The editor of this book draws together a collection of essays on monarchy in the context of Greek history, but mainly focusing on Hellenistic history, and three of the chapters provide an English translation and revision of earlier published papers in German or Italian, with a number of other original papers translated into English from the German.

Chapter 1 by L. is an introduction and discussion of kingship in pre-Classical Greece. L. reviews modern scholarship on the basileis of the Homeric texts and, following K.A. Raaflaub and others, questions Finley's theory that the political world of these texts is a coherent reflection of the situation in Dark Age Greece (pp. 13–15). Instead, the basileis of Homer are a ‘pale and garbled reminiscence’ (p. 15) of Mycenaean kings, not of elusive Dark Age kings. The upshot is that it is uncertain to what extent Greek society knew monarchy from the collapse of the Bronze Age to the age of tyrants (stated later in L.’s Chapter 3, p. 66). Though a poetic creation, the Homeric kingship nevertheless was construed as a traditional and legitimate government, and this was in stark contrast to the odious image of the turannos (pp. 16–17). This tension in Greek political discourse on autocracy was pervasive: on the one hand, there was the good basileus and, on the other, the turannos, his evil reflection. Although the rise of Philip, Alexander and the Hellenistic kingdoms provoked a new Greek confrontation with monarchy and a revived political discourse on kingship, nevertheless the tension continued.

In Chapter 2, C. Mann discusses the poems of Pindar and Bacchylides commemorating Hieron of Syracuse's victories at horse racing contests in Greece, with a thorough review of the genre, context and content of these poems, and how they were intended to legitimate Hieron's tyranny. Mann sees the poems as reinforcing the tyrant's own self-representation and elevating him to the heroic sphere (p. 44), familiar from the Homeric world, with the emphasis on divine patronage, personal success in war and agonistic contest, and charismatic leadership.

Chapter 3 by L. examines literary narratives about the killing of tyrants in the Greek world. The killing of a tyrant was universally seen as a legitimate and moral act (p. 51), even to the point of killing the tyrant's family and exculpating the tyrant-slayer from any divine wrath or ritual pollution. L. connects stoning as a method of killing the tyrant in some sources to the pharmakos ritual, and sees it as analogous to a purification rite with the tyrant as the asebes, though ultimately finds this view ambiguous (pp. 58–60). Nevertheless, there was an appropriate way to kill a tyrant: generally, one had to avoid sacrilege (pp. 52–5). In essence, however, the tyrant's rule was anomia; so too was his violent death (p. 67).

Chapter 4 is a revised English translation of H.-J. Gehrke's ‘Der siegreiche König. Überlegungen zur hellenistischen Monarchie’ (Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 64 [1982], 247–77), and is valuable in its own right. Gehrke takes up Max Weber's idea of ‘charismatic’ rule as a useful model for Hellenistic kingship (p. 75), and especially for the Macedonian dynasties that were established after the extinction of the Argead house. Personal charisma, military victory, wealth, favour of the gods and benefaction were the qualities that legitimised Hellenistic kings. Of course, the conception of personal charisma sometimes sits uncomfortably with the hereditary dynastic principle–or rule by right of birth (or ‘by nature’, as the Greeks said) (p. 86). After all, some kings were ignominious and suffered humiliating military defeats, but they and their dynastic lines continued. Gehrke seeks to overcome this with an appeal to the notion of ‘inherited charisma’: the kings could pass on their own charisma to their sons (p. 87). Gehrke briefly refers to the principle of ‘spear-won land’ and links it to charisma too (p. 97 n. 69), but the most recent work on Hellenistic kingship has placed a much greater emphasis on this concept, and sees it as a vital part of royal legitimation, and not simply reducible to some facet of royal charisma.

Chapter 5, a revised English translation of an earlier paper by M. Haake, is a study of royal succession under Agathocles and Hiero II. Haake subjects the sources to review and criticism, and he concludes that succession troubles, common in Hellenistic kingdoms, arose because there was no formal, legal or constitutional system that provided ‘accepted rules of royal inheritance independent of the individuals involved’ (p. 107).

In Chapter 6, D.A. Walthall discusses Spartan kingship in the Hellenistic age, and the ways in which Areus I, Cleomenes III and Nabis I overcame Spartan traditions of basileia by asserting a more autocratic and grandiose style of kingship. Areus I broke with earlier traditions by issuing a royal coinage, having extensive royal busts and portraits, and engaging in international self-promotion (pp. 130–40), but Cleomenes III went even further and broke with Spartan constitutional constraints, and instituted military and economic reforms (pp. 140–6). Further development of Hellenistic autocracy occurred under Nabis (pp. 146–59).

Chapter 7 by M. Haake examines Hellenistic treatises on kingship, their background, social meaning and function. The generic treatise On Kingship became a standard philosophical work by the third century b.c. (p. 174), was written for and read by a general audience (p. 177), and the ideal good king is the opposite of the tyrant. Haake sees the genre as a method by which the Greek poleis came to terms with the reality of Hellenistic monarchy (p. 180), but his method of analysis of what such treatises contained (pp. 176–7) is rendered somewhat problematic by the paucity of evidence.

In Chapter 8, U. Gotter, drawing on Gehrke's ‘charismatic’ view of kingship (in Chapter 4), discusses late Hellenistic kingship as restricted and reduced in power by the Romans. The Pergamene kings responded by increased benefactions to the Greek cities and monumental art commemorating old victories (pp. 209–19), while in Commagene the king Antiochus turned to an extravagant ruler cult (pp. 219–23).

Chapter 9, the final chapter, by K. Trampedach analyses the Hasmonean kings and shows how their attempts at legitimation departed from the standard Hellenistic model owing to their special ethnic and religious environment. The opposition to Hasmonean rule and in the sectarian Qumran texts is also examined.

This book is a valuable collection of essays on Hellenistic kingship that will inspire further research and discussion. The English translations are of high quality and typographical errors are rare.Footnote ¹