AHC: Wank Zalmoxism

I've recently become interested in the figure of Zalmoxis, the possibly mythical prophet who, per Herodotus (not always the most reliable source but I haven't seen much concrete evidence against this story, and man is it fun), was a slave of Pythagoras in Greece who learned philosophy before being freed, becoming massively wealthy, and then returning across the Danube to his native Dacia, where he would convert the locals to a new religion, with himself at the center, that had an emphasis on eternal life after death that bore a vague similarity to later Christianity. He would be worshiped as a god by the Dacians and Getae for centuries after his own death.

But what if Zalmoxis, a man already charismatic and ambitious enough to achieve the closest thing humanly possible to a literal apotheosis, went even further? What if he managed to expand his following to the other Thracian tribes to the south? And what if, with a massive following at his back, he decided to take revenge on the Greeks who had once enslaved him? While the timing of exactly when Zalmoxism arose seems hazy, if we take Herodotus at his word on Zalmoxis having been affiliated with Pythagoras this invasion could be coming around the time of the Persian attempts to conquer Greece, which could lead to some interesting dynamics (read: glorious chaos).

It seems unlikely to me that a Zalmoxian mega-Thrace could survive Zalmoxis' death as a united polity, or that it could hold Greece (though, then again, the Macedonians somewhat managed it, albeit under very different circumstances and with two spectacular leaders in a row, one of them being Alexander, who doesn't obey normal rules of plausibility). However, the impacts of this invasion on Greece would nonetheless be massive, as would the idea of a united pan-Thracian state being planted in the minds of the Thracian people, who also now have a (somewhat) unified faith to recoalesce behind in the future. Even without a successful invasion of Greece, the impacts of a religiously united Thrace seem potentially enormous.

Alternatively, putting aside Zalmoxis as an individual, how far could his faith have spread beyond Thrace? Its concept of the afterlife seems a potentially powerful idea that, had it gotten traction, perhaps in a Rome that for whatever reason is more invested in and thus more exposed to Dacia, could have spread far, even without political success.
 

SwampTiger

Banned
Such a religion, with adequate proselytism could make inroads into Macedonia and the Pontine steppe. Apparently, Germanic traditions included similar figures.

Dacia/Thrace would need an organizer with vision of Philip of Macedon to develop an army to strike south. A push north in the Slavic/Germanic/Keltic heartlands is possible, but does not provide the wealth of Greece, Anatolia or southern Italy of the time. If the timeline begins during the life of Pythagoras, this stronger Dacia will threaten the Persian expeditions into Greece. It may result in a trade alliance with Persia, with the Dacians controlling the Balkan peoples and Persia holding the Greek coast.
 
Whilst I think it unlikely that Zalmoxis existed ot that his philosophy was pythagorean (weirdly, describing a foreign philosophy/religion as pythagorean seems to br a stand in for "it sounds complicated but too foreign for me to pay attention to" in the ancient med), I am more than happy to work with this.

The spear trial itself seems very fertile for symbolism, and I could see northern Europe being known as the land of the spears in such a TL.

The question is, how likely is it for Zalmoxianism to be inclusive?
OTL, philosophically early or isolated (relatively) tended to focus more on an ethnic idea of worship rather than universalism. Zoroastrianism for instance theoretically is entirely universalist, but has encouraged a general lack of conversion to non Persians for millenia.

As such, I think it more likely to be a small religion, but like any small religion it can have massive potential in its descendants.
 
Perhaps the religion spreads to nearby Macedon, where it it melded with elements of Greek philosophy and becomes more organized, both theologically and organizationally. Years down the line, this world's version of Alexander the Great goes on his great campaigns... but like the early Muslim conquerors, his aim is to spread Zalmoxism throughout Greece, the Eastern Mediterranean, Persia, and beyond.

Sure, this probably treads on the edges of ASB, but then again, the life of Alexander as it actually happened was very nearly ASB anyway.
 
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