Edward M. Anson

Edward M. Anson is a historian of ancient Macedonia and the Hellenistic world, with particular expertise in Alexander the Great and the successor kingdoms. Ptolemy I Soter examines the ruler who established the longest-lasting kingdom to emerge after Alexander's death. Rather than offering only a chronological life, Anson organizes the study around contested questions involving ambition, military command, administration, religion, diplomacy, and the breakup of Alexander's empire. Bloomsbury Academic published the book in 2023 as Ptolemy I Soter: Themes and Issues. Anson has taught history for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and has written or edited books including Eumenes of Cardia, Alexander's Heirs, After Alexander, and Philip II, the Father of Alexander the Great. His scholarship repeatedly focuses on leaders operating during transitions in political authority. In this volume, close attention to ancient literary and archaeological evidence lets him compare modern interpretations while keeping Ptolemy's decisions within the unstable world of the Successors.