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"This was not an age of Robert's Rules of Order."

Best line about the court ever, Sikander. I will have to steal it when teaching my Alexander class (with proper attribution, of course.)

What I think is one of the more problematic issues for historians is the tendency to regard people's personalities as somewhat rigid, rather than flexible in response to changing situations. This is what (in psych) is called "actor-observer bias." In short, "actor-observer bias" ...

Way back in the '70s, Gene Borza wrote an article on the revolt called "The End of Agis's Revolt," but I'm sure there's something more recent. Alas, it's not something I've spent a lot of time reading about, but if the ancient sources mention it, it may be in Gene's article. Sometimes, tho...

Exactly, Peter can do very rigorous history. As noted, he gave me the best edit I've had to date. Our quibbles were mostly on how to present ancient sources. That said, he is *also* a master of essay writing. His The Shadow of the Parthenon & Classical Bearings are among his best work. Like Eric...

This sounds like something out of the Alexander Romance.

Alexander did not have a telescope of any kind. Aristotle did have some magnifying glasses, but that's about it.

Sean -- I sorta wish more academic publishers *did* that. And it's one reason I prefer to 1) transliterate Greek words and 2) provide translations of Greek (or Latin). I remember BEING an "really interested outsider" and how frustrating it was when the author of the article provided no tra...

I am somewhat familiar with Alexander fanfiction as a result of researching the "Cult of Hephaistion" article. I did unofficial surveys for it, and quite a few of the respondents wrote Alexander fanfic, or read it. What struck me is that a number of the authors were fairly well-read (and d...

The ball story, like a lot of anecdotes, is false, created later during the Imperial period.

What Sean says is exactly correct about historicals. By contrast, the LBGTQ market is very large (although historicals don't necessarily fare well there), and Romance is the bread-and-butter of publishing. Riptide is taking a chance on me, and I'm grateful. I like to think of the novel as an LGBTQ-f...

Sean -- Actually Peter Green wrote a couple, one on Sappho and another on Alcibiades (which I personally prefer to the Pressfield novel). I keep telling Beth (Carney) she needs to write one on Olympias after she retires. :-) Also, Judith Tarr is a medievalist (PhD from Yale) who writes historical f...

N.B., these conferences are not always open to the public. Before anybody shows up, you should contact Dr. Pownell . It's not intentionally exclusive, but conference venues often have to be paid for, etc. They're not free. I've run conferences before, and trust me, there's a lot of money involved in...

Alexander is a teen boy in the novel, so of course he's inconsistent. *GRIN* But more to the point, I think *most* people are inconsistent because we're human. We change across time, and consistency is, I think, a fiction of our need to make sense of our own actions. Historians can be especially gui...

Not sure if this belongs here, or in ATG in the Media (moderators, please move if I'm in the wrong spot), but...I am now free to announce: Riptide Publishing has bought a 2-book novel pair from me about Alexander before he became The Great. It should appear in late 2018 or early 2019 (depending on e...

Alexias -- I think you missed the point. It's not having an opinion that I object to. It was having an opinion without actually listening to the material in question as some of your comments and objections were, in fact, covered in the podcast. And I won't apologize for being an expert. Nor will I a...

Alexias -- I'd invite you to listen to the podcast before commenting. That's a gentle rebuke. It's unprofessional to comment on/review a monograph or similar before reading/(listening to) the whole. Several of your points are addressed in the podcast (even supported), or don't really make sense in t...