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Review
well-paced and often dramatic narratives, up-to-date research, and thorough documentation (Wall Street Journal )
Robin Waterfield has produced an excellent introduction...He conveys the drama of the aftermath of Alexander's death with the intensity of a novelist (Military Times )
A briskly readable march through tumultuous events which continue to reverberate. (Daily Express )
Robin Waterfield's coruscating cultural-political narrative does full and equal justice to all the major dimensions of this extraordinary half-century. (Paul Cartledge, author of Ancient Greece, A History in Eleven Cities )
A gripping and often unsettling account of a formative period of ancient history. As Robin Waterfield points out, it deserves to be far better known than it is -- and now, thanks to the author himself, it is as accessible as it has ever been. (Tom Holland, author of Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West )
Robin Waterfield has produced an excellent introduction...He conveys the drama of the aftermath of Alexander's death with the intensity of a novelist (Military Times )
A briskly readable march through tumultuous events which continue to reverberate. (Daily Express )
Robin Waterfield's coruscating cultural-political narrative does full and equal justice to all the major dimensions of this extraordinary half-century. (Paul Cartledge, author of Ancient Greece, A History in Eleven Cities )
A gripping and often unsettling account of a formative period of ancient history. As Robin Waterfield points out, it deserves to be far better known than it is -- and now, thanks to the author himself, it is as accessible as it has ever been. (Tom Holland, author of Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West )
Product Description
This is the story of one of the great forgotten wars of history - which led to the disintegration of one of the biggest empires the world has ever seen. Alexander the Great built up his huge empire in little more than a decade, stretching from Greece in the West, via Egypt, Syria, Babylonia, and Persia through to the Indian sub-continent in the East. After his death in 323 BC, it took forty years of world-changing warfare for his heirs to finish carving up these vast conquests. These years were filled with high adventure, intrigue, passion, assassinations, dynastic marriages, treachery, shifting alliances, and mass slaughter on battlefield after battlefield. And while the men fought on the field, the women schemed from their palaces and pavilions. Dividing the Spoils revives the memory of Alexander's Successors, whose fame has been dimmed only because they stand in his enormous shadow. In fact, Alexander left things in a mess at the time of his death, with no guaranteed succession, no administration in place suitable for such an enormous realm, and huge untamed areas both bordering and within his 'empire'. The Successors consolidated the Conqueror's gains. Their competing ambitions, however, meant that consolidation inevitably led to the break-up of the empire. Astonishingly, this period of brutal, cynical warfare was also characterized by brilliant cultural developments, especially in the fields of philosophy, literature, and art. So as well as an account of the military action, this is also the story of an amazing cultural flowering. In some senses, a new world emerged from the dust and haze of battle. A surprising amount of the history of many countries, from Greece to Afghanistan, began in the hearts and minds of the Successors of Alexander the Great. As this book demonstrates, their stories deserve to be better known.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It is a long established fact that history is written by the winners (ignoring Thucydides), the problem for the Hellenistic history specialist is that the period of the successors (323BC-280BC), produced an absolutely stellar cast of losers - Perdicas, Craterus, Eumenes of Kardia, Cassander, Polypherchon to name but a few. The primary sources seem to mirror the period providing a difficult challenge of creating a unified narrative in which the challengers to Alexander's throne get equal treatment to the big three that succeed (The Antigonids, Seleucids and Ptolemies). Modern works too, have shied away from the successors preferring to focus their efforts on the kingdoms that emerge once the dust has settled on the numerous wars of the successors. It is against this background that Robin Waterfield steps in, it is a difficult task to write a history that embraces 40 years of near constant warfare, back stabbing and treachery, but to his credit Waterfield has produced one of the most readable and accessible accounts of modern times.
The book is simply but effectively structured, Waterfield follows a broad chronological structure, with clear chapter breaks and effective use of sub headers to make reading easier. A pitfall of narrative history is that it can be boring and hard to engage with, however the quality of Waterfield's prose is such that the work is highly lucid and events follow a logical sequence avoiding the dangers of weaker narrative history. Alongside this chronological structure are good sections of text that deal with more thematic subjects ranging from Hellenistic kingship and ruler cult to philosophy. The book does much to engage with the successors on areas other than war, which is a welcome change as much recent scholarship has been more militarily focused, which culturally is unfair on the successors especially Ptolemy. His balanced view that does recognise the successors' failings and qualities, does much to bring the history to life and add dignity to what they did, rather than petty warlords, they certainly become more like Kings, Generals and Statesmen.
The general thrust of the book is also interesting, Waterfield's main argument is that all the successors aimed to rule Alexander's Empire in its entirety (Waterfield recasts Ptolemy as less satisfied by ruling only Egypt but perhaps lacking the means to expand) and that it was the epigonoi (the successors children) that accepted the status quo on having the big three Hellenistic Kingdoms. It is an argument compellingly made; Waterfield displays an excellent knowledge of Macedonian Kingship to support his argument. I would have liked more discussion of the regional dynasts, which was glossed over in the book, though all in all an excellent book and for those who want a good narrative of the period it will prove indispensible!
The book is simply but effectively structured, Waterfield follows a broad chronological structure, with clear chapter breaks and effective use of sub headers to make reading easier. A pitfall of narrative history is that it can be boring and hard to engage with, however the quality of Waterfield's prose is such that the work is highly lucid and events follow a logical sequence avoiding the dangers of weaker narrative history. Alongside this chronological structure are good sections of text that deal with more thematic subjects ranging from Hellenistic kingship and ruler cult to philosophy. The book does much to engage with the successors on areas other than war, which is a welcome change as much recent scholarship has been more militarily focused, which culturally is unfair on the successors especially Ptolemy. His balanced view that does recognise the successors' failings and qualities, does much to bring the history to life and add dignity to what they did, rather than petty warlords, they certainly become more like Kings, Generals and Statesmen.
The general thrust of the book is also interesting, Waterfield's main argument is that all the successors aimed to rule Alexander's Empire in its entirety (Waterfield recasts Ptolemy as less satisfied by ruling only Egypt but perhaps lacking the means to expand) and that it was the epigonoi (the successors children) that accepted the status quo on having the big three Hellenistic Kingdoms. It is an argument compellingly made; Waterfield displays an excellent knowledge of Macedonian Kingship to support his argument. I would have liked more discussion of the regional dynasts, which was glossed over in the book, though all in all an excellent book and for those who want a good narrative of the period it will prove indispensible!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
As with Xenophon's Retreat, Robin Waterfield writes well and with great economy. Any discursions are necessary to the text and speculation is kept to a minimum where evidentiary support is not available.
The book deals with the aftermath of Alexander's death and the "successors" wars to inherit his Empire. Ptolomy more or less played a safe hand, but each of the others saw themselves as worthy of exercising Imperial power - even in extreme old age taking to the battlefield to expand their territory. I knew that ultimately power was shared by three of Alexander's generals, but a lot of blood was shed and money (the equivalent to billions in modern day values) spent getting there.
All in all a satisfying read for those who wish to know what came after Alexander's death. The book also has a time line at the back, cast of characters and genealogies.
I also love Waterfield's turn of phrase. Writing of the Antiginoid heir Demetrius's betrayal of a duality of Macedonian boy kings he writes: "Minnows should not swim with sharks", which drives home the utter ruthlessness of those who wished to gain, not a part, but all of Alexander's spear won land - and believed they had the right to do so.
Most definitely not a brat pack historian, of which there seems to be an abundance at the present time.
The book deals with the aftermath of Alexander's death and the "successors" wars to inherit his Empire. Ptolomy more or less played a safe hand, but each of the others saw themselves as worthy of exercising Imperial power - even in extreme old age taking to the battlefield to expand their territory. I knew that ultimately power was shared by three of Alexander's generals, but a lot of blood was shed and money (the equivalent to billions in modern day values) spent getting there.
All in all a satisfying read for those who wish to know what came after Alexander's death. The book also has a time line at the back, cast of characters and genealogies.
I also love Waterfield's turn of phrase. Writing of the Antiginoid heir Demetrius's betrayal of a duality of Macedonian boy kings he writes: "Minnows should not swim with sharks", which drives home the utter ruthlessness of those who wished to gain, not a part, but all of Alexander's spear won land - and believed they had the right to do so.
Most definitely not a brat pack historian, of which there seems to be an abundance at the present time.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a well-written and readable book on the wars of the Successors. Although it doesn't go into the details of the battles, for which there are several recent volumes, it does give the flow of events and a good account of the characters involved. This is a period where the sources are slim, and although there are many specialised books on aspects or characters of the period, good narrative histories are thin on the ground. The author also manages to cover contemporary `culture' as well, but not in an intrusive way, the information is dealt with at opportune points in the narrative, and at reasonable length - that is, it doesn't distract from the story, nor is it boring or irrelevant. This is a readable and entertaining account, without any intrusive opinions or factual errors; only intrusive American spelling and use of dollar equivalents when illustrating the value of the hoards of `talents' looted at frequent intervals in the story. Obviously the Oxford University Press of England think British readers are more tolerant than American ones.
Idiotai Abroad:
One of the non-intrusive cultural sections is on `The Ethos of Individualism'. The author discusses the nature of the Greek `Polis', or `citizen-state'. This was quite alien to the Western idea of citizenship, almost big-brother. "The Macedonian empire, however, changed the rules... The relative disempowerment of citizens as political agents made it possible for them to see themselves, to a greater extent, as individuals, rather than just as contributors to the greater good. Of course, people had chosen not to play a part in the public life of their cities before - they were known as `idiotai', the remote origin of our word "idiot" - but as the Hellenistic period progressed, fewer citizens played a significant part in the political life of the city and larger numbers gained more of a private life, and hence the context within which the value of the individual might be recognised (pp52-53)". Another section notes the beginning of the recognition of women as individuals with rights, as opposed to being in effect the property of their male relatives or husbands.
Further reading:
Alexander the Great Failure: The Collapse of the Macedonian Empire (Hambledon Continuum)
The Wars of Alexander's Successors 323 - 281 BC: Commanders and Campaigns v. 1
Hellenistic and Roman Naval Warfare 336BC - 31BC
Great Battles of the Hellenistic World
Idiotai Abroad:
One of the non-intrusive cultural sections is on `The Ethos of Individualism'. The author discusses the nature of the Greek `Polis', or `citizen-state'. This was quite alien to the Western idea of citizenship, almost big-brother. "The Macedonian empire, however, changed the rules... The relative disempowerment of citizens as political agents made it possible for them to see themselves, to a greater extent, as individuals, rather than just as contributors to the greater good. Of course, people had chosen not to play a part in the public life of their cities before - they were known as `idiotai', the remote origin of our word "idiot" - but as the Hellenistic period progressed, fewer citizens played a significant part in the political life of the city and larger numbers gained more of a private life, and hence the context within which the value of the individual might be recognised (pp52-53)". Another section notes the beginning of the recognition of women as individuals with rights, as opposed to being in effect the property of their male relatives or husbands.
Further reading:
Alexander the Great Failure: The Collapse of the Macedonian Empire (Hambledon Continuum)
The Wars of Alexander's Successors 323 - 281 BC: Commanders and Campaigns v. 1
Hellenistic and Roman Naval Warfare 336BC - 31BC
Great Battles of the Hellenistic World
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great Overview
A very good overview of the wars of the successors. Battles themselves are not covered in any detail but the the grand strategy is very nicely explained. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Andy
great man
this book his a fantastic read what happened to alexander the greats empire after his death the book detail is set out well thats why i gave it five stars
Published 4 months ago by topaz
Well written and a pleasure to read
If you're familiar with the history of Alexander the Great, then it's well worth following the story after his death and this book is a superb introduction to the era of... Read more
Published 5 months ago by M. Western
Alexander's Inheritance
Alexander may have been Great at conquering the world, but succession planning was not his forte. At his death the choice of legitimate heir was between a half-wit and a foetus. Read more
Published 5 months ago by James-philip Harries
A bit of everything...
This is a good and a well-structured general introduction and summary to the "Wars of the Successors" (with a plural, not a singular, contrary to the book's subtitle). Read more
Published 5 months ago by JPS
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