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Eumenes the Greek with Alexander’s widow and son (Illustration credit col.1)
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Copyright © 2011 by James Romm
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Romm, James S.
Ghost on the throne: the death of Alexander the Great and the war for crown and empire / by James Romm.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN: 978-0-307-70150-3
1. Greece—History—Macedonian Hegemony, 323–281 B.C.
2. Macedonia—History—Diadochi, 323–276 B.C.
3. Alexander, the Great, 356–323 B.C.—Death and burial. I. Title.
DF235.4R66 2011
938’.08—dc22
2011008657
Front-of-jacket photograph by Tanya Marcuse | Jacket design by Jason Booher
v3.1
For my mom and stepfather,
Sydney and Victor Reed
The death of Demosthenes on Calauria and of Hyperides near Cleonae made the Athenians feel almost a passion and a longing for the days of Alexander and Philip. Just so, when Antigonus had died, and those who followed in his place had begun to inflict outrages and pains on the people, a farmer was seen digging up the ground in Phrygia. Someone asked him what he was doing. With a groan, he replied: “I am looking for Antigonus.”
—Plutarch Phocion29.1
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Map
Copyright
Epigraph
List of Illustrations
Preface
Note on Pronunciations
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION: The Opening of the Tombs
1 Bodyguards and Companions
2 The Testing of Perdiccas
3 The Athenians’ Last Stand (I)
4 Resistance, Rebellion, Reconquest
5 The Athenians’ Last Stand (II)
6 A Death on the Nile
7 The Fortunes of Eumenes
8 The War Comes Home
9 Duels to the Death
10 The Closing of the Tombs
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Other Books by This Author
Illustrations
col.1 Rhoxane and Eumenes (oil painting by Varotari, early seventeenth century). Getty Images
itr.1 Alexander’s Companions. Andronikos, Vergina: The Royal Tombs, Athens, 1984. 17th Ephorate of Antiquities © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Archaeological Receipts Fund
itr.2 The facade of Tomb 2. Andronikos, Vergina: The Royal Tombs, Athens, 1984. 17th Ephorate of Antiquities © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Archaeological Receipts Fund
1.1 The ancient city of Babylon, digitally reconstructed. Curt-Engelhorn-Stiftung für die Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen/FaberCourtial
1.2 Babylon’s Ishtar Gate. Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY
1.3 Macedonian infantrymen. Tsibidou-Avloniti, The Macedonian Tombs at Phoinikas and Ayios Athanasios in the Area of Thessaloniki, Athens, 2005, Plate 31. 16th Ephorate of Antiquities © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Archaeological Receipts Fund
1.4 A Babylonian clay tablet recording the death of Alexander, June 11, 323 B.C. © Trustees of the British Museum
2.1 A medallion struck by Alexander depicting an Indian archer. Courtesy Frank Holt
2.2 Positions assigned to the leading generals by the Babylon settlement. Beehive Mapping
3.1 The speaker’s platform of the Pnyx, Athens. Wikimedia Commons/A. D. White Architectural Photographs, Cornell University Library
3.2 Movements of forces, first phase of the Hellenic War. Beehive Mapping
4.1 Southern Afghanistan, the kind of landscape that drove many Greeks to flee the East. Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Army
5.1 Demosthenes, as depicted in a Roman copy of the commemorative statue by Polyeuctus. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen
6.1 Alexander’s funeral cart. Courtesy Stella Miller-Collett
6.2 The basic unit of the Macedonian phalanx. akg-images/Peter Connolly.
8.1 A rock carving found outside a tomb, southern Turkey. Courtesy Andrew Stewart
8.2 Athens and its harbor Piraeus. Beehive Mapping
8.3 A funerary monument, Athens. Courtesy Olga Palagia
9.1 The only known depiction of elephant warfare from Alexander’s time. Courtesy Frank Holt
9.2 Movements of Antigonus and Eumenes leading up to the battle of Paraetacene. Beehive Mapping
10.1 An artist’s rendering of Tomb 2, Aegae. Andronikos, Vergina: The Royal Tombs, Athens, 1984. 17th Ephorate of Antiquities © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Archaeological Receipts Fund
10.2 The silver hydria containing the remains of Alexander IV. Andronikos, Vergina: The Royal Tombs, Athens, 1984. 17th Ephorate of Antiquities © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Archaeological Receipts Fund
epl.1 Alexander as depicted on Ptolemy’s coinage, 321 B.C. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Preface
The Macedonian Empire was one of the world’s largest but, without doubt, its most ephemeral. It attained its greatest extent in 325 B.C. with Alexander the Great’s invasion of the Indus valley (today eastern Pakistan), at the end of a ten-year campaign of conquest in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. But it began to collapse in 323 following Alexander’s sudden and unforeseen death. It existed in a full and relatively stable form for only two years.
The story of Alexander’s conquests is known to many readers, but the dramatic and consequential sequel to that story is much less well-known. It is a tale of loss that begins with the greatest loss of all, the death of the king who gave the empire its center. “He died just when men most longed for him,” writes Arrian, one of the ancient historians who dealt with this era, implying both that Alexander’s talents were needed to keep the empire together and that the king had become an object of adoration, even worship, in the last years of his life. The era that followed came to be defined by the absence of one towering individual, just as the previous era had been defined by his presence. It was as though the sun had disappeared from the solar system; planets and moons began spinning crazily in new directions, often crashing into each other with terrifying force.