Steve Donoghue’s posts from the original Open Letters Monthly Archives.
In the wake of Alexander the Great's death, many voracious sub-kingdoms sprang up along the routes of his famous conquests. One of these would go on to become the Seleucid Empire, and a new book details its first century of existence
Read MoreOne of the hard-chancing successors of Alexander the Great grabbed most of Asia when Alexander died - and then that successor and his successors worked desperately hard to hold onto it all
Read MorePompeii and Herculaneum, the two most famous lost cities of the ancient world, had a long and vivid afterlife in culture and literature, as Ingrid Rowland's insightful new book describes
Read MoreA new - and forgiving? - look at the ancient Jewish historian whose very name has been hated for two thousand years.
Read MoreThe calm-eyed gold-plated absolute rulers of ancient Egypt, the Pharaohs in all their splendor, are brought to life in a revealing new history.
Read MoreThe ancient Greek historian Thucydides is virtually synonymous with the Peloponnesian War, but a new history gives the master a much-needed makeover
Read MoreAny new study of Tutankhamen faces an array of obstacles - some more familiar than others.
Read MoreNow in paperback: one of the best books ever written about the life and times of Socrates
Read MoreA new history of ancient Rome's greatest adversary, the doomed empire of Carthage.
Read MoreThis is a place for all of my writing about books.