Elephants and Castles

by Alfred Duggan

First published 1963

Amazon

3.2(5)

Demetrius, the ambitious son of Antigonus the One-Eyed, comes of age in the wars that follow Alexander the Great’s death. While Alexander’s generals divide the empire among themselves, Demetrius pursues a more audacious goal: to reunite the Macedonian world through naval victories, shifting alliances and spectacular siege warfare.

His successes at Athens, Cyprus and elsewhere earn him the name Poliorcetes, the Besieger of Cities, but triumph repeatedly gives way to reversal. The campaign against Rhodes tests his ingenuity, while the struggle against the other Successors culminates at Ipsus, where dynastic ambition and battlefield fortune decide the future of the Hellenistic kingdoms.