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Courts and Elites in the Hellenistic Empires: The Near East After the Achaemenids, c. 330 to 30 BCE

Online ISBN:
9781474400800
Print ISBN:
9780748691265
Publisher:
Edinburgh University Press
Book

Courts and Elites in the Hellenistic Empires: The Near East After the Achaemenids, c. 330 to 30 BCE

Rolf Strootman
Rolf Strootman

Associate Professor

University of Utrecht
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Published:
1 May 2014
Online ISBN:
9781474400800
Print ISBN:
9780748691265
Publisher:
Edinburgh University Press

Abstract

During the Hellenistic Period (c. 330-30 BCE), Alexander the Great and his successors reshaped their Persian and Greco-Macedonian legacies to create a new kind of rulership that was neither ‘western’ nor ‘eastern’ and would profoundly influence the later development of court culture and monarchy in both the Roman West and Iranian East. Drawing on the socio-political models of Norbert Elias and Charles Tilly, and covering topics such as palace architecture, royal women and court ritual, Courts and Elites in the Hellenistic Empires shows how the Hellenistic dynastic courts were instrumental in the integration of local elites in the empires, and the (re)distribution of power, wealth, and status. It analyses the competition among courtiers for royal favour and the, not always successful, attempts of the Hellenistic rulers to use these struggles to their own advantage.

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