Pat Wheatley
Dr Pat Wheatley received his PhD with Distinction from the University of Western Australia in 1998, and lectured at the University of Queensland until 2004. His research specialty is the history and historiography of the Successors to Alexander the Great, and he has published extensively on the chronology, coinage, and social aspects of this period. His books include: Alexander and His Successors: Essays from the Antipodes (2009); Justin. Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, vol. 2 (Oxford University Press 2011); and East and West in the World Empire of Alexander the Great. Essays in Honour of Brian Bosworth, (Oxford University Press 2015). In recent years, when not riding his collection of Triumph, Indian, Norton, and Moto Guzzi motorcycles, or communing with his tortoiseshell cats, he has been collaborating with Dr Charlotte Dunn in writing the first book in English on Alexander the Great’s most controversial Successor, Demetrius Poliorcetes, “The Besieger of Cities”, which was published by Oxford University Press in April 2020. Pat is now retired and is a Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia.
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As his name suggests, Demetrius was prodigious in his military adventures, and profligate in his private life, rendering him an icon for artists, writers, politicians, and soldiers for many centuries. He was especially famous for his spectacular siege operations against enemy cities, and gained his unique nickname from his innovation in building gigantic siege engines, which became legendary in the ancient world. However, much of Demetrius' life was enigmatic, oscillating wildly between successful and catastrophic ventures, and his intrinsic qualities remain debatable to this day. What is indisputable is that he presided over a formative period in history marked by great flux and enormous change. His endeavours resulted in the fusion of Asiatic and Greek cultures, producing the hybrid Hellenistic kingdoms which dominated the ancient world for some 200 years until the rise of the Roman Empire. The period is of crucial importance in ancient Greek history, and marks the point from which Hellenistic influence became fundamental in the development of modern Western culture.
However, the life of Alexander provides the volume's central theme, and among the topics explored are the conqueror's resonance with mythological figures such as Achilles and Heracles, his divine pretensions and military display, and his motives for arresting his expedition at the River Hyphasis in India. Some of Alexander's political acts are also scrutinized, as are the identities of those supposedly present in the last symposium where, according to some sources, the fatal poison was administered to the king. Part of the collection focuses on Alexander's legacy, with seven essays examining the Successors, especially Craterus, and Ptolemy, and Alexander's ill-fated surviving dynasty, including Olympias, Eurydice, and Philip III Arrhidaeus.
Alexander the Great's life has been examined in minute detail by scholars for many decades, but the period of chaos that ensued after his death in 323 BC has received much less attention. Few historical sources recount the history of this period consecutively. Justin's abbreviated epitome of the lost Philippic history of Pompeius Trogus is the only relatively continuous account we have left of the events that transpired in the 40 years from 323 BC. This volume supplies a historical analysis of this unique source for the difficult period of Alexander's Successors up to 297 BC, a full translation, and running commentary on Books 13-15.
Specialist conferences in Alexander and Hellenistic Studies became a feature of the discipline from 2003 onwards, with the next one due in Edmonton, Canada, in 2018. This volume was the third in the series and the first produced in the Southern hemisphere, and is, as far as I know, the closest an Alexander conference has ever been held to Antarctica (so far!). The book comprises refereed versions of 17 of the papers delivered at the conference and an introduction by Dr Elizabeth Baynham (University Newcastle, NSW).
Papers
As his name suggests, Demetrius was prodigious in his military adventures, and profligate in his private life, rendering him an icon for artists, writers, politicians, and soldiers for many centuries. He was especially famous for his spectacular siege operations against enemy cities, and gained his unique nickname from his innovation in building gigantic siege engines, which became legendary in the ancient world. However, much of Demetrius' life was enigmatic, oscillating wildly between successful and catastrophic ventures, and his intrinsic qualities remain debatable to this day. What is indisputable is that he presided over a formative period in history marked by great flux and enormous change. His endeavours resulted in the fusion of Asiatic and Greek cultures, producing the hybrid Hellenistic kingdoms which dominated the ancient world for some 200 years until the rise of the Roman Empire. The period is of crucial importance in ancient Greek history, and marks the point from which Hellenistic influence became fundamental in the development of modern Western culture.
However, the life of Alexander provides the volume's central theme, and among the topics explored are the conqueror's resonance with mythological figures such as Achilles and Heracles, his divine pretensions and military display, and his motives for arresting his expedition at the River Hyphasis in India. Some of Alexander's political acts are also scrutinized, as are the identities of those supposedly present in the last symposium where, according to some sources, the fatal poison was administered to the king. Part of the collection focuses on Alexander's legacy, with seven essays examining the Successors, especially Craterus, and Ptolemy, and Alexander's ill-fated surviving dynasty, including Olympias, Eurydice, and Philip III Arrhidaeus.
Alexander the Great's life has been examined in minute detail by scholars for many decades, but the period of chaos that ensued after his death in 323 BC has received much less attention. Few historical sources recount the history of this period consecutively. Justin's abbreviated epitome of the lost Philippic history of Pompeius Trogus is the only relatively continuous account we have left of the events that transpired in the 40 years from 323 BC. This volume supplies a historical analysis of this unique source for the difficult period of Alexander's Successors up to 297 BC, a full translation, and running commentary on Books 13-15.
Specialist conferences in Alexander and Hellenistic Studies became a feature of the discipline from 2003 onwards, with the next one due in Edmonton, Canada, in 2018. This volume was the third in the series and the first produced in the Southern hemisphere, and is, as far as I know, the closest an Alexander conference has ever been held to Antarctica (so far!). The book comprises refereed versions of 17 of the papers delivered at the conference and an introduction by Dr Elizabeth Baynham (University Newcastle, NSW).