"Blackwell offers a meticulous study of the Harpalus affair in order to analyze the limits of the Macedonians' ability to control Greece. He shows that in the continuing absence of Alexander in the East, those who claimed to speak for the king had increasing difficulty in exercising authority, in part because of their competition with one another. The book is an important answer both to historians who see a constitution in the Macedonian state and to those who think that the state was merely a projection of Alexander's 'power.' On Blackwell's showing, Athens in the Harpalus affair exposed both Macedonian authority and Macedonian power as fluid, subject to interpretation, and finally ineffective."
Thomas R. Martin, O'Connor Professor of Classics, The College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts
"This perceptive scholarly study reveals the hollowness of Macedonian authority in Greece caused by Alexander's prolonged absence in Asia. Christopher Blackwell expertly analyzes the sources to show that Athens in 324 BC could operate as an independent agent in international politics and that Macedonian dominance in Greece was very far from a sure thing at that date. This book makes a significant contribution to Greek history, not least because it points to the contingency of the coming Macedonian victory that would initiate the Hellenistic period."
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