Commanders

The Commanders novels reconstruct the career of Philopoemen, the Achaean statesman and general later remembered as the last great Greek. The New Achilles approaches his rise through Alexanor, a former soldier turned healer at Epidaurus, while The Last Greek follows Philopoemen as he reforms the Achaean League’s army.

Set amid the contests of Sparta, Macedon and Rome, the sequence presents leadership as a problem of institutions as well as battlefield courage. Philopoemen’s effort to preserve Greek independence requires him to unite communities accustomed to rivalry without reproducing the domination he opposes.