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the Myths, Xenophon's Retreat: Greece, Persia, and the End of the Golden Age, and Athens: A History. He lives in the far south of Greece on a small olive farm.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
List of Illustrations	p. xv
Maps	p. xvi
The Legacy of Alexander the Great	p. 1
The Babylon Conferences	p. 16
Rebellion	p. 30
Perdiccas, Ptolemy, and Alexander's Corpse	p. 43
The First War of the Successors	p. 57
Polyperchon's Moment	p. 69
The Triumph of Cassander	p. 81
Hunting Eumenes in Iran	p. 93
Antigonus, Lord of Asia	p. 107
The Restoration of Seleucus	p. 118
Warfare in Greece	p. 128
The End of Antigonus	p. 140
The Kingdoms of Ptolemy and Seleucus	p. 155
Demetrius Resurgent	p. 171
The Fall of Demetrius	p. 184
The Last Successors	p. 197
Time Line	p. 213
Cast of Characters	p. 219
Genealogies	p. 227
Notes	p. 231
Bibliography	p. 245
Index	p. 265
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