Polygamy, Prostitutes and Death The Hellenistic Dynasties

Daniel Ogden's Polygamy, Prostitutes and Death, first published in 1999, has established itself as the principal guide to the history of royal women and their court intrigues throughout the Hellenistic period. The author supplies clear narrative and analysis of the strategic in-fighting involving the numerous Cleopatras, Laodices and Stratonices, their female rivals, their male relatives and enemies. Ogden's book does much to establish the importance of royal women for the increasingly-studied Hellenistic age. Daniel Ogden is currently Professor of Ancient History in the University of Exeter. `Polygamy, Prostitutes and Death: The Hellenistic dynasties is virtually irresistible. The story told...is concerned with...vicious rivalry on the part of polygamously held wives...a complicated tale made much easier to follow.' Peter Walcot, Greece & Rome `Ogden handles his sources with skill and manoeuvres carefully through this historical mine-field... Ogden's book is a prosopographer's delight, and goldmine of information for every student of Hellenistic history.' Waldemar Heckel, Bryn Mawr Classical Review