Book Review: Alexander the Great in His World

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Review by Cheryl Golden)

Carol G. Thomas, Alexander the Great in His World. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007

Table of Contents

Carol Thomas' contribution to the voluminous scholarship on the "Great" Alexander III of Macedonia aims to provide an assessment of the world into which Alexander was born and the influence of that world upon his potential as king and conqueror. Thomas explores five themes or agents of influence in the king's world: the physical geography and peoples of Macedonia; Alexander's ancestry, including the dynamics of his parents' marriage; Greece and her influence on Macedonian culture; the role of the military in Macedonian society and politics; and finally, the Persian challenge. Overall, Thomas' work attempts to add a new cultural, quasi-psychological approach to Alexander studies. While this well-written attempt is approachable, ultimately Thomas provides yet another work on the "Macedonian question" and leaves the reader wanting more of the author's take on Alexander himself and a few more examples of how Alexander's "world" influenced and informed his anabasis into Persia.

Thomas' thematic approach is promising, and her discussion of the Macedonian background provides an excellent starting point for the study of Alexander the Great. Through an examination of the hard living required of those inhabiting the harsh terrain and even harsher political and social realities of Philip II's emerging state of Macedonia, Thomas hopes to "look deeply into the circumstances of [Alexander's] world in the belief that we cannot understand individuals apart from the cultures that condition their lives".

Classics @ Durban (Review by John Atkinson)

Scholia Reviews ns 17 (2008) 6.

Carol G. Thomas, Alexander the Great in his World. Blackwell Ancient Lives. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.

Thomas’ approach to the study of Alexander the Great in this book was inspired by her experience in research into ‘pre- and proto-historical Greece’, and in leading seminars on Alexander’s conquests, where she has focused on explanatory contextual reasons for Alexander’s success (pp. ixf.). After an introductory chapter (‘Basic facts, generally uncontested, of Alexander’s life’, pp. 9-21), Thomas explores five ‘doors to the nature of this hero’ (p. 192), and a chapter is devoted to each of these topics, starting with Chapter 2, ‘Being Macedonian’ (pp. 22-54). This deals with Macedonia in the broader sense of the territory which Philip II added to the traditional kingdom, and covers the topography and natural economy of Macedonia, with a check list of its assets (p. 32). Thomas then touches on the vexed issues of ethnicity and language, before offering an historical survey of the period from Amyntas I (540-498) to Philip II. She suggests that Alexander learnt from his experience as a Macedonian an appreciation of the importance of natural resources, and a sense of how to use rivers and mountainous terrain to military advantage.

See the above pages for the complete reviews.