
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
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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Narrator! No
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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.
Not My Favorite, But Not Terrible
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ends a bit short
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Great information
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Fantastic narrative that reads like a political thriller
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Great history
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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.
great read for everyone
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Fills an empty historic space
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There are moments when you wish the Macedonian generals would just chill and stop backstabbing each other. Talk about people who therapists ! Book kept me engaged the whole time despite the myriad of people and motives.
I would recommend as a follow up to this listening to Greece vs. Rome which covers the events not too long after the events of this book.
The best post-Alexander book I’ve listened to
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Dry and Disjointed
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