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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Romm, James S.
Ghost on the throne: the death of Alexander the Great and the war for crown and empire / by James Romm.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Greece—History—Macedonian Hegemony, 323–281 B.C.
2. Macedonia—History—Diadochi, 323–276 B.C.
3. Alexander, the Great, 356–323 B.C.—Death and burial. I. Title.
DF 235.4 R 66 2011
938’.08—dc22
2011008657

Ebook ISBN 9780307701503

Cover photograph by Tanya Marcuse | Cover design by Jason Booher

v3.1_r1

For my mom and stepfather,
Sydney and Victor Reed

The death of Demosthenes on Calauria and of Hyperides near Cleonae made the Athenians feel almost a passion and a longing for the days of Alexander and Philip. Just so, when Antigonus had died, and those who followed in his place had begun to inflict outrages and pains on the people, a farmer was seen digging up the ground in Phrygia. Someone asked him what he was doing. With a groan, he replied: “I am looking for Antigonus.”

—Plutarch Phocion 29.1

Illustrations

col.1 Rhoxane and Eumenes (oil painting by Varotari, early seventeenth century). Getty Images

itr.1 Alexander’s Companions. Andronikos, Vergina: The Royal Tombs, Athens, 1984. 17th Ephorate of Antiquities © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Archaeological Receipts Fund

itr.2 The facade of Tomb 2. Andronikos, Vergina: The Royal Tombs, Athens, 1984. 17th Ephorate of Antiquities © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Archaeological Receipts Fund

1.1 The ancient city of Babylon, digitally reconstructed. Curt-Engelhorn-Stiftung für die Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen/FaberCourtial

1.2 Babylon’s Ishtar Gate. Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY

1.3 Macedonian infantrymen. Tsibidou-Avloniti, The Macedonian Tombs at Phoinikas and Ayios Athanasios in the Area of Thessaloniki, Athens, 2005, Plate 31. 16th Ephorate of Antiquities © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Archaeological Receipts Fund

1.4 A Babylonian clay tablet recording the death of Alexander, June 11, 323 B.C. © Trustees of the British Museum

2.1 A medallion struck by Alexander depicting an Indian archer. Courtesy Frank Holt

2.2 Positions assigned to the leading generals by the Babylon settlement. Beehive Mapping

3.1 The speaker’s platform of the Pnyx, Athens. Wikimedia Commons/A. D. White Architectural Photographs, Cornell University Library

3.2 Movements of forces, first phase of the Hellenic War. Beehive Mapping

4.1 Southern Afghanistan, the kind of landscape that drove many Greeks to flee the East. Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Army

5.1 Demosthenes, as depicted in a Roman copy of the commemorative statue by Polyeuctus. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

6.1 Alexander’s funeral cart. Courtesy Stella Miller-Collett

6.2 The basic unit of the Macedonian phalanx. akg-images/Peter Connolly.

8.1 A rock carving found outside a tomb, southern Turkey. Courtesy Andrew Stewart

8.2 Athens and its harbor Piraeus. Beehive Mapping

8.3 A funerary monument, Athens. Courtesy Olga Palagia

9.1 The only known depiction of elephant warfare from Alexander’s time. Courtesy Frank Holt

9.2 Movements of Antigonus and Eumenes leading up to the battle of Paraetacene. Beehive Mapping

10.1 An artist’s rendering of Tomb 2, Aegae. Andronikos, Vergina: The Royal Tombs, Athens, 1984. 17th Ephorate of Antiquities © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Archaeological Receipts Fund

10.2 The silver hydria containing the remains of Alexander IV. Andronikos, Vergina: The Royal Tombs, Athens, 1984. 17th Ephorate of Antiquities © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Archaeological Receipts Fund

epl.1 Alexander as depicted on Ptolemy’s coinage, 321 B.C. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston