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Aside from the stated figures – which run in favour of Darius in the fashion of Philippine electoral returns for Marcos and need to be treated similarly – the “evidence” for the huge Persian host turns on Ptolemy’s description of the dead at battle’s end. Here we have dead horsemen and infantry clo...

2:6 The Campaign of Issus I thought we got a vivid picture here of the fear and tension in the Macedonian camp during Alexander’s illness in Tarsus, though I don’t know why Professor Bosworth is so sure that Harpalus’ defection will not have been the only one. He also seems convinced that Harpalus’ ...

Ptolemy does do a reasonable job of airbrushing Antigonus from history. Not satisfied with the fact that Antigonus was appointed satarap of Phrygia and that he no longer features in the anabasis, he leaves out the campaingn that, if Curtius is correct, secured Alexander's rear. Curtius (IV.1.34-35)...

Sandra wrote:Thanks! I will contact you!

Hello Sandra, there is no hurry, of course, but if you have sent me anything, I have not received it.
Hope everything is all right.
Cheers,
Fiona

2:5 From Halicarnassus to Cilicia Another chapter full of difficult geography, almost impossible to understand without a good map, and one thing this book does not have is a good map. Does anyone else have the same problem, that if you use a map that shows all the places, you don’t get the details o...

I agree. It's near impossible to form a perception of his character given the lack of material. I guess this is why most of my conclusions take the most parsimonious route (read boring :) ) given the available information. Even the accounts we have are questionable. Take the Gordian Knot story Marc...

Propaganda is usually thought of as a "bad" thing, and considering its uses it could very often be perceived as such; but propaganda is merely the art of persuading someone to your point of view, so it doesn't have to mean that the regime was "bad". It is true that we most often...

Or on the basis of plain, ordinary practicalities. There would be no practical gain in raising the levels of tribute; there is a plain gain in lowering or removing. From memory Alexander applied punitive penalties against the wavering Prienne. Antigonus Monophthalmus certainly saw great practical g...

This can be viewed as part of the propaganda Bosworth praises Alexander for in the previous chapter - that other essential component of conquest. More of an investment with an eye to the future control of taxes, treasuries, lavish palaces and other possessions, than generosity alone. Raising tribut...

Hello Paralus, it is nice to see you back, did you have a good camping trip? You are, seemingly, easily outraged. The Lydians – a non Greek ‘nation’ – will not have been treated as Greeks. That they “had exchanged masters” is the best description of what had transpired. It is what happened to other ...

2:4 The Aegean Coast Well, the focus of the book is the mechanics of conquest and empire, and here we are getting right down to it, with a great variety of places that are dealt with in different ways. I thought this chapter was well-balanced between the political and the military, though depressing...

Hello Murray, and welcome to the site. I hope you will enjoy it here. There are a lot of people who, like yourself, are very well-read and knowledgeable. (ie not me, lol!) I am very pleased that you wanted to comment on a point that I had made. I had not seen the passage you quoted, from Diodorus, b...

The Agrianians/Agrianes were a tribe, so I doubt there was a place actually called "Agriania". On the other hand, they will have had a relatively clearly defined "homeland" - I say relatively, because presumably they had been fighting over land with their neighbours for generati...

2:3 First Victory It’s a long time since I had to look up a word in the dictionary when reading, but in this chapter I had to look up two! Apotropaic and encomiastic – if nothing else, I’ve learned two new words. I thought this was an interesting and exciting chapter, beautifully written in the taut...

Hello Fingy, I am pretty much like you in that it was the Oliver Stone film for me, but before it came out. When the idea was first getting round on the Internet round about 2003, when there was still talk of three different movies, and who'd get there first (remember, we could have had Leonardo di ...