#hephaistion

The spirit of ancient battles (2026)

Alexander and his generals!

(at least the ones I actually remember by their name, sorry Cleitus💀)

That is the (current) tentative title. I totally reserve the right to change my mind. LOL But I think it gets at what this monograph has become.

On my last day of putative summer "freedom," I finished the draft of the Curtius chapter. It's still a bit of a mess and needs a heavy edit, but it's done. That's 2 new chapters (Diodorus being the other), c. 80 pages of entirely new research. Despite that, this thing is only around 1/3 done, counting the praefatio, which will need rewritten at the end (predictably). It's morphed into a monster, and brevity was never my strong suit. That said, the approach I'm taking is proving unexpectedly fruitful, at least imo. I'm excited.

But if you've wondered where I've been hiding, that's where. As much as possible, I've set aside weekdays for work. When doing this sort of thing, I need a mental through-line. It's not good to write a little here, stop for weeks, then come back and do a little more. I forget the argument I was making.

So I might finally finish this book I've been threatening for literally decades (two of them). That said, I'm glad I waited. This will be much superior to anything I could have done as a young scholar. (Well, I hope so anyway.) If you have a copy of my old dissertation, throw it away. This will completely trump it. Basic argument stands. (Hephaistion was more important than previously thought and he did a lot of logistics.) But I have all sorts of new things to share.

When the Karanos article "Cyclops and Wolverine" comes out (either late this year or early next), y'all will get a little taste of what I'm up to. Taking this apart source by source is SO so useful. And yeah, asks are open again.

Plutarch, then Arrian are up next. Plus assorted mentions in other authors. Only after all that will I make any attempt to comment on historical "realities." (In scare quotes on purpose.)