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Ancient Lives
Demetrius: Sacker of Cities
A portrait of one of the ancient world’s first political celebrities, who veered from failure to success and back again
“This colorful biography of Demetrius . . . explores his rich inner life and reveals an ancient world of violence and intrigue.”— New York Times Book Review
The life of Demetrius (337–283 BCE) serves as a through-line to the forty years following the death of Alexander the Great (323–282 BCE), a time of unparalleled turbulence and instability in the ancient world. With no monarch able to take Alexander’s place, his empire fragmented into five pieces.
Capitalizing on good looks, youth, and sexual prowess, Demetrius sought to weld those pieces together and recover the dream of a single world state, with a new Alexander—himself—at its head. He succeeded temporarily, but in crucial, colossal engagements—a massive invasion of Egypt, a siege of Rhodes that went on for a full year, and the Battle of Ipsus—he came up just short. He ended his career in a rash invasion of Asia and became the target of a desperate manhunt, only to be captured and destroyed by his own son-in-law.
James Romm tells the story of Demetrius the Besieger’s rise and spectacular fall but also explores his vibrant inner life and family relationships to depict a real, complex, and recognizable figure.
“This colorful biography of Demetrius . . . explores his rich inner life and reveals an ancient world of violence and intrigue.”— New York Times Book Review
The life of Demetrius (337–283 BCE) serves as a through-line to the forty years following the death of Alexander the Great (323–282 BCE), a time of unparalleled turbulence and instability in the ancient world. With no monarch able to take Alexander’s place, his empire fragmented into five pieces.
Capitalizing on good looks, youth, and sexual prowess, Demetrius sought to weld those pieces together and recover the dream of a single world state, with a new Alexander—himself—at its head. He succeeded temporarily, but in crucial, colossal engagements—a massive invasion of Egypt, a siege of Rhodes that went on for a full year, and the Battle of Ipsus—he came up just short. He ended his career in a rash invasion of Asia and became the target of a desperate manhunt, only to be captured and destroyed by his own son-in-law.
James Romm tells the story of Demetrius the Besieger’s rise and spectacular fall but also explores his vibrant inner life and family relationships to depict a real, complex, and recognizable figure.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published November 29, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
November 20, 2023
Demetrius Ittimenos*
Review of the Yale University Press hardcover (November 29, 2022).
Although the title of this biography of Demetrius Poliorcetes (aka Demetrius the Besieger aka Demetrius I of Macedon (337-283 BC) implies a great number of victories, the overall impression that I had was that of a long series of catastrophic losses.
Demetrius followed in the footsteps of his father Antigonus One-Eye in the wars of the successors to Alexander the Great as the various generals battled for supremacy after the death of their leader. Demetrius' reputation is based on his construction of huge siege engines and warships, even though his military campaigns were often failures.
Lithograph of the Siege of Rhodes, English School, 19th Century. Source: See link under 'Helepolis' below.
The siege engine Helepolis (Greek: City Taker) was used in the siege of Rhodes and after the failure of that campaign, parts of it were used in the construction of the Colossus of Rhodes. Demetrius' flagship Hekkaidekērēs (Greek: The Sixteen) was considered the largest ever single-hulled warship built in the ancient world.
Bust of the divinised Demetrios Poliorketes wearing bull's horns. Roman copy from 1st century AD of a Greek original from 3rd century BC. Image sourced from Wikipedia.
Footnote
* Ittimenos (Greek: Loser)
Although it seemed like a long catalogue of failed campaigns, I still enjoyed reading this further book in the Yale University Press' Ancient Lives series. I had previously read Vergil: The Poet's Life and Cleopatra: Her History, Her Myth.
Other Reviews
Demetrius: Sacker of Cities by Marc DeSantis, The-Past.com, March 5, 2023.
Other Books
Demetrius the Besieger (2020) preceded Romm's book by a few years and was considered the first major English language biography of Demetrius. You can read a summary of Demetrius' life by one of its co-authors at Why Demetrius the Besieger Was One of History’s Most Outrageous Kings.
Trivia and Links
Read an excerpt from the book at How the Wars of the Successors Began at Yale University Press.
Author James Romm discusses "Demetrius: Sacker of Cities" at the Yale University Press Podcast which you can listen to here.
Demetrius: Sacker of Cities is part of Yale University Press's Ancient Lives series which currently includes: Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor (expected February 2024), Vergil: The Poet’s Life (2023), Ramesses the Great: Egypt's King of Kings (2023), Julian: Rome’s Last Pagan Emperor (2023), Crassus: The First Tycoon (2022), and Cleopatra: Her History, Her Myth (2022).
Review of the Yale University Press hardcover (November 29, 2022).
Although the title of this biography of Demetrius Poliorcetes (aka Demetrius the Besieger aka Demetrius I of Macedon (337-283 BC) implies a great number of victories, the overall impression that I had was that of a long series of catastrophic losses.
Demetrius followed in the footsteps of his father Antigonus One-Eye in the wars of the successors to Alexander the Great as the various generals battled for supremacy after the death of their leader. Demetrius' reputation is based on his construction of huge siege engines and warships, even though his military campaigns were often failures.
Lithograph of the Siege of Rhodes, English School, 19th Century. Source: See link under 'Helepolis' below.
The siege engine Helepolis (Greek: City Taker) was used in the siege of Rhodes and after the failure of that campaign, parts of it were used in the construction of the Colossus of Rhodes. Demetrius' flagship Hekkaidekērēs (Greek: The Sixteen) was considered the largest ever single-hulled warship built in the ancient world.
Bust of the divinised Demetrios Poliorketes wearing bull's horns. Roman copy from 1st century AD of a Greek original from 3rd century BC. Image sourced from Wikipedia.
Footnote
* Ittimenos (Greek: Loser)
Although it seemed like a long catalogue of failed campaigns, I still enjoyed reading this further book in the Yale University Press' Ancient Lives series. I had previously read Vergil: The Poet's Life and Cleopatra: Her History, Her Myth.
Other Reviews
Demetrius: Sacker of Cities by Marc DeSantis, The-Past.com, March 5, 2023.
Other Books
Demetrius the Besieger (2020) preceded Romm's book by a few years and was considered the first major English language biography of Demetrius. You can read a summary of Demetrius' life by one of its co-authors at Why Demetrius the Besieger Was One of History’s Most Outrageous Kings.
Trivia and Links
Read an excerpt from the book at How the Wars of the Successors Began at Yale University Press.
Author James Romm discusses "Demetrius: Sacker of Cities" at the Yale University Press Podcast which you can listen to here.
Demetrius: Sacker of Cities is part of Yale University Press's Ancient Lives series which currently includes: Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor (expected February 2024), Vergil: The Poet’s Life (2023), Ramesses the Great: Egypt's King of Kings (2023), Julian: Rome’s Last Pagan Emperor (2023), Crassus: The First Tycoon (2022), and Cleopatra: Her History, Her Myth (2022).
June 13, 2025
Demetrius, son of the one-eyed juggernaut Antigonus, began his career in the crumbling wake of Alexander the Great's demise, when the empire sprawled like a magnificent corpse no one quite knew how to divide.
At sixteen, Demetrius embarked on a secret voyage across the Aegean with his father, defying the new imperial boss, Perdiccas, and foreshadowing a lifetime of insubordination, theatrical entrances, and tactical exits. By his twenties, he accepted, under duress, a marriage to the thirty-something widow of Craterus, the very man his father had conspired to replace.
This bride, Phila, came with dowries in diplomacy and disillusionment, and Demetrius, ever the reluctant groom, responded with Euripidean puns and adolescent whining. When his father caught him in bed with a courtesan, Demetrius claimed fever; Antigonus dryly replied that he’d just met it walking out the door.
As Asia cracked under the weight of five men who each fancied themselves Alexander’s true heir, Demetrius auditioned for the part. He led armies, lost elephants, and field-tested spiked chains, turning his royal pachyderms into confused, wounded liabilities in his failed Gaza charge.
His experiments in siegecraft fared little better; his Nabataean campaign ended in humiliating retreat, his father's scolding, and a failed bid to extract asphalt from the Dead Sea. Yet in defeat, Demetrius sparkled - literally.
After being trounced by Ptolemy, he received back his personal effects (tent, silverware, pride) and graciously returned the favor after capturing Ptolemy’s general without a fight.
His victories were real, if occasionally accidental. After all, at Gabene, he stood beside his father as the elder Antigonus stole an entire army’s wealth by sneaking cavalry behind the dust cloud raised by elephants and seizing their baggage trains, leading to mutiny and the slow, quiet strangulation of Eumenes.
Then came Babylon. Demetrius marched in like a bold tourist and exited as a plundering invader, enriching himself but endearing the population to Seleucus, the crafty rival who would soon found a dynasty and a god-honored city.
Despite these setbacks, Demetrius kept swinging. In one brief Greek campaign, he threw an Athenian tyrant out the window and took to the stage in golden armor, announcing liberty while clearly enjoying the optics of conquest. He built siege towers taller than city walls, hoarded cities like medals, married and remarried with dynastic aim and carnal enthusiasm, and still found time to drop obscure literary puns on the battlefield.
Fathers built empires; sons hosted wine-fueled orgies in newly conquered capitals. And still, Athens named festivals after him.
The book details the hallucinations of a narcissist with a sword and an amphitheater subscription. Demetrius—half heartthrob, half hurricane—spends four decades pinballing across an empire too fragmented for one crown and too seductive for him to resist. “He never had peace, nor allowed any others to have it,” Romm writes, with what sounds like exhausted admiration.
Power is addictive, succession is bloodsport, and anyone following in Alexander’s footsteps should pack elephants, silver shields, a sarcastic father, and a funeral insurance policy.
At sixteen, Demetrius embarked on a secret voyage across the Aegean with his father, defying the new imperial boss, Perdiccas, and foreshadowing a lifetime of insubordination, theatrical entrances, and tactical exits. By his twenties, he accepted, under duress, a marriage to the thirty-something widow of Craterus, the very man his father had conspired to replace.
This bride, Phila, came with dowries in diplomacy and disillusionment, and Demetrius, ever the reluctant groom, responded with Euripidean puns and adolescent whining. When his father caught him in bed with a courtesan, Demetrius claimed fever; Antigonus dryly replied that he’d just met it walking out the door.
As Asia cracked under the weight of five men who each fancied themselves Alexander’s true heir, Demetrius auditioned for the part. He led armies, lost elephants, and field-tested spiked chains, turning his royal pachyderms into confused, wounded liabilities in his failed Gaza charge.
His experiments in siegecraft fared little better; his Nabataean campaign ended in humiliating retreat, his father's scolding, and a failed bid to extract asphalt from the Dead Sea. Yet in defeat, Demetrius sparkled - literally.
After being trounced by Ptolemy, he received back his personal effects (tent, silverware, pride) and graciously returned the favor after capturing Ptolemy’s general without a fight.
His victories were real, if occasionally accidental. After all, at Gabene, he stood beside his father as the elder Antigonus stole an entire army’s wealth by sneaking cavalry behind the dust cloud raised by elephants and seizing their baggage trains, leading to mutiny and the slow, quiet strangulation of Eumenes.
Then came Babylon. Demetrius marched in like a bold tourist and exited as a plundering invader, enriching himself but endearing the population to Seleucus, the crafty rival who would soon found a dynasty and a god-honored city.
Despite these setbacks, Demetrius kept swinging. In one brief Greek campaign, he threw an Athenian tyrant out the window and took to the stage in golden armor, announcing liberty while clearly enjoying the optics of conquest. He built siege towers taller than city walls, hoarded cities like medals, married and remarried with dynastic aim and carnal enthusiasm, and still found time to drop obscure literary puns on the battlefield.
Fathers built empires; sons hosted wine-fueled orgies in newly conquered capitals. And still, Athens named festivals after him.
The book details the hallucinations of a narcissist with a sword and an amphitheater subscription. Demetrius—half heartthrob, half hurricane—spends four decades pinballing across an empire too fragmented for one crown and too seductive for him to resist. “He never had peace, nor allowed any others to have it,” Romm writes, with what sounds like exhausted admiration.
Power is addictive, succession is bloodsport, and anyone following in Alexander’s footsteps should pack elephants, silver shields, a sarcastic father, and a funeral insurance policy.
June 2, 2025
Romm again proves to be a master storyteller. I'm convinced that the reason I don't like Greek historical fiction is because none of the fiction books are as interesting or as good as the nonfiction ones.
Demetrius is by turns a genius engineer and lothario rube and there is no way to predict how his life ends up based on how it begins.
Cassander and all Antipatrids (except daddy Antipater) suck.
Also, Ptolemy and Seleucus suck. Fight me.
Demetrius is by turns a genius engineer and lothario rube and there is no way to predict how his life ends up based on how it begins.
Cassander and all Antipatrids (except daddy Antipater) suck.
Also, Ptolemy and Seleucus suck. Fight me.
January 4, 2025
James Romm is the author of my favourite book of all time: Ghost on the Throne, so when I discovered he wrote a biography on the very intriguing character of Demetrius, I felt I needed to read this book. The events after Alexander the Great's death are thrilling and entertaining to read about, with a huge cast of very interesting and powerful players, each competing in the division of the spoils from Alexander's conquests.
Demetrius was one of these important characters, being the dashing, handsome and young son of the powerful Antigonus Monophthalmus (the One-Eyed). He fought together with his father first and later had to go at it alone. His life saw many failures, but also several successes and comebacks worthy of an epic play. According to Plutarch, Demetrius liked to quote a line from Aeschylus, addressing a personified Fortune: "You seem to both kindle my flame and blow it out." I feel there is no better line to describe his eventful life, fortune favoured him at different times, only to abandon him again, he had his comebacks but would eventually die in Seleucid captivity. He laid siege to so many cities (not always successful) that he became known as "The Besieger".
James Romm is a great writer who makes his work very approachable to the general reader. He is both entertaining and informative, sprinkling his book with many interesting anecdotes and quotations. However, I did feel that the first 40 pages or so were very chaotic and probably confusing to those who are not familiar with the Wars of the Diadochi. I know that you have to limit yourself in scope when writing a biography, but I felt that Romm could have done a better job in the beginning of the book. For the rest the book was really good and entertaining, I read it in only two days! That says a lot, four stars!
Demetrius was one of these important characters, being the dashing, handsome and young son of the powerful Antigonus Monophthalmus (the One-Eyed). He fought together with his father first and later had to go at it alone. His life saw many failures, but also several successes and comebacks worthy of an epic play. According to Plutarch, Demetrius liked to quote a line from Aeschylus, addressing a personified Fortune: "You seem to both kindle my flame and blow it out." I feel there is no better line to describe his eventful life, fortune favoured him at different times, only to abandon him again, he had his comebacks but would eventually die in Seleucid captivity. He laid siege to so many cities (not always successful) that he became known as "The Besieger".
James Romm is a great writer who makes his work very approachable to the general reader. He is both entertaining and informative, sprinkling his book with many interesting anecdotes and quotations. However, I did feel that the first 40 pages or so were very chaotic and probably confusing to those who are not familiar with the Wars of the Diadochi. I know that you have to limit yourself in scope when writing a biography, but I felt that Romm could have done a better job in the beginning of the book. For the rest the book was really good and entertaining, I read it in only two days! That says a lot, four stars!
January 17, 2023
Demetrius, one of the Alexander wannabes of his time, spent his life trying to put the empire back together. In the course of this he developed a variety of siege engines and monster ships. Between wars, he indulged in excessive drink and sex. Not surprising that Plutarch paired his biography with that of Marcus Antonius.
Hellenistic Greece is not really my thing; I generally stick to Roman and classical Greek history. I picked this up because I liked the first book in the Ancient Lives series (Crassus). Romm writes in a lively style, skillfully elucidating the twists and turns of the Diadochoi through the life of Demetrius Poliorketes. He aims at general readers, but notes problems and gaps in our knowledge. The book is unobtrusively equipped with plenty of notes and bibliography for those who want to pursue specific topics in the sources or secondary literature.
Hellenistic Greece is not really my thing; I generally stick to Roman and classical Greek history. I picked this up because I liked the first book in the Ancient Lives series (Crassus). Romm writes in a lively style, skillfully elucidating the twists and turns of the Diadochoi through the life of Demetrius Poliorketes. He aims at general readers, but notes problems and gaps in our knowledge. The book is unobtrusively equipped with plenty of notes and bibliography for those who want to pursue specific topics in the sources or secondary literature.
April 28, 2023
3.5, not as good as ghost on the throne, covers a lot of the same ground in the first few chapters.
November 23, 2025
Good, but not one of Romm's best works. I think that is through no fault of his though. Personally, I found the boo to be too heavy in warfare, but that is Demetrius.
September 1, 2025
Buy.
Great little book that brings together everything we can deduce about one of the Successor's... successors.
Great little book that brings together everything we can deduce about one of the Successor's... successors.
August 16, 2025
A short and effective biography of one of the main actors in the Wars of the Diodochi.
April 17, 2023
Fascinating book about the struggles to succeed Alexander the Great. Constant battles amount the successors with shifting alliances.
March 5, 2023
What an excellent read! The historical narrative and the figures therein come to life with Romm's telling.
February 9, 2024
One day when Demetrius ignored his father’s summons, claiming he had a fever, Antigonus went to the boy’s chambers and spotted a hetaera, a courtesan, furtively slipping away. As he entered his son’s room, Demetrius stuck to his story:
“The fever has left me,” he declared.
“Yes, I met it just now as it went out the door,” his father replied.
It is really really hard to come away from this book and not think – I could have just re-read Plutarch.
I accept that Romm sources more widely than Plutarch, applies more rigorous historiography, and is probably clearer with the narrative. Yet I really really find it hard to get away from regretting that I just didn’t read Plutarch.
Demetrius is an interesting character – not quite a freebooter as he had a semi-legitimate dynastical claim. He was also rarely totally bereft of a power base and therefore a player during the Successor Wars. However, Demetrius’ main noteworthiness is that he continued to exist for as long as he did, rather than any sustained (or possibly even momentary) periods of strategic success.
How much confidence did Demetrius inspire? He had failed to win in Egypt, at Rhodes, and most recently in Thessaly when facing Cassander.
I also feel Romm does not quite have the same energy as with Ghosts on the Throne - it’s a pretty straight man’s retelling, plus a little bit of titillation. The best stories sourced from… …Plutarch. I get the book is meant to be a precis of a moderately major character of the period, but Demetrius is probably better novelised – to really extract something from him, you probably need to go dramatic.
If you absolutely need your Diadochi fix from yet another shuffling round of sources that haven’t revealed anything new in the last century(? – more even?), sure, but realistically you should just read a general history (like Ghosts on the Throne!) and maybe an annotated copy of Plutarch. It is a good period to read about, just not via Demetrius.
“The fever has left me,” he declared.
“Yes, I met it just now as it went out the door,” his father replied.
It is really really hard to come away from this book and not think – I could have just re-read Plutarch.
I accept that Romm sources more widely than Plutarch, applies more rigorous historiography, and is probably clearer with the narrative. Yet I really really find it hard to get away from regretting that I just didn’t read Plutarch.
Demetrius is an interesting character – not quite a freebooter as he had a semi-legitimate dynastical claim. He was also rarely totally bereft of a power base and therefore a player during the Successor Wars. However, Demetrius’ main noteworthiness is that he continued to exist for as long as he did, rather than any sustained (or possibly even momentary) periods of strategic success.
How much confidence did Demetrius inspire? He had failed to win in Egypt, at Rhodes, and most recently in Thessaly when facing Cassander.
I also feel Romm does not quite have the same energy as with Ghosts on the Throne - it’s a pretty straight man’s retelling, plus a little bit of titillation. The best stories sourced from… …Plutarch. I get the book is meant to be a precis of a moderately major character of the period, but Demetrius is probably better novelised – to really extract something from him, you probably need to go dramatic.
If you absolutely need your Diadochi fix from yet another shuffling round of sources that haven’t revealed anything new in the last century(? – more even?), sure, but realistically you should just read a general history (like Ghosts on the Throne!) and maybe an annotated copy of Plutarch. It is a good period to read about, just not via Demetrius.
October 31, 2023
I knew a little bit about how Alexander's empire was divided up among his generals after his death - Ptolemy in Egypt, Seleucus in Anatolia and the Middle East, and so on. I knew nothing of Demetrius. But I think that in my mind it had sorted itself out pretty quickly with a natural allocation of territories after a few skirmishes. It should have been no surprise to me that it was not that simple. There were many years of endless battles and jockeying for position among men whose lives were about fighting and conquest and who all saw themselves as being entitled to rule Alexander's empire in its entirety. Their troops loved their fighting, victories and plunder and so did the leaders. It was the only life that they knew. They couldn't happily rule in peace over a sizable chunk of the known world. Their ambitions drove them to want it all. Anyone who disbanded his army was prey for his rivals, and anyone who kept his army intact had to keep it fighting to control it. It must have been a hellish period for the people trying to live their lives in the vast regions around the Mediterranean and Middle East that were so long ravaged by these wars.
Demetrius was handsome and brave, skilled as a general, a leader and a diplomat, but he also had his setbacks. He couldn't sit still and consolidate his gains, and he was probably ultimately not so much as a civilian leader. In any case he had a serious addiction to war. He was like a gambler at the craps table who wins for a while, knowing full well that the only possible long run outcome is to go bust, but still continuing roll after roll after roll until the inevitable happens. Game over.
Demetrius was handsome and brave, skilled as a general, a leader and a diplomat, but he also had his setbacks. He couldn't sit still and consolidate his gains, and he was probably ultimately not so much as a civilian leader. In any case he had a serious addiction to war. He was like a gambler at the craps table who wins for a while, knowing full well that the only possible long run outcome is to go bust, but still continuing roll after roll after roll until the inevitable happens. Game over.
October 1, 2025
Demetrius, or Demetrius Poliorketes, or Demetrius the Besieger, has one of the most interesting histories of all the warlords who battled for European and Asian supremacy after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.
The bare outlines of his amorous affairs, military adventures and ultimate defeat hint at a hidden story of a fascinating individual in a turbulent time.
Sadly, James Romm adds almost nothing to that bare outline in his biography, which does an excellent job explicating the complex maneuvering of the Successors of Alexander as they intermarried, betrayed and otherwise engaged with their frenemies. Of course, it is hard to blame Romm, for history is written by the winners, and what histories of the Hellenistic Age (as the time is known) survive do not reveal much except the occasional lurid anecdote and military outcomes.
Still, as a sometime student of that period, I was hoping for more than a bland recital of alliances, battles and marriages -- but that was what I got. And for a reader less interested in the times, I fear that "Demetrius: Sacker of Cities" will be even less rewarding, though for some it may trigger a greater interest in a generally forgotten but surprisingly modern (globalization and the rise of women, to name just two) era.
The bare outlines of his amorous affairs, military adventures and ultimate defeat hint at a hidden story of a fascinating individual in a turbulent time.
Sadly, James Romm adds almost nothing to that bare outline in his biography, which does an excellent job explicating the complex maneuvering of the Successors of Alexander as they intermarried, betrayed and otherwise engaged with their frenemies. Of course, it is hard to blame Romm, for history is written by the winners, and what histories of the Hellenistic Age (as the time is known) survive do not reveal much except the occasional lurid anecdote and military outcomes.
Still, as a sometime student of that period, I was hoping for more than a bland recital of alliances, battles and marriages -- but that was what I got. And for a reader less interested in the times, I fear that "Demetrius: Sacker of Cities" will be even less rewarding, though for some it may trigger a greater interest in a generally forgotten but surprisingly modern (globalization and the rise of women, to name just two) era.
March 29, 2024
Amazing storytelling brings the history and wars of Diadochoi to life. Hellenistic period deserves more books like this one. I can`t understand why the Hellenistic period, with such a rich array of adventures, intrigues, culture, sudden reversals of fortune, and so on, is so underrepresented in popular history books, historical fiction, or movies. It seems most people are far more interested in the classical Greek period, Greco-Persian wars, and then Rome as if nothing interesting happened in between. The Hellenistic period is intensely interesting and deserves Game of Thrones-like series and movies. In fact, quite often G.O.T., a fictional story, pales in comparison with real history, especially in the Hellenistic Period. While you won`t find dragons in history, I think war elephants are just as good!
October 25, 2024
Fills a gap in the literature that is much needed
Unfortunately, there are very few books on this character from antiquity. This books fills that gap. Having said that, this reviewer is careful to emphasize that this book is definitely not an opus on the subject, being only 224 pages. Despite being only that long, it touches upon the most important points and provides a relatively good biography that enables the reader to get a grip on this historical figure’s personality in only three or four hours of reading. On the negative side, the book is a bit dry but then again, considering it was written by an academic and was published by an academic press, this is to be expected. However, the positives far, far outweigh this relatively trivial weakness.
Highly recommended.
Unfortunately, there are very few books on this character from antiquity. This books fills that gap. Having said that, this reviewer is careful to emphasize that this book is definitely not an opus on the subject, being only 224 pages. Despite being only that long, it touches upon the most important points and provides a relatively good biography that enables the reader to get a grip on this historical figure’s personality in only three or four hours of reading. On the negative side, the book is a bit dry but then again, considering it was written by an academic and was published by an academic press, this is to be expected. However, the positives far, far outweigh this relatively trivial weakness.
Highly recommended.
December 16, 2025
Here is the life story of a man who, as the junior part of a father-son team, attempted to reunite the empire of Alexander the Great. He had some successes and gained a bit of fame. After his father’s death, he continued the fight but failed, ending his days in prison, having founded a small dynasty that lived on until Rome brought it to an end. He had lots of cool toys, though.
The story of Demetrius doesn’t really stand out among the many contenders for supremacy after Alexander was gone, but what this book really seems to be about is filling in that chaotic stretch of history when a single great empire fragments into a collection of smaller empires that would eventually fall to the Romans and to the Parthians in the East.
And so history rolled on.
The story of Demetrius doesn’t really stand out among the many contenders for supremacy after Alexander was gone, but what this book really seems to be about is filling in that chaotic stretch of history when a single great empire fragments into a collection of smaller empires that would eventually fall to the Romans and to the Parthians in the East.
And so history rolled on.
June 24, 2024
An amazing read, the Yale Ancient Lives series again does not disappoint.
I have very little knowledge on the wars of the Successors and had never before heard of Demetrius. Now I have read this I am eager to read more upon the subject and learn even more about this time of nearly constant war, mistrust and uneasy alliances.
Structured in such a way that it reads amazingly, it made me want to not stop reading, not something I find I feel often. The actual Structure of the writing was something that made it easy to read but gave all the knowledge you would like.
Overall, a great instalment in a great series, I would whole heartedly recommend people read this book and series
I have very little knowledge on the wars of the Successors and had never before heard of Demetrius. Now I have read this I am eager to read more upon the subject and learn even more about this time of nearly constant war, mistrust and uneasy alliances.
Structured in such a way that it reads amazingly, it made me want to not stop reading, not something I find I feel often. The actual Structure of the writing was something that made it easy to read but gave all the knowledge you would like.
Overall, a great instalment in a great series, I would whole heartedly recommend people read this book and series
May 19, 2023
This book is very thin, in both size and the depth to which it dives into the subject. More a string of facts with a few colloquial asides about how one development or another might have felt. It appears to be one of a series of Plutarch-like Lives. As such, it’s certainly interesting. However, it’s not satisfying for someone who wants the broader context of history such as material culture, philosophy and world view, archaeological record etc
December 29, 2024
Although the sub-title is misleading (let's be honest, Demetrius was ironically called "the Beseiger," so identifying him as a Sacker of Cities is quite the stretch. The one time he appeared to sack a city, it blew up in his face [figuratively, not literally]), this was an entertaining and interesting biography of a lesser known historical figure.
I knew Alexander left a mess when he died, but, wow, is that putting it mildly.
I knew Alexander left a mess when he died, but, wow, is that putting it mildly.
October 16, 2025
The would be New Alexander was a wild card. A disappointing wild card in the end, but entertaining nonetheless.
Fluid narrative by the author. I enjoyed it and appreciate the reminders to take ancient sources with a grain of salt, especially Plutarch who was writing for a very different audience in a very different time.
Fluid narrative by the author. I enjoyed it and appreciate the reminders to take ancient sources with a grain of salt, especially Plutarch who was writing for a very different audience in a very different time.
July 30, 2025
A brilliant and entertaining biography of Demetrius - his dramatic life, complicated relationship and ambitious personality are highlighted here in a really accessible way! One of the better Diadoch biographies I have read.
June 30, 2023
Love Romm. Nice overview.
October 6, 2023
A gem
The Ancient Lives series has produced another great book. It tackles a fairly complicated subject and brings Demetrius into focus clearly while not losing the reader
The Ancient Lives series has produced another great book. It tackles a fairly complicated subject and brings Demetrius into focus clearly while not losing the reader
December 2, 2023
The Gram Parsons of antiquity.
June 12, 2024
I enjoyed very much reading this book. It vividly traces the life of Demetrius, serving as a captivating through-line to the tumultuous forty years following the death of Alexander the Great. Romm expertly navigates the reader through the era of constant battles among Alexander's successors, highlighting the shifting alliances and betrayals that characterized this period. The detailed narrative brings to life the complexities of Demetrius's ambitions and the relentless power struggles that defined his life.
The detailed accounts of battles and political maneuvers are balanced with insightful analysis, making it easier to follow the intricate web of relationships between the different empires and generals competing for power.
The detailed accounts of battles and political maneuvers are balanced with insightful analysis, making it easier to follow the intricate web of relationships between the different empires and generals competing for power.
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