Search found 259 matches

by sean_m
Wed Jun 12, 2019 3:58 pm
Forum: Comments, help, suggestions etc
Topic: New website
Replies: 3
Views: 10951

Re: New website

That is OK Alexias, just one step at a time!

I will be making some changes to my own site, I want a static site to go with the blog and I want to move off Automattic's servers.
by sean_m
Wed Jun 12, 2019 3:54 pm
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: ATG Geography: WHERE IS NORA? + FORCED MARCHES
Replies: 80
Views: 40253

Re: ATG Geography: WHERE IS NORA? + FORCED MARCHES

Apropos of nothing I see that the Ancient World Mapping Center has a (script-heavy!) map of where Duane Roller thinks Nora was. She has just published a commentary to Strabo's Geography. http://awmc.unc.edu/awmc/applications/strabo/ I find the Barrington Atlas of the Classical World and Der Neue Pau...
by sean_m
Thu Apr 04, 2019 6:59 pm
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Map of Alexander's campaign in Balkans
Replies: 8
Views: 4469

Re: Map of Alexander's campaign in Balkans

I am glad you found them! Hammond loved rambling about that area, sometimes with a Sten gun and sometimes with a collection of archaeology books and notepads. And maps are expensive to design. Another reason to wish we had the first two books of Curtius! He probably had a detailed narrative with the...
by sean_m
Thu Mar 28, 2019 10:30 pm
Forum: 'Off-topic' forum
Topic: Two views on Sparta and the Laconians
Replies: 2
Views: 4917

Re: Two views on Sparta and the Laconians

Also, in case Rahe stumbles over this thread ... the review is very critical, but it seems that it can't point to errors of fact , and that because it is so accusatory it describes points of disagreement clearly which another reviewer might mush behind vague words. Whether its charges are fair is so...
by sean_m
Thu Mar 28, 2019 2:55 pm
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Armenian Alexander Romance translation
Replies: 3
Views: 3597

Re: Armenian Alexander Romance translation

I am glad you found it helpful! We tend to forget about Armenia because their glory days were a bit late for classical history and a bit far away from the stories we tell about medieval and modern history, and because so many of them ended up living in other countries (remember when Cilicia was Less...
by sean_m
Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:02 pm
Forum: 'Off-topic' forum
Topic: Two views on Sparta and the Laconians
Replies: 2
Views: 4917

Two views on Sparta and the Laconians

I think that this review by Donald Lateiner of Paul Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy (2016) talks about the main ways scholars disagree about how to study early Greece (including thinly-recorded places like Macedonia before Philip): should we rely on contemporary,...
by sean_m
Sun Dec 23, 2018 2:05 pm
Forum: 'Off-topic' forum
Topic: Armed Force in the Teispid-Achaemenid Empire
Replies: 1
Views: 4579

Armed Force in the Teispid-Achaemenid Empire

For good or bad, my doctoral dissertation on the armies of the Achaemenids is now available for download at http://diglib.uibk.ac.at/urn:nbn:at:at-ubi:1-30064 I do not have much to say about the armies of Artaxerxes III and Darius III, because the sources are so poor, but I do have one question wher...
by sean_m
Thu Nov 15, 2018 1:41 pm
Forum: The Diadochi
Topic: Battle of Magnesia
Replies: 55
Views: 100110

Re: Battle of Magnesia

Probably, you would have to ask him. The version I heard was in a lecture, I don't know how it relates to the things he has already published and whether he plans to turn it into an article. Here is the abstract https://www.uibk.ac.at/zentrum-alte-kulturen/veranstaltungen/vafolder2018/20181113stroot...
by sean_m
Wed Nov 14, 2018 10:01 am
Forum: The Diadochi
Topic: Battle of Magnesia
Replies: 55
Views: 100110

Re: Battle of Magnesia

Rolf Strootman has a theory that this might have something to do with Antiochus adopting the Greek title basileus megas and a decision to re-organize the outer parts of the empire as a network of tributary kings rather than governors ... I am not sure that I follow all the details (there are signs t...
by sean_m
Tue Nov 06, 2018 11:09 pm
Forum: The Diadochi
Topic: Battle of Magnesia
Replies: 55
Views: 100110

Re: Battle of Magnesia

Also, I come at this as an Achaemenid historian, and the Achaemenids never acknowledged the loss of Egypt any more than the Chinese Communist Party acknowledges that they do not control Taiwan. They (or their governors) signed treaties about the cities upon the sea with Athens, but that was not any ...
by sean_m
Tue Nov 06, 2018 10:29 pm
Forum: The Diadochi
Topic: Battle of Magnesia
Replies: 55
Views: 100110

Re: Battle of Magnesia

It is also frustrating because this seems to be the time when trade between China and the west around the Taklamakan Desert was just opening up. There is no trace in the Achaemenid period, although the graves at Pazyryk have goods from China and goods from the King's lands, and then by the second ce...
by sean_m
Sat Nov 03, 2018 12:49 pm
Forum: The Diadochi
Topic: Battle of Magnesia
Replies: 55
Views: 100110

Re: Battle of Magnesia

During the Ionian War in the time of Darius II. It was in an otherwise good book too, but whenever I try to borrow it to search for the phrase I am looking for it is out. Anyways, needing a new model navy explains why he attracted military consultants like Hannibal, and it makes the picture of him a...
by sean_m
Fri Nov 02, 2018 4:58 pm
Forum: The Diadochi
Topic: Battle of Magnesia
Replies: 55
Views: 100110

Re: Battle of Magnesia

As I flip through Polybius and Michael Taylor's life of Antiochos, I am struck by how moderately he handled his anabasis to the upper satrapies. He was ruthless in liquidating Molon and Achaeus, and must have hoped to conquer Bactria, but when Fortune turned against him he entered into negotiations,...
by sean_m
Tue Oct 30, 2018 4:16 pm
Forum: Book reviews
Topic: The Persian Empire A History by Lindsay Allen
Replies: 7
Views: 16609

Re: The Persian Empire A History by Lindsay Allen

You are welcome Alexias! I do not know the sources on the Bagoas who was very close to Alexander well, but she might also have been thinking of stories in Herodotus and the book of Esther about the Persians taking young men and women to become eunuchs and concubines. I would like to read some of Mar...
by sean_m
Tue Oct 30, 2018 12:04 pm
Forum: Book reviews
Topic: The Persian Empire A History by Lindsay Allen
Replies: 7
Views: 16609

Re: The Persian Empire A History by Lindsay Allen

Very interesting, thank you, Sean. Do you know how many of these court officials were likely to have been slaves, maybe the more menial roles? Would Persian slaves have had the opportunity to buy their freedom? Hi Alexias, I can not think of any texts which refer to ša rēsi with terme like ardu &qu...