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Hi All, While not Alexander-related, I was wondering if I could get a little help in coming up with a word in ancient Greek? In English, it needs to mean some permutation of 'the dwellers beneath'. I understand 'troglodyte' (in Greek) is fairly close, but I'm trying to avoid using that word because ...

Derek,

Do you have a link where we could find your book?

Best,

Scott

Amyntoros, I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the book! And thanks for the kind words. If the scene in Rhodes is the one I'm thinking about, then I think that's the scene that sold the book to my publisher -- it made her bawl on the subway ;) I understand what you're saying, especially about Artabazus. T...

Thanks Vergina, Derek, and Jan! Jan, Memnon was originally published in hardcover in the US, but it's from a smaller publisher (no where near the size of Transworld, which is a division of Random House). Most bookstores should be able to order a copy, or there's always Amazon ;) My future releases (...

Thanks, Ruthaki! And belated thanks for the postcard from Greece :) It's sitting on my desk where I can see it -- so it can remind me to return to Antiquity once I'm done working on my Arabian Nights pastiche (I still have a couple of Greek books in me . . . and maybe a Roman one, too -- lol). Best,...

Thanks, Marcus . . . Now I have vacation envy Enjoy your holiday!

Best,

Scott

Thanks Theseus, Paralus, and Semiramis :) Paralus, you forgot pizza deliverin', beer-drinkin' clerk-boy . . . from Alabama . When it comes to resources for researching the ancient world, Alabama pretty much ranks at the bottom of the heap. All I can say is thank god for the internet. Transworld wasn...

Hi All, I've been lurking for the most part, but I thought I'd step out for a time-honored bit of horn tooting :) If you live in the UK, parts of the EU, SA or Aus, then beginning August 1st my novel Memnon should be available in bookstores. From the back cover: In the 4th century BC, the Mediterran...

Well, I learn something new every day :) Personally, I would have never imagined Bagoas the Kingmaker to be Egyptian, though now I'm curious as to what his true name was since 'Bagoas' isn't even remotely an Egyptian name (makes a case for it being the Greek version of the Persian word for 'eunuch',...

1. Bagoas the Egyptian Eunouch. He is famous for murdering Artaxerxes Ochus and Arses. Hi Callisto, Interesting. I had no idea he was Egyptian. Is there a mention of his nationality in one of the sources? I had read somewhere, and for the life of me I can't recall where, that the name "Bagoas&...

Here is what confuses me about our extant sources: how do we know these ancient authors weren’t any less biased than their modern counterparts? An author is the product of his or her times, of their environment, and no matter the arena – religious or secular – an element of personal bias is bound to...

James Davidson's excellent and very accessible book Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens covers the subject of homoerotic relationships very well, I think. One thing that struck me from reading it is that male/male relationships were not universally 'Greek', but accep...

If I recall correctly, at the Sogdian Rock Alexander's interpreter was Cophen, one of the sons of Artabazus; all of old Artabazus' children were supposedly bi-lingual (for all we know, it was Barsine who served as translator between Alexander and Sisygambis). I wonder, though, if they spoke Persian ...

I don't think the Persians could use their fleet so long as Themistocles kept them bottled up in the Straits of Artemisium (I'm going off what I read in Tom Holland's 'Persian Fire'). But, I do agree. Had they not been flanked the Greeks could have held for quite a while.

Scott

Alexandria in Egypt was mostly built by Alexander's successors, rather than by himself, so just going the name isn't, strictly speaking, "concrete" proof. Isn't there a saying in archaeology: "Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence"? I've gotten into similar arguments wit...