#retroreading later success or failure into earlier events in history

[jeannereames]

Hello! I'm relatively unfamiliar but very interested in Alexander's life and legacy, but unfortunately this interest is pretty new and so I'm a little confused.

I was wondering - during the various stages of her life (as queen of Macedonia during Philip's reign, as the king's mother during Alexander's reign, and in the aftermath of the Successors Wars) how much political power did Olympias wield? I'm guessing it changed depending on the circumstances, so it's confusing when you see people commenting on Olympias as though her power remained constant and unchanged (usually to a destructive potential) throughout her life.

From what I understand, she did not wield any political power during her husband's reign (or rather, in a way that defied convention - her status as the mother of his son & heir would have presumably given her a more dominant position compared to his other wives, and her role in religious rites was one afforded to women, so she seems to have had influence within the confines of her gender during that time); I was reading Elizabeth Carney's book on her and it says "In general, however, namaste evidence intimates that Olympias played a prominent oe important role in her husband's court, at least not until the last two years of his reign". Her power and/or influence (or rather, the influence she's infamous for) seems to have emerged after her son's ascension, like lots of women before her.

I might be totally wrong, tho, so I figured I should ask you :)

No, this is actually correct. I don't need to add much. Besides, Beth Carney is THE Olympias specialist, so I'll just nod along to her.

What you're describing shows proper nuance. One of the issues when we look back is to read into earlier events with our retrospective, or ex post of what would come. Not what they might know at the time. Or, alternatively, to assume someone with great sway later had the same earlier, or later personal quarrels were quarrels all along (a point I'll come back to in my monograph on Hephaistion and Krateros).

It's easy to fall into; I've done it myself enough.