Thread by @BlakeSNeff

In my free time this past summer I read Peter Green’s Alexander to Actium. I was writing up my thoughts on it for some friends but things got a little out of hand.

Fortunately, my favorite book blog, Mr. and Mrs. Psmith, agreed to publish it as a guest post.

Short thread below.

Why read about the Hellenistic Age? The first reason is that it’s just really entertaining. “Like a real-life Game of Thrones” is a tedious idiom at this point, but this period actually earns it.

For starters, there’s the widespread royal incest. Also, giant mechanical snails.

But seriously, how did this never get a trashy show made by an HBO wannabe?

Second: A to A is great because it’s genuinely very funny, mostly thanks to Peter Green’s energetic ridicule of almost everything he is writing about. The man hates harder and better than any historian I’ve ever read.

But most importantly, it’s worth reading about the decline of the Greeks because it feels so much like our own: An immensely talented and hugely accomplished civilization going from global dominance to decadence and collapse in a shockingly short span.

It was an age defined by “…loss of self-confidence and idealism, displacement of public values, the erosion of religious beliefs, self-absorption ousting involvement, hedonism masking impotent resentment, the violence of despair, the ugliness of reality formalized as realism, the empty urban soul starving on pastoral whimsy, sex, and Machtpolitik.”

Greece, or 21st century America?

Like America in the early 21st century, Greek kingdoms kept the trappings of their traditional religion, but actual belief plunged, especially among urban elites.

2nd century BC Greece had a low marriage rate, low birthrate, and foodie culture.

In the 5th century, Athens alone gave us transcendent works of tragedy and comedy still performed today. In the 3rd century, the whole Greek world gave us crass wish fulfillment, the network sitcom, and dreck meant only to show off how many references the author can make.

What drove it? I’m not exactly sure, but the rapid shift from “self-governing city-states” to “centralized authoritarian god-kings” feels important.

It’s a fun and interesting book I’d like more people to read.

Thanks to the Psmiths for publishing my review. Give them a sub!

open.substack.com/pub/thepsmiths…