Diving The Spoils Summary

Robin Waterfield aims to fill the gap between the death of Alexander the Great and the rise of Rome. The time of the successors is often overlooked and Robin Waterfield aims to “revive the memory of the successors” while providing an enjoyable narrative on the military endeavors and strong cultural impact the successors had over their territories (x). Alexander was more focused on his conquests that solidifying the territory was overlooked and so when he died his empire was left without a guaranteed succession, no administration, and numerous of the conquered territories to be left untamed. Diving the Spoils is meant to discuss how the spoils of Alexander’s empire were divided and how “grand imperialism was possible” in the beginning of the successors ruler but not at the

The author recounts in great detail how men like Ptolemy, Seleucus, Perdiccas, Lysimachus and a numerous others attempted to become the new Alexander, but were unsuccessful. The narrative moves chronology through the successor wars, their repercussions, the fate of the main characters, to even the last standing successors and their impact on the Hellenistic world. While this approach abandons strict chronology, the narrative nevertheless flows smoothly from Successor to Successor and from one war to the next. Numerous books outside of Waterfield’s focus on the successful successors such as Ptolemy, Seleukid, and Antigonids; where as he provides a character list to show all the people involved. The Wars of the Successors are a perplexing series of “alliances, marriages, battles, treachery and violence, involving a long list of characters, most of whom are little known to the modern reader” (d). He included rulers who control vast resources and have plausible bids to being successful. Robin Waterfield does focus on the characters that are significant in the end of the Hellenistic Era. The conventional style and detailed timeline of Dividing the Spoils creates an emphasis on individual