Books on Craterus?

[Fingy]

Are their any books or academic papers on the life Craterus of Orestis? I did a search of Amazon,Chapters, ebay, barnes and noble etc. I realize their are no sources dedicated entirely to Craterus (ie a life in Plutarch) but that doesn't negate the mans importance or value as a historical subject. Why is there a scholarly gap when it comes to one of the men "most loved" by Alexander?
If anyone could point me to a paper or a book on the subject that would be great.

[agesilaos]

You might try getting a copy of Waldemar Heckel's 'Marshals of Alexander's Empire', Krateros naturally figures and Heckel amassses all the references to him. Should you not want to part with the sixty quid required borrow it from the library. Amazon will have the ISBN which will help your library order it for you.

[Paralus]

Heckel is, to my knowledge, about it.

There is Ed Anson's Craterus and the Prostasia. Craterus also is discussed in Meeus: The Power Struggle of the Diadochoi in Babylon, 323 BC, AncSoc 38, 39-82 and Some Institutional Problems concerning the Succession to Alexander the Great: Prostasia and Chiliarchy, Historia 58, 287-310.

[Fingy]

Thanks for your reply's. I think Heckel looks good, if over priced.

[marcus]

Thanks for your reply's. I think Heckel looks good, if over priced.

I wouldn't necessarily say over-priced - I suppose it depends on the value you attribute to it. It is expensive, of that there is no doubt; but it has been worth every penny to me, ever since I got it!

ATB

[Dr Pat]

Craterus has always been underdone by scholars it seems to me; I wrote an Honours Dissertation on him in about 1993 in Western Australia, and one of my lecturers, Norman Ashton, wrote an article on him early in the 90s,which is probably not circulated much, but is very good. Waldemar Heckel's treatment in Marshals is pretty definitive, and don't forget his more abbreviated version in Who's Who in the Age of Alexander (2006). One of my former students probably mentioned Craterus a bit in an article on the Chiliarchy in Phoenix in 2002 or so; Norman Ashton will revisit his Craterus research in the Bosworth Festschrift which is expected in the next year or so.
That's about as up-to-date as I can think on this guy - one of my favourites n the age of Alex, perhaps more sinister than generally thought, I don't know..
cheers, Pat

[Paralus]

Craterus has always been underdone by scholars it seems to me...

I would absolutely agree. Somehow he seems to have slipped beneath the radar. Slipping from his horse against Eumenes' forces likely didn't help. Nor would being sequestered away in Cilicia as competing ambitions strode the Babylon stage.

That's about as up-to-date as I can think on this guy - one of my favourites n the age of Alex, perhaps more sinister than generally thought, I don't know..

There never seems to be enough in the surviving material to really pin him down. Perdiccas, for example, is clearly rendered as a violent and ambitious individual; that a result of the surviving source material written by those in no way disposed toward him. Where there’s fire though…

Heckel, if I recall, paints Craterus and Hephaestion (along with Coenus) as the "drivers" behind the Philotas episode. Fair to say, I suppose, that someone who wound up essentially occupying the murdered Parmenion's position did not lack for ambition. The undercurrent of dislike - hatred - that runs between Craterus and Hephaestion also might indicate a fellow more ambitious or contentious than often thought. He certainly possessed a popularity amongst the rank and file that might well have been nurtured along rather than just being a passive thing.

He seems never to have parlayed this into any demonstrable drive for the "top" position. Seems he felt uncertain enough - when home in Macedonia - of his status or power to nod respectfully to the “Old Rope”.

As always, it will have been interesting to see what might have happened had he survived his clash with Eumenes.