Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The North-West Bend of the Aegean Sea forms a great Gulf—the Thermaic Gulf—enclosed by land on three sides. To the west, the gently rolling plains of Pieria and Emathia are surrounded by the rich Amphaxitis plain. #2 The question of the ethnicity and language of the ancient Macedonians has been caught up in the identity politics of the modern peoples and states of the southern Balkan peninsula. As the Ottoman Empire decayed, four local peoples sought to establish nation-states encompassing as much territory as possible. #3 The question of who the Macedonians were has always been a mystery. They may have been a group of people who lived in the southern Balkans, but they may have also been a group of people who lived in Asia Minor. #4 The earliest surviving Greek inscriptions, dating from the middle and second half of the eighth century, do not mention Macedonians. The first literary reference to Macedonia comes in one of the texts belonging to the Hesiodic corpus, the so-called Catalogue of Women, which was probably compiled around 700.

In the arc of western history, Ancient Greece is at the apex, owing to its grandeur, its culture, and an intellectual renaissance to rival that of Europe. So important is Greece to history that figures such as Plato and Socrates are still household names, and the works of Homer are regularly adapted into movies. The most acclaimed hero of all, though, is Alexander the Great.While historians have studied Alexander’s achievements at length, author and professor Richard A. Billows delves deeper into the obscure periods of Alexander’s life before and after his reign. In the definitive Before and After Alexander, Billows explores the years preceding Alexander, who, Billows argues, without the foundation laid by his father, Philip II of Macedon. would not have had the resources or influence to develop one of the greatest empires in history. Alexander was groomed from a young age to succeed his father, and by the time Philip was assassinated in 336 BC, his great empire was already well underway.The years following Alexander's death were even more momentous. In this ambitious new work, Richard Billows robustly challenges the notion that the political strife that followed was for lack of a leader as competent as Alexander, pointing out instead that there were too many extremely capable leaders who exploited the power vacuum created by Alexander's death to carve out kingdoms for themselves.Above all, in Before and After Alexander, Billows eloquently and convincingly posits a complex view of one of the greatest empires in history, framing it not as the achievement of one man, but the culmination of several generations of aggressive expansion toward a unified purpose.

The most influential account of the career of Alexander the Great was penned by Cleitarchus in the decades after Alexander's death. Most of the surviving ancient texts on Alexander were based upon his work, but every copy of the original was destroyed in antiquity. Now the entire book has been revived in an exciting reconstruction based upon an in-depth analysis of the surviving ancient works that it inspired. Here you will find Alexander revealed in a startling new light as a very human and believable individual, who drives and is then driven by a momentous cascade of events. Here you can rediscover the oldest and also the most authentic literary portrait of the king spanning all thirteen years of his reign.

Called by Plutarch "the oldest and greatest of Alexander's successors," Antigonos the One-Eyed (382-301 BC) was the dominant figure during the first half of the Diadoch period, ruling most of the Asian territory conquered by the Macedonians during his final twenty years. Billows provides the first detailed study of this great general and administrator, establishing him as a key contributor to the Hellenistic monarchy and state. After a successful career under Philip and Alexander, Antigonos rose to power over the Asian portion of Alexander's conquests. Embittered by the persistent hostility of those who controlled the European and Egyptian parts of the empire, he tried to eliminate these opponents, an ambition which led to his final defeat in 301. In a corrective to the standard explanations of his aims, Billows shows that Antigonos was scarcely influenced by Alexander, seeking to rule West Asia and the Aegean, rather than the whole of Alexander's Empire.

Ten essays from a symposium held at Newcastle University in 1997, which examine the general themes of kingship and imperialism by focusing on the romances that surround Alexander.

The most influential account of the career of Alexander the Great was penned by Cleitarchus the son of Deinon, a Greek writing in Alexandria in the decades after Alexander's death. Most of the surviving ancient texts on Alexander were more or less based upon his work, but every single copy of the original was discarded or destroyed in antiquity. To what extent might it be possible to reconstruct it from the secondary writings? This book argues that a considerable degree of reconstruction is feasible and demonstrates the point by presenting a full reconstruction of Cleitarchus' version of Alexander's campaigns in India, the first time that this has been done. For more details see also www.alexanderstomb.com.

An investigation into the depiction and reception of the figure of Alexander in the literatures of medieval Europe.