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Hi, everybody.

From Wondery, welcome to another episode of Tides of History. I'm Patrick Wyman.

Thanks so much for joining me today. The age of Alexander the Great and his successors wrought a great

many changes. Everywhere from Italy to India, armies were on the march, led by voracious Macedonian

aristocrats with all-consuming ambitions, bulging treasuries, and the willingness

to inflict violence on an enormous scale. Within 50 years of Alexander's arrival in Asia,

the political and cultural landscape of half the planet had been forever altered, giving rise to

what we know as the Hellenistic world. Few things changed more in that time than the practice of

warfare. Alexander's conquests relied on one of the most effective armies the world had ever seen,

with professional infantry, cavalry, and even war elephants, playing integral roles on the battlefield.

As his successors fought over the spoils of his empire, the scale of warfare grew and grew,

until armies that dwarfed Alexander's expeditionary force

were the norm. All of that war cost a huge amount of money, but the economic impact of decades

of continuous, ruinously expensive conflict haven't been fully explored in the scholarship.

Today's guest has gone a long way toward shedding light on the economic aspects of Hellenistic

warfare. Dr. Charlotte Van Ragen-Mortel is lecturer in ancient history at the University of Liverpool

and the author of the recent book Soldiers, Wages and the Hellenistic Economies, which is a really

creative and illuminating look at the broader context of war in this period. I absolutely cannot

wait to discuss this with her. Dr. Van Ragen-Mortel,

thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

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