John D Grainger

In this first volume of his trilogy on the Ptolemies, John Grainger explains how Ptolemy I established the dynasty's power in Egypt in the wake of Alexander the Great's death. Egypt had been independent for most of the fourth century BC, but was reconquered by the Persian Empire in the 340s. This is essential background for Ptolemaic history since it meant that Alexander was welcomed as a liberator and, after the tyranny of Kleomenes, so was Ptolemy....

Between c.350 BC and 30 BC the Mediterranean world was one in which kings ruled. The exceptions were the Greek cities and Roman Italy. But for most of that period neither of these republican areas was central to events. For the crucial centuries between Alexander the Great and the Roman conquest of Macedon, the political running was made by kings, and it is their work and loves and experience which is the subject here. Rome's expansion extinguished...

A historian of the ancient world examines the epic rise and fall of the Celtic tribes, who invaded the Mediterranean and lands further east. The eastern Celtic tribes, known to the Greeks as Galatians, exploited the waning of Macedonian power after Alexander the Great's death to launch increasingly ambitious raids and expeditions into the Balkans. In 279 BC, they launched a major invasion, defeating and beheading the Macedonian king, Ptolemy Keraunos,...

Antipater was a key figure in the rise of Macedon under Philip II and instrumental in the succession of Alexander III (the Great). Alexander entrusted Antipater with ruling Macedon in his long absence and he defeated the Spartans in 331 BC. After Alexander's death he crushed a Greek uprising and became regent of the co-kings, Alexander's mentally impaired half-brother (Philip III Arrhideus) and infant son (Alexander IV). He brokered a settlement between...

Pamphylia, in modern Turkey, was a Greek country from the early Iron Age until the Middle Ages. In that land there were nine cities which can be described more or less as Greek, and this book is an investigation of their history. This was a land at the margins of other great empires - Hellenistic, Roman, Arab and Byzantine - and is still off the beaten track, though Aspendos, Perge and Phaselis are all visited for their archaeology. Only one ancient...

After the surrender of the French government in May 1940, the British were concerned that the resources of the French Empire, and particularly the powerful French fleet, would be put at the disposal of the Germans. The British, dependent upon their naval power and the resources of the Empire and Commonwealth to continue the war, sought to neutralize the threat of the French fleet and saw an opportunity to gobble up certain French colonies for themselves....

Between 152 and 138 BC a series of wars from Africa to India produced a radically new geopolitical situation. In 150 Rome was confined to the western Mediterranean, and the largest state was the Seleukid empire. By 140 Rome had spread to the borders of Asia Minor and the Seleukid empire was confined to Syria. The new great power in the Middle East was Parthia, stretching from Babylonia to Baktria. These two divided the western world between them until...

The period covered in this book, is well known for its epic battles and grand campaigns of territorial conquest, but Hellenistic monarchies, Carthaginians and the rapacious Roman Republic were scarcely less active at sea. Huge resources were poured into maintaining fleets not only as symbols of prestige but as means of projecting real military power across the Mediterranean arena. Taking the period between Alexander the Great's conquests and the...

Although also known as the Third English Civil War, the author makes it clear that this was the last war between the Scots and English as separate states. He narrates in detail the the events following the exiled King Charles II's landing in Scotland and his alliance with the Scots Covenanters, erstwhile allies of the English Parliamentarians. Cromwell's preemptive invasion of Scotland led to the Battle of Dunbar, a crushing defeat for the Scots...

John Grainger examines the long and erratic process by which the British Isles was gradually (and as it turns out, temporarily) unified over the course of eighteen centuries, and the subsequent beginnings of the process of disintegration, manifested in an independent Ireland and increasing devolution to, and nationalism in, Scotland and Wales. Taking the Roman (partial) conquest and forming of the province of Britannia as his starting point, he outlines...