Before and After Alexander: The Legend and Legacy of Alexander the Great

Before and After Alexander: The Legend and Legacy of Alexander the Great

by Richard A. Billows
Before and After Alexander: The Legend and Legacy of Alexander the Great

Before and After Alexander: The Legend and Legacy of Alexander the Great

by Richard A. Billows

Hardcover

$32.50 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
    Usually ships within 6 days
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

In the arc of western history, Ancient Greece is at the apex, owing to its grandeur, its culture, and an intellectual renaissance to rival that of Europe. So important is Greece to history that figures such as Plato and Socrates are still household names, and the works of Homer are regularly adapted into movies. The most acclaimed hero of all, though, is Alexander the Great.While historians have studied Alexander’s achievements at length, author and professor Richard A. Billows delves deeper into the obscure periods of Alexander’s life before and after his reign. In the definitive Before and After Alexander, Billows explores the years preceding Alexander, who, Billows argues, without the foundation laid by his father, Philip II of Macedon. would not have had the resources or influence to develop one of the greatest empires in history. Alexander was groomed from a young age to succeed his father, and by the time Philip was assassinated in 336 BC, his great empire was already well underway.The years following Alexander's death were even more momentous. In this ambitious new work, Richard Billows robustly challenges the notion that the political strife that followed was for lack of a leader as competent as Alexander, pointing out instead that there were too many extremely capable leaders who exploited the power vacuum created by Alexander's death to carve out kingdoms for themselves.Above all, in Before and After Alexander, Billows eloquently and convincingly posits a complex view of one of the greatest empires in history, framing it not as the achievement of one man, but the culmination of several generations of aggressive expansion toward a unified purpose.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781590207406
Publisher: Abrams Press
Publication date: 06/12/2018
Pages: 304
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Richard A. Billows is a professor at Columbia University specializing in Ancient Greek and Roman epigraphy. He is the author of Marathon: How One Battle Changed Western Civilization, as well as Antigonos the One-Eyed and the Creation of the Hellenistic State, Kings and Colonists: Aspects of Macedonian Imperialism, and Julius Caesar: The Colossus of Rome. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

Maps 11

1 Macedonia before Philip II 17

2 Philip's Childhood 42

3 The Reign of Philip 64

4 Philip's New Model Army and New Model State 103

5 The Reign of Alexander 141

6 The Wars of the Successors 186

7 The Hellenistic World and Hellenistic Civilization 243

8 Aftermath: The Lingering Impact of Hellenistic Culture 287

Acknowledgments 303

End Notes 304

Glossary 309

Genealogies 312

Timeline 316

Bibliography 320

Index 327

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews