Alexander the Great WI

I was wondering, what if Alexander had a few more near death experiences on his campaign through Persia, and happened to be saved most of those times by his friend Cleitus the Black. What if this, combined with Alexander having no children, resulted in Alexander named Cleitus as his heir, instead of slaying his oldest ally? Then, let's suppose that Alexander is killed in the plot against his life that resulted in the execution of Parmenion. Would an Argead Empire with a clear successor and no Indian territory to draw man power away be more likely to survive a little bit longer? Or was then Empire doomed from the start?
 

archaeogeek

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I was wondering, what if Alexander had a few more near death experiences on his campaign through Persia, and happened to be saved most of those times by his friend Cleitus the Black. What if this, combined with Alexander having no children, resulted in Alexander named Cleitus as his heir, instead of slaying his oldest ally? Then, let's suppose that Alexander is killed in the plot against his life that resulted in the execution of Parmenion. Would an Argead Empire with a clear successor and no Indian territory to draw man power away be more likely to survive a little bit longer? Or was then Empire doomed from the start?

Doomed but maybe not right away (see the mongol hordes, the timurid empire, persia under Nadir Shah, whose conquest partially seceded even if his dynasty stayed, somewhat, for about 50 years iirc); the periphery (Egypt, Macedon) might well break away under less powerful "quasi-satraps" with the core of the empire in a helleno-persian position. However it might mean Argead persia is in a more solid position to last there than the Seleucids were.
 
I think Alexander need more than one heir, as the Macedonian Empire at her largest extent was too big to be governed by one person...
How about three heirs, one for Greece-Anatolia, the other for Egypt-Syria, and then for Mesopotamia-Persia...? (not unlike OTL Antigonid-Ptolemaic-Seleucid partition)
And the most important of all, Alex must prevent them from fighting each other...
 
The Argead empire could still continue in its present size at least nominally. I can imagine the generals of Alexander carving off their own little dominions from Alexander's empire while continuing to pay lip service (at least in name) to the Argead king running things directly in Mesopotamia and Persia.
 
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