Preface
Acknowledgements
Timeline
Quotations from Ancient Works and Special Abbreviations
Maps
1. The Architect and the Master Builder
2. Greece and Macedonia
3. Philip II and the Rise of Macedonia
4. The New Player in Greek Politics
5. The Gathering War Clouds
6. The Downfall of Greece
7. Philip's Assassination and Legacy
8. Alexander's Early Kingship - and Persia
9. From Europe to Asia
10. Alexander: Master Strategist and Emerging God
11. The Decline and Fall of the Persian Empire
12. The War in Afghanistan
13. Passage to India
14. Retreat from India
15. Alexander's Final Years
16. Death in Babylon and Alexander's Legacy
Appendix: The Sources of Information
Bibliography
Index
Ian Worthington is Curators' Professor of History and Adjunct Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Missouri. He is the author of numerous books about ancient Greece, including, most recently, Demosthenes of Athens and the Fall of Classical Greece.
"A steady stream of fascinating stories of brilliant military
tactics interspersed with rampant post-Classical gore. From the
slaughter of whole villages to unbridled violations of human
dignity, By the Spear reminds us of the ugliness of war, especially
when military leaders are apparently void of morality filters... By
the Spear is loaded with compelling details...but they aren't
simply piled on helter-skelter; rather, they are embedded in
Ian Worthington's coherent narrative about Macedonian ascendancy in
the 4th century BC. This celebrated professor at the University of
Missouri convincingly gives Philip II his due in Hellenism's
spread, and masks not
his thesis that Philip 'has lived too long in Alexander's shadow'."
--Books & Culture
"Most histories extolling Alexander the Great pay modest attention
to his father, Philip II, but Worthington gives him equal billing
in this admirable, scholarly dual biography." --Kirkus Reviews
"By the Spear is an impressive book" --Gerard DeGroot, The Times
(UK)
"Ian Worthington is one of this generation's leading historians of
ancient Greece and Macedonia. In this book he provides for the
first time in a single volume a comparative perspective on Philip
and Alexander's empire building, and he admirably succeeds in
making this complex and convoluted story accessible to the
uninitiated." --Joseph Roisman, author of Alexander's Veterans and
the Early Wars of the Successors
"As Ian Worthington reminds us, without Philip II there would have
been no Alexander the Great, and by considering together the
accomplishments and foibles of both father and son, By the Spear
raises a larger question: do great conquerors make great kings?
Alexander inherited the legacy of Philip--an ascendant Macedonian
empire--but what was the legacy of Alexander, and to whom was it
left? By considering the larger picture, Worthington provides
new
insight into one of ancient history's most fascinating sagas."
--Steven Saylor, author of Raiders of the Nile and Roma: A Novel of
Ancient Rome
"The Macedonian empire that reshaped the Mediterranean world was
the creation of two remarkable men. Worthington's provocative
thesis is that Alexander was a conqueror whose legacy was chaos.
Philip was a king who left Alexander the basis of empire. Was the
father, then, greater than the son? By the Spear offers an
unconventional answer in a narrative that is both persuasive and
engaging." --Dennis Showalter, author of Armor and Blood: The
Battle
of Kursk
"What father-son duo is more mesmerizing than Philip and Alexander
of Macedon? Too often historians have focused on one, marginalizing
the other, thus Ian Worthington's even-handed treatment of both is
to be celebrated. Concise yet clear, Worthington masterfully
explores Philip's career and the dazzling, violent, and
world-changing reign of his son." --Lawrence A. Tritle, author of A
New History of the Peloponnesian War
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