Volume 29, Number 4 · March 18, 1982
Tough Act to Follow
By Peter Green
Funeral Games
by Mary Renault
Pantheon, 335 pp., $14.50
When Alexander the Great, still only thirty-two years old, lay dying in Babylon in the summer of 323 BC, he was asked to whom he bequeathed his empire. The question was crucial: though he had left two wives, the Bactrian Roxane and Darius III's eldest daughter Stateira, pregnant, he had no obvious living heir. The only other surviving son of his father Philip II was an epileptic and mentally retarded half-brother, Arrhidaeus. At stake were all Alexander's treasures and eastern conquests; his marshals, ruthless veterans whose ambitions matched his own, kept vigil by his deathbed. Famous last words are notoriously suspect, and Alexander's may well have been invented after the event by some interested party or propagandist with hindsight. But there is a convincing irony about them. Pressed to name an heir, he whispered: 'The strongest.' His last recorded words were: 'I foresee great contests at my funeral games.' When beyond speech, he gave his ring to a prominent Macedonian general, Perdiccas, and with this ambiguous gesture he died.
Review, 1938 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |