Eurydice (the wife of Amyntas III, the mother of Philip II, and grandmother of Alexander the Great) was the first royal Macedonian woman who played a role in the public life of ancient Macedonia. This study examines the nature of her role and the factors that contributed to its expansion.

Presenting a critical assessment of a fascinating and wholly misunderstood figure, this is the definitive guide to the life of the first woman to play a major role in Greek political history, and the first modern biography of Olympias.

The life of Arsinoë II (c. 316-c.270 BCE), daughter of the founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, is characterized by dynastic intrigue. This book provides the first accessible biography of this fascinating queen.

In this groundbreaking work, Elizabeth Donnelly Carney examines the role of royal women in the Macedonian Argead dynasty from the sixth century B.C. to 168 B.C. Women were excluded from the exercise of power in most of the Hellenic world. However, Carney shows that the wives, mothers, and daughters of kings sometimes played important roles in Macedonian public life and occasionally determined the course of national events. Carney assembles an exhaustive array of evidence on the political role of Argead royal women. In addition, she presents a series of biographical sketches describing the public careers of all the royal women -- including Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great, and the warrior Cynnane, his half-sister -- whose names are preserved in ancient sources. Women and Monarchy in Macedonia fills a growing need for an updated survey of the subject, corrects previously held assumptions, and offers a fresh interpretation of the status, function, influence, and authority of women in the ancient world.

When Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-two, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea in the west all the way to modern-day India in the east. In an unusual compromise, his two heirs—a mentally damaged half brother, Philip III, and an infant son, Alexander IV, born after his death—were jointly 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,” fought to gain supremacy. Perhaps their most fascinating and conniving adversary was Alexander’s former Greek secretary, Eumenes, now a general himself, who would be the determining factor in the precarious fortunes of the royal family. James Romm, professor of classics at Bard College, brings to life the cutthroat competition and the struggle for control of the Greek world’s greatest empire.

Drawing on the latest archaeology, epigraphy and historical interpretation, this major volume presents a survey of ancient Macedon, important parts of which are published by their excavators for the first time, including the palace of King Philip II. Archaeologists and historians of the ancient Greek worlds will welcome this milestone in the study of this rapidly changing filed, packed with new information, interpretations and essential bibliography.

The careers of Philip II and his son Alexander the Great (III) were interlocked in innumerable ways: Philip II centralized ancient Macedonia, created an army of unprecedented skill and flexibility, came to dominate the Greek peninsula, and planned the invasion of the Persian Empire with a combined Graeco-Macedonian force, but it was Alexander who actually led the invading forces, defeated the great Persian Empire, took his army to the borders of modern India, and created a monarchy and empire that, despite its fragmentation, shaped the political, cultural, and religious world of the Hellenistic era. Alexander drove the engine his father had built, but had he not done so, Philip's achievements might have proved as ephemeral as had those of so many earlier Macedonian rulers. On the other hand, some scholars believe that Alexander played a role, direct or indirect, in the murder of his father, so that he could lead the expedition to Asia that his father had organized. In short, it is difficult to understand or assess one without considering the other. This collection of previously unpublished articles looks at the careers and impact of father and son together. Some of the articles consider only one of the Macedonian rulers although most deal with both, and with the relationship, actual or imagined, between the two. The volume will contain articles on military and political history but also articles that look at the self-generated public images of Philip and Alexander, the counter images created by their enemies, and a number that look at how later periods understood them, concluding with the Hollywood depiction of the relationship. Despite the plethora of collected works that deal with Philip and Alexander, this volume promises to make a genuine contribution to the field by focusing specifically on their relationship to one another.