I started writing the @AlexanderIII Twitter account in 2009. Back then, the tweets were non-linear, being ‘sent’ from different periods of Alexander’s life. It took a while for the account to settle down to being a roughly linear account of Alexander’s expedition across the Persian empire, starting off in Egypt.
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As I wrote Alexander’s account, other Macedonians came to life, so’s to speak, within Alexander’s tweets, and I decided to see if I could develop my narrative by giving them their own Twitter accounts. @Ptolemy_I_Soter came first, then @PtolemysRHG, and finally @Chiliarch.
I created The Second Achilles blog circa 2010 to provide a home for the glossary of terms in use by @AlexanderIII et al on Twitter. Since then, the blog has expanded to become a kind of rough hewn literary laboratory; rough hewn because this is a blog and one has only so many minutes / hours in the day that one can dedicate to it; literary laboratory because I now regard the principle purpose of the The Second Achilles as being to explore the life and times of Alexander (and his successors) through various types of stories. As not everyone wishes to read stories, I have also begun writing more general (non fiction) posts that either have a specific or loose (i.e. tenuous) connection to Alexander and his age.
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In the second stage of its development, The Second Achilles was more or less given over to the Alexander’s Camp Notices. They were a humorous (I hope!) look at life in Alexander’s camp during his expedition. A little while ago, though, I decided to change the blog’s direction. In the knowledge that Alexander’s Twitter account would one day come to an end and he would drop off his followers’ Twitter feed and into the past* I decided I would dedicate the blog to writing about him from the point of his accession through to his death, and that rather than do this in one genre only I would experiment with different kinds. My reason for this is partly because the Twitter accounts started at mid points in Alexander’s journey, so I never got to write about his earlier days, and partly so that my writing about him had a more permanent home.
- If you would like to get in touch, you can write to me at thesecondachilles [at] gmail.com
- I have written a little about myself here
* By the time Alexander’s account ends, which will - all things being equal - be when he dies in Babylon, @Chiliarch (Hephaestion) will already have finished as Hephaestion predeceased Alexander. @Ptolemy_I_Soter (Ptolemy) and @PtolemysRHG (Thaïs) will still be active but at this time I do not intend to continue their accounts into the Successor age.
Malcolm
‘Alexander’s Other Secretary’
