Heaven Can Not Brook Two Sons Nor Earth Two Masters

It seems like to me that Alexander's generals first priority was to secure the empire,something Alexander really seemed to neglect, and more importantly, secure their own positions and power, before they even thought about future expansion. I think Chandragupta is just too powerful in India, and by the time they get around to him, he would have most of the Indian subcontinent under his control.
No doubt,but why that interest in India? it is very far from the centre of events(Europe) and the Indian Ocean offers more chances of gain than India
,and the same could be said for North Africa and fertile Italy.
 
No doubt,but why that interest in India? it is very far from the centre of events(Europe) and the Indian Ocean offers more chances of gain than India
,and the same could be said for North Africa and fertile Italy.

Well I was thinking after a balance of power is achieved and the successor wars were over, of going into some Roman-Hellenistic clashes in Greece, Anatolia, southern Italy and the like.
 
Dividing The Spoils: Stamping Out The Spirit of Mutiny
It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
-Niccolo Machiavelli



sg6748-o.jpg



Phillip III Arrhidaeus​


Perdiccas knew he could not let the mutiny among the royal army as the force at Babylon was called, go unpunished. If he were looking for any examples as for what to do, he must not look any further than Alexander himself. When drunk one night, Alexander and Cleitus The Black had a heated argument. Cleitus, who has saved Alexander at Issus by cutting off the arm of the Persian who was about to bring it crashing down on Alexander's skull, was stabbed through the chest with a sarrissa. Later on, Callisthenes, Aristotle's great nephew, was imprisoned and killed after speaking out against Alexander's adopting of Persian customs. Parmenion, probably the second best commander in the army and who had been Phillip's top general previously, was murdered by Alexander after his son was killed for being suspected in a plot to take Alexander's life. During one mutiny Alexander's soldiers staged against him, Alexander picked out the men who complained the loudest, and had theme executed, silencing the grumbling.

So indeed, Alexander provided Perdiccas with many ideas of what was to be done. Through Alexander's actions, it was clear to Perdiccas that the leaders of the mutiny must be taken out of the equation once and for all, and the soldiers dissuaded from any future mutinies. What he had in store was something far more spectacular and dramatic than anything Alexander had done previously. The army was assembled for a grand lustration, where cavalry and infantry often took part in a mock battle. During the lustration, Perdiccas sent Phillip out, where he read aloud that any of the leaders of the mutiny were to be turned over to Perdiccas for execution. The soldiers were caught completely by surprise, and 300 of the men were arrested. In the most dazzling execution of the time, Perdiccas brought up elephants, and had the 300 soldiers trampled to death. By stamping out the spirit of mutiny, Perdiccas had secured the loyalty of the troops for the time being, but they would always remember the trampling, and never fully trust Perdiccas again.
 
Well I was thinking after a balance of power is achieved and the successor wars were over, of going into some Roman-Hellenistic clashes in Greece, Anatolia, southern Italy and the like.

It may be be an idea,but looking at OTL, the Romans met the greeks in late third century and comments that the Romans would never have entered the Greek world if they were united;they had vastly superior armies and resources(then!)
(Scullard "History of Rome").Now the time you write is fourth century the Greeks are united and the Greek cities of Magna Grecia had already asked the help of Alexander in Babylon,the generals would see the campaign to the west a great chance to enlarge their dominions in Italy,none of the west oriented ones would have missed the opportunity.
Now if you have to wait for almost a hundred years for the wars of diadochoi (something boring since it cannot differ much since it it is read OTL)...now is the chance to cut Rome to size and make it a lot more modest and at the same time allow Magna Grecia develop into a federation
so Rome would have to turn slowly west...

A small note on Perdiccas a hard general bent on discipline dooes not lose the trust of his men...(think of Roman commanders with the 'decimation' punishment).

Eumenes using the Persian archer cavalry could really cause havoc against the Romans with his versatile military mind,let him leave to face the Romans...
 
Last edited:
Eumenes using the Persian archer cavalry could really cause havoc against the Romans with his versatile military mind,let him leave to face the Romans...

Hmmm. Eumenes forming a magna gracian federation? Interesting. I'll think about it.

edit: The problem with that is though, Eumenes was stauntly loyal to Perdiccas and the legitimacy of the crown and all that. Since infighting between the diadochi seems inevitable, I think, at least for a short time, he would stay inside the empire.
 
Hmmm. Eumenes forming a magna gracian federation? Interesting. I'll think about it.

edit: The problem with that is though, Eumenes was stauntly loyal to Perdiccas and the legitimacy of the crown and all that. Since infighting between the diadochi seems inevitable, I think, at least for a short time, he would stay inside the empire.

He can still effect changes a) with light Persian cavalry masking army movements,b) with Sacae heavy cavalry co-operating with the Macedonian and Thessalian Heavy cavalry;Alexander held elephants in low
regard and knew how to deal with them,Eumenes could do the same...
 
Ok so I was thinking today (and for awhile now, but not as hard as I was today lol) of just starting over. Since everything I'm doing at this moment is currently what happened in real life after Alexander's death, I was thinking of just starting over from when Alexander died in real life and going from there. It would make it a lot easier on me to make some good point of divergences, since I won't have to worry about what those extra 4 years would have done. I'm not saying I'm definitely going to start over, but it's a real possibility.
 
I don't know what you have in your mind,but you have gained Arabia and you have
your left flank protected.(Four years with a genius makes the difference.) Plus army innovations and applications as Alexander would have done as routine.
 
I know. It's just that I keep on thinking of the real diadochi events and all that stuff and trying to kinda diverge from what really happened and keep on getting sidetracked from the fact that a lot would be different in 4 years, and I can't seem to be able to find a way to incorporate it. Believe me, I am still gonna do a lot of different stuff from what actually happened, but it would be easier for me I think if I just started from when Alexander actually died. What I had in mind when I started this timeline (having Alexander live much much longer and have him expand west, etc. is a lot different from what this has turned into.
 
What I know,and I will give it to you in a nutshell,is that the Diadochoi turned the most advanced part of the word into a crown-heads playground(or kindergarden for kings if you prefer) turning eastern Mediterranean an easy pray, piece-meal to the Romans instead of a united empire that would turn the fossil-loving Romans and their capital Rome into a parking lot.

They turned the army into an unproductive human mass by increasing the depth of the Macedonian phalanx to 50 and more depth becoming an easy pray to the legions,with a legendary Macedonian heavy cavalry so hesitant to charge after Ipsos that it became of decorative value instead of palverazing the legions who were not Greek-phalanx compact to repel the charge of a determined heavy cavalry etc.
The first para is a political assessment and the second straight out of Military History...
You have to fight against both,whereas with Alexander alive you had a hope that nothing of that would occur;an example:in India, Alexander was fighting in forests and finally three brilliant moves(militarily) he inflicted an ignominous defeat on Porus;310 years later in an other forest Warro was slaughtered with his legions by the Germans of an insignificant chieftain Ariminius.Now you can see the difference...
One of my reasons for mentioning Eumenes,a man of totally different calibre and a very apt student of his master,capable like Alexander of turning any war in that of a series of manoevres with multi-mission capable and composed cavalry,with light scouts/horse archer units catafract archer and lance units and the traditional heavy cavalry that breaks any formation before it.
 
Last edited:
What I know,and I will give it to you in a nutshell,is that the Diadochoi turned the most advanced part of the word into a crown-heads playground(or kindergarden for kings if you prefer) turning eastern Mediterranean an easy pray, piece-meal to the Romans instead of a united empire that would turn the fossil-loving Romans and their capital Rome into a parking lot.

They turned the army into an unproductive human mass by increasing the depth of the Macedonian phalanx to 50 and more depth becoming an easy pray to the legions,with a legendary Macedonian heavy cavalry so hesitant to charge after Ipsos that it became of decorative value instead of palverazing the legions who were not Greek-phalanx compact to repel the charge of a determined heavy cavalry etc.
The first para is a political assessment and the second straight out of Military History...
You have to fight against both,whereas with Alexander alive you had a hope that nothing of that would occur;an example:in India, Alexander was fighting in forests and finally three brilliant moves(militarily) he inflicted an ignominous defeat on Porus;310 years later in an other forest Warro was slaughtered with his legions by the Germans of an insignificant chieftain Ariminius.Now you can see the difference...
One of my reasons for mentioning Eumenes,a man of totally different calibre and a very apt student of his master,capable like Alexander of turning any war in that of a series of manoevres with multi-mission capable and composed cavalry,with light scouts/horse archer units catafract archer and lance units and the traditional heavy cavalry that breaks any formation before it.

Thanks for this. This will be enormous help to me.
 
Top