Ghost on the Throne

The Death of Alexander the Great and the Bloody Fight for His Empire

By: James S. Romm

Narrated by: Michael Page

When Alexander the Great died at the age of 32, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea in the west all the way to modern-day India in the east. In an unusual compromise, his two heirs - a mentally damaged half brother, Philip III, and an infant son, Alexander IV, born after his death - were jointly granted the kingship. But six of Alexander's Macedonian generals, spurred by their own thirst for power and the legend that Alexander bequeathed his rule "to the strongest," fought to gain supremacy. Perhaps their most fascinating and conniving adversary was Alexander's former Greek secretary, Eumenes, now a general himself, who would be the determining factor in the precarious fortunes of the royal family.

James Romm, professor of classics at Bard College, brings to life the cutthroat competition and the struggle for control of the Greek world's greatest empire.

©2011 James Romm (P)2020 Tantor

Wow! So much treachery!!!

It’s amazing how much we still know about this time in history. I am amazed at the authors depth of knowledge.

Narrator! No

This guy is everywhere and his terrible nose to the air voice is nails on a chalk board. It is ruining great and incredible book. STOP! And get good narrators!

Easily explained to non-academics highly recommended.

Good voice reading.
With good dates and chronological order.
Kept names so you don’t get confused.
I would recommend.
You don’t need to know any Latin but I would recommend knowing some Jewish history as it enriches part of the story.

Reads like an action adventure novels

Another outstanding book from James Romm. Excellent narrative adventure Focused on the fight after Alexander the Great died without a successor

Not My Favorite, But Not Terrible

I think this book really works best when read instead of being heard. The switches between storylines would have made sense if each chapter started with a map with numbered dots on it showing where each faction was. Breaking each chapter, which was only noted by a number i.e. 4 instead of Chapter 4, into smaller also numbered groups was a bit confusing to listen to.


I also found myself incredibly annoyed with some of the word pronunciations by the narrator. Perdicas which was pronounced per-dih-cuss in the last book I listened too was this time pronounced per-DEEK-ass. I couldn't tell you which pronunciation is correct, but I found the change so frustrating, I was rooting for the character to hurry up and die so I wouldn't have to hear his name anymore. Other words got some strange treatment as well. For instance hegemony, which I've only heard pronounced hedge-E-moan-E was pronounced as He-jiminy (think Jiminy crickets). Again, that may be an accepted pronunciation, but I found it odd.


Finally, the further we got into the story, the less I felt like the author was disclosing when sources contradicted, and was just going with whichever theory fit the story he was telling. I know there are a lot of holes in the records of that time, but I prefer for those things to be disclosed, rather than have a theory presented as the truth. Other books I've read make it clear that much of the story surrounding Olympas is unverifiable, and that the Greeks wrote scathingly about her because they despised a woman trying to take a prominent role. At no point is that mentioned in this book and every act that has been attributed to her is presented as historically, verifiably done by her.


All in all, not terrible, but I won't be searching out more books by the author of the narrator.