Alexander the Great's descendents as religious authority

In reading "Dividing the Spoils" by Robin Waterfield (for the third time) I got to thinking about how the Successors would meet in front of Alexander's throne with his robe seated on it, and how Alexander was worshipped as a god, the propaganda of Ptolemy having the body, of who was closer to the man, etc etc

What would need to be done, if possible, for the Successors to agree, instead of the decade of fighting over the Regency and General of Asia and of Europe and other titles and finally ending with "getting rid of" Alexander IV prior to his majority; how about making Alexander's son and his descendents the equivalent of the High Priest line descending from Aaron in Judaism. This could evolve into a Pope or Caliph like function. He represents the "God Alexander the Great", crowns kings, overseas temples, ceremonial things.

And if you find a way it's not ASB, do you think it could survive strong enough and spread to be recognized by Greek colonies in Sicily, Italy, and southern France? Could there be a cult following in Rome? After Rome expands into the East does the position continue? I can Zoroastrianism and it's offshoots throwing it out from Perisa/Iran. Can it stand up to Christianity and later also Islam?
 

Skallagrim

Banned
An exceptionally interesting idea. I must confess that I think it's going to be a long a shot, though. Not because the religious connotation is difficult to establish, but because most of the (leading) Successors wanted control over the empire for themselves. Perdikkas would probably be the most suited to go for this, since it solves his problems: he gets to govern, while also honouring Alexander's heir. Perfect legitimacy. It could then crystallise into a system whereby the Regent (Perdikkas and his descendants) is sort of like a powerful Shogun, while the "God-Emperor" (Alexander IV and his descendants) is formally the head of state, but has no real political power.

Yet... all the others would understand that this puts Perdikkas in power. And he was the one initially backing Alexander IV's right to (eventually) rule. All the others soon proved more willing to fight in their own name. Of course, if Perdikkas comes up with this formula early on, he can prevent a break in certain loyalties, and keep some of the "lesser players" on his side. It damages the legitimacy of anyone who fights in his own name. But seveal of the OTl Successors will still do so. Prolemaios is going to Egypt and will set up shop there, just as in OTL. Seleukos will probably do the same. As for Makedon itself... well, if Perdikkas can get enough backing to clearly be the legitimist party, I'd wager Antipatros sides with him (much to the ire of Kassandros, who will certainly remain a problem).

I fear there will be too many who are eager to fight in their own name, which would deny Perdikkas the momentum and the critical mass he desperately needs to be the legitimate faction. But let's assume he does it. Let's also assume that Seleukos sets up shop in the eastern Persia, while Ptolemaios splits off Aigyptos as per OTL. Perdikkas is then regent of the remained of the empire, and with those major competitors outside of it, he can conceivably stay firmly in charge. He can then start shaping the system, whereby Alexander the Great (and his entire line) is basically cast in a more religious light. Potentially, he can get Olympias in on this, by making it clear that if she goes along with it, she gets to be "high priestess" in the cult of her son and grandson, but if she refuses she'll die in a terrible accident that cannot possibly be traced back to Perdikkas.

Keeping the (already reduced) empire together is hard enough, so let's forget about conquest. I think both Seleukos and Ptolemaios will be eager not to be part of the empire, so they'll firmly reject the imperial "Alexander cult". Greek colonies to the west will reject it for similar reasons, probably. So this religion will be inherently tied to the empire. As for the position in Rome... well, lots of Roman leaders idolised Alexander. Would that be the same here? Perhaps. But in this ATL, the "Alexander cult" is inherently tied to the still-existing empire. It's something they do. In OTL, Alexander could be recast (ahistorically) as a paragon of the entire western world, because he left no united empire. He was like a singular event. In this world, the empire is his legacy, so I suspect Romans will look at him more like they looked at Cyrus the Great: a mighty and respected leader, but by definition a foreigner. If Rome conquers the Alexandrian? (Argeadic?) empire, I'm not sure they'll just embrace the Alexander cult. And that's if the conquer it. This is a very different world, where the successors do not wage bloody war for decades, and any alt-Hellenistic era is vastly different. The empire might be a match for Rome, which they never subdue.

In any case, I'm sure that a POD this early will utterly prevent the existence of Christrianity and Islam, so that part won't really be relevant...
 
Not sure how possible this would be without at least 1 descendant spoiling it, but I love the idea and don't think it is fully impossible.
 
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...rectors-cut-a-casteless-hellenic-india.36207/
The main POD is that Alexander did not die at the age of 33. Instead, after a respite in Babylon, he continued his campaign into India, dying at the age of 54 shortly after the end of this last campaign in the city of Cochin in South Western India. He left behind a 15 year old bastard son, Heraklios Vishnuputra, sired on an Indian concubine while he was on campaign.

Soon after his death, the generals he had left behind to govern his conquered provinces in Asia and Greece rebelled, as per OTL. Devastating wars raged across the Empire, nowhere more fierce than in India itself where many supporters of the usurpers sought to kill Heraklios and so extinguish the dynastic claims of Alexander. These wars and the dreadful plagues that came with them almost completely destroyed the societal fabric of India and when the dust settled, the usurpers had siezed all the major regions of the Empire but India itself where a group of loyalists had fought on behalf of the young Emperor Heraklios and, as he matured, under him. His throne secured, Heraklios set about resturcturing the shattered subcontinent in what would prove to be a unique fusion of Hellenic and Indian culture. The caste system had been broken, cast aside in the need for all available resources to be devoted to the Diadochi war. Heraklios formalised this, decreeing that caste was henceforth abolished- now the only distinction to be made was to be between aristocrat, freeman and slave. The shattered populace of India was unable to resist.

Furthermore, Heraklios decreed that his father Alexander was a god. It was announced that the Divine Alexander was, in fact, the Tenth Avatar of Vishnu, come to break Caste and begin a new era of order and enlightenment. A mighty temple was erected to him in Cochin, the city where the God-among-Men had chosen to take leave of the physical world and the city was renamed Alexandria Herakles in honour of the Incarnation and of his son.
 
In reading "Dividing the Spoils" by Robin Waterfield (for the third time) I got to thinking about how the Successors would meet in front of Alexander's throne with his robe seated on it, and how Alexander was worshipped as a god, the propaganda of Ptolemy having the body, of who was closer to the man, etc etc

What would need to be done, if possible, for the Successors to agree, instead of the decade of fighting over the Regency and General of Asia and of Europe and other titles and finally ending with "getting rid of" Alexander IV prior to his majority; how about making Alexander's son and his descendents the equivalent of the High Priest line descending from Aaron in Judaism. This could evolve into a Pope or Caliph like function. He represents the "God Alexander the Great", crowns kings, overseas temples, ceremonial things.

And if you find a way it's not ASB, do you think it could survive strong enough and spread to be recognized by Greek colonies in Sicily, Italy, and southern France? Could there be a cult following in Rome? After Rome expands into the East does the position continue? I can Zoroastrianism and it's offshoots throwing it out from Perisa/Iran. Can it stand up to Christianity and later also Islam?

Alexander was also a Pharaoh, thus a recognied god
 
Alexander was also a Pharaoh, thus a recognied god

Dubious at best and not really recognized outside of Egypt. I can't see all the successors agreeing to the Egyptian Ideology.



An obvious way would be a POD that had Alexander surviving longer and consolidating his power more, resulting in less of a split and more time for a cult following to become embedded in people's way of thinking, like the Pharaohs of Egypt and God-Kings of Persia. But this isn't something that can be accepted by most in the time Alexander had.

If Perdiccas( or maybe Antipater? ) and say Ptolemy , one as regent in control of Alexander IV, the other owning of the corpse and Egypt which has the ideological grounding, joined forces and somehow took that view point they would have a vested interest in keeping Alexander IV alive and continuing along the theme, but it's quite tricky to explain what could make them do that instead of following OTL.

I'm not sure it would be possible for all to take the view point, your best bet would be to have one or two successors deciding on it and then having greater success in the early parts of Diadochi wars for other reasons, and as you really need Alexander IV to survive for it to work, you might start running into two many ASB's here.
 
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