Welcome to The Second Achilles! If you have just arrived, I hope you find some posts to interest, amuse and perhaps even to inspire you. If you have any comments, please feel free to leave them in the comments box, or get in touch with me directly. My e-mail address is thesecondachilles [at] gmail.com
I first became interested in the life of Alexander the Great in 2009. This led me to create the @AlexanderIII Twitter account. At first, his tweets came from which ever stage of his journey I happened to want to focus on at that time. Eventually, however, I decided to cover his expedition in a more linear fashion, starting from his arrival in Egypt.
I never conceived, and do not regard, @AlexanderIII as a Role Playing account but rather as a kind of literary exercise. This understanding gave me the desire to Alexander’s journey from other perspectives: @Ptolemy_I_Soter, @PtolemysRHG (Thaïs of Athens) and @Chiliarch (Hephaestion).
The Second Achilles started out as no more than a glossary of terms used in the Twitter account(s). The Glossary has contracted since the early days - a sign, perhaps, of Alexander’s story rightly taking over my inventions - and I may at some point remove it altogether. But as it has grown less, the blog has become more. Gone are the days when it was simply the servant of @AlexanderIII (though for old time’s sake, it is still called his web-log). Now, it is both a reason for me to keep reading and learning about him and a repository for what I do learn.
Alexander employed a number of secretaries, the most senior of whom was Eumenes. My nom-de-plume is a reference to him. I don’t know what anyone else thinks of it but it still makes me smile. If you wish to write to me or would simply like to know my real name, I am happy to tell you that it is
Malcolm
