Good morning Dr. Reames I wanted to ask you, what do you think that Christian Cameron compared Alexandros with Hitler, do you think it is a fair comparison? That is, there will be traits that all leaders must share to motivate a large number of people to follow them and come to power, but is it really true that Alexandros was the Hitler of his time?
First, let me say that Chris Cameron and I share some mutual author friends, so I know him āadjacent,ā but we have never had a conversation. Let me also say that while Iām not a fan of his God of War novel about Alexander, I assume heād equally dislike Dancing with the Lion (assuming heās even read it). Authors are allowed to have different visions.
So, that stated, I had some pretty serious issues with God of War (GoW), in terms of both his reading of Alexander as well as his historiography. In GoW, he Mary-Sued Ptolemy at the expense of Alexander (and Hephaistion and Olympias, for that matter). Compare his ācan do no wrongā Ptolemy (which seems to swallow Arrianās history whole-hog) with Kate Elliottās Persephone/Ptolemy in the Sun Chroniclesā¦a much more nuanced portrayal, whereāsurprise!āPersephone/Ptolemy *lies* when it suits herā¦like the historical Ptolemy, who was establishing a dynasty, so he carefully curated his history. Basically, Cameronās historiography is problematic as it doesnāt show much awareness of the tropes and themes present in ancient literature, and doesnāt properly āinterrogateā the ancient sources for bias.
GoW is a very āhetā novel although I donāt think he considers himself homophobic. Nonetheless, parts of GoW read as homophobic, and misogynistic too. Or it may just be that his sifting of the sources isnāt, IMO, nuanced enough to recognize the misogyny in the ancient sources. I doubt he likes (or perhaps has not even read) Beth Carney on Olympias. And Iām sorry, but calling a character presented as primarily homosexual (Hephaistion) a ābitch queenā canāt be anything BUT homophobic, unless thereās a counterbalance gay character somewhere in the (800-page) text, and thereās not. Having a gay character in another novel elsewhere really doesnāt count (and that gay character has other moral issues).
He has a military history audience, and he doesnāt dare alienate them. Iām not convinced he fully gets the problems in what heās written for LGBTQ representation OR misogyny OR complex historiography generally.
As for ATG as Hitler, there are OH, so many problems with that. Heās read a little too much Ian Worthington and Peter Green (and Brian Bosworth and Ernst Badian, maybe), then taken it further. ATG was not the ancient Hitler. That doesnāt mean he was necessarily a good guy, or that conquest should be elevated in the modern world. But just as Cameron doesnāt seem aware of the various tropes in ancient sources and their impact on historiography, he also doesnāt seem to understand how to analyze ancient expectations.
There is, IMO, a middle road between simply condemning Alexander on modern grounds, versus undue elevation of Alexander and the āconquest narrativeā found throughout the ancient world. Basically, Alexander pursued what he grew up to understand as a noble aspiration. Virtually nobody in HIS world would have critiqued that, only how he went about achieving it. That doesnāt mean we canāt critique it, but critiques that expect ancient people to think like moderns hitch on anachronism.
This is something I think Classics/ancient history generally is struggling with at present. How do we avoid making conquest into a thing to emulate, versus applying modern moral standards to ancient people?




















