Ghost on the Throne

Alexander the Great, perhaps the most commanding leader in history, united his empire and his army by the titanic force of his will. His death at the age of thirty-two spelled the end of that unity.

The story of Alexander’s conquest of the Persian empire is known to many readers, but the dramatic and consequential saga of the empire’s collapse remains virtually untold. It is a...

Alexander the Great, perhaps the most commanding leader in history, united his empire and his army by the titanic force of his will. His death at the age of thirty-two spelled the end of that unity.

The story of Alexander’s conquest of the Persian empire is known to many readers, but the dramatic and consequential saga of the empire’s collapse remains virtually untold. It is a tale of loss that begins with the greatest loss of all, the death of the Macedonian king who had held the empire together.

With his demise, it was as if the sun had disappeared from the solar system, as if planets and moons began to spin crazily in new directions, crashing into one another with unimaginable force.

Alexander bequeathed his power, legend has it, “to the strongest,” leaving behind a mentally damaged half brother and a posthumously born son as his only heirs. In a strange compromise, both figures—Philip III and Alexander IV—were elevated to the kingship, quickly becoming prizes, pawns, fought over by a half-dozen Macedonian generals. Each successor could confer legitimacy on whichever general controlled him.

At the book’s center is the monarch’s most vigorous defender; Alexander’s former Greek secretary, now transformed into a general himself. He was a man both fascinating and entertaining, a man full of tricks and connivances, like the enthroned ghost of Alexander that gives the book its title, and becomes the determining factor in the precarious fortunes of the royal family.

James Romm, brilliant classicist and storyteller, tells the galvanizing saga of the men who followed Alexander and found themselves incapable of preserving his empire. The result was the undoing of a world, formerly united in a single empire, now ripped apart into a nightmare of warring nation-states struggling for domination, the template of our own times.

【作者简介】

詹姆斯·罗姆（James Romm），原名小詹姆斯·H.奥特维（James H. Ottaway Jr.），巴德学院（Bard College）古典文学教授，也是古根海姆基金会、国家人文基金会、多萝西与刘易斯·B.卡尔曼学者与作家中心协会的成员。他出版了众多关于古代世界 的著作，包括《哲人与权臣》《古代思想中的地球边缘》《希罗多德》等专著，以及《丰碑阿里安：亚历山大诸战役》。

【译者简介】

葛晓虎，上海师范大学世界古代中世纪史硕士，从事历史教学工作，已翻译出版了《坎尼的幽灵：汉尼拔与罗马共和国最黑暗的时刻》，《哲人与权臣：尼禄宫廷里的塞内加》。酷爱读书，醉心于古典世界与战争史。