Alexander and the Hellenistic World by C. Bradford WellesReview by: Lionel PearsonThe American Historical Review, Vol. 77, No. 3 (Jun., 1972), p. 752Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1870377 .

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752 Reviews of Books

Mlarsden, but the sighting arch. His recon- structed cheiroballistra shoots 150 yards.

The final chapter concerns the sturdy "one arm" or "wild ass" (medieval mangonel), Hel- lenistic invention that finds no description be- fore Ammianus. Mlarsden's scale model shot small missiles almost five hundred yards.

In short Marsden has curbed a whole stable of uninviting and refractory texts. His book is serviceable, ingenious, and persuasive.

WV. MCLEOD

Victoria College, University of Toronto

C. BRADFORD WNELLES. Alexander and the Helle- nistic World. Toronto: A. M. Hakkert. 1970. Pp. 265. Cloth $8.oo, paper $2.95.

This book was ready for the publishers at the time of the author's studden death in 1969, and it was seen througlh the press by Alan Samuel, who has adclecl a brief epilogue. Welles inher- ited from Rostovtzeff the tradition of introduc- ing Yale undergraduates to Hellenistic history, and every teacher who has attempted a similar task has wanted a book that complemented Tarn's Hellenistic Civilisation by offering an account of political history with more detail than in his introductory chapter. The difficulty of writing such a book is enormous, even for someone who is as perfect a master of his sub- ject as Welles was.

After a brief introduction describing the achievement of Philip, there is an account of Alexander in chapter 2 in the "modern" man- ner, in full reaction against the interpretation of Tarn, who (lefendecl Alexanider against his attackers and believed he was influenced in great part by idealistic motives. Welles insists on Alexander's ruthlessness, invites us to be- lieve that his detractors are less likely to be ling than his defenders, and that Arrian's faith in the veracity of Ptolemy and Aristobu- lus is uin justified. The argument is presented witlh skill anid conviction, but to those of us who want to know why Alexander was re- spected by some while others feared and hated him, it may seem rather one-sided.

The next chapter sets out to tell the story of the Hellenistic kingdoms from the death of Al- exander to the battle of Actium, covering nearly three hundred years in a hundred pages.

It is perhaps too much to expect that a sum- mary narrative of this kind will guide a stu- dent safely through the forest of these troubled centuries. It is easy to say that Welles included too much detail, but if one starts to cut down trees in the hope of better revealing the charac- ter of the forest, the result may be to transform the forest into a desert that has neither charac- ter nor form. Is the traditional "survey" the best method of introducing students to this pe- riod of history? It seems to me a pity that Welles adopted the plan of a single continuous narrative, attempting to keep track of simulta- neous events in several different areas, instead of splitting up the narrative with digressions or giving separate accounts of the individual dy- nasties and the different problems and themes that call for discussion. Must an account of political developments necessarily precede a discussion of society and culture, and must the story necessarily be told in chronological order? Would it be helpful to dlescribe the situation as it was about 250 B.C. before trying to explain how this result was reached?

I raise these questions the more readily be- cause the highest praise is due to the subse- (luent chapters on "Social and Economic As- pects" and "Hellenistic Culture." Inevitably every reader will miss something that he would have liked to see included (my own regret was to find so little attention devoted to Hellenistic schools and the development of the gymna- sium), but this is where a student will discover how much is known about the Hellenistic world that cannot be known about earlier peri- ods of ancient history and how much knowl- edge has been gleaned from papyri and inscrip- tions.

LIONEL PEARSON

Stanford University

STYLIANOS SPYRIDAKIS. Ptolemaic Itanos and Hel- lenistic Crete. (University of California Publi- cations in History, Volume 82.) Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1970. Pp. 113. $3.00.

The title of this small volume is somewhat mis- leading; much of the text deals neither with Hellenistic Crete nor Ptolemaic Itanos but with eastern Crete in the Hellenistic period. In brief, Spyridakis argues that by Hellenistic times three cities of consequence, Itanos, Prai-

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