SO interesting. More a history than a biography, since so little direct information is available. But it tells about a time when the wealth of the entire world was concentrated among a handful of people, and one of them (the 22nd richest person in world history, apparently) was a 20-something short Greek woman with a hooked nose who happened to rule Egypt despite regular onslaughts from errant siblings back when Rome was a boring backwater and Alexandria was the happening ville. The most fascinating part to me is how history was a religion to people of that era--they were far more closely connected to Alexander, who had died nearly three centuries earlier, than any of us is connected to our Founding Fathers. Seriously, a page turner, for the descriptions of banquets and barge cruises alone.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Reading List
SO interesting. More a history than a biography, since so little direct information is available. But it tells about a time when the wealth of the entire world was concentrated among a handful of people, and one of them (the 22nd richest person in world history, apparently) was a 20-something short Greek woman with a hooked nose who happened to rule Egypt despite regular onslaughts from errant siblings back when Rome was a boring backwater and Alexandria was the happening ville. The most fascinating part to me is how history was a religion to people of that era--they were far more closely connected to Alexander, who had died nearly three centuries earlier, than any of us is connected to our Founding Fathers. Seriously, a page turner, for the descriptions of banquets and barge cruises alone.
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