Description: The chronology of the period 323-311 BC, from the death of Alexander the Great until the battle of Gaza, and the way how Diodor of Sicily depicts it in the books 18-20 of his Universal History has occupied the scholarly world from the nineteenth century onwards. Two schools have dominated chronological research: the traditional or so-called high chronology and its opponent the low chronology. These chronological hypotheses disagree by one year at the end of the First Diadoch War and at the end of the Second Diadoch War, but the chronological gap is narrowed down to approximately six months at the end of the Third Diadoch War. A final complication is that both hypotheses agree on the chronology for the events in Asia Minor following Antipaters return to Europe until Eumenes retreat to the East during the Second Diadoch War. The author explores the chronological information in Babylonian, Aramaic, Egyptian and Lydian source material to reconstruct the events mentioned by Diodor. On the basis of Babylonian cuneiform evidence and the date formulas from Aramaic ostraca originating from Idumaea he proposes to combine the low chronology at the beginning with the high chronology later.
Review Quotes: "Der hier vorgelegte Ansatz ist argumentativ uberzeugend und duch die zahlreich beigegebenen Tabellen auch stets nachvollziehbar. Das hervorragend redigierte und ansprechend gestaltete Buch ist beinahe frei von typographischen Fehlern. (...) B(oiy) ist ein Buch gelungen, von dem jede weitere Beschaftigung mit der Zeit des fruhen Hellenismus ihren Ausgang zu nehmen hat." Andre Heller, Gymnasium 117 (2010), Heft 2, S. 179-180 "Boiy, der ein ausgewiesener Kenner der spaten Achaimenidenzeit und des fruhen Hellenismus ist, setzt mit seiner auaerst interessanten wie anregenden Studie in vorbildlicher Weise Maastabe." Peter Nadig, HZ 290 (2010), S. 164-165 "... a well-constructed introduction into the general chronology of early Hellenism." Michael Kleu, BMCR "Mit diesem Buch hat Boiy die chronologischen Ratsel der fruhen Diadochenzeit weitestgehend gelost und die Forschung zu diesem Scharnierzeitraum endlich auf eine festes Fundament gesetzt." R. Malcolm Errington, sehepunkte 8 (2008), Nr. 7 "Tom Boiy in this concise book assembles and evaluates all of the evidence bearing on the chronology of the period of the Diadochi, including the ancient Graeco-Roman historical narratives and inscriptions, Babylonian cuneiform tablets, Nabataean ostraca, numismatic sources and Egyptian papyri." (...) "B. has put forward a masterful presentation of the evidence from the very diverse assortment of sources bearing on this problem, and while I do not agree with all of his conclusions, I cannot but admire the quality of his work." Edward M. Anson, Gymnasium 117 (2010), AncWestEast 11 (2012), S. 318-320