A few more years for Alexander?

[Basileus Giorgios]

A thought I've vaguely sketched out in my head, but not gone much further than that...

Assume that Alexander's illness of 323 is debilitating, but he manages to recover. He's around for the birth of Rhoxane's son Alexander IV, and sires another child or two, either on Rhoxane, or his Persian wives, or a combination. The Arabian expedition takes place in 321 and 320, and sees the Arabian coastline notionally bowing to Alexander's control. The last couple of years of Alexander's life are spent putting down minor revolts across the Macedonian Empire, and he dies sometime around 318 from a wound sustained in a skirmish.

How do those who know more than I about the early Diadokhoi imagine things are going to play out in this (admittedly vague) scenario?

 

[Sporian]

Alexander could set up Alex IV as the heir and make some administrative actions (not Alexander's strong suit), but if he was still a child, the generals would still fight after the Great's death. Alex IV could pull something together if he was as competent as his dad, keeping a swath of land centering around Babylonia. Alex IV could expand east, Hellenizing Buddhism and India further, if you want to make some cool cultural mixes.

 

[DominusNovus]

In my Legacy timeline, I have a civil war break out because of the fact that he has multiple children by different women. So, if he manages to get all three wives pregnant, I would not be surprised if, upon his death, there would be many competing claims to the throne from within the dynasty itself.

 

[Yuelang]

Get Hephasteion survive so he could end up as regent...

 

[Alcsentre Calanice]

Get Hephasteion survive so he could end up as regent...

It's a pity that Hephaistion couldn't give him an heir.

 

[Lee-Sensei]

War will still break out betwen his generals and his son will probably die.

 

[Tjakari]

Womb Envy up the ass.

It's a pity that Hephaistion couldn't give him an heir.

But yeah, longer lasting Alexander has been the subject of great TLs and long threads, I'd like for someone to find a link to one of those; revive it so we could jump off from a developed point.

 

[Yuelang]

It's a pity that Hephaistion couldn't give him an heir.

Not necessarily using modern gay marriage you know

Hephaestion is Alexander's second in command, Commander of the Hetairoi and direct superior to most of if not all the non Antigonid diadochi.

His survival will means he will make damn sure Alexander's will to be fulfilled. And he could basically curb most (non direct macedonian royal diadoch, Thats Antigonos) of the rebellions. Being Alex's lover also means he will never or less likely to renegade on their promise too...

Of course, no one can predict if Hephasteion should decide he will go hetero and kill Alexander's offspring, become Emperor and provoking civil war as well... but still, love is something you cannot forsake for power... or was it...?

 

[Cuāuhtemōc]

Not necessarily using modern gay marriage you know

Hephaestion is Alexander's second in command, Commander of the Hetairoi and direct superior to most of if not all the non Antigonid diadochi.

His survival will means he will make damn sure Alexander's will to be fulfilled. And he could basically curb most (non direct macedonian royal diadoch, Thats Antigonos) of the rebellions. Being Alex's lover also means he will never or less likely to renegade on their promise too...

Of course, no one can predict if Hephasteion should decide he will go hetero and kill Alexander's offspring, become Emperor and provoking civil war as well... but still, love is something you cannot forsake for power... or was it...?

Or if Hephastion lived long enough to sire his own children, he could marry his daughters to Alexander's sons and his sons to Alexander's daughters.

 

[Alcsentre Calanice]

Or if Hephastion lived long enough to sire his own children, he could marry his daughters to Alexander's sons and his sons to Alexander's daughters.

In this case, with many children, I can see a feudal monarchy arise: one king of king, maybe Alexander's son, and under him his relatives (younger brother and sisters, Hephaestion 's children) with different sub-kindoms and own dynasties.

Emperor of the globe
King of Greece
King of Persia
King of Egypt
King of Carthage
King of Rome
King of India
King of Scythia
and so forth.

 

[Russian]

Get Hephasteion survive so he could end up as regent...

Well, we know that on a personal level Hephasteon was very dear to Alexander. But that is especially clear when we know how much Alexander suffered after his death.
But I am afraid if Hephasteon is alive, nobody will know how deeply personally important was he to Alexander.
Alexander was too good as a ruler to give anyone too much power. He never had any 'second in command'. And every time when he showed preference to anyone he made sure that this man got enough heartburning envy from others - to counterbalance this favorite's influence.
Are you sure that other Alexander's friends considered it fair that Hephastion got so much power? I mean there were a lot of Alexander's generals who were braver, who were more experienced, talented, just better. There were guys who saved Alexander's life in battle or had some other merits. But Hephastion outranked them all because he had sex with Alexander.
That's good enough reason to hate Hephastion's guts...

 

[SlyDessertFox]

Alexander could set up Alex IV as the heir and make some administrative actions (not Alexander's strong suit), but if he was still a child, the generals would still fight after the Great's death. Alex IV could pull something together if he was as competent as his dad, keeping a swath of land centering around Babylonia. Alex IV could expand east, Hellenizing Buddhism and India further, if you want to make some cool cultural mixes.

Alex IV might have a tough time being recognized as the legitimate heir by Alexander's generals. Alexander's Persian wife, Stateira, daughter of Darius and thus to the Achaemenid line, was also in all likelihood pregnant (That's the explanation given anyway for Rhoxanne and Perdiccas teaming up to get rid of her immediately after Alexander's death). He would have far more legitimacy. The Macedonians obviously would rather have a full Greek heir, but they would see him as preferable to a half Baktrian.

That said, Alexander will still have a role to play since it's almost inevitable that the diadochoi will squabble and some will get the idea to prop up him against the supporters of Stateira's child (assuming its a male). Then there's Arrhidaios, an adult and easy to control, and the wildcard is Alexander's illegitimate son Herakles.

 

[Yuelang]

But Hephastion outranked them all because he had sex with Alexander.
That's good enough reason to hate Hephastion's guts...

That's the reality, and if Hephasteion want to pick one successor over another, why not he pick Alexander's son that will later have the eromenos relationship with him as well?

Ah, to modern sensibilities, this may seem sick and wrong, but homosexual pederasty in ancient Greek society is seen as normal, more or less. So maybe some rebellions, maybe not, but Hephaestion will likely pick Alexander's successor that was closest to him. And this may involve something about thighs and ass, since that was the only thing that could defeat Alexander...

 

[Flocculencio]

I'm not sure how survivable Hephasteion's position is after Alexander's death.

You're the royal favourite who's power is based purely on having the King's ear. The king is now dead.

What's to stop one of the other generals eliminating Hephasteion? Especially since they've all had to spend time cultivating their own power bases within the army while Hephasteion will just have ben Alexander's right hand man.

 

[Matteo]

To secure Alexander's succession to one of his sons, you need either to have him live much longer than a few more years but something like 15 to 20 more years, or to have a regent defending unity and this son of Alexander prevail over the generals.

 

[Kome]

Hm, the big thing I think is no partition of Babylon if Alexander personally takes charge of demobilization and assigning governors. For the most part most of the satraps were only assigned after Alexander's death, so assuming he survives to take care of it personally it leaves everything up in the air.

That automatically changes the dynamics of any prospective civil war from OTL as different generals might gain different satrapys or be sent on different assignments. We also got a more orderly demobilization of veterans returning home and drawing down troops rather than the relative disintegration of the army that occurred with generals poaching troops for their private armies. On the other hand you still have the difficulties of settling down men who have only known soldiering for the last two decades.

That also leads to the fact the army (and more importantly the generals) would have been dispersed across the empire, rather than having everything gathered in Babylon for one giant clusterfucks. When Alexander kicks the bucket finally, generals residing in their satrapys would have less influence over the succession issue than those within the capital. No mutiny, less factional rivalries than what plagued the OTL partition. Could either be good (more conservative response by satraps to 'wait and see' since they're scattered and aren't directly able to see what's going on) or bad (autonomous satraps unwilling to obey the commands of central regents or give up power).

Case in point, Craterus was the highest ranking and most respected of Alexander's generals at the time. But his influence on the succession was practically powerless because he was currently away leading troops on maneuvers when Alexander died. Same situation here if Alexander demobilizes and spreads his generals out before dying in a less timely fashion.

Also, he was an architectural nut. Assuming Alexander decides to settle down he'll probably get started on some more monuments and cities to pass the time.

 

[Magnum]

A lot of the army was dedicated to Alexander, especially those of Macedonian stock. If he makes it expressely known that he wants his son to succeed, and that general X is to be his regent, it will be very, very hard for someone to convince the Macedonian core of the army otherwise.

There are numerous examples of kingdoms and empires were succession runs smoothly, hence I'm not as 100% convinced as everyone else that civil war is inevitable after his death. Heck, IOTL, with the shitty succession situatin that we got, there were still people who went to great lengths to ensure stability.

 

[Kome]

I'm not sure how survivable Hephasteion's position is after Alexander's death.

You're the royal favourite who's power is based purely on having the King's ear. The king is now dead.

What's to stop one of the other generals eliminating Hephasteion? Especially since they've all had to spend time cultivating their own power bases within the army while Hephasteion will just have ben Alexander's right hand man.

Hm, guess it's debatable how much authority Chiliarch actually gave.

But disregarding that for a moment, historically there were a lot of factors that aided Perdiccas, who Hephasteion would be taking the place of had he still lived.

Firstly, the generals squabbled after Alexander's death but things didn't fall into open warfare until Ptolmey snatched Alexander's body (though cracks were already beginning to appear and the various plotting was going to lead to a flashpoint). Nobody actually died before that except Meleager though. And Cynane technically.

I mean, people are definitely going to be fighting against him, but they'll probably do it openly. On the field of battle after biding their time.

Secondly the mutiny kind of forced everyone's hand. Even if the generals wanted to try and remove Hephasteion from the equation immediately, when the infantry revolted the generals will rally behind him as the commanding officer of the Companion Cavalry. Because the alternative would be a civil war between infantry and cavalry and likely end up with them being lynched by their own soldiers.

So I'm not sure how successful Hephasteion would be in the long run, but he probably wouldn't/couldn't be eliminated immediately. Certainly couldn't do worse than Perdiccas. Plus Roxanne was cool with him right?

With that said, the ability to develop powerbases is an extremely important factor in the civil wars. You could notice that most of the actual diadochi were the people who had been left behind when Alexander marched east or obtained satrapys in areas where it was difficult for their rivals to threaten them. Perdiccas had no homebase he could retreat to and was forced to run around being the fireman for every threat to his power. It's possible (probably likely) Hephasteion would just end up falling into the same mistake if he's regent and then ends up getting shanked by Seleucus.

Course Hephasteion might not have been as heavy handed and alienating as Perdiccas was to his peers.

(I'm keeping the Hephasteion lives scenario seperate from the Alexander lives scenario, for simplicity).

A lot of the army was dedicated to Alexander, especially those of Macedonian stock. If he makes it expressely known that he wants his son to succeed, and that general X is to be his regent, it will be very, very hard for someone to convince the Macedonian core of the army otherwise.

There are numerous examples of kingdoms and empires were succession runs smoothly, hence I'm not as 100% convinced as everyone else that civil war is inevitable after his death. Heck, IOTL, with the shitty succession situatin that we got, there were still people who went to great lengths to ensure stability.

Some things were probably bound to happen. The Lamian War or the eastern mutiny for example. I agree that Alexander's death happened in pretty much the worst way for the empire possible though. Had he remained lucid and kept his decision making ability, things would have gone a lot better.

 

[Lee-Sensei]

Alexanders Empire surviving is highly unlikely given that he just wouldn't sit down to rule it. Someone like Philip II could build a Macedonian Empire to last, but not Alex.