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Besieger of Cities
When Alexander the Great died in Babylon, his generals such as Antigonus and his young son, Demetrius vowed to keep his great Empire together. Demetrius devoted his life to fighting for this cause, and in doing so was given the title 'Saviour God' by the Athenians.
He was a resourceful soldier, an inventor of weapons, as well as brave and handsome-small wonder he dazzled the Ancient World with his brilliance. For political reasons he had no less than three wives at one time, although there was only one woman he loved-his mistress, Lamia. Alfred Duggan has captured the cultural climate of the times-The Silver Age of Greece-a world alive with new ideas from sculpture to philosophy, and new indomitable men, such as Demetrius.
He was a resourceful soldier, an inventor of weapons, as well as brave and handsome-small wonder he dazzled the Ancient World with his brilliance. For political reasons he had no less than three wives at one time, although there was only one woman he loved-his mistress, Lamia. Alfred Duggan has captured the cultural climate of the times-The Silver Age of Greece-a world alive with new ideas from sculpture to philosophy, and new indomitable men, such as Demetrius.
287 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1963
7 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Alfred Duggan
43 books45 followers"There have been few historical imaginations better informed or more gifted than Alfred Duggan’s" (The New Criterion).
Historian, archaeologist and novelist Alfred Leo Duggan wrote historical fiction and non-fiction about a wide range of subjects, in places and times as diverse as Julius Caesar’s Rome and the Medieval Europe of Thomas Becket.
Although he was born in Argentina, Duggan grew up in England, and was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. After Oxford, he travelled extensively through Greece and Turkey, visiting almost all the sites later mentioned in his books. In 1935 helped excavate Constantine’s palace in Istanbul.
Duggan came to writing fiction quite late in his life: his first novel about the First Crusade, Knight in Armour, was published in 1950, after which he published at least a book every year until his death in 1964. His fictional works were bestselling page-turners, but thoroughly grounded in meticulous research informed by Duggan’s experience as an archaeologist and historian.
Duggan has been favourably compared to Bernard Cornwell as well as being praised in his own right as "an extremely gifted writer who can move into an unknown period and give it life and immediacy" (New York Times).
Historian, archaeologist and novelist Alfred Leo Duggan wrote historical fiction and non-fiction about a wide range of subjects, in places and times as diverse as Julius Caesar’s Rome and the Medieval Europe of Thomas Becket.
Although he was born in Argentina, Duggan grew up in England, and was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. After Oxford, he travelled extensively through Greece and Turkey, visiting almost all the sites later mentioned in his books. In 1935 helped excavate Constantine’s palace in Istanbul.
Duggan came to writing fiction quite late in his life: his first novel about the First Crusade, Knight in Armour, was published in 1950, after which he published at least a book every year until his death in 1964. His fictional works were bestselling page-turners, but thoroughly grounded in meticulous research informed by Duggan’s experience as an archaeologist and historian.
Duggan has been favourably compared to Bernard Cornwell as well as being praised in his own right as "an extremely gifted writer who can move into an unknown period and give it life and immediacy" (New York Times).
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 15, 2012
TERENCE: I’ll take “Obscure Hellenistic Era Kings” for $1000, Alex.
ALEX TREBEK: All right. “I am the son of Antigonos. I am nicknamed Besieger of Cities. And I drank myself to death, a prisoner of Seleukos I Nikanor, in 283 BC.”
[Jeopardy theme plays as the contestants perplexedly scratch their heads]
TERENCE: [milliseconds before the buzzer sounds] Ummm…Who is Demetrios Poliorketes?
ALEX: Correct!
Besieger of Cities is the fictional life of Demetrius, the son of one of Alexander the Great’s generals, Antigonus, who made himself master of Asia Minor only to lose it all at the battle of Ipsus. Demetrius, himself, as my Wordsworth Classical Dictionary says, was “a man of restless activity of mind, fertility of resources, and daring promptitude in the execution of his schemes.” His tragic flaw – as Duggan presents the man – is a colossal narcissistic ego and a feckless lack of will. For all his abilities as general and politician, for all his ambitious dreams, Demetrius never had the drive to make anything permanent of them.
I don’t have much to say about Besieger of Cities. All the faults and virtues I found in Children of the Wolf are here but the story was interesting enough to have kept me reading.
Besides, you have to admire anyone who’s willing to tackle such an obscure but fascinating figure and write a character study of him.
ALEX TREBEK: All right. “I am the son of Antigonos. I am nicknamed Besieger of Cities. And I drank myself to death, a prisoner of Seleukos I Nikanor, in 283 BC.”
[Jeopardy theme plays as the contestants perplexedly scratch their heads]
TERENCE: [milliseconds before the buzzer sounds] Ummm…Who is Demetrios Poliorketes?
ALEX: Correct!
Besieger of Cities is the fictional life of Demetrius, the son of one of Alexander the Great’s generals, Antigonus, who made himself master of Asia Minor only to lose it all at the battle of Ipsus. Demetrius, himself, as my Wordsworth Classical Dictionary says, was “a man of restless activity of mind, fertility of resources, and daring promptitude in the execution of his schemes.” His tragic flaw – as Duggan presents the man – is a colossal narcissistic ego and a feckless lack of will. For all his abilities as general and politician, for all his ambitious dreams, Demetrius never had the drive to make anything permanent of them.
I don’t have much to say about Besieger of Cities. All the faults and virtues I found in Children of the Wolf are here but the story was interesting enough to have kept me reading.
Besides, you have to admire anyone who’s willing to tackle such an obscure but fascinating figure and write a character study of him.
April 14, 2019
This book is not like Duggan’s usual fare. Its chief concern is the life of the historical figure Demetrius the Besieger (Poliorcetes). Demetrius’ life was certainly full of exceptional changes of fortune and he makes for an interesting subject of a novel. A novel subject if you will.
The big issue I have with the book is the most confusing for me. It spends the first half wandering around Athens and mainland Greece where Demetrius has little of interest to do except muse about life and what it means to be ordained a god. The latter is an absolute obsession with Duggan but it is treated with a sort of Christian viewpoint that makes for tedious reading. I don’t mean by this that he is a proselytizer railing against the sins of paganism. He genuinely tries to see things from an ancient perspective devoid of moral teachings. But he comes at it from a Christian upbringing nonetheless, and while he can imagine people worshipping polytheistic gods without judgement he also recognizes that this is all a bit silly and therefore they must secretly be atheists (an absurd anachronism). Gods must be like God and the various shades of divinity available to a world in which great mortals can be elevated to godhood are not recognized. But the worst thing about this is just how repetitive and dull it is. His divinity is brought into every conversation he has and there is nothing new to be said about it. Similarly, the situation in Athens doesn’t change enough or have enough interesting elements to keep your interest.
What makes this more galling is that the second half of the book is stuffed so full of incident that the idleness of the first half seems to belong to a whole different story. Honestly, the second half could have been made its own book without difficulty, and the story would have been better for it. As it is, the second half is rushed while the first half is drawn out endlessly. And I don’t get why. The only explanation I can see is that this is intended to be a commentary on the fall of Classical civilization. We spend a lot of time seeing how fall Athenian democracy has fallen, far more time than is merited by what is now a political backwater. But as a commentary it falls flat.
While I found the first half tedious going, the switch from a charting a string of incidents in the backwater region known as Classical Greece to events of grand imperial importance with several powerful kings in direct and open conflict with each other really brings the book to life. The second half also demonstrates one of the chief fascinations of the successor kingdoms: their lack of any real cohesion. Despite all the pomp and splendor a king is only a king as long as he commands an army. Territory is just prestige and a source of income. One lost battle and the mercenary armies can splinter or defect and there is no secure home territory that can be returned to. Except for clever Ptolemy and his secure and defensible Egypt. The instability of these power structures means that dramatic reversals happen all the time.
Both halves of the book suffer from tell-don’t-showism. Particularly in the first half, we often find ourselves hearing the events recounted shortly after they’ve occurred rather than living through them with Demetrius. The second half in particular has us coming across Demetrius recovering from some major event and only then recounting what that event was with no sort of setup or indication that important matters were planned. Duggan isn’t particularly good at recounting wide-ranging events, preferring a smaller and more intimate timescale/setting, and it shows. The second half has more than enough events to make this a mildly frustrating experience. The first half has no real excuse.
The most charming thing about the Antigonids is that they liked each other. Father need not fear son nor brother brother. The Seleucids were a den of vipers. Any intelligent Seleucid would immediately see to the extermination of all his kin before they could do the same to him. Cassander and family were almost as vicious and the Ptolemies were only slightly better. But Demetrius was able to walk around in the presence of his father the king fully armed without the faintest rebuke. He was a loyal and trusted ally, not a rival. And his son was even more loyal to him and his memory. With Demetrius on his own for the first half we don’t really feel this kinship. The second half doesn’t capitalize on it as well as it could, but it does acknowledge it and we get to see them spend at least some time together.
Demetrius himself is a pretty engaging character. He’s a new man, one of the generation that had never known the old and settled ways of pre-Alexandrian Greece. I like the summation he gives of this:
Demetrius is also a man of action and one prone to dreams of glory. I can think of few people in history who experienced such dramatic shifts in fortune, yet he always seems to shrug setbacks away and plan for his next campaign. I think Duggan’s underselling the agony of failure here, even for an optimist the ending of years-long plans must be heartbreaking, but it fits with Demetrius’ easygoing nature.
I would recommend that anyone who’s interested in the subject of this book keep reading through the first nine chapters, even though they drag. The final eight chapters are worth the wait. But it didn’t need to be that way and as such the book can be seen as no more than a partial success.
The big issue I have with the book is the most confusing for me. It spends the first half wandering around Athens and mainland Greece where Demetrius has little of interest to do except muse about life and what it means to be ordained a god. The latter is an absolute obsession with Duggan but it is treated with a sort of Christian viewpoint that makes for tedious reading. I don’t mean by this that he is a proselytizer railing against the sins of paganism. He genuinely tries to see things from an ancient perspective devoid of moral teachings. But he comes at it from a Christian upbringing nonetheless, and while he can imagine people worshipping polytheistic gods without judgement he also recognizes that this is all a bit silly and therefore they must secretly be atheists (an absurd anachronism). Gods must be like God and the various shades of divinity available to a world in which great mortals can be elevated to godhood are not recognized. But the worst thing about this is just how repetitive and dull it is. His divinity is brought into every conversation he has and there is nothing new to be said about it. Similarly, the situation in Athens doesn’t change enough or have enough interesting elements to keep your interest.
What makes this more galling is that the second half of the book is stuffed so full of incident that the idleness of the first half seems to belong to a whole different story. Honestly, the second half could have been made its own book without difficulty, and the story would have been better for it. As it is, the second half is rushed while the first half is drawn out endlessly. And I don’t get why. The only explanation I can see is that this is intended to be a commentary on the fall of Classical civilization. We spend a lot of time seeing how fall Athenian democracy has fallen, far more time than is merited by what is now a political backwater. But as a commentary it falls flat.
While I found the first half tedious going, the switch from a charting a string of incidents in the backwater region known as Classical Greece to events of grand imperial importance with several powerful kings in direct and open conflict with each other really brings the book to life. The second half also demonstrates one of the chief fascinations of the successor kingdoms: their lack of any real cohesion. Despite all the pomp and splendor a king is only a king as long as he commands an army. Territory is just prestige and a source of income. One lost battle and the mercenary armies can splinter or defect and there is no secure home territory that can be returned to. Except for clever Ptolemy and his secure and defensible Egypt. The instability of these power structures means that dramatic reversals happen all the time.
Both halves of the book suffer from tell-don’t-showism. Particularly in the first half, we often find ourselves hearing the events recounted shortly after they’ve occurred rather than living through them with Demetrius. The second half in particular has us coming across Demetrius recovering from some major event and only then recounting what that event was with no sort of setup or indication that important matters were planned. Duggan isn’t particularly good at recounting wide-ranging events, preferring a smaller and more intimate timescale/setting, and it shows. The second half has more than enough events to make this a mildly frustrating experience. The first half has no real excuse.
The most charming thing about the Antigonids is that they liked each other. Father need not fear son nor brother brother. The Seleucids were a den of vipers. Any intelligent Seleucid would immediately see to the extermination of all his kin before they could do the same to him. Cassander and family were almost as vicious and the Ptolemies were only slightly better. But Demetrius was able to walk around in the presence of his father the king fully armed without the faintest rebuke. He was a loyal and trusted ally, not a rival. And his son was even more loyal to him and his memory. With Demetrius on his own for the first half we don’t really feel this kinship. The second half doesn’t capitalize on it as well as it could, but it does acknowledge it and we get to see them spend at least some time together.
Demetrius himself is a pretty engaging character. He’s a new man, one of the generation that had never known the old and settled ways of pre-Alexandrian Greece. I like the summation he gives of this:
You are the New Man, born to Alexander’s new world. You have no superstitions, no ancestral customs. You see facts as they are, without prejudice, without the mists of routine.
Demetrius is also a man of action and one prone to dreams of glory. I can think of few people in history who experienced such dramatic shifts in fortune, yet he always seems to shrug setbacks away and plan for his next campaign. I think Duggan’s underselling the agony of failure here, even for an optimist the ending of years-long plans must be heartbreaking, but it fits with Demetrius’ easygoing nature.
I would recommend that anyone who’s interested in the subject of this book keep reading through the first nine chapters, even though they drag. The final eight chapters are worth the wait. But it didn’t need to be that way and as such the book can be seen as no more than a partial success.
December 13, 2022
Demetrius Poliorcetes (The City-Taker), the subject of this fictionalised biography, was probably the most likeable of the many colourful characters who struggled to capture control of Alexander the Great's empire in the forty years after his death. Exceptionally compassionate for an often cruel age, generous, charismatic and staggeringly good-looking, he was also fatally flawed, his boundless ambition and aptitude for warfare undermined by his self-indulgence and weak will. Plutarch, on whose life of him this novel is largely based, judiciously compared him to Mark Antony.
In many respects, Duggan has done very well in bringing Demetrius and his fascinating world to life. The story is well-told and holds one's attention. With great skill he has captured the ambivalent character of his hero. The bemused skepticism with which the young Demetrius greets the news that the grateful Athenian assembly has proclaimed him a "Saviour God" for liberating them is just one example of how Duggan brings out his good nature and sprinkles his narrative with his charm and wit. The historical accuracy of the story is high by the usual standards of fiction about the ancient world, but considering Duggan's reputation for meticulous research, not as high as I had hoped. To give examples from just the first chapter, Thessalonice is presented as already the wife of Cassander five years before they married and Eumenes is wrongly described as an old man
Elephants and Castles is like its subject: interesting and fun, but unfortunately also seriously flawed. Duggan has endowed his Demetrius with much too much modern sensibility. Though far from being one of the Hellenistic kings portrayed by the ancients as pensive or inclined to philosophy, he is made to lecture his learned advisor on why women should be given the vote, a suggestion "no philosopher has even put forward", and he questions slavery as no one then is known to have done. His notorious behaviour with two Athenian boys of whom he was enamoured is humorously depicted as that of a man only pretending to love boys in order to conform with Athenian fashion while really being too "Macedonian" in taste to do so. This contradicts the ancient sources, who depict Macedon as just as much a hotbed of pederasty as anywhere else in Greece, and Demetrius as amorous with boys besides these two. It also suggests an anachronistic concept of orientation. What Greek ever expressed "disgust" with homosexuality, for which they had not even a word?
These devices may well make Duggan's Demetrius more likeable to modern readers, but at the terrible cost of being founded on a false understanding. He is not a real Hellene. The best comparison is with the protagonists of Mary Renault, every page of whose novels are imbibed with the Hellenic spirit because she insisted on her characters thinking like Greeks, enthralling the reader with the cultural chasm this exposes. Duggan manages the illusion of bringing his hero to the reader's drawing-room, where Renault invites the reader to the authentic world she has recreated.
Edmund Marlowe, author of Alexander's Choice, a novel of Greek love in modern England, https://www.amazon.com/dp/191457107X
In many respects, Duggan has done very well in bringing Demetrius and his fascinating world to life. The story is well-told and holds one's attention. With great skill he has captured the ambivalent character of his hero. The bemused skepticism with which the young Demetrius greets the news that the grateful Athenian assembly has proclaimed him a "Saviour God" for liberating them is just one example of how Duggan brings out his good nature and sprinkles his narrative with his charm and wit. The historical accuracy of the story is high by the usual standards of fiction about the ancient world, but considering Duggan's reputation for meticulous research, not as high as I had hoped. To give examples from just the first chapter, Thessalonice is presented as already the wife of Cassander five years before they married and Eumenes is wrongly described as an old man
Elephants and Castles is like its subject: interesting and fun, but unfortunately also seriously flawed. Duggan has endowed his Demetrius with much too much modern sensibility. Though far from being one of the Hellenistic kings portrayed by the ancients as pensive or inclined to philosophy, he is made to lecture his learned advisor on why women should be given the vote, a suggestion "no philosopher has even put forward", and he questions slavery as no one then is known to have done. His notorious behaviour with two Athenian boys of whom he was enamoured is humorously depicted as that of a man only pretending to love boys in order to conform with Athenian fashion while really being too "Macedonian" in taste to do so. This contradicts the ancient sources, who depict Macedon as just as much a hotbed of pederasty as anywhere else in Greece, and Demetrius as amorous with boys besides these two. It also suggests an anachronistic concept of orientation. What Greek ever expressed "disgust" with homosexuality, for which they had not even a word?
These devices may well make Duggan's Demetrius more likeable to modern readers, but at the terrible cost of being founded on a false understanding. He is not a real Hellene. The best comparison is with the protagonists of Mary Renault, every page of whose novels are imbibed with the Hellenic spirit because she insisted on her characters thinking like Greeks, enthralling the reader with the cultural chasm this exposes. Duggan manages the illusion of bringing his hero to the reader's drawing-room, where Renault invites the reader to the authentic world she has recreated.
Edmund Marlowe, author of Alexander's Choice, a novel of Greek love in modern England, https://www.amazon.com/dp/191457107X
July 16, 2017
I have enjoyed other Alfred Duggan books, but this one felt phoned-in. A lot of it read more like a biography or a rather dull textbook than a novel.
Part of the problem is that, unlike the Duggan books I liked better, it was not narrated by Demetrios himself, and the POV jumped between Demetrios' own POV (but we never really get into his head much) and a POV more like a movie camera recording what's going on.
Considering that the historical Demetrios spent the last few years of his life in honorable captivity after losing everything (partly due to his own damn-foolishness) writing the book as his memoirs, the way Turteltaub did in Justinian or Vidal did in Julian, possibly with someone who was at his side through the events annotating things, would have been easy and plausible. Duggan did a lot better with other books. Maybe he just wasn't really into the Successors to Alexander?
Part of the problem is that, unlike the Duggan books I liked better, it was not narrated by Demetrios himself, and the POV jumped between Demetrios' own POV (but we never really get into his head much) and a POV more like a movie camera recording what's going on.
Considering that the historical Demetrios spent the last few years of his life in honorable captivity after losing everything (partly due to his own damn-foolishness) writing the book as his memoirs, the way Turteltaub did in Justinian or Vidal did in Julian, possibly with someone who was at his side through the events annotating things, would have been easy and plausible. Duggan did a lot better with other books. Maybe he just wasn't really into the Successors to Alexander?
April 19, 2021
A classic novel of the break-up of Alexander's empire after his death. Demetrius I, Poliorcetes, King of Macedonia, 336-283 B.C., was the son of the Successor Antigonus One-Eye. Famed not only for his generalship, but also for his engineering skills--building warships, mobile siege towers, and harbor moles, he was given the title "King of the Sea". Sailing up and down the Mediterranean coast from Egypt to Macedonia, he conquered, lost, and re-conquered territories to raise revenues to support his fleet. The biographical novel opens with the handsome, athletic young general being declared a god by the people of Athens, and ends with his death in his early 60s, imprisoned on a luxurious estate by his former son-in-law, living a life of debauchery. Drawn from Plutarch's LIVES, Duggan's biographical novel of Demetrius paints a vivid picture of the Succession Crisis following Alexander's death in 321 B.C. Highly recommended.
August 25, 2025
After the death of Alexander the Great his generals divided up his conquered territories into separate kingdoms. This is the story of on man’s quest to restore the empire to its former glory. A fascinating insight into what life was possibly like in the days of warring city states and petty kingdoms. The beliefs and mindset of the ruling classes imaginatively presented in a tale of war, gods and ceremonies following one man’s quest for the re-unification of the Macedonian Empire established by Alexander with all the political intrigues that probably followed his death at such a young age.
March 29, 2023
I like history, including the time period of this book (the time after the death of Alexander the Great).
But this book was just so "dense" for me. That is, it moved very very slowly. Was sort of boring.
A straight history might have been more interesting for me.
But this book was just so "dense" for me. That is, it moved very very slowly. Was sort of boring.
A straight history might have been more interesting for me.
March 18, 2024
I enjoyed all the history. Demetrios could be a pompous ass, but in a way that was mostly ok to laugh at him.
sff-ok-r
June 7, 2025Rokp
July 23, 2014
I read this novel many years ago, when I was a young(er) man, and greatly enjoyed. Would love to have a copy now :(.
The generation following the death of Alexander the Great was one of near constant warfare as his former generals, and their families, squabbled, intrigued, and plotted for power. The mighty Persian empire became a mere play thing as a dozen 'great' men spent their lives (and the lives of many others) striving for control. All set against the time when Greek and Macedonian civilisation was moving eastwards to establish great cities in the lands and deserts and fertile areas of the former Persian empire.
Duggan tells the story of Demetrius the Besieger of Cities, one of these Macedonian kings and generals of this era. A man whose life was constant warfare, one who came close to gaining control of Alexander's empire, but died a prisoner. The richness of this era, with its wealth and power is brought to life by Duggan. An excellent read.
The generation following the death of Alexander the Great was one of near constant warfare as his former generals, and their families, squabbled, intrigued, and plotted for power. The mighty Persian empire became a mere play thing as a dozen 'great' men spent their lives (and the lives of many others) striving for control. All set against the time when Greek and Macedonian civilisation was moving eastwards to establish great cities in the lands and deserts and fertile areas of the former Persian empire.
Duggan tells the story of Demetrius the Besieger of Cities, one of these Macedonian kings and generals of this era. A man whose life was constant warfare, one who came close to gaining control of Alexander's empire, but died a prisoner. The richness of this era, with its wealth and power is brought to life by Duggan. An excellent read.
August 26, 2010
A.k.a, "Elephants and Castles," this tells the story of the life of Demetrius I of Macedon, who in the 3rd/4th c. bce was the son of one of Alexander the Great's main generals. After Alexander died, Demetrius and his father attempted to reunite the empire (by force of arms, of course). Demetrius nearly succeeded, conquering Ptolemy's fleet and freeing Athens, then the rest of his life was spent trying, and trying, and trying but never quite succeeding. As usual, Duggan does a bang-up job of telling forgotten history in a frame-work of compelling fiction. Not Duggan's best, but a still a fine read – you will get a strong feel for the life of a Alexandrian-era warrior-king.
March 31, 2011
The story of a Greek General hoping to follow in the footsteps of Alexander the Great. Well-researched but so dated now in its presentation. Oddly full of misprints. And lacked a map of the area to keep me right!
January 2, 2015
Generally an overall good read. A great compliment to studying the post-Alexander Greek world, often times ignored in historical novels.
It's the first book of Alfred Duggan I've read and I can see why some think he's one of the best historical novelists. I still like Mary Renault better, though.
It's the first book of Alfred Duggan I've read and I can see why some think he's one of the best historical novelists. I still like Mary Renault better, though.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews