Just wondering but what are the chances that Seleukos or his successors will build a new capital of Macedon on the straits to better connect it to the rest of the empire, especially if it means restoring the Royal Road created by the Archeamenids.
Apollonidai of the Oikoumene: Seleukos's Assassination is Averted, 281 BC
- Thread starter Dagoth Ur
- Start date
Well, that's basically Lysimacheia. Located on the top of the "neck" of the Thracian Peninsula (Gallipoli Peninsula). I don't think that Seleucus would have the time to take Byzantium: this would mobilise many groups and factions against him, such as Antigonus Gonatas, the Rhodians, the Bithynians and Egypt among others, who could create trouble and with the Galatians only a few months away (although they might be deterred from invading Macedonia itself since Seleucus is still alive), he won't have time to think about it either.
Babylonia is still more practical IMHO. In addition to maintaining Legitimacy, it is an important trading hub, the richest city, and is finally located right along the middle of the Empire.
Victory in Makedonia, Summer 31 MS to Winter 32 MS
Dagoth Ur
Banned
APOLLONIDAI OF THE OIKOUMENE
Victory in Makedonia, Summer 31 Meta Seleukos to Winter 32 Meta Seleukos
Victory in Makedonia, Summer 31 Meta Seleukos to Winter 32 Meta Seleukos
Agathon strode through grasses slick with blood and guts. His toes were sticky and cold with the filth. He looked forward to washing them thoroughly in the river. He came to another shaking man, laying on his back, heaving for breath, body mangled beyond repair. “To Hades with you, brother,” he said not unkindly. He stared at the man’s one remaining eye as he slit his throat. The man’s life ended in a long rasping gurgle. Agathon hung his head for a moment, then stood.
The folly of other Hellenes, to want to fight the proven victor, the last man standing, the one remaining diadokhos. Antigonos and Pyrrhos had marched north with their armies, passing from Thessalia into Makedonia through the mountain pass north of Mount Olympos. Agathon had been in the Pella barracks when word came that the enemy host had moved. Then in one day Antigonos covered the thirty milia between the mountains and the coast, and encamped on the beach south of the ruins of Methone.
An admirable feat, but ultimately wasted. Agathon and his tentmates debated in the few idle hours after sunset. It wasn’t clear to them why Antigonos had come. Maybe he felt there was no use entrenching himself in Hellas proper, that Seleukos would just come south and root him out. Certainly he was becoming less and less popular with the poleis as time went on. Maybe his thinking was if he didn’t act soon, the poleis would turn against him and deliver him to Selekuos without a fight. Antigonos could have even fled to the court of his wife’s brother in fabulously wealthy Aigyptos. That led to philosophical questions of the nature of a man, and honor, and belief. Antigonos had operated from late adolescence knowing he was heir to the great Antigonid name. Perhaps to him death was preferable to servitude or dependence on another. Certainly Antigonos’s father Demetrios had felt that way, drinking himself to death after a few years of luxurious captivity in a fine Babylonian villa.
In the end these philosophical questions were only ways to pass the time. Agathon and the men he marched with made a large loop, first west from Pella, then south until they were in Berea, then west. They crossed the Haliakmon and moved to Antigonos’s army where they were a welcome sight, five thousand reinforcements from Apeiros! Immediately Agathon’s commander and Pyrrhos had a long meeting that left Pyrrhos quite contented.
Basileus Pyrrhos of Apeiros
Finally with the reinforcements, and no hint that Seleukos would move on him, Antigonos was forced to make a move or else turn back and be left worse off than he started. He marched north toward Pella at a relaxed pace. This allowed his men to warm up without becoming tired. Some six milia from Pella the army came to the Loudias River. It was some one hundred podes wide and at that time in the year, spring, pretty lively and too deep for a soldier to cross comfortably. Thus the army crossed the sturdy bridge that had been built by Megas Alexandros’s father Philippos, to enable him to more easily control Thessalia and respond to events in Hellas.
As the honored ally, having crossed Ionio Pelagos to join the fight, Pyrrhos crossed the bridge first and arranged his forces to protect this bridgehead. By then many of Antigonos’s scouts had come within sight of Pella and seen the Seleukid army preparing for battle in the distance there. Six milia was not a large distance, and it would take an hour just to get Antigonos’s army across the Loudias bridge. Pyrrhos’s reinforcements, too, protected the rear of the army and would act as the surprise reserve in the upcoming battle. After marching so far so quickly from Apeiros this would allow them to rest just a bit more. They were obviously solid veterans too, and could be used to greatly strengthen any faltering section of the battle.
Agathon remembered the thudding of his heart in anticipation of the bridge crossing. Up to that moment he had contained the deception well. He had spoken with dozens of men, good soldiers all, who happened to be on the other side. Thessalians and Athenians and Thebans and Korinthians and many others. He hoped that in the slaughter to come most would be smart enough to cast their weapons down and surrender.
As Antigonos and the first of his men crossed the bridge and drew up along the Apeirotes, Pyrrhos made his move. He turned in on them and attacked, with his reinforcements doing the same on the other side. At each end outnumbered, the majority of the soldiers were left flailing and pushing uselessly on the bridge. The fighting was ferocious at first, the men of the poleis incensed at this betrayal. But as the position on the bridge became desperate and men leapt into the river to escape the crush, cries of “philoi, philoi!” [1] came up all around. The battle downgraded into knots of isolated fury as most of the Hellenes cast their weapons down.
In the rear some of the false reinforcements even disrobed and leapt into the river to save some of the floundering men of the poleis. In the front the battle raged on. Antigonos and his loyal bodyguard fought like lions against Pyrrhos. The contest was brutal as neither party could give up. Then Antigonos and his bodyguard had broken through Pyrrhos and his elephants, and were now fleeing to the north, Pyrrhos’s cavalry in hot pursuit. Isolated and without an army, deep in enemy territory, it is not a fun day to be Antigonos today, Agathon reflected.
So now Agathon straightened up from the corpse that a moment before had been a man, and stretched, and saw there were no more men to aid or help along to Hades. Some five hundred men had perished on the south side of the bridge. Even now their bodies were being arranged, grouped according to origin, identified by their comrades in arms. Some men of the poleis crouched, hunched over, weeping at defeat and the disastrous, unexpected deaths. Others stood shocked, not understanding the betrayal. Still others stood with stony faces, vowing revenge against either Seleukos, Pyrrhos, or even Antigonos himself for leading the poleis into a foolhardy ill-conceived venture.
Other of Agathon’s comrades were gathering the surrendered weapons and taking over the baggage train. The captives were herded over the bridge, to the north side, into country it would be easier to escape in. Agathon hopped onto a wagon and looked into the northern horizon. He saw clearly the glittering of arms and armor, Seleukos’s forces approaching from Pella.
Later in the day Agathon went to the pavilion set up for the basileus’s arrival. He had to push through the crowd, but eventually he got near the front, being one of the infiltrators instrumental in the victory. Still he had to go on his tiptoes and crane his neck to see the dignified, silver-haired figure seated on a throne on the stage. At his shoulder stood a tall golden-haired boy, and a brown-haired bushy-bearded man as tall as the boy, and behind were arranged other men. Men were talking and laughing all around Agathon, glad at the victory. From them he learned that Antigonos had been captured.
Agathon saw as a tall man of regal bearing, surely Antigonos, walked stiffly across the stage. Blood splatters painted him from his neck to his knees. The defeated basileus had been given time to wash his face and head, and now stood looking handsome. He conversed with Seleukos for some time, then knelt in submission. The surrounding crowd of soldiers cheered uproariously, Agathon among them.
Antigonos was led off stage, unbound, but still under heavy guard. Next came Pyrrhos, of an age with Antigonos but more youthful looking by far. He beamed boyishly out at the soldiers and waved, and they responded with cheers. “Pyrrhos! Pyrrhos! Pyrrhos!” Though the Makedonians loved their basileus, they were grateful to Pyrrhos for making the easy victory possible. He too conversed with Seleukos at some length, then knelt in submission. The cheering now was muted. All were curious to know what had been said.
The word spread back through the ranks and caused a ripple of conversation and excitement. When the news reached Agathon the man next to him turned. “We’re going with Pyrrhos! Well then, lucky us! I hear Italian girls are lovely.”
[1] Friends, friends!
The victory at the battle of Loudias proved to be, more than a martial victory, a complete diplomatic coup. The Hellenic poleis had united–with little order, to be sure, but united nonetheless–behind Antigonos to preserve their relative freedom. That Antigonos had led them into total defeat, and led to the imprisonment of the flower of their manhood, was no small thing. It was a greater thing still when Seleukos released the men to make their ways home, provisioned with food and wine for the journey. With the men went a flurry of diplomats, and Seleukos took to reforming the League of Korinthos.
The league had been formed originally by Philippos, mortal father of Megas Alexandros. Member states–which included every Hellenic polis except for Sparta–met in a council to resolve disputes amicably, and provide a common fund and army for defense of Hellas. Alexandros had taken league troops with him to Ariane [1] and the east. Those men had made a sizable portion of the army, and many even served in India. On Alexandros’s mortal death the league had fallen apart, with each polis going its way and following one diadokhos or another, or else attempting to assert independence and usually failing.
Now there was finally a clear hegemon of the entire world, it benefited Seleukos to recreate the league. As much as it provided for peace and security, it also allowed the basileus to create informants and spies in the important poleis. No more would revolt face his empire from Hellas, at least not without long forewarning.
With this news and the goodwill generated by the release of the prisoners, Seleukos traveled south slowly in state, welcomed at every town if not as a liberator, then as a gentle master. When he reached Athenai it did not resist, but Arsinoe, sister of Ptolemaios Neos [2] and new-ish bride of Antigonos, was nowhere to be found. She, her sons, and loyal servants had fled to Korinthos. Seleukos found that before reforming the League of Korinthos, he had to actually obtain the cooperation of Korinthos.
Korinthos is not far from Athenai, only some fifty milia. But it sits in an advantageous position on its isthmus, and Seleukos did not have the ships for a quick siege. However he had not counted on the polis’s self-esteem. Korinthos, having played second fiddle to Athenai since Antigonos’s settling there two decades ago, was grateful at the chance to occupy the secondary center of Hellas. For naturally the primary center of Hellas was not even in Hellas proper anymore, but in Pella, in Makedonia.
So Korinthos opened its gates at Seleukos’s approach, its majority native garrison having outfought the Makedonian garrison left by Antigonos, under the command of Antigonos’s half-brother Krateros. This Krateros was the son of the famous general Krateros who served under Alexandros. This son Krateros, and his own son named Alexandros, were delivered to Seleukos, along with Arsinoe and her sons.
Seleukos had made life difficult for Arsinoe. In the summer of the previous year she had been queen of Thraki, and her son its heir. In one year she had been forced to flee her home of over a decade, been captured on her way to salvation in Aigyptos, forcibly married, and now fled and captured again. Seleukos thought it over. On the one hand he wished to put Hellas to rest and force the poleis of the Peloponnese to join the league. But that would lead to war with Aigyptos, and the garrisons of Syroi would not be able to effectively fend off the Aigyptian armies that could be over the border at a moment’s notice. Whereas most of Seleukos’s troops were with him, or in Mesopotamia.
So he did the sensible thing. He sent Arsinoe and her sons to Alexandreia, to the court of Ptolemaios Neos. This got rid of a clever, scheming woman whose beauty and wit was already affecting her jailors; it also was a gesture of good will to Aigyptos. Ptolemaios would not have to worry about unprovoked war with the Seleukid realm. Seleukos could use the free years to put in the effort it would take to mold Hellas into a loyal, peaceful region…if the Moirai [3] allowed him enough time to do so.
With the Aigyptian question hopefully settled for now, Seleukos sent a swift messenger to his capital Seleukeia on the Tigris. Antigonos Gonatas, and Lysimakhos’s daughter-in-law Lysandra and her children, would be sent there into luxurious imprisonment. There they would be far removed from the world where they were known and could have sympathizers, and placed into the East, where Seleukos had ruled unchallenged for the past two decades. Then as events unfolded, it could be decided what to do with them.
With Antigonos went Akhaios, Seleukos’s bushy-bearded second son, at least for a short way. In midsummer they took ship from Korinthos and arrived in Smyrna. Ideally they would have sailed for Seleukeia Pieria, the port city some fifteen miles from great Antiokheia in Syroi. However the ever present threat of piracy along the southern coast of Anatole precluded them from doing so, especially with such precious cargo. From Smyrna they went overland to Sardeis where Akhaios halted. He had been charged by his father with the rule and reorganization of the Anatole, and this he planned to do from Sardeis, the western end of the great old Royal Road.
Antigonos and his guard continued on to Seleukeia. In Anatole, Akhaios sent messengers to various states and even the independent realms, to settle affairs with them all. Now that the world was united under a hegemon again, it was time for the world to benefit from Seleukos’s hard work over the decades.
Most prominent among the correspondents was Philetairos, governor of Pergamon and the surrounding area. During the fallout from Lysimakhos’s execution of his own son Agathokles, Philetairos switched sides from Lysimakhos to Seleukos, offering up valuable Pergamon and her nine thousand talents of silver to Seleukos. Philetarios also took good care of his own people, and Akhaios was relatively sure he could be trusted so long as the Seleukid family stayed on top of things.
Then there was fiercely independent Bithynia, ruled by the Hellenized basileus Zipoites. The area was small, but Zipoites used geography and defensive alliances with the cities of Mysia and Paphlagonia to great effect. He had even defeated the diadokhos Lysimakhos in war. This had made the Bithynians overly proud. Akhaios knew he would have to knock them down a peg or two.
Mithridates of Kios was notable as well, a Persian nobleman who had fled his native Kios to Pontos. There through force of will and some wealth he courted and subjugated the tribes and poleis of the area over almost two decades, and had just last year crowned himself basileus of Pontos. For this feat he was called Ktistes [4]. While not shaky on his throne, his was a brand new dynasty, and bore watching. He would be on the lookout for fresh conquests to prove himself, which could be a boon if steered in the right direction, or a threat if he thought he could contest the might of the Seleukid empire.
Also in mind was doddering old basileus Ariarathes of Kappadokia, whose father had been satrap of Kappadokia for the Akhaemenid basileis. In his youth Ariarathes had returned to Kappadokia after Megas Alexandros’s death, and defeated the Makedonian governor Amyntas. Since then he’d ruled with peaceful relations with the diadokhoi, cleverly maintaining his position despite the various armies passing around and sometimes through his territory. Involved in any decisions of his was his son Ariaramnes who spoke Hellenic quite well, and could write it too.
The poleis and leagues of Ionia were contacted in their multitudes. The diplomats and princes of Elaia, Mytilene, Kyme, Khios, Smyrna, Ephesos, Samos, Halikarnassos, Kos, Knidos, and a dozen other poleis would be loyal to the empire if their rights and internal independence were guaranteed and respected.
Greatest among the Hellenic poleis was Rhodos, home to the great Kolossos. In reality Rhodos was the third most important player in Anatole, after Akhaios himself and Philetairos. Her forces, if involved, could decide any naval conflict between the Seleukid empire and Aigyptos, or any other power for that matter.
Last of all in the mind of Akhaios were the numerous tribes of Pamphylia, Pisidia, Isauria, and Lykia. At worst they were considered a nuisance, raiders of the hinterland of the Hellenized coastal cities and the rich Phrygian cities. But Akhaios would not underestimate them. By their very presence he knew they would be useful in force. He would show them the respect not shown to them by most, and see how that would turn out.
Finally, Akhaios dealt with the Armenians, with Prince Hydarnes and his faction. A cousin of basileus Orontes of Armenia, Hydarnes was in favor of thinking and deliberating before taking action, unlike some other members of Orontes’s court who in their ignorance saw chaos and much opportunity in Anatole. Being on the eastern edge of Anatole, and bordering too northern Syroi which was ruled by the Seleukid empire, in Hydarnes’s opinion the Armenians had an interest in analyzing carefully whether it would be beneficial to attack Pontos and Kappadokia. Victory could not just be assumed, and it would be a shame to have their lands devastated and lose their considerable autonomy should they attack an ally of Seleukos’s.
With things being fairly settled in most quarters, Akhaios began to ready his troops to attack Bithynia. Akhaios even had friendly letters from Aigyptos expressing its basileus’s gratitude at having his favored full sister returned safe. Across Hellespontos, Seleukos was dealing with barbarians much more savage than the Bithynians. He received an embassage of dreary Kelts from the far Istros River [5] with tidings of war and devastation among the tribes, and invading tribes of Kelts that came from far to the west. The displaced Kelts begged for aid, and Seleukos granted it at once. In his years in the east he’d learned well that devastated tribes had no choice but to join with the strongest, and the whole could snowball into a great threat. By cheaply supporting these weaker tribes he could be keeping a great disaster at bay [6].
[1] Common ancient Greek geographical term meaning “Land of the Aryans”, roughly coinciding with modern Iran (Ariane = Iran)
[2] Ptolemaios the Younger, basileus of Aigyptos
[3] The Fates, determiners of men’s destinies
[4] Founder, of a dynasty or of cities
[5] Danube
[6] Something Ptolemaios Keraunos didn’t know when he ignored the supplicants in OTL, and led to the Gallic invasion of Makedonia, Hellas, and Anatole
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Dagoth Ur
Banned
So yeahhhh all we're just gonna memory hole what I wrote about Pyrrhos being in Italia, alright? Special thanks to @Tanaka did nothing wrong for some ideas on things in Anatole.
Ask and you shall receive.
I'd say it is, as long as it bites him in the ass later.
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THANK YOU!! The wait was worth it.
Although I am curious how this new League of Korinth will look in the long run, since it would be practical to bring the Seleukid friendly states of Anatolia into the league to guard against the more rebellious or treasonous states.
Dagoth Ur
Banned
Not quite. League of Korinthos is based on nominally free Hellenic states meeting in concord for common peace and defense. Anatolian states are used to more despotic rule. They wouldn't quite belong in the league, they're far from it geographically, and most importantly they will be viewed very negatively by the Hellenic members as barbarians, by detractors as a way for Seleukos to orientalize and demean the Hellenes.
Dagoth Ur
Banned
Perhaps, if a few generations of Hellenes become used to hegemony from the basileus in Seleukeia, Hellenized regions between Ionia and Mesopotamia will begin to be viewed more favorably. It's hard to understate how xenophobic pretty much all historical societies, and especially common people, were. Even at Alexander's time Macedonians were not viewed as wholly Greek by many Greeks.
Well, the Seleucid state wasn't a unitary one. There were two basic distinctions, the "chora" (land , country - the lands directly ruled by the monarch) and the "symmachia" (alliance - the various dependants, close allies and protectorates of the kingdom). IOTL, the Seleucids usually included the cities they ruled in the Aegean area into the second category: they still got their way, since their power was so large that the cities adopted their "suggestions" as policy and they sometimes obtained official positions inside the cities (particularly that of strategos - general). The idea of "freedom" still carried some weight and the Seleucids in general adopted a more light-hand approach (perhaps because they knew that direct rule would be a recipe for rebellion, judging from what had happened in Ionia during Lysimachus' rule and later on in Greece under the rule of Antigonus Gonatas and they already had too much on their plate).
Therefore, the cities being in the margins of the empire and with these factors taken into account, I think that even here, the Seleucids would have been content to leave them inside the "alliance of the King" at least in the medium term.
Raid, Winter 32 MS to Spring 33 MS
Dagoth Ur
Banned
APOLLONIDAI OF THE OIKOUMENE
Raid, Winter 32 Meta Seleukos to Spring 33 Meta Seleukos
Raid, Winter 32 Meta Seleukos to Spring 33 Meta Seleukos
Proteas rode whooping into the town. His eyes stung from the dust thrown up by the horses of his companions in front. A man ran out from a side lane, rolling pin raised high in the air. Proteas sucked in his laughter, guided his horse right with reins and a push of his thigh. The solid stallion pummeled into the villager, rode through him as though he were air. Iron-shod hooves finished the job. Next were a woman and child, embracing each other. Horror at the mangled mess that had been a man a moment ago changed to terror at death galloping toward them. Now Proteas was between two rows of squat houses–not a good spot to be in. He looked side to side, pulled at the reins to get his horse to walk backward.
Back on the main street he saw some of his companions dismounting, others still galloping into the square, others already running into houses in search of plunder or surging out of houses dragging women and boys out by the hair, or carrying amphorae of wine and oil, clothes draped about their shoulders. A pair of them stumbled out of one house under the weight of a finely carved chest, valuable in itself.
Proteas himself dismounted and slid his fine ax out of its sheath. They needed wood. He ran to the nearest house and began hacking at the door. It was quick work, when a man leapt out from the dim interior and shoved him. Proteas was on his back, in a moment he was on his feet again. He growled and hacked at the man, too slow to move aside. In another moment the door was in splinters. Proteas grabbed the jumbled pieces, some slick with the man’s blood and brains, and rushed to pile them along with the others. The arkhon’s house, built all of stone in this rocky land, had thick, solid oak doors and no windows on the ground floor. To weaken the doors and break them down faster they would burn them.
The fire was started and Proteas looked around, hoping some plunder was left for him. He saw women and boys screaming, writhing under other men. Proteas didn’t like that, he needed fresh prey. He found his horse and rode out, circled the town. In the hills he saw figures stumbling, still trying to run, perhaps the townspeople who had first heard the beating of the raiding party’s hooves. On his horse Proteas caught up with them quickly, tried to grab a running girl, but she kept diving left and right faster than his horse could pivot. Cursing, Proteas leapt to the ground, unwilling to risk running her down and ruining her. He ran after her, stumbling, gaining on her.
Something dove at him from the side, knocked him down. He roared in rage as he rolled over, grabbed the meddling youth, pummeled his face until there was nothing left to pummel. When he looked up there was no girl in sight. Back to the horse, he mounted up and looked around with the better vantage, but now he saw nobody. He cursed and rode to the pillar of smoke rising from the town.
It seemed their allies from Pergamon, Kios, and Pontos were thoroughly scouring every house for plunder. Proteas joined his fellow Makedonians, who had surrounded the arkhon’s mansion and were supervising the burning. Every few minutes a team of men would test the doors with a battering ram, the fine chest he’d seen before. In absence of anything else, it was being used. A few quick thinkers had slaughtered some of the villagers’ lambs, turned their spears into spits, and borrowed from the fire to begin a tasty snack. Men banged on the stones of the house, taunting the occupants. One man found a ladder and propped it against the mansion, to climb into a window.
They watched him climb up, calves pumping quickly, then the sounds of a fight, then he tumbled out and broke his neck in the fall. Some men threw burning pieces of wood up through the window in response, but nobody else ventured up. After some time the doors were broken down and the Makedonians burst into the arkhon’s mansion. They fanned out through the rooms, easily cutting through the amateur guards. Leaping over tables and bounding up stairs, they stripped the walls of their finery, denuded the wine cellar, and gently handled the precious jewelry boxes. The arkhon and his family and servants were in a room on the top floor, behind a locked sliding door of fine cypress. The first man in front of Proteas simply ran into the door, then shoved with his shoulder a few times, and it came crashing down.
They slapped the arkhon’s arms aside, laughed as they lifted him bodily and threw him through the same window their fellow had been ejected through. The rest of the bearded victims joined the arkhon on the growing pile below, moaning with limbs askew. Pontic tribesmen leapt on them, cutting their fingers off for their glittering rings, then slitting their throats. Up in the mansion, the first man slapped a beautiful girl, probably the arkhon’s daughter, carried her from the room excitedly. Proteas did the same, to a girl almost as pretty, probably the girl’s sister. But he did not care.
In the afternoon they rode quickly from the town, flushed with victory, cheeks shiny with lamb grease, beards sodden with wine, faces red with bloodlust. The ruined chest was left behind in the doorway of the wrecked mansion, but almost everything else of value was with the riders. Fine cloths and clothes and rugs were draped across shoulders, jewelry carried on fingers or tucked into cloaks, pigs were driven in squealing agitation by teams of men, chickens hung squawking and flapping their wings upside down from saddles.
Other things of value, slaves to abuse and sell, were draped across the riders’ saddles. With him Proteas had the girl he’d violated, sobbing and bleeding. His breath was quick and shallow, his loins light. He hadn’t had a fine day like this in a long time. The old man had always wanted the people respected, treated fairly, though they were unfit to lick a Makedonian’s boots. That explained why the old man had reigned so long in Mesopotamia, but it also explained why he had no proper respect at home.
Proteas shook these idle thoughts from his head, slapped his new slave’s rump laughing. The rider in front of him slumped sideways, a rock thudding against his temple. It took a moment for Proteas to react, which was far too long. A spear found his horse’s chest and the beast was dead in an instant, slumping to its knees and falling to the right, crushing the captive girl’s head. It also crushed Proteas’s leg.
He gritted his teeth against a scream, hissed, worked furiously to prop himself up on his right arm and grab his ax with his left. He saw men falling all down the line, shaggy-haired Bithynian tribesmen leaping out of the forested rise to the left. Proteas cursed and worked faster, screaming when he propped himself up too high and tore something in his mangled leg. A shadow fell over him and he saw his death, a bloody-faced Bithynian howler, chanting a shrill barbarian curse, wide green-yellow eyes boring into Proteas’s own. The eyes stayed with him after the ax split his head, until everything was black.
A forested track in Bithynia, ideal for ambush. From Google Maps street view. Quality suffers due to image size limits
As Akhaios made plans to invade and subjugate Bithynia in the beginning of summer, he put them into action in late summer, the month of Gorpiaios [1]. This timing achieved several things. Firstly it was a quick win for him and the empire, ridding themselves of a nettlesome neighbor. This increased their allies’ confidence in them, particularly ambitious Pontos, being victorious where both formidable Antigonos and clever Lysimakhos had failed in decades past. Akhaios used the inertia of his diplomacy, immediately acting where months of delay or waiting until the spring would certainly decrease enthusiasm for the war. And finally he was straining Bithynia’s limits, either denying basileus Zipoites men for soldiering, or men for reaping the year’s crops, or both. Whereas Akhaios himself used only professional soldiers who never needed to work the fields.
The mistake of Antigonos and Lysimakhos was, as Akhaios saw it, in tackling the Bithynian problem as if it were a realm ruled by a diadokhos, rather than a Hellenized basileus of a people who had one generation ago all been barbarian tribesmen. When they invaded in force they found that, aside from the main coastal roads, all the ways were forested paths and dim tracks through foggy hills. Harassed by barbarians who could melt into the ravines and heights, Antigonos and Lysimakhos’s armies were well depleted and demoralized before a battle was ever fought. Only along the coast could they boast supremacy, naval power unmatched, but that was nowhere near Bithynia’s power and potential.
Akhaios would not make their mistakes. He would send smaller, more mobile parties, strike at towns and villages, move steadily inward from Anatole, and along the coast too. Squeeze Zipoites and he would be forced to react, and fight a pitched battle where Akhaios would be sure to prevail. To this end his forces proceeded, from all sides. Akhaios led the main force which struck from Kios to the west, burning the land between Propontis and the mountains. After a couple of weeks of unstoppable raids, some of the parties were attacked with heavy losses, and one was even wiped out. At this sign of resistance Akhaios increased the size of raiding parties, and redoubled combing of the land. The armies moved slower, but no stone was left unturned.
In the meantime Akhaios’s father Seleukos, in Hellas, saw to matters there. The poleis of the Aitolian League were granted concessions, and peacefully absorbed into the League of Korinthos. The only polis excluded was Sparta, as it had not been in the original League formed by Philippos. Sparta still had ties of trade and amity with other poleis of Peloponnesos, so Seleukos would let them be. Let their exclusion from the League be their badge of shame, and hopefully someday soon they would come into dispute with a weaker neighbor, and the neighbor would appeal to the League for aid, and the League itself would conquer Sparta, without needing to be pushed by Seleukos.
To celebrate the inclusion of all Hellenes–save for the Spartans, of course–in the League, Seleukos prepared great donations and lavish gifts for the upcoming Nemean games, held in the month of Apellaios [2]. Nemea is a polis in the hills which make up the borderland between Arkadia, Argolis, and Korinthia. It was here that Herakles defeated the monstrous Nemean lion, after which he founded the Nemean games in honor of his victory. Athletes, politicians, tradesmen, musicians, actors, and people of all other occupations flocked to Nemea from all over Hellas, Ionia, and Makedonia to participate in, view, or profit from the games. The basileus selected a moderate amount of bodyguards to be with him at Nemea. He trod the fine line between oppressive tyrant and selfless benefactor. His guard managed to keep the peace, and to the Hellenes’ credit they themselves did not stir up old grudges or create new ones.
The athletic competition was fierce. Antigonos has been something of a benefactor of the various Panhellenic games, presiding over them every two years when they were held. However they had always been colored by his personal favorites, and the fear or knowledge that if his favored athletes did not win, the true winners’ fortunes or lives could be in danger. Seleukos made it clear to all that his personal favorites were simply those who would emerge victorious. He did not even favor those of his soldiers who participated.
Footraces, boxing, wrestling, and the pentathlon were all done in the nude, and only by men, in the stadion. Horse and chariot racing were done in the hippodrome. Also here only men could compete, but the victor of a horse or chariot race was the owner of the horse or chariot, not the racer himself. Thus women could win these races. By far the most respected and anticipated competition was the pankration–”all power”--boxing in which combatants used punches, kicks, wrestling, any technique besides eye gouging and biting, to subdue their opponents. Herakles defeated the Nemean lion using pankration, and so a particularly great winner of the pankration was thought to be imbued, at least temporarily, with the power of Herakles.
Stadion of Nemea, from Wikipedia
The Aitolian poleis too sent their athletes and politicians to Nemea in time, and even the Spartans were present–they would not miss a chance to show off their physical prowess. And so it was that it was in fact a Spartan who won the pankration. Bloodied and battered, but still standing, Hekataios of Sparta stumbled the distance from the pankration grounds to the Nemean baths surrounded by cheering fans and ecstatic countrymen. At the award ceremony Seleukos presented fine gifts to the victors. Gold and silver and crystal goblets, finely wrought and decorated suits of armor, baskets of exotic spices, and more were given along with the traditional crown of wild celery. Prayers were made to the gods, and Herakles most of all, that the power and vigor of Hellenes be directed to conquering other peoples, and not despoiling each other.
The prayers were apparently answered. Rather than despoiling each other, the poleis remained peaceful through the winter, and in the spring Makedonia’s campaign to despoil Bithynia continued. In fact, it was almost at an end. With Akhaios’s careful strategizing and efficient implementation of his tactics, Zipoites of Bithynia had finally been drawn out into open battle after half a year of devastation and destruction. And was duly destroyed. The basileus himself lay dead on the field, and Akhaios entered his Hellenized capital of Nikaia. Astakos had been the capital, but was destroyed by great old Antigonos Monophthalmos twenty years prior and only partly rebuilt. In any case it was on the coast, and quickly taken by Seleukos’s marines. Nikaia was inland, and well defended. Now Akhaios entered as a bearer of peace. The inhabitants were surprised at this treatment, after the terror of his campaign of the past six months. Many in Nikaia were refugees from the countryside, and terrified of Akhaios’s troops.
Now helpless to him, gates open, the Bithynians were forced to accept the easy terms. They would not be a free people…but they would be a living and prosperous people, included in the civilization of Seleukos’s empire. Akhaios installed Zipoites’s only living son (the other two having died on the field of battle with their father) Nikomedes as basileus of a reduced Bithynia. Some eastern parts were given to Pontos, so Mithridates was sated. Akhaios also took a great deal of Bithynia’s royal treasure, and gently plundered some of the royal palace, to divide among his other allies and reward his own troops. The subjugation of Bithynia was complete.
Shortly thereafter he received an embassage from Armenia congratulating him on his victory and presenting gifts in honor of their friendship. Akhaios responded in kind, and with secret letters for his friend Prince Hydarnes of Armenia.
[1] Roughly corresponding to August
[2] Roughly corresponding to November
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My goodness, the first part was just brutal.
I can't agree more. It's always good when a story such as this doesn't hold back when it comes to showing just how horrible war is, especially to civilian populations.
mariano kant
Banned
Great timeline
Rape and death of innocents is part of war, always was and always will be.
Want to avoid mass rape and the death of innocents?
Avoid war.
Rape and death of innocents is part of war, always was and always will be.
Want to avoid mass rape and the death of innocents?
Avoid war.