Review of Kosmin, The Land of the Elephant Kings

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Kosmin, The Land of the Elephant Kings. By Nathan Schumer in Book Notes. Excerpt:

... Despite this growing trend, when it comes to the role of the Seleucid Empire in the Maccabean revolt, there is still a regrettable tendency in the field of ancient Judaism to treat the Seleucids as generic advocates of Hellenism, rather than as dynasty with its own specific idioms of imperialism crafted for its territory.

Paul Kosmin’s The Land of the Elephant Kings is an invaluable corrective to this problem. In his book he attempts to understand the royal ideology of the Seleucid dynasty, examining how this vast empire was constituted and imagined by its rulers. ...

I noted the publication of the book here.