With the #1, a great victory becomes more imperative to forget the defeat. The “easy” conquest of Carthage could allow it.
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
Good update. Maybe Alexander can focus on continuing the integration of the different people in his empire instead of mindlessly adding new territories,.
Nice update. Like Napoleon, Alexander was bound to lose a battle if he kept campaigning. That there was scarcely a more formidable contemporary opponent than Chandra Gupta would be to Alexander's credit. If there is any military upside to the campaign, at least the losses were mostly suffered by the Empire's nearly inexhaustible supply of Persian auxiliaries, not by the Empire's very finite supply of Macedonian Phalanx available in the East. At that time it probably took nine months minimum to travel from Pella to Ecbatana, and closer to a year to reach Bactria, so a prolonged Indian campaign would have been impossible without the trained Persians substituting for Macedonians.
By the way, has this new Indian campaign led to an expanded Greek presence in the Arabian Sea? The sailors who survived the voyage home from Alexander's first Indian campaign should have brought back detailed maps of that region, opening it up to navigation and exploration by Hellenic explorers. This could lead to Greek, rather than Indian sailor establishing trade routes to Taprobane (Sri Lanka) and beyond at an early date. With the Canal of the Pharaohs either under construction, or already completed, this could lead to substantial Greek presence in the Indian Ocean.
By the way, has this new Indian campaign led to an expanded Greek presence in the Arabian Sea? The sailors who survived the voyage home from Alexander's first Indian campaign should have brought back detailed maps of that region, opening it up to navigation and exploration by Hellenic explorers. This could lead to Greek, rather than Indian sailor establishing trade routes to Taprobane (Sri Lanka) and beyond at an early date. With the Canal of the Pharaohs either under construction, or already completed, this could lead to substantial Greek presence in the Indian Ocean.
I thought it was a good, realistic update there. It's unfortunate Alexander should lose but it can only be expected. I think I prefer option 1, invading Carthage so suddenly in the previous timeline was quite a tangent.
Carthage can wait perhaps until they are bucking heads with the Romans, that is, assuming the Romans don't get swallowed up by the Argeads fist.
I just want to say again that this TL is brilliant! I really like what you're doing here!
Carthage can wait perhaps until they are bucking heads with the Romans, that is, assuming the Romans don't get swallowed up by the Argeads fist.
I just want to say again that this TL is brilliant! I really like what you're doing here!
Deleted member 5909
The Reign of Alexandros Basileus Theos
Part IV: The Final Years of the King
310 B.C. – 299 B.C.
“All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.” -- Sōkratēs.
Upon returning to Babylōn in October, 310 B.C., Alexandros Megas is hailed as a returning hero. Despite his failures to extend his possessions to the banks of the Gangēs, his recent conquests are seen as nothing short of remarkable. After all, not even the Persian king Kyros Megas had been able to conquer India and extend his empire beyond the Indos Valley. Indeed, the King of Kings even personally visits the tomb of the famed Persian king at Pasargadai on his return from India in July, 310 B.C., personally sacrificing there. In a move that will greatly increase his popularity with his oriental subjects, Alexandros also orders that the nearby ancient Persian capital of Persepolis, sacked and ruined by his troops in 330 B.C., be rebuilt—though the construction will not completed until 295 B.C.
In Sousa that spring, a series of victory games are instituted in his honor, while in Ekbatana and Babylōn, altars are erected to Athēna Nikē and her Persian counterpart, Anāhitā. The King of Kings even assumes the victory title of “Neos Dionysos”, in reference to the deity’s own mythical conquest of India. However, despite these many celebrations and honors, Alexandros Megas is a broken man. The King of Kings perceives his past victories over Chandragupta Maurya as meaningless when weighed against his defeats at Mathurā and Iōmanēs. Indeed, while these setbacks pass seemingly unnoticed amongst his subjects and courtiers, Alexandros views them as a great blow.
While his stratēgoi encourage him to now look west and extend the empire even further, Alexandros once again sinks into another of his black depressions by the fall of 309 B.C. Despite the fact that he is still relatively young, being just past his forty-seventh year, the King of Kings’ health is worn out from a lifetime of hard living and military campaigns. The death of his mother Olympias at Pella the following spring in 308 B.C., arguably his closest confidant, only weakens his resolve. Rather than honor his mother's final wishes and allow her to be buried at the Macedonian royal necropolis near Aigai, Alexandros instead orders her ashes brought to Babylōn and entombed near Sousa. Further, the King of Kings goes to great lengths to honor the memory of his formidable mother, deifying her as the goddess Olympias Theotokos ("Olympias the God-Bearer").
Though Babylōn remains the royal seat, the restless warlord and his court migrate seasonally, generally spending the summer months in Ekbatana and the spring in Sousa. Under the influence of his Persian wife, Queen Stateira, the King of Kings, already having adopted the diadem and the striped tunic of the Persian kings, soon adopts other oriental royal trappings, such as the purple mantel and the sacred royal fires, emphasizing his legitimacy as Great King of the Persians and the Medes, and the mythical shared ancestry of the Argeads and the Achaemanids with the Greek hero Perseus.
The royal court of Alexandros Megas itself is famed throughout the known world for its unprecedented wealth and luxury. Emissaries from Hellas, having been raised on tales of the effeminate weakness and decadence of the former Achaemenid Empire are especially unnerved by the degree to which even the Macedonian elite have adopted oriental customs. Indeed, the fact that many of the Macedonian aristocrats and commanders at court have now taken Persian wives is enough in and of itself, but the insistence of some upon blackening their eyes with kohl and wearing exotic silks and bejeweled costumes just as their Persian counterparts is almost too much. Further, the fact that Alexandros Megas, a Greek ruler, now insists on prostration in his presence and thinks himself to be a living god is taken as a sign that he and his stratēgoi have, in effect, ‘gone native’—though this is of course ignorant of the fact that the Macedonians have also kept many of their own customs, and brought a great deal of the finer points of Hellenic culture to the east. Rather than subjugate the powerful Persian aristocracy of the Achaemenid Empire, Alexandros Megas has, in line with his policy of syncretism and cultural fusion, welcomed them at his court on equal terms with his own fellow Macedonians.
Alexandros Megas, meanwhile, abandons himself to a life of pleasure and oriental luxury, spending his time hunting, drinking, and indulging in debauched orgies with his many concubines and page boys in the famed gardens of the Palace of Naboukhodonosōr—by 305 B.C., it is rumored that the King of Kings has a private slave harem of over 400 women and youths at his disposal. This of course has not impacted his virility in the marriage bed, bringing the issue of succession to the forefront. With his first wife, Queen Rōxanē, the King of Kings has managed to sire three children, of which only one, his namesake Alexandros, has managed to survive infancy. Queen Stateira has also born Alexandros Megas a surviving son, Philippos, born during the Arabian campaign in 320 B.C., and a daughter, Kleopatra (b. 315 B.C.). Finally, his fourth wife, the Mauryan princess Prāsādavatī (1), has managed to bear him two sons, Kyros (b. 309 B.C.) and Amyntas (b. 307 B.C.).
While Queen Rōxanē’s son, the prince Alexandros, has proven his father’s favorite throughout much of his reign, it is Queen Stateira who gains ascendancy at the royal court after the return from India. Playing upon her husband’s declining state in order to increase her own influence; she encourages him in his excesses and caters to his delusions of divinity. The Persian queen soon realizes that the key to power lies in controlling access to her husband’s person. She soon reinstitutes a much of the ancient Persian court ceremony and ritual, isolating Alexandros from his courtiers and stratēgoi and insisting upon his divinity. Queen Stateira even goes so far as to reintroduce the more obscure Achaemenid royal customs, such as having the King of Kings conduct the majority of his audiences behind the screen of a veiled throne, shielding him from the profane eyes of mortals.
By late 307 B.C., power at the royal court is soon concentrated into the hands of a small and exclusive click, known to their enemies as the “Persian Cabal”. The group consists of Queen Stateira, her sister the princess Drypetis—widow of the king’s beloved Hēphaistiōn—and the aging eunuch Bogoas, a former lover of Alexandros. The Cabal effectively manages to monopolize all royal patronage and influence, manipulating the suspicions of the king for their own ends.
Meanwhile, having need of assistance in the governing of his vast territories, and bowing to pressure from the Synedrion, Alexandros Megas recalls his khiliarkhos Perdikkas from India in 309 B.C. and replaces him as satrapēs there with Kassandros, the son of Antipatros having proven himself an able governor in Maketa during the period following the Arabian campaign. Perdikkas, however, is soon seen as a threat by the Cabal. Queen Stateira soon manages to poison the king’s mind against the able and loyal Perdikkas, convincing him that his failures in India were due only to the ill counsel and negligence of the khiliarkhos. As a result, Perdikkas is accused of conspiring treason and put to death in the spring of 306 B.C.
As there are few remaining courtiers, Macedonian or Persian, who are of sufficient rank and who retain the confidence of both the King of Kings and the Synedrion, Queen Stateira is forced to compromise and decline to block the appointment of Ptolemaios as khiliarkhos in June, 306 B.C. This essentially leaves Ptolemaios in de facto control of the administration, due to the Cabal’s lack of interest in governing the empire. Indeed, this will prove Queen Stateira’s greatest mistake, as she has not only managed to shut out a great deal of both the Macedonian and old Persian ruling elite, but also provided for the development of a parallel system of patronage in the royal administration and military, under the control of the khiliarkhos (2).
Determined to secure the succession for her son, Queen Stateira finally manages to rid herself of Queen Rōxanē in 305 B.C., at least temporarily. That summer, she manages to convince Alexandros Megas to dispatch both the queen and her son to distant Zariaspa, engineering the eighteen year old prince’s appointment as satrapēs of Baktrianē. The situation does not last long, however. Having shut Ptolemaios out of power directly by limiting his access to King Alexandros, the khiliarkhos soon turns against Queen Stateira in the fall of 304 B.C., allying himself with Queen Rōxanē through regular correspondence and intriguing with other members of the Synedrion and dissatisfied courtiers.
It is Ptolemaios’ own force of will which wins out in the end. Drawing upon his childhood friendship with Alexandros and the king’s long held trust, Ptolemaios finally manages to overcome the Cabal’s influence and sway to the king to recall Queen Rōxanē and her son from Zariaspa in September 303 B.C. By the time that the prince Alexandros and his mother arrive in Sousa in the spring of 302 B.C., King Alexandros Megas’ health is in clear decline—though the Cabal has managed to keep this hidden from most of the royal court. Nevertheless rumors abound that the King of Kings is failing and the court is awash with intrigue.
Ptolemaios himself proves instrumental in brokering peace between the two queens, despite his personal inclinations towards Rōxanē. While Stateira and her party still command much of the King of Kings’ influence, Ptolemaios has the loyalty of the army and the royal guard, and in the event of the king’s death, could easily use this to whatever candidate’s advantage he saw fit. It is the aging khiliarkhos who thus ironically masterminds the so-called “Ladies’ Peace of 301 B.C.” Under the terms of the private agreement, Philippos will refrain from making a bid for the throne, and in compensation, will receive India upon his father’s death. The royal prince Alexandros will succeed his father, but in return, to seal the peace agreement, agrees to wed his half-sister Kleopatra in the old eastern fashion—Queen Stateira herself being the product of a union between half-siblings. Thus in March, 300 B.C., Alexandros Megas, through the influence of Ptolemaios and without contest from Queen Stateira, names the prince Alexandros as his co-ruler in order to encourage a smoother transition of power. The twenty-three year old prince is proclaimed at Babylōn as King Alexandros IV. The following month at Sousa, he weds his half-sister, thus finally fulfilling the terms of the Ladies Peace.
King Alexandros III does not long survive his son’s elevation. On August 2, 299 B.C., the mighty warlord dies at Ekbatana, in the very same room as Hēphaistiōn twenty five years earlier. It is said that in his final hours on his deathbed, his mind lost in delirium, Alexandros repeatedly calls out for his beloved Hēphaistiōn.
Notes:
(1) Queen Parysatis, Alexandros Megas’ third wife, wed to him along with her cousin Stateira at Sousa in 324 B.C. bore the King of Kings no surviving children and was probably poisoned by either Rōxanē or Stateira during the Arabian campaign.
(2) Ironically, this will have the effect of fostering unity between both the Macedonian and Persian families—many of whom already bound by ties of marriage since the Weddings at Sousa in 324 B.C.—encouraging them to ally against the Cabal.
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Deleted member 5909
The Reign of Alexandros IV Philopatōr Sōtēr
Part I: Funeral Games
299 B.C. - 298 B.C.
299 B.C. - 298 B.C.
“…and unto you, son of Zeus, I loyally deliver and submit my breath, my speech, my heart, and my body to your most august person. May Zeus Ōromazdēs and all the nymphs of the river Styx witness my oath and bind me ever thus to you, King of Kings.” --from the text of the oath of fealty sworn by the personal bodyguards of King Alexandros III Megas.
The new King Alexandros IV is at his father’s bedside at Ekbatana in his final hours. Within days of his father’s death, acting upon the advice of his mother Queen Rōxanē, he wisely decides to retain Ptolemaios as khiliarkhos, having not forgotten his loyalty during the uncertain years of his father’s later reign. While the death of the king is initially concealed from the court for several days in order to secure the transition of power, it is announced three days later that Alexandros Megas, having been a living god, has now grown weary of the world and ascended to Mount Olympos to join his divine father Zeus Ammōn.
Rather than honor his pact with Queen Stateira, the new King of Kings instead orders that both she and his half-brother be strangled, having them murdered in the middle of the night by the royal guard that same week. Further, determined to rid himself of any potential threats to his power, King Alexandros also has his young brothers Kyros and Amyntas summarily put to death, though he spares the life of their mother Queen Prāsādavatī, having her exiled to far off island of Naxos for the rest of her days. Over the next few days, he purges the royal court of the Cabal and its supporters, having both Drypetis and Bogoas beheaded.
Despite this brutal rise to power, King Alexandros is no monster. At this point he is mostly acting upon the advice of both his mother and Ptolemaios. In order to ensure family unity, he spares the life of his wife and half-sister, Queen Kleopatra, seeing little reason to repudiate her despite the shift in court alliances. Indeed, the marriage not only strengthens his support amongst the old Persian aristocracy by maintaining the last surviving link with the Achaemenid dynasty, but also ensures the perpetuation of the myth of his father’s divinity—after all, as the son of the great god Alexandros Megas, he is obliged out of filial piety to keep the purity of the royal bloodline and sire divine children. The union of the king with his half-sister in time will produce three surviving children: a son, Philippos (b. 298 B.C.), and two daughters, Laodikē (b. 297 B.C.) and Barsinē (b. 290 B.C.).
Thirty days of public mourning are declared throughout the empire for Alexandros Megas, and in accordance with Persian custom, the royal fires are extinguished for that time. In addition, the late king is honored with the most magnificent funeral games ever seen before or since at Sousa, accompanied by sacrifices and other mortuary rites. The body of Alexandros Megas is embalmed, preserved in honey and entombed at the Alexandreum in Babylōn, a massive temple recently constructed near the Esaglia to house the new royal cult. In accordance with Hellenic custom, Alexandros Megas is then deified under the posthumous name of Alexandros Basileus Theos (“Alexandros the God King”). In should be noted that, in honor of his revered father and to emphasis his own divine connections, King Alexandros assumes the surname of Philopatōr (“Father-loving”) upon his enthronement at Babylōn that November--at which time the fires of the royal cult are relit in the Alexandreum and elsewhere.
Nevertheless, all is not well. While the core of the Argead Empire remains consolidated, thanks in part to the good sense of Alexandros Megas in retaining the Achaemenid system of administration, rebellions soon break out on the frontiers.
In India, Kassandros, having long bided his time to seize power, soon revolts in the winter of 298 B.C. He is soon supported in no small part by the Mauryans, who see their own chance to once again extend their influence west with the demise of Alexandros Megas. With the death of the late king’s old rival, Chandragupta Maurya that same year, his son, the new Mauryan Samrāt Bindusara, pledges his support to the satrapēs in the spring of 298 B.C., promising to recognize Kassandros as king in Indikē in return for his oath of loyalty to the Mauryan Empire, which Kassandros readily accepts, hoping to found his own dynasty from his seat at Sangala—the assumption of the title of basileus without prior authorization from Babylōn being tantamount to treason. However, King Bindusara has little real intention of maintaining Kassandros in the west, and only wishes to use him as a buffer against the Argead Empire as long as it is in line with Mauryan interests.
In Hellas, the League of Korinthos also rebels against the King of Kings, refusing to recognize King Alexandros as its new hēgemōn. Led by the Athenians and the Corinthians, the League allies itself with Sparta in the south—at this time the only significant independent Greek power in the Balkans. The League however, does not see its actions as treacherous; the body’s governing council insisting upon its right to elect its own leadership. Further, the Greeks have long been discontent under the rule of Alexandros Megas, slowly becoming alienated by what they have viewed as the increasing Orientalization of the Argeads and their adoption of the trappings of the Persian kings. A majority of the city-states now view King Alexandros, himself half-Persian, as nothing more than an barbaric Oriental despot in line with such historical figures as King Xerxēs. In the mind of the League of Korinthos, it is the sacred duty of all citizens to oppose the new Persian tyranny and preserve their independence.
The aging Krateros, still satrapēs in Makedonia, however is unable to effectively put down the Greek rebellion. Over the past few years, with the decline of Alexandros Megas, the commander has been faced with increasing raids on the frontiers by the advancing Gallic peoples, whose tribes have, over the span of the last two decades, managed to invade Illyria and are now harassing the northern frontiers of Makedonia and Ēpeiros. Indeed, by the summer of 298 B.C., led by the chieftain Kambaulēs, they have managed to penetrate as far as Khaonia in Ēpeiros. Obliged to help his ally, the Argead vassal King Aiakidēs of Ēpeiros deal with the advancing Keltoi, Krateros soon finds himself far too tied up in the north to put down the revolt of the League of Korinthos and sends for aid to Babylōn.
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Deleted member 5909
The Reign of Alexandros IV Philopatōr Sōtēr
Part II: The Laconian War
298 B.C. - 292 B.C.
298 B.C. - 292 B.C.
“…remember my most beloved and sacred Lord, that the peoples of Hellas have always been prone to willfulness against the rule of others. All the gold of Midas could not buy their love, so let them fear you instead.” --from the Sangala Letters, correspondence between King Alexandros IV and the general Antiokhos during the Wars of Succession.
Faced with a war on two fronts, King Alexandros IV decides to personally lead the Balkan campaign against the rebellious League of Korinthos in the spring of 298 B.C. The young King of Kings knows that his metal is about to be tested, and he wishes to emulate his divine father, who was also faced with a Hellenic revolt in the early years of his reign. In May, 298 B.C., King Alexandros moves his court north to Arbēla, in order to personally oversee preparations for his western campaign. That same month, the King of Kings selects the newly appointed sōmatophylax Antiokhos (1), to lead the Indian campaign in the east and put down Kassandros’ rebellion (2).
Due to the delays involved in levying the number of troops needed for both campaigns, King Alexandros does not march west from Arbēla until the late fall of 298 B.C. The army consists of over 50,000 troops, including 15,000 cavalry—including the famed hetairoi, the 5,000 elite riders of the royal guard, 32,000 infantry, 3,000 charioteers, and nearly 500 war elephants specially brought from the east. In Babylōn, Alexandros Philopatōr wisely opts to leave his mother Queen Rōxanē as regent, with Ptolemaios serving as her advisor.
The king and his hosts reach Ilion in November, 297 B.C. There, in perhaps one of the most delicate maneuvers of ingenuity, the massive army, including the elephant cavalry, manages to safely cross the Hellēspontos by lining up a flotilla of sixteen triremes across the straight and marching over the sea—the ships previously having been moored off the coast of Ephesos earlier that year for such a purpose. Arriving in Abydos, the force continues west, marching through the plains of Thrakē and finally meeting with the Macedonian garrison at Pella in February, 296 B.C.
Krateros having died of old age three months prior to the king’s arrival, the satrapeia of Makedonia has found itself under the provisional command of the stratēgos Dēmētrios, son of the late Antigonos, satrapēs of Phrygia. Upon arriving in Pella, King Alexandros confirms Dēmētrios as satrapēs and supplies him with reinforcements for renewed offensive against the Keltoi that spring. The King of Kings also meets with his vassal King Aiakidēs of Ēpeiros, from whom he learns the true extent of the situation in Hellas. With the Argeads and their allies occupied with the Keltoi in the north, the League of Korinthos has essentially been able to function independently and raise its own army in preparation for conflict with Babylōn. The governing council of the League has elected King Arkhidamos IV of Sparta as its new hēgemōn at Argos in the summer of 297 B.C., agreeing to temporarily place power in the hands of a Greek in hopes of finally driving out the Argeads. The king has managed to raise an army of over 35,000 and is now preparing to face the King of Kings.
Marching south with his forces in the spring of 296 B.C., King Alexandros invades the lands of Thessalia. While King Arkhidamos attempts to evade the king in order to buy more time, the two forces finally meet at Larissa on June 19, 296 B.C. There Alexandros Philopatōr proves to be his father’s son and true heir. While the Greeks fight bravely, the King of Kings manages to effectively route their entire army by driving his elephants into their advance, smashing through the League’s ranks and forcing its troops to scatter. Taking advantage of the confusion, King Alexandros personally leads the charge of his cavalry into the fray, cutting down the Greeks as they flee. In the end, 18,000 Greeks lie dead in the fields of Larissa in the worst defeat in Spartan history since Leuktra in 371 B.C.
Retreating south, King Arkhidamos hopes to gather fresh troops in Peloponnēsos, the League now being badly outnumbered by the advancing Argeads. However, King Alexandros refuses to allow this, wishing to quickly crush what remains of the rebels and secure an early victory before they are able to prolong the conflict and levy reinforcements. Marching his army south, he abandons a majority of his elephants in Phōkis near the city of Delphoi in July, not daring to take them over the perilous mountain passes of southern Hellas. At the Isthmos in September, he finds the city of Korinthos relatively undefended by the League’s forces who have now retreated farther south in the wake of his advance. In symbolic retribution for its revolt against his rule, King Alexandros orders the seat of the League of Korinthos to be sacked and looted by his men, cruelly ordering that a third of the population be sold into slavery, a third be put to the sword and the rest spared and insisting upon the citizens drawing lots in order to determine their fate.
Continuing south, Alexandros Philopatōr manages to finally cut off the retreat of King Arkhidamos in Arkadia in November, 296 B.C. There at Tegea, the remaining forces of the League of Korinthos make their final stand against the Argead Empire and Oriental tyranny in one of the finest examples of Hellenic nobility since the times of Thermopylai and Marathōnos. Nevertheless, King Alexandros manages to massacre a majority of what remains of the Hellenic army, including King Arkhidamos himself, who, having survived the battle, honorable falls upon his own sword in the example of the hero Ajax.
Having thus crushed the rebellion in Hellas, the King of Kings proceeds to punish its peoples for their hubris. The following spring, King Alexandros and his forces brutally sack and pillage the cities of Argos, Athēnai, Megara and Thēbai, carrying off a great deal of treasure and destroying many of the cities’ famed civic monuments. Only Delphoi, Olympia and Eleusis are spared, the superstitious King of Kings fearing to desecrate the sites of the most sacred games in Hellas, the holy oracle of Apollōn, or the most ancient mystery cult in the Known World respectively. Sparta itself suffers a special fate, King Alexandros determined to finally subjugate the unconquered city and exert his dominance over the Peloponnēsos. The city is burned and destroyed, the fields sewn with salt, the temples and treasuries looted, and its inhabitants collectively sold into slavery. Much later in his reign, the king will erect a massive rock cut mural near the city’s ruins in order to commend his victory over the once mighty Spartans and preserve its memory for future generations.
In September, 294 B.C., King Alexandros appoints Lagos, son of Ptolemaios by his Persian wife Artakama, as his satrapēs in Hellas at Delphoi. Further, the King of Kings formally dissolves the League of Korinthos and directly annexes its territories to the Argead Empire, suspending the constitutions of the city-states and replacing their governments with appointed tyrannoi. His work in Hellas finally completed, the King of Kings marches north to Makedonia, in order to aide Dēmētrios in defeating the Keltoi barbarians.
Alexandros Philopatōr, having proceeded to gather many of his waiting elephants at Delphoi, finally joins with his Dēmētrios and his cousin King Aiakidēs at Pēlion in the late spring of 293 B.C. By this time, both Dēmētrios and the Epirote king are immensely weary from several years of inconclusive combat with the Gallic chieftain Kambaulēs and are in desperate need of reinforcements and supplies. Indeed, with the majority of resources focused on the rebellion of the Greeks in the south, Dēmētrios has been forced to rely heavily on Illyrian mercenaries.
After months of light skirmishes, King Alexandros and his seasoned veterans finally manage to lure Kambaulēs and his advancing Keltoi army into open warfare on the plains outside the frontier town of Khrysondyōna on October 9, 293 B.C. Using the advantage of numbers to devastating effect, Alexandros Philopatōr overwhelms the Keltoi in a two pronged attack, pinning them between the two advancing wings of his army and decimating their ranks. Kambaulēs barely escapes with his life and is forced to retreat north into the wilds of Illyria, thus finally driving the Keltoi from the northern frontiers of Makedonia—at least for the time being.
Leaving his satrapai with generous garrisons, in order to guard against further raids and keep order in Hellas, King Alexandros IV finally departs for Babylōn in February, 292 B.C. Though he has secured the security of the western frontiers and finally managed to break the rebellious spirit of the Greeks and subjugate the lands of Hellas, he leaves behind him a trail of destruction and corpses of such magnitude that the peoples of the Balkans have never before seen.
Notes
(1) The son of Seleukos, satrapēs of Arabia by his Persian bride Apama, Antiokhos commands the confidence of both the Persian and Macedonian elements of the court and army and is significant in that he is the first of his generation of shared Greco-Persian ancestry to hold such a high command. Antiokhos is also the childhood companion of King Alexandros IV, having been raised at the royal court, as well as the king’s former lover during his youth—he is often referred to by later generations as “the Hēphestiōn of the fourth Alexandros.”
(2) For the Second Mauryan War and the Indian campaign of Antiokhos, see Part III.
Deleted member 5909
Stay tuned for the final part of the succession wars and what became of Antiokhos (and a new map).
Coming soon:
Coming soon:
The Reign of Alexandros IV Philopator Soter
Part III: The Second Mauryan War
Part III: The Second Mauryan War
Deleted member 5909
All in good time...You're like a TV narrator.
I hope the Argeads can thrash on the Mauryans.
Deleted member 5909
So, I'd like everyone's input. I have a somewhat ambitious plan for TTL. What does everyone think of an Argead Empire that manages to last for quite some time in Persia, in one form or another?
The bounds of the empire will of course fluctuate over the centuries, but the core will remain Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia. Over time of course the Argeads will continue to Orientalize, though there will be a distinct Hellenic flavor to it all. I'm toying with the idea of eventually having the Great Kings embrace and promote some form of Mazdaism (though of course, a very different version than that of OTL, with more of a Hindu flavor), perhaps around OTL move towards monotheism in the third century of the Common Era. Maybe there will even be something of a Persian language revival just as with the adoption of Greek in the OTL Byzantine Empire. This will of course not happen for several centuries, and only then slowly if at all.
I'd like the kings to derive their legitimacy from descent from Alexander the Great, and thus he will factor into the eventual state religion somehow. I'm thinking more along the lines of the continuity of the OTL Japanese Imperial House, or at least in the way that OTL Persian rulers all sought to emphasize their connections to the Achaemenid Dynasty.
I'm still not sure how Rome and Carthage are going to factor into version 2.0. I've considered somehow removing Rome from the equation, but I know how popular the Roman Empire is with so many readers, so perhaps I'll let it remain as the mortal enemy of the Argeads in the west.
Thoughts?
The bounds of the empire will of course fluctuate over the centuries, but the core will remain Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia. Over time of course the Argeads will continue to Orientalize, though there will be a distinct Hellenic flavor to it all. I'm toying with the idea of eventually having the Great Kings embrace and promote some form of Mazdaism (though of course, a very different version than that of OTL, with more of a Hindu flavor), perhaps around OTL move towards monotheism in the third century of the Common Era. Maybe there will even be something of a Persian language revival just as with the adoption of Greek in the OTL Byzantine Empire. This will of course not happen for several centuries, and only then slowly if at all.
I'd like the kings to derive their legitimacy from descent from Alexander the Great, and thus he will factor into the eventual state religion somehow. I'm thinking more along the lines of the continuity of the OTL Japanese Imperial House, or at least in the way that OTL Persian rulers all sought to emphasize their connections to the Achaemenid Dynasty.
I'm still not sure how Rome and Carthage are going to factor into version 2.0. I've considered somehow removing Rome from the equation, but I know how popular the Roman Empire is with so many readers, so perhaps I'll let it remain as the mortal enemy of the Argeads in the west.
Thoughts?
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
I would say they last somewhere around two hundred to three hundred years, a bit longer than how much the Seleucids lasted. Though this will lengthen if some form of Shogun-like authority appears, assuming authority in the name of the Argead kings.
Bah, long empires are unpredictable- but this is Persia. They're in a position rather prone to being overrun from the steppe or the desert.
How long are they going to keep up the sibling incest? Even the Ptolemies would marry cousins or uncles, and even married nonrelations sometimes. I suppose if they only pick relatively healthy kids to inherit that should mitigate some of the damage.
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I liked the intrigues and wars between the Romans and the Argeads in 1.0, so I suggest you keep them.
Heck, given how the Greeks are now being oppressed by the monster they helped create, some Philhellenic Argead who hates the Orientalization/Persianization of the regime could be a good pro-Roman king in Macedonia itself.
I know Macedonia ultimately split from the Persianized Argeads in 1.0, but I don't remember if he considering himself a Greek fighting Oriental tyranny or not.
However, I didn't like what you did with the Romans conquering Carthage and, rather than annexing it, basically extorting money until it could not function as a state and then punishing it for failing to function as a state.
Perhaps in TTL, the Romans defeat the Carthaginians per OTL and when Carthage can't pay off its mercenaries or defend itself against other enemies (like the Argeads in Egypt, perhaps?), the Romans "generously" offer to annex the state and assume its responsibilities?
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
It would be interesting how the likes of the Parthians and the Yuzehi play a role. It would be awesome that instead of overunning Persia and Bactria, they conquer India.
Leave Carthage alone! If the Argeads orientalize, it makes quite a bit of sense to instead focus on the east and ignore the western powers. As for Rome... burn it to the ground. The Romans want to expand A LOT- they are a threat. Carthage trades and has a big navy. ust have Hamilcar Barca win the First Punic War and then have the Argeads go kill some Romans.