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From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, May 13, 2021 at 12:10 PM
Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]: Haberstroh on Matyszak, 'The Rise of the
Hellenistic Kingdoms, 336-250 BC'
To: <[email protected]>
Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]>
Philip Matyszak. The Rise of the Hellenistic Kingdoms, 336-250 BC.
Yorkshire Pen & Sword Military, 2019. Illustrations. 176 pp.
$34.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4738-7476-3.
Reviewed by John Haberstroh (University of California Riverside)
Published on H-War (May, 2021)
Commissioned by Margaret Sankey
Philip Matyszak has produced a brief and lively narrative of the
early Hellenistic period. Although the title implies a scope from the
ascension of Alexander III ("the Great") of Macedon until the middle
of the third century BC, the content of this book necessarily spills
over into the earlier reign of Philip II of Macedon as background.
The stated argument of the book is that "the Hellenistic kingdoms
were massively successful" because "the Greek rulers of Egypt,
Anatolia, Persia, and points east did not try to change the peoples
they ruled." By extension, Matyszak actively works against the notion
that the Hellenistic Greek rulers had any semblance of a
"denativization" policy and "made little effort to convert the
peoples they ruled to their own way of life" (p. 1). On the whole,
this argument is generally successful, though in practice the book
actually achieves more. The book could be divided into two sections,
with chapters 1 through 5 narrating the conquests of Alexander and
the Wars of the Diadochi ("successors") and chapters 6 through 9
taking up more geographically focused treatments of the successor
kingdoms. This review will first lay out a chapter-by-chapter
analysis followed by thematic comments on the execution of this
easygoing introduction to the early Hellenistic period.
A brief introduction airs (some of) the intellectual baggage that
often comes with the Hellenistic period in scholarship: colonialism,
racism, and narratives of decline. Matyszak is careful to distinguish
his work from these problematic earlier accounts of the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries, though he does not completely escape certain
questionable colloquial phrases (see below). Ultimately, the
Hellenistic kingdoms were "humanistic and inclusive" (p. xiii).
Chapter 1, "Before Alexander," introduces the kingdoms of Macedon,
Persia, and Egypt as a prelude to the invasion of the Persian Empire
by Alexander. Chapter 2, "Alexander Conquers the World (Part I),"
frames the invasion as an "all-or-nothing gamble" by Alexander, who
was a typical paranoid Macedonian monarch using a superior army as a
personal vendetta against Darius III of Persia. Chapter 3, "Alexander
Conquers the World (Part II)," picks up after the battle of Gaugamela
and describes the abortive foray into India and the full revelation
of Alexander's agenda of fusing aspects of non-Greek cultures into
his administration. Chapter 4, "The Wars of the Diadochi
('Successors')," begins with a "who's who" of the major players in
the Diadochi Wars: Perdiccas, Antipater, Antigonus Monophthalmus,
Ptolemy, Eumenes, and Seleucus. The rest of the chapter narrates the
bloody conflicts between these men as a case study in "realpolitik,
shifting alliances, back-stabbing and betrayal on a truly epic scale"
(p. 54). Chapter 5, "Wars of the Successors - Part II," recounts the
final phases of the successor wars from the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC
to the death of Seleucus in 281 BC.
Chapter 6, "Hellenism: The Next Generation," eases readers out of the
chaos of the successor wars and into the consolidation of distinct
though still consistently fluctuating geographic empires in Macedon,
Egypt, and the Seleucid Empire, ending with the Cremonidian War
(267-261 BC). Chapter 7, "The West," begins the formal treatments of
each major Hellenistic kingdom starting with Antigonus Gonatas in
Macedon but also gives brief treatments of southern Greece, Pergamon,
Bithynia, and Syracuse. Chapter 8, "The Seleucid Empire," covers the
broad geographic span of the Seleucid Empire, noting mostly how the
easternmost portions quickly broke off and formed independent
kingdoms or were absorbed by opportunistic Indian monarchs, the
development of the Mesopotamian and Syrian heartlands, and the
effective yet strategically hamstrung Seleucid army. Chapter 9,
"Ptolemaic Egypt," dives into economic and cultural successes of the
Ptolemaic state, with nearly half the chapter devoted to the Great
Library of Alexandria and the Lighthouse at Pharos. A brief epilogue
providing cursory treatments on Hellenistic philosophies (Cynicism,
Stoicism, and Epicureanism), warfare, art, and literature concludes
the book.
Tackling this complex period and geographic content is a brave
undertaking, and for packaging it in such a comprehensible way,
Matyszak should be commended. There are many memorable phrases that
demonstrate the groundedness of Matyszak's writing style, such as his
description of how a Persian scythe chariot worked ("rather in the
manner that a hand blender hits a fruit salad") and how the Aetolian
and Achaean Leagues quarreled in Greece ("it should come as no
surprise that the pair fought like cats in a sack"), as well as
tongue-in-cheek quips like that concerning the unoriginal naming
conventions of the Ptolemys ("Ptolemy had decided earlier that his
eldest son Ptolemy was unsuitable for the throne, and had therefore
repudiated him in favour of his son Ptolemy") (pp. 35, 111, 82-83).
The professed "great fun" of the subject matter and Matyszak's
spirited prose are what make reading the book so engrossing--one
could easily go cover to cover in a day or over a leisurely weekend
(p. xii).
Like for many of the other military and political narratives
published by Pen & Sword, the audience for this book is largely
interested lay readers with no scholarly training. The absence of
footnotes or endnotes, general lack of direct references to ancient
documents, and the avoidance of the nitty-gritty of scholarly debates
on chronology seem to be aimed at the interested lay reader. It would
be somewhat useful for undergraduates, but the slim background on
ancient sources and important topics like imperialism and cultural
exchange might deter college instructors.[1] The very short select
bibliography is naturally focused on anglophone scholarship, and it
pays homage to major and well-known works in the field, like Peter
Green's _Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the
Hellenistic Age _(1990), Arnaldo Momigliano's _Alien Wisdom: The
Limits of Hellenization _(1975), and S. Sherwin-White and A. Kuhrt's
_From Samarkhand to Sardis: A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire
_(1993), but only five of the twenty-six bibliographic entries are
within eight years of the publication under review.[2] There are four
poor-quality maps in the front matter, but the seventeen plates in
the middle of the book are much better, though the reader is never
directed to them in the text. The index is adequate; however, most of
the entries are names of individuals or places with a few thematic
entries (fans of military affairs will not find "phalanx," "war
elephants," or "_sarissa_" in the index).
A disappointing area of the book is its treatment of women and casual
colonialist references. The focus on political and military narrative
already circumscribes the roles of many women, save for the few royal
women who forced their way into the recorded historical narratives by
their own will and volition. Matyszak unfortunately chooses to fall
back on misogynistic attitudes that essentially reduce important
women like Olympias, the mother of Alexander, and the many royal
women named Berenice, Arsinoe, and Eurydice to mere stock characters.
Olympias has "a highly unstable character" and has an "irrational and
sadistic impulsiveness" (pp. 46, 49, 55). Eurydice, who sought an
advantageous marriage with Alexander's brother Philip Arrhidaeus, was
a "formidable" and "strong-willed lass" (p. 58). Hellenistic royal
women are often described as "scheming" or "backstabbing," or
otherwise depicted in a negative light (pp. 88, 92, 94, 105). Many
today would also disagree with Matyszak's statement that "it does
feminism an injustice to maintain that women can be just as hard and
ruthless as males" (p. 62). While these portrayals are often what has
been handed down through the historical record, a more sympathetic
and up-to-date appraisal is warranted.[3]
Similarly, the unironic use of phrases like "barbarians," "barbarian
hordes," "wild tribes," and the like ought to be abandoned by
publishers. Matyszak argues that the Macedonians were always in a
state of high alert, fearing another invasion by the Persian
"Menace," an Orientalist phrasing, but this claim seems to be
overstated. There is also a somewhat covert colonial mindset that
underpins the book, which relates to the overall thesis. For
Matyszak, the success that characterized the early Hellenistic
kingdoms was due to the process of city foundation and settling
colonists abroad effectively to create "islands of Greek culture"
(pp. 17-18). Matyszak attributes the success of this model to earlier
Archaic and classical era colonial foundations by southern Greeks
across the Mediterranean, but it should be clarified that such
foundations did not always result in some harmonious settlement
between Greeks and "natives." Likewise, in the early Hellenistic
period there was surely conflict between new arrivals and local
populations, despite the general indifference that Matyszak imputes
on the Hellenistic rulers. The picture painted in this book more
closely resembles an optimistic viewpoint of British and European
colonialism of the early modern era: "What the Greeks asked of the
peoples in the lands where they settled was that they remain peaceful
and provide raw materials for manufacture or trade" (p. 18).
Similarly, a strange aside referencing "a moment of particular regret
to Hellenistic scholars when the British Library was moved away from
the British Museum, where previously the pair had reduplicated the
dual role of the Alexandrian Museum and Library," appears tone deaf
to the modern concerns about the colonial realities of how the museum
acquired many of its antiquities (p. 146). Considering the target
audience for a book like this, it is even more important to present
such topics as gender and imperialism in less sensational ways.
Overall, this book would serve as a usable introduction to the
complexities and variety of topics that encompass the early
Hellenistic period. There are many things that I learned from reading
this book (like how the word "parchment" is a corruption of Pergamon,
the word "fissiparous," and the interesting possibility that the
Library of Alexandria housed Buddhist texts). There are a few loose
interpretations of facts, but these do not impede the argument of the
book: Servius Sulpicius's testimony of the decay in first-century
Greece completely ignores how Romans may have contributed, slavery
was not banned in Persia, religious syncretism occurred in Egypt and
Asia Minor before the Hellenistic period not as a result of it, and
the comment that a Macedonian-style Persian military unit could be
made of "children of mixed Persian-Greek unions" while Alexander was
alive seems like a stretch (p. 48).[4] To general audiences, this
book will provide an entertaining introduction to a complex and
lively corner of ancient Greek history.
Notes
[1]. Undergraduates might be better served by Peter Thonemann's _The
Hellenistic Age: A Very Short Introduction_ (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2018).
[2]. Other important yet accessible works that might have been
included are Paul Kosmin, _The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space,
Territory, and Ideology in the Seleucid Empire_ (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 2014); Robin Waterfield, _Dividing the
Spoils: The War for Alexander the Great's Empire_ (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2012); and James Romm, _Ghost on the Throne: The
Death of Alexander the Great and the Bloody Fight for His Empire_
(New York: Vintage Books, 2012). Readers may now be interested in
Paul Kosmin's latest book, _Time and Its Adversaries in the Seleucid
Empire_ (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018).
[3]. The only book in the select bibliography specifically focused on
women is also the oldest: Grace Macurdy, _Hellenistic Queens: A Study
of Woman-Power in Macedonia, Seleucid Syria, and Ptolemaic Egypt_
(Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1932). At a minimum,
readers should be aware of the scholarship of Sarah B. Pomeroy:
_Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity_
(1975; repr., New York: Penguin, 2015), and _Women in Hellenistic
Egypt: From Alexander to Cleopatra_ (Detroit, MI: Wayne State
University Press, 1990). See also, Elaine Fantham, Helene Peet Foley,
Natalie Boymel Kampen, Sarah B. Pomeroy, and H. Alan Shapiro, "The
Hellenistic Period: Women in a Cosmopolitan World," in _Women in the
Classical World: Image and Text_ (New York: Oxford University Press,
1994), 136-82; and Elizabeth Donnelly Carney, _Women and Monarchy in
Macedonia_ (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000). Bonnie
MacLachlan's _Women in Ancient Greece: A Sourcebook_ (New York:
Continuum Publishing, 2012) has a useful collection of translated
primary sources in the chapter "Women in the Hellenistic Era" (pp.
203-22).
[4]. Arrian, _Anabasis of Alexander_, 7.6.1; Plutarch, _Life of
Alexander_, 47.3, 71.1; Diodorus Siculus, _Library of History_,
17.108.1-3; and Quintus Curtius Rufus,_ History of Alexander_, 8.5.1
all agree that these were not "mixed" children but adolescent
Persians or young recruits from the different satrapies.
Citation: John Haberstroh. Review of Matyszak, Philip, _The Rise of
the Hellenistic Kingdoms, 336-250 BC_. H-War, H-Net Reviews. May,
2021.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56072
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States
License.
--
Best regards,
Andrew Stewart
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