• Associate Professor
• classics
• cking@grenfell.mun.ca
• AS332C
• 709-639-6563
• 20 University Dr., Corner Brook NL A2H 5G5

 

Teaching and Professional Profile

Dr. King teaches a broad range of classics courses at the undergraduate level in Greek and Roman civilization and history, classical literature in translation, and elementary Latin and Greek. She has a special interest in Alexander the Great and ancient Macedonia. Prior to her appointment at Grenfell Campus in 2007, she taught in both Canada and the US. She held the position of Crake Doctoral Fellow at Mount Allison 2002-2003, was Regular Member and Edward Capps Fellow at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 2001-2002, and Research Assistant at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington DC 1999-2000. She has been a repeat Visiting Senior Associate Member at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and currently is a Member of the Managing Committee of the ASCSA. She is a past member of the Editorial Board of Phoenix.

 

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. King is a Hellenist with broad interests in Greek history and literature, Greek and Roman historiography, and Homeric epic. Her primary research focuses on the historiography of Alexander the Great and the literary evidence for ancient Macedonia more broadly, with an emphasis on military and political history, especially kingship and leadership. Her monograph Ancient Macedonia (Routledge 2018) [Αρχαία Μακεδονία 2020] is a narrative history of the Macedonian monarchic period c. 700-167 BCE. She has also published on divination in the ancient world.

 

Recent Publications

BOOK:

Ancient Macedonia. London and New York: Routledge (monograph, 2018)

Αρχαία Μακεδονία. Athens: Historical Quest (Greek edition, September 2020)

 

CHAPTERS:

“Relationship of King and Army,” in Brill’s Companion to the Campaigns of Philip II and Alexander the Great, edited by Edward M. Anson. Leiden: Brill, forthcoming

“Macedonia,” in The Cambridge Companion to Alexander the Great, edited by Daniel Ogden, 147-164. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.

“Guarding the Macedonian King: Royal Servitude, Political Jockeying, and Regicide,” in Brill’s Companion to Bodyguards in the Ancient Mediterranean World, edited by Mark Hebblewhite and Conor Whately, 128-153. Leiden: Brill, 2022.

 

REVIEWS:

Waldemar Heckel, Johannes Heinrichs, Sabine Müller, and Frances Pownall, eds.

Lexicon of Argead Makedonia. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2020.

in Mouseion LXII Series III Vol. 18 No. 2 (2021): 312-314.

 

Andrew Erskine, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, and Shane Wallace, eds. The Hellenistic Court.

Monarchic Power and Elite Society from Alexander to Cleopatra. Swansea: The

Classical Press of Wales, 2017.

in The Classical Journal Vol. 117 No.2 (2021): 235-237 and CJ-Online 2021.09.01

 

Kenneth Moore, ed. Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Alexander the Great. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2018.

in Mouseion LVIX Series III Vol. 16 No. 3 (2019): 523-529.

 

John Grainger. Kings and Kingship in the Hellenistic World 350 – 30 BC. South

Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military, 2017.

in (Classical Journal) CJ-Online 2019.06.07

 

Ioanna Kralli. The Hellenistic Peloponnese: Interstate Relations. A Narrative and Analytic History, from the Fourth Century to 146 BC. Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales, 2017.

in CJ-Online 2018.08.01 and The Classical Journal Vol. 114.1 (2018): 113-115.

 

Current Research Projects

“Hellenistic Kingship,” a chapter for Blackwell’s A Companion to Leadership in the Greco-Roman World edited by Sarah Ferrario, explores how the self-styled kings of the Hellenistic age modeled themselves in part on Alexander’s personal style of power-leadership yet necessarily broke from long-established hereditary monarchies. Having come into positions of leadership initially by lot, they backed their right to rule and to dynastic power by military might, through use of imagery to express ideology and legitimation, through “gifts” as a means of guaranteeing loyal support among the elite, through “benefactions” to appease the cities, and through the relegation of authority to a bureaucracy of royal officials.

 

“Perdiccas son of Orontes: Successor to Alexander the Great” challenges the prevalent view of Perdiccas as “usurper” and Alexander as neglectful of the succession. Alexander has long been criticized for not securing his succession, yet reportedly he did hand his seal ring to Perdiccas on his deathbed. While Perdiccas hesitated to accept the kingship, he successfully secured the acclamation of Alexander’s posthumous son alongside the dead king’s incapable brother, and taking up the royal authority presided over the First Settlement of Alexander’s empire. Vilification by both ancient authors and scholars disregards that (in 323 BCE) Perdiccas was Alexander’s second-in-command and was, as recipient of the ring, singled out by Alexander if not to succeed directly then to oversee the succession as regent.