Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 New out of old? Court and court ceremonies in Achaemenid Persia
- 2 King, court and royal representation in the Sasanian empire
- 3 The court of Alexander the Great between Europe and Asia
- 4 Friends in high places: the creation of the court of the Roman emperor
- 5 The imperial court of the late Roman empire, C. AD 300–C. AD 450
- 6 The imperial court in Han China
- 7 Court and palace in ancient Egypt: the Amarna period and later Eighteenth Dynasty
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - The court of Alexander the Great between Europe and Asia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 New out of old? Court and court ceremonies in Achaemenid Persia
- 2 King, court and royal representation in the Sasanian empire
- 3 The court of Alexander the Great between Europe and Asia
- 4 Friends in high places: the creation of the court of the Roman emperor
- 5 The imperial court of the late Roman empire, C. AD 300–C. AD 450
- 6 The imperial court in Han China
- 7 Court and palace in ancient Egypt: the Amarna period and later Eighteenth Dynasty
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Introduction
In a book on ancient courts, this chapter arguably is an oddity, since alone of the contributions its focus is a single ancient ruler, who himself was scarcely typical, given not only the freakish scale of his conquests, but also his plans, novel in a Greek context, for stabilising his dominion over them. But Alexander is simply too important a figure to leave out. Partly this is a matter of the ancient evidence. Given the ancient preoccupation with Alexander's military achievements, it can come as a surprise to find that he is the only Macedonian or Hellenistic ruler about whose ‘court’ ceremonies we have some detailed knowledge (Weber 1997: 43). This evidence leaves us in no doubt that Alexander attached real political significance to ‘holding court’. It is clear too that, like his father, Philip II, or Augustus in a later age, Alexander was a consummate ‘master of self-representation’. Here a reappraisal is offered of the evolving role which Alexander assigned to his ‘court’ and its ceremonies in the period after his invasion of the Persian empire (334 BC), with particular emphasis on a neglected topic, namely, the physical space constituted by the royal quarters, including his feasting- and audience-tent (tente d'apparat). The underlying assumption throughout is that Alexander from the outset was intent on retaining his conquests in Asia. This is shown by his maintenance of Persian structures of control and exploitation as soon as Persian territory began to fall into his hands (Arr.1.17.1)
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- Information
- The Court and Court Society in Ancient Monarchies , pp. 82 - 120Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
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