Review by Choice Review
A biography of the founder of one of the leading Hellenistic kingdoms in the centuries following the death of Alexander the Great. Seleucus I has received rather little attention in modern literature, yet he was one of the pivotal figures of antiquity, rising from a minor command under Alexander to rule an empire that stretched from the Syrian coast to Iran and beyond. It was in this part of Alexander's old dominion that many Greeks and Macedonians settled under Seleucid patronage to form a culture that dominated much of the region at least until the Roman conquest, if not until the rise of Islam. Grainger has produced an inelegantly written work that more careful refereeing and editing might have saved from historical inaccuracies and narrative tedium. It is a curious book, without preface, acknowledgments, or introduction, but marked by an up-to-date bibliography and some occasionally creative source-analysis. Its greatest virtue is a realistic view of the ancient sources tainted by contemporary propaganda; its defect is that it fails to exploit fully the theme of Greek and Macedonian colonization in the area, a hallmark of Seleucid monarchs. Specialists will find much to contest, and general readers who do not retire from boredom may be misled. It is thus difficult to know what audience will find this uneven work useful. -E. N. Borza, Pennsylvania State University, University Park Campus
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
