Ghost on the Throne
The Death of Alexander the Great and the Bloody Fight for His Empire
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Narrated by:
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Michael Page
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By:
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James S. Romm
About this listen
When Alexander the Great died at the age of 32, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea in the west all the way to modern-day India in the east. In an unusual compromise, his two heirs - a mentally damaged half brother, Philip III, and an infant son, Alexander IV, born after his death - were jointly granted the kingship. But six of Alexander's Macedonian generals, spurred by their own thirst for power and the legend that Alexander bequeathed his rule "to the strongest," fought to gain supremacy. Perhaps their most fascinating and conniving adversary was Alexander's former Greek secretary, Eumenes, now a general himself, who would be the determining factor in the precarious fortunes of the royal family.
James Romm, professor of classics at Bard College, brings to life the cutthroat competition and the struggle for control of the Greek world's greatest empire.
©2011 James Romm (P)2020 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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- The Making of the World's Greatest Empire
- By: Anthony Everitt
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Emerging as a market town from a cluster of hill villages in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., Rome grew to become the ancient world's preeminent power. Everitt fashions the story of Rome's rise to glory into an erudite book filled with lasting lessons for our time. He chronicles the clash between patricians and plebeians that defined the politics of the Republic. He shows how Rome's shrewd strategy of offering citizenship to her defeated subjects was instrumental in expanding the reach of her burgeoning empire.
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Rome from the fall of Troy through Julius Caesar
- By Mike From Mesa on 12-11-12
By: Anthony Everitt
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The Last Viking
- The True Story of King Harald Hardrada
- By: Don Hollway
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Harald Sigurdsson burst into history as a teenaged youth in a Viking battle from which he escaped with little more than his life and a thirst for vengeance. But from these humble origins, he became one of Norway’s most legendary kings. The Last Viking is a fast-moving narrative account of the life of King Harald Hardrada, as he journeyed across the medieval world, from the frozen wastelands of the North to the glittering towers of Byzantium and the passions of the Holy Land, until his warrior death on the battlefield in England.
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Just okay
- By Amazon Customer on 06-28-24
By: Don Hollway
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Charlemagne
- A Captivating Guide to the Greatest Monarch of the Carolingian Empire and How He Ruled over the Franks, Lombards, and Romans
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 3 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Warrior. Ruler. Patron of the arts and language. Terrorist. Brutal oppressor. Protector of the good. Guardian of Christendom. Father of Europe. There are so many different ways in which Charlemagne can be described, and yet, the man himself is often seen as an enigma. Depending on the viewpoint of history, he could have been either a monster or a guardian angel. Yet, as with most men, the truth lies somewhere in between. The truth is that he was human.
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Excellent
- By lawrence theriot on 01-25-23
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The Normans
- From Raiders to Kings
- By: Lars Brownworth
- Narrated by: James C. Lewis
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Normans, Lars Brownworth follows their story, from the first shock of a Viking raid on an Irish monastery to the exile of the last Norman Prince of Antioch. In the process, he brings to vivid life the Norman tapestry's rich cast of characters: figures like Rollo the Walker, William Iron-Arm, Tancred the Monkey King, and Robert Guiscard. The Normans presents a fascinating glimpse of a time when a group of restless adventurers had the world at their fingertips.
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Norsemen in Palermo
- By Jim on 02-23-15
By: Lars Brownworth
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Crusaders
- The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 16 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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For more than 1,000 years, Christians and Muslims lived side by side, sometimes at peace and sometimes at war. When Christian armies seized Jerusalem in 1099, they began the most notorious period of conflict between the two religions. Depending on who you ask, the fall of the holy city was either an inspiring legend or the greatest of horrors. In Crusaders, Dan Jones interrogates the many sides of the larger story, charting a deeply human and avowedly pluralist path through the crusading era.
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Gripping but not tidy
- By Tad Davis on 01-06-20
By: Dan Jones
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The Wars of the Roses
- The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The 15th century saw the longest and bloodiest series of civil wars in British history. The crown of England changed hands five times as two branches of the Plantagenet dynasty fought to the death for the right to rule. Now, celebrated historian Dan Jones describes how the longest reigning British royal family tore itself apart until it was finally replaced by the Tudors. Some of the greatest heroes and villains in history were thrown together in these turbulent times.
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No Need for a Score Card
- By Troy on 01-16-15
By: Dan Jones
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God's Wolf
- The Life of the Most Notorious of All Crusaders, Scourge of Saladin
- By: Jeffrey Lee
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In a 2010 terrorist plot, Al-Qaeda hid a bomb in a FedEx shipment addressed to Reynald de Chatillon, a knight who had died centuries ago in the Crusades. A reviled figure in Islamic history, often portrayed as the very epitome of brutality, Reynald remains as controversial - and as vividly present in the minds of many in the Middle East - as the story of the Crusades themselves.
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A great look into the life of a great crusader
- By Jon on 02-28-19
By: Jeffrey Lee
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The End of Empire
- Attila the Hun & the Fall of Rome
- By: Christopher Kelly
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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History remembers Attila, the leader of the Huns, as the Romans perceived him: a savage barbarian brutally inflicting terror on whoever crossed his path. Following Attila and the Huns from the steppes of Kazakhstan to the court of Constantinople, Christopher Kelly portrays Attila in a compelling new light, uncovering an unlikely marriage proposal, a long-standing relationship with a treacherous Roman general, and a thwarted assassination plot.
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LISTEN TO THE SAMPLE
- By Chelsea on 03-23-21
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Scandinavia
- A History
- By: Ewan Butler
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, award-winning historian Ewan Butler writes, struggled through unions and separations with both outsiders and each other, developing their own personalities and languages yet retaining their ancient connections.
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Excellent History of Scandinavia after the Vikings
- By Arthur on 05-05-17
By: Ewan Butler
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Great book!
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Outstanding! This is THE book on Carthage.
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Horrible narrator
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James Romm seamlessly weaves together the life and written words, the moral struggles, political intrigue, and bloody vengeance that enmeshed Seneca the Younger in the twisted imperial family and the perverse, paranoid regime of Emperor Nero, despot and madman.
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Outstanding
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Great book!
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Perspective matters
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The Rise of Rome
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Emerging as a market town from a cluster of hill villages in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., Rome grew to become the ancient world's preeminent power. Everitt fashions the story of Rome's rise to glory into an erudite book filled with lasting lessons for our time. He chronicles the clash between patricians and plebeians that defined the politics of the Republic. He shows how Rome's shrewd strategy of offering citizenship to her defeated subjects was instrumental in expanding the reach of her burgeoning empire.
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Rome from the fall of Troy through Julius Caesar
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Doomsday prophets of technology predict that robots will take over the world, leaving humans behind in the dust. Tech industry boosters think replacing people with software might make the world a better place—while tech industry critics warn darkly about surveillance capitalism. Despite their differing views of the future, they all agree: machines will soon do everything better than humans. How to Stay Smart in a Smart World shows why that's not true, and tells us how we can stay in charge in a world populated by algorithms.
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I Paid for This Nonsense
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In The Fall of Rome, eminent historian Bryan Ward-Perkins argues that the "peaceful" theory of Rome's "transformation" is badly in error. Indeed, he sees the fall of Rome as a time of horror and dislocation that destroyed a great civilization, throwing the inhabitants of the West back to a standard of living typical of prehistoric times. Attacking contemporary theories with relish and making use of modern archaeological evidence, he looks at both the wider explanations for the disintegration of the Roman world and also the consequences for the lives of everyday Romans.
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Alexander the Great
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In Alexander the Great, Anthony Everitt judges Alexander’s life against the criteria of his own age and considers all his contradictions. We meet the Macedonian prince who was naturally inquisitive and fascinated by science and exploration, as well as the man who enjoyed the arts and used Homer’s great epic, the Iliad, as a bible. As his empire grew, Alexander exhibited respect for the traditions of his new subjects and careful judgment in administering rule over his vast territory. But his career also had a dark side.
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Alexander never gets...old.
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Atoms and Ashes
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Atoms and Ashes recounts the dramatic history of nuclear accidents that have dogged the industry in its military and civil incarnations since the 1950s. Through the stories of six terrifying major incidents—Bikini Atoll, Kyshtym, Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima—Cold War expert Serhii Plokhy explores the risks of nuclear power, both for military and peaceful purposes, while offering a vivid account of how individuals and governments make decisions under extraordinary circumstances.
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This was a pretty sensational and biased book.
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Persians
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The Achaemenid Persian kings ruled over the largest empire of antiquity, stretching from Libya to the steppes of Asia and from Ethiopia to Pakistan. In Persians, historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the epic story of this dynasty and the world it ruled. Drawing on Iranian inscriptions, cuneiform tablets, art, and archaeology, he shows how the Achaemenid Persian Empire was the world’s first superpower—one built, despite its imperial ambition, on cooperation and tolerance. This is the definitive history of the Achaemenid dynasty and its legacies in modern-day Iran.
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Good History and Historiography
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The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World
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- Original Recording
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Look beyond the abstract dates and figures, kings and queens, and battles and wars that make up so many historical accounts. Over the course of 48 richly detailed lectures, Professor Garland covers the breadth and depth of human history from the perspective of the so-called ordinary people, from its earliest beginnings through the Middle Ages.
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Tantalizing time trip
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Agrippina
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- By: Emma Southon
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The story of Agrippina, at the center of imperial power for three generations, is the story of the Julio-Claudia dynasty - and of Rome itself, at its bloody, extravagant, chaotic, ruthless, and political zenith. In her own time, she was recognized as a woman of unparalleled power.
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Fun!
- By Curatina on 02-27-20
By: Emma Southon
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Pax Romana
- War, Peace, and Conquest in the Roman World
- By: Adrian Goldsworthy
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Pax Romana examines how the Romans came to control so much of the world and asks whether traditionally favorable images of the Roman peace are true. Goldsworthy vividly recounts the rebellions of the conquered and examines why they broke out, why most failed, and how they became exceedingly rare. He reveals that hostility was just one reaction to the arrival of Rome and that from the outset, conquered peoples collaborated, formed alliances, and joined invaders, causing resistance movements to fade away.
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2 stars if youve read goldsworthy; 2.5 or 3 if not
- By fm2 on 10-21-16
What listeners say about Ghost on the Throne
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-16-22
Not My Favorite, But Not Terrible
I think this book really works best when read instead of being heard. The switches between storylines would have made sense if each chapter started with a map with numbered dots on it showing where each faction was. Breaking each chapter, which was only noted by a number i.e. 4 instead of Chapter 4, into smaller also numbered groups was a bit confusing to listen to.
I also found myself incredibly annoyed with some of the word pronunciations by the narrator. Perdicas which was pronounced per-dih-cuss in the last book I listened too was this time pronounced per-DEEK-ass. I couldn't tell you which pronunciation is correct, but I found the change so frustrating, I was rooting for the character to hurry up and die so I wouldn't have to hear his name anymore. Other words got some strange treatment as well. For instance hegemony, which I've only heard pronounced hedge-E-moan-E was pronounced as He-jiminy (think Jiminy crickets). Again, that may be an accepted pronunciation, but I found it odd.
Finally, the further we got into the story, the less I felt like the author was disclosing when sources contradicted, and was just going with whichever theory fit the story he was telling. I know there are a lot of holes in the records of that time, but I prefer for those things to be disclosed, rather than have a theory presented as the truth. Other books I've read make it clear that much of the story surrounding Olympas is unverifiable, and that the Greeks wrote scathingly about her because they despised a woman trying to take a prominent role. At no point is that mentioned in this book and every act that has been attributed to her is presented as historically, verifiably done by her.
All in all, not terrible, but I won't be searching out more books by the author of the narrator.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-15-21
great read for everyone
I have enjoyed the style of the author, it reads as highly intriguing thriller. And though I already knew pretty much about Hellenistic world, Mr. Romm kept me interested throughout whole book, providing many details of which I was not aware.
It is a worthy read both for specialists (the author made a great work at revisiting all relevant sources) and new readers (those who know nothing of this subject).
There are only few problems:
Minor one. The book effectively ends in 314 BC with little information regarding later wars between hellenistic kingdoms (which in incredibly interesting topic). That's not a major problem, I just wished that book's name specified that.
Major one. The whole story is based on very few ancient sources whose credibility is highly questionable. In my opinion author should have been more of a revisionist and put more time and effort in critical analysis and (re)interpretation of these sources, instead of simply retelling them (though doing it in great way). Yes, that would be speculation, but good speculation is far better than taking up some clearly non-sensible twists in the works of ancient authors for real. Example of an interesting way of critical review of the old sources would be Greg Woolf's "Rome: An Empire's story".
But still, this book is a great and enlightening read.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Parson Opinion
- 04-04-24
Fills an empty historic space
Enjoyed the story and the reader. Chapters are well laid out with timeline and biographical information on the actors of the drama.
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- RIR
- 06-14-21
ends a bit short
doesn't go all the way to the end of the wars of the diadochi but contains detailed account of the history to the end of the argeads
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4 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-19-22
Great information
Story has a lot of great information. Complete and well studied timeline of the years immediately following Alexander's death. The narrator's speed makes it hard to follow him most of the time. He reads fast.
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- Mark McLaughlin
- 08-21-24
Great history
Well done narration, with a well written story. A bit difficult keeping track of all the who’s who in Alexander the Great’s royal court but still a great novel
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- Seth O Freudenburg
- 09-07-24
Fantastic narrative that reads like a political thriller
Gripping narrative that seems right out of Game of Thrones. Reads like fiction, really enjoyed the work.
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- Nick S.
- 12-29-21
Dry and Disjointed
I'm a fan of ancient history and was sucked in by the overwhelmingly positive reviews but found the work to be choppy and the reader's delivery to be dry. This is more a list of events - often told in non-linear order - than a compelling work of popular history. Any sort of mounting tension or rising action that might have been achieved is undermined by the author's penchant for jumping from location to location and character to character in a manner that comes across as more than a little chaotic. He's done the research and assembled the information but has not figured out how to present it in a compelling manner.
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