The treasures of Alexander the Great : how one man's wealth shaped the world /
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"War, the most profitable economic activity in the ancient world, transferred wealth from the vanquished to the victor. Invasions, sieges, massacres, annexations, and mass deportations all redistributed property with dramatic consequences for kings and commoners alike. No conqueror ever captured more people or property in so short a lifetime than Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BC. For all its savagery, the creation of Alexander's empire has generally been hailed as a positive economic event for all concerned. Even those harshly critical of Alexander today tend to praise his plundering of Persia as a means of liberating the moribund resources of the East. To test this popular interpretation, The Treasures of Alexander the Great investigates the kinds and quantities of treasure seized by the Macedonian king, from gold and silver to land and slaves. It reveals what became of the king's wealth and what Alexander's redistribution of these vast resources can tell us about his much-disputed policies and personality. Though Alexander owed his vast fortune to war, battle also distracted him from competently managing his spoils and much was wasted, embezzled, deliberately destroyed, or idled unprofitably. The Treasures of Alexander the Great provides a long-overdue and accessible account of Alexander's wealth and its enormous impact on the ancient world"--
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xcii, 295 pages ; 23 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9780199950966
Eumenes of Cardia : a Greek among Macedonians /
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Eumenes of Cardia: A Greek Among Macedonians (2nd edition) updates the original work in light of a decade of scholarly activity and presents much new analysis influenced by this continuing scholarship. Eumenes of Cardia was a royal secretary who, in the years following the death of Alexander the Great became a major contender for power. Despite the fact that he had been chiefly an administrator rather than one of Alexander's elite military commanders, and that he was a Greek from the city of Cardia, as opposed to a native Macedonian, Eumenes came close to securing control of the Asian remnants of Alexander's empire. His history is important because our sources for the years immediately following the Conqueror's death are dominated by the Cardian's story. Moreover, his death marked in many respects the approaching end of the Macedonian dynasty of kings who had ruled Macedonia since the 8th c. BC, and his life illuminated both the nature of the Macedonian heritage and the possibilities of the new age ushered in by the conquests of the great Alexander.
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1 online resource (xvi, 296 pages) : maps. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004297173 :
2352-8656 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Brill's companion to ancient Macedon : studies in the archaeology and history of Macedon, 650 BC-300 AD /
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In the past 35 years our archaeological and epigraphic evidence for the history and culture of ancient Macedon has been transformed. This book brings together the leading Greek archaeologists and historians of the area in a major collaborative survey of the finds and their interpretation, many of them unpublished outside Greece. The recent, immensely significant excavations of the palace of King Philip II are published here for the first time. Major new chapters on the Macedonians' Greek language, civic life, fourth and third century BC kings and court accompany specialist surveys of the region's art and coinage and the royal palace centres of Pella and Vergina, presented here with much new evidence. This book is the essential companion to Macedon, packed with new information and bibliography which no student of the Greek world can now afford to neglect.
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1 online resource (xiii, 642 pages, [72] pages of plates) : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004209237 :
1872-3357 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The regime of Demetrius of Phalerum in Athens, 317-307 BCE : a philosopher in politics /
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Erudite and urbane, a scion of the Peripatos, Demetrius of Phalerum dominated Athenian political life for a decade (317-307 B.C.E.) with Macedonian support. Viewed by some as the embodiment of the longed-for 'philosopher-king', Demetrius has been seen a test case for the interplay of philosophical training and political praxis in antiquity. This book, through a close re-examination of the fragmentary and diffuse testimonia for Demetrius' decade, argues that such a view misunderstands his legislative, constitutional and financial reforms, which should rather be seen within the context of Macedonian suzerainty, Athenian self-interest, and contemporary social changes. Such a context also affords a better understanding of the dynamic relations between the Macedonian generals and the preeminent Greek city at the dawn of the Hellenistic era.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047441236 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.