Getting the ball rolling: Hellenistic brainstorming

So I'm very interested in getting to contributing to the wonderful volume of alternate historical material on this site. It's the primary reason I joined up, it's the primary reason I stick around, and I feel almost like it's a duty for me to do so -- otherwise I'm just wasting everybody's time and bandwidth.

This far it has felt like the most difficult thing in alternate history writing is picking where to start. There's so many choices! Do I want to do something from the World Wars? From the Dark Ages? Maybe about the Vikings? Or about the Islamic Golden Age? The Thirty Years War? Napoleon? Eugene of Savoy? Belisarius? Do I dive into India or China? Do I do something about the American Revolution?

It's so hard to pick and settle on something that I decided I would just go with the first good feeling idea that came to mind.

That ended up being Hellenistic Asia, Africa, and Europe.

I actually don't know incredibly much about the period. It has always been somewhat fascinating to me, although I feel it gets the short straw in Antiquity studies (most of the time it's that space-filler between Classical Greece and the Rise of Rome), but I really don't know enough about it. What I do know is something of the intellectual ferment that it inherited and expanded upon from the Classical Era. That's a big part of what interests me.

I don't have very much yet, little more than an idea and a direction, so I've come looking for more specific guidance. What I'd like to ultimately accomplish is a survival and thriving of the Hellenistic state system. I'm not necessarily interested in preserving any one dynasty, but I'd like to see the era of divided sovereignties in a world descended from and inspired by Classical Greece and the late Near East hold sway until I run out of steam on the timeline.

Exactly how to do this is what I'm a bit outside my depth on. I've already settled on introducing zero as soon as is practicable -- a kind of shot in the arm to Hellenistic science and accounting/finance --, but in terms of period politics I'm a little lost. I don't know much about the economic or cultural basis of society across the Hellenistic world. I'm only familiar with the barest bones of contemporary military equipment, tactics, or organization. In other words, I've got to do a lot of research.

What I'd like to ask to the scholars and gentlemen of this fine forum for is help on that front. Sources I can check out (unfortunately, preferably web-available sources. I'm between jobs right now and it's likely I won't be able to get one that will support a serious book-buying habit AND pay the bills anytime soon. I'll have to find a large enough public library for any recommended books), ideas you might have, really anything you think might contribute to a brain-storming session.
 
Well, here are some of the Hellenistic states you can look at: Seleucid Empire, Ptolemaic Empire of Egypt, Macedonia, Lysimachus' Empire, Greco-Bactria (or Greco-India later), Pontus, Pergamon, Bithynia, Antipatrid Macedonia, Epirus, and the Achaean League.

Most all of these states have some pretty interesting histories to them. If you are looking for cursory information, a quick google search can help you (think of wikipedia as an introduction to them, but by no means the end-all be-all).

Some POD's or TL ideas that I think have potential include:

Seleucus I not being murdered by Ptolemy Keraunos, which would result in the Seleucids gaining control of all of Alexander's former territories except Egypt just in time for the Celtic Invasion of the Balkans!

Pyrrhus of Epirus-wank where he successfully holds his territories in Italy and Sicily, successfully takes control of the Macedonian Empire, and invades Carthage (in essence, if all of his plans worked out in his favor).

Mithradates IV Eupator of Pontus successfully beats back the Romans and cripples them.

Cleopatra and Anthony win at Actium against Octavian, creating a revived Ptolemaic Empire.

And a surviving Greco-Bactrian/ Indo-Greek kingdom is always awesome :cool::cool:
 
Well, here are some of the Hellenistic states you can look at: Seleucid Empire, Ptolemaic Empire of Egypt, Macedonia, Lysimachus' Empire, Greco-Bactria (or Greco-India later), Pontus, Pergamon, Bithynia, Antipatrid Macedonia, Epirus, and the Achaean League.

Most all of these states have some pretty interesting histories to them. If you are looking for cursory information, a quick google search can help you (think of wikipedia as an introduction to them, but by no means the end-all be-all).

Some POD's or TL ideas that I think have potential include:

Seleucus I not being murdered by Ptolemy Keraunos, which would result in the Seleucids gaining control of all of Alexander's former territories except Egypt just in time for the Celtic Invasion of the Balkans!

Pyrrhus of Epirus-wank where he successfully holds his territories in Italy and Sicily, successfully takes control of the Macedonian Empire, and invades Carthage (in essence, if all of his plans worked out in his favor).

Mithradates IV Eupator of Pontus successfully beats back the Romans and cripples them.

Cleopatra and Anthony win at Actium against Octavian, creating a revived Ptolemaic Empire.

And a surviving Greco-Bactrian/ Indo-Greek kingdom is always awesome :cool::cool:

I can add:
Macedon beats Rome.
Antipatrids keep Macedon.
Antiochus the Great gets everything right.
Parthia secures the Levant.
Antony dies in battle against the Parthians.
No Rome and no Caesar will have interesting effects on the region, as would Hannibal wins.
 
Pyrrhus sounds like a possibility, although I'm not really interested in a wank. Can the decline of the Hellenistic state system be that securely attributed to the rise of Roman hegemony?

If so, having him win against them, possibly splitting up the Latin League or otherwise crippling Roman power, could contribute a great deal to carrying the Hellenistic world through the next couple centuries independent of an outside power.

The other concern I have is Parthia. Having the Seleucids survive more or less intact without becoming a totally dominating force is a challenge.
 
The other concern I have is Parthia. Having the Seleucids survive more or less intact without becoming a totally dominating force is a challenge.

The way to do that is probably to boot them out of Asia Minor, with the frontier more or less becoming established on the Taurus, as it was for the Caliphate. Having the Seleucids focus on Syria and Babylonia, with their borderlands being the Iranian plateau and Palestine is probably for the best: that way you can avoid the costly and ineffective interventions in Anatolia and the Balkans.
 
What I'd like to ask to the scholars and gentlemen of this fine forum for is help on that front. Sources I can check out (unfortunately, preferably web-available sources. I'm between jobs right now and it's likely I won't be able to get one that will support a serious book-buying habit AND pay the bills anytime soon. I'll have to find a large enough public library for any recommended books), ideas you might have, really anything you think might contribute to a brain-storming session.
There's a book called ''Antigonus the One-Eyed and the Creation of the Hellenistic State'''. It delves into the Diadochi period (focuses on Antigonus mostly, though), which is full of PoDs that could've led to thriving Greek monarchies. It also has a bit about how Antigonus the One-Eyed created his own kingdom. You can read like a big part of the book on Google books before it shuts you down. It's written by Richard A. Billows, who I think is a professor.

http://books.google.nl/books?id=H3q1FoPvsysC&pg=PR4&lpg=PR4&dq=Antigonus+the+One-Eyed+and+the+Creation+of+the+Hellenistic+State&source=bl&ots=tBJnQiI2hK&sig=pUNHZ6cxo9uft4upHKKLatRzyNw&hl=nl&sa=X&ei=snH1UYCdIIO8PZKkgYAM&ved=0CFsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Antigonus%20the%20One-Eyed%20and%20the%20Creation%20of%20the%20Hellenistic%20State&f=false
 
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A Phillip V of Macedon beating the Romans in the 2nd Macedonian war would be interesting.

A very interesting one would be Alexander the greats uncle, Alexander the king of Epirus not dying while campaigning in Italy but instead form a united Hellenistic empire in Southern Italy that could curve Roman expansion southward-and possibly kill of his nephew Alexander the great in Persia ( possibly at the Granicus river, at the siege of Halicarnassus or at Gaugamela) for good measure. Que Greek expansion westward instead of East, surviving Archaemanid Persian empire and Hellenism scattered across the Mediterranean.
 
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