The intense bonds among the king and his family, friends, lovers, and entourage are the most enticing and intriguing aspects of Alexander the Great’s life. The affective ties of the protagonists of Alexander’s Empire nurtured the interest of the ancient authors, as well as the audience, in the personal life of the most famous men and women of the time. These relations echoed through time in art and literature, to become paradigm of positive or negative, human behavior.
By rejecting the perception of the Macedonian monarchy as a positivist king-army based system, and by looking for other political and social structures Elizabeth Carney has played a crucial role in prompting the current re-appraisal of the Macedonian monarchy. Her volumes on Women and Monarchy in Ancient Macedonia (University of Oklahoma Press, 2000), Olympias: Mother of Alexander the Great (Routledge, 2006), Arsinoë of Egypt and Macedon: A Royal Life. (Oxford University Press, 2013) have been game-changers in the field and has offered the academic world a completely new perspective on the network of relationships surrounding the exercise of power. By examining Macedonian and Hellenistic dynastic behavior and relations, she has shown the political yet tragic, heroic thus human side, thus connecting Hellenistic political and social history.
Building on the methodological approach and theoretical framework engendered by Elizabeth Carney’s research, this book explores the complex web of personal relations, inside and outside the oikos (family), governing Alexander’s world, which sits at the core of the inquiry into the human side of the events shedding light light on the personal dimension of history. Inspired by Carney’s seminal work on Ancient Macedonia, the volume moves beyond the traditionally rationalist and positivist approaches towards Hellenistic antiquity, into a new area of humanistic scholarship, by considering the dynastic bloodlines as well as the affective relations. The volume offers a discussion of the intra and extra familial network ruling the Mediterranean world at the time of Philip and Alexander. Building on present scholarship on relations and values in Hellenistic Monarchies, the book contributes to a deeper historical understanding of the mutual dialogue between the socio-cultural and political approaches to Hellenistic history.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Introduction Edward M. Anson, Monica D’Agostini and Frances Pownall
• Part I: The Restricted Oikos
  • Familial Affection and Kinship
    • 1. Alexander the Great and his Sisters: Blood in the Hellenistic Palace: Monica D’Agostini
    • 2. Alexander’s Wet-Nurse Lanice and Her Sons: Sulochana Asirvatham
    • 3. Olympias’ Pharmaka? Nature, Causes, Therapies and Physicians of Arrhidaeus’ Disease: Giuseppe Squillace
    • 4. The Limits of Brotherly Love: Neoptolemus II and Molossian Dynastic History: Waldemar Heckel
  • Marriages and Family: Mistress, Wife and Daughter
    • 5. Barsine, Antigone and the Macedonian War: Sabine Müller
    • 6. Antipater and His Family: A Case Study: Franca Landucci
    • 7. Romance and Rivalry? Three Case Studies of Royal Mothers and Daughters in the Hellenistic Age: Sheila Ager
  • Affection for Animals
    • 8. Alexander’s Pets: Animals and the Macedonian Court: Elizabeth Baynham
    • 9. The Theft of Bucephalas: Daniel Ogden
• Part II: The Extended Oikos
  • Friendship within the Oikos
    • 10. Alexander’s Friends: Joseph Roisman
    • 11. Callisthenes the Prig: William Greenwalt
    • 12. Friendship is Golden: Harpalus, Alexander and Athens: Timothy Howe
    • 13. Mithridates Ctistes and Demetrius Poliorcetes: Erastes and Eromenos?: Pat Wheatley
  • Friendship beyond the Oikos
    • 14. The Father of the Army: Alexander and the Epigoni: Edward M. Anson
    • 15. Sophists and Flatterers: Greek Intellectuals at Alexander’s Court: Frances Pownall
    • 16. Alexander the Great and the Athenians: Deification and Portraiture: Olga Palagia
  • Concluding Remarks: Frances Pownall, Edward M. Anson and Monica D’Agostini