The Routledge Companion to Women and Monarchy in the Ancient Mediterranean World

This volume offers the first comprehensive look at the role of women in the monarchies of the ancient Mediterranean. It consistently addresses certain issues across all dynasties: title; role in succession; the situation of mothers, wives, and daughters of kings; regnant and co-regnant women; role in cult and in dynastic image; and examines a sampling of the careers of individual women while placing them within broader contexts. Written by an international group of experts, this collection is based on the assumption that women played a fundamental role in ancient monarchy, that they were part of, not apart from it, and that it is necessary to understand their role to understand ancient monarchies. This is a crucial resource for anyone interested in the role of women in antiquity.

About the Author

Elizabeth D. Carney is Professor of History and Carol K. Brown Scholar in the Humanities, Emerita, at Clemson University, USA. Her focus has been on Macedonian and Hellenistic monarchy and the role of royal women in monarchy, most recently in Molossia. She has written Women and Monarchy in Ancient Macedonia (2000), Olympias, Mother of Alexander the Great (2006), Arsinoë of Egypt and Macedon: A Royal Life (2013), and Eurydice and the Birth of Macedonian Power (2019). Some of her articles dealing with monarchy, with new afterwords, are collected in King and Court in Ancient Macedonia: Rivalry, Treason and Conspiracy (2015).

Sabine Müller is Professor of Ancient History at Marburg University, Germany. Her research focuses on the Persian empire, Argead Macedonia, the Hellenistic empires, Macedonian royal women, Lukian, and reception studies. Her publications include the monographs Das hellenistische Königspaar in der medialen Repräsentation. Ptolemaios II. und Arsinoë II . (2009), Perdikkas II. – Retter Makedoniens (2017), and Alexander der Große. Eroberung – Politik – Rezeption (2019).