The first complete study of royal courts in the post Achaemenid Near EastRolf Strootman brings together various aspects of court culture in the Macedonian empires of the post Achaemenid Near East During the Hellenistic Period c 330 30 BCE Alexander the Great and his successors reshaped their Persian and Greco Macedonian legacies to create a new kind of rulership that was neither western nor eastern and would profoundly influence the later development of court culture and monarchy in both the Roman West and Iranian East Drawing on the socio political models of Norbert Elias and Charles Tilly After the Achaemenids shows how the Hellenistic dynastic courts were instrumental in the integration of local elites in the empires and the re distribution of power wealth and status It analyses the competition among courtiers for royal favour and the not always successful attempts of the Hellenistic rulers to use these struggles to their own advantage Key featuresDemonstrates the interrelationships of the three competing Hellenistic empires of the Seleukids Antigonids and PtolemiesCasts new light on the phenomenon of Hellenistic Kingship by approaching it from the angle of the courtCovers topics such as palace architecture royal women court ceremonial and coronation ritual