Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age

Peter Green

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007 - History - 234 pages

The book begins with the personality and achievements of Alexander the Great, and continues with the military and political violence of the successor-kingdoms that fought over his inheritance. This era saw many important developments: a shift from the oral to the written; a move from the public to the private and a new individualist ethos; a huge growth in slavery, and therefore a glut of slave-labour which destroyed the incentive to innovate; a growing gap between rich and poor; a growing taste for luxury.

Praise for Peter Green's ALEXANDER OF MACEDON:

"As one reads through Peter Green's enthralling life of Alexander...one feels every strand of the mythical story coming apart" (Christopher Hitchens, Los Angeles Times)

"A superb character study...Like Robert Graves, Green can make the ancient world and its people come alive...The scale of Alexander's life is marvellously conveyed" (Kirkus Reviews)

Contents

• Alexander and His Legacy 336323: 1
• The Struggle for Empire 323276: 23
• The Mythic Past: 52

About the author

Peter Green was born in Britain in 1924. In the Second World War he served in Burma and afterwards studied classics at Cambridge University. After working as a journalist and writing historical novels, he taught classics in Athens until 1971, when he became Professor of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1997 he became Emeritus Professor of Classics at Austin. He has been Visiting Professor at various universities in the USA.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age; Volume 1 of Universal History
• Author: Peter Green
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007
• ISBN: 0297852949, 9780297852940
• Length: 234 pages
• Subjects: History / Ancient / Greece; History / Asia / General