The edited volume under review is of a type which is a fairly familiar sight in the scholarship on King Alexander III of Macedon. It contains the conference proceedings of “Alexander’s Empire: The Legitimation of Conquest” (Villa Vigoni, Menaggio, Italy; May 10–12, 2018), plus an additional commissioned paper. It features chapters primarily by well-established scholars, with only one junior scholar. Some authors have already produced excellent research in the relatively large field of Alexander studies, whereas others come to the topic from other fields. The subjects under discussion are also familiar: the symbolic self-representation of the king and administrative matters across his empire. Such topics remain valid and even fundamental to this short period of ancient history so dominated by the Macedonian expedition across three continents.

Less familiar may be the theoretical framework chosen to underpin the volume, at least outside German scholarship. The editorial preface invokes the political theory of social theorist Max Weber (1864–1920), principally his sociology of domination, or Herrschaftssoziologie. The theory permeates the scholarly discourse on matters like Hellenistic kingship in a few European countries, mainly Germany and Italy (from which the majority of contributors hail). Broadly speaking, the theory presents political legitimacy as a mediated, reciprocal process between ruler and ruled. To explain this process, the Weberian theory operates with three ideal types of legitimate domination—charisma, tradition, and legality—which are not rigid concepts but flexible categories.