Let Slip The Dogs of War

Howdy folks. You may have noticed my other timeline, "Heaven Cannot Brook Two Suns Nor Earth Two Masters". This is a restart of that in a way. When I created that, my intention was initially to have Alexander The Great live for a much longer time, and have his empire last longer and be larger, etc. Shortly after I started however, I picked up another book about the Diadochi and fell in love with them again, turning it into basically a diadochi war 4 years after IRL, which was a mess imo. It was turning out to just go the same way it went IRL, due to my failure to grasp the drastic changes that could have occurred if Alexander had lived an extra 4 years. This timeline will be starting with the death of Alexander the Great in Babylon in 323 BC. Enjoy. :)

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Dividing The Spoils- Death of A Legend

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war
-Marcus Antonius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar​

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Alexander The Great on his deathbed

Alexander was immortal. Or at least this is what his companions, soldiers, and bodyguards believed. He had to be immortal. No mere mortal could survive what Alexander had been through. He beat malaria in Cilicia, marched across deserts and mountains with no more food than his ordinary men had, survived countless injuries, and even made a miraculous recovery from a punctured lung, when he had seemed all but dead. There was no mere mortal in their minds who could have conquered all of the known world in the east in the short time that Alexander himself did.

Plus, according to the Egyptian priests, he was the son of Zeus-Ammon. It may have seemed ridiculous to his men, and perhaps even to Alexander although he never showed it, at first that he was a son directly from Zeus himself. Now however, after leading them through deserts, over the hindu kush, and through monsoons in India, it seemed the oracles had been correct. Alexander may have been the son of Zeus, instead of Phillip, after all.

Yet he was in a bad sickly state. At first it did not seem all that bad. Alexander had a slight fever but he did not let this setback hinder him from continuing with his plans for his excursion into Arabia. While all the other tribes and peoples from across the known world had sent him embassies and tokens of good will, the Arabians sent nothing. This was the only excuse Alexander would need to invade their lands and gain direct access to the rich frankincense and myrrh trade.

A massive expeditionary force was prepared, consisting of over a thousand warships to be built for the fleet stationed in Egypt. It is said that around 100,000 men were preparing for this expedition. It would truly be a colossal undertaking, and Alexander was always up for the challenge. Despite his illness, meetings were still being held with his generals, and everything was still going according to the original plan, as if he was not sick at all. In fact, it seemed he was recovering. Then, all of a sudden, his mild fever turned into a deadly sickness.
 
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It was at this point that Alexander's companions started thinking about what would happen in the ever more likely scenario that Alexander's life ends soon. Many began to question and size up others, and judge who would be a good ally, and whom would be an enemy. The dislike of each other that always existed was now surfacing. Talks of assassination and conspiracy swept through Babylon. Even as Alexander tried in vain to carry out his normal routine, it became clear he would not live much longer.

Another thing resurfacing was the increasingly out of hand behavior by the army. Previously, when Alexander had gotten his lung punctured by an arrow, and was unseen by the men for a few days, they got uppity. To them, it had seemed as if the generals were hiding the news of Alexander's death. It was not until Alexander had shown himself, that they calmed down.

Now that same fiestiness was rising in the soldiers again. The same stories of the generals hiding Alexander's death from them spread like wildfire. Enough was enough, and they burst past the guards trying to prevent them from entering Alexander's room, and demanded to see him. Once their wish was granted, they filed past him, in silent and saddened recognition, that Alexander could not possibly live more than a few more days. He tried to greet them with waves and other gestures, but it was clear to all in the room, their godly king was mortal after all.

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In his final meeting with his generals, having lost the power to speak, Alexander handed the signet ring over to Perdiccas, his loyal friend who had extracted the arrow from his lung previously, and with it, the empire. A big myth is that he said to leave his kingdom to the strongest, something which would obviously be a foreshadowing of events to come. However, this is not true, as he had lost the power to speak before deciding on succession, or what we are to assume the handing over of the signet ring signified. Finally, on June 11th, 323 BC, Alexander III Argead, conqueror of 3/5 of the known world, died. He would take his empire to the grave with him.
 
I am interested too and I hope that we are not going to read the same course of diadochoi OTL taking also into account that Arridaeos Alexandros is
mentally handicapped and at any rate he and his mother were duly dispatched by Olympias.
 
So...wait. What's the PoD this time around? Perdiccas becomes the next King of Asia? What about Alexander IV? How would this differ in any way from OTL Perdiccas' regency of Alexander IV? :confused:
 
So...wait. What's the PoD this time around? Perdiccas becomes the next King of Asia? What about Alexander IV? How would this differ in any way from OTL Perdiccas' regency of Alexander IV? :confused:

Well, there are gonna be a lot of divergence points. As you may know, there were random twists of fate almost constantly during the wars of the diadochi. The divergences will come once everyone gets their satrapies (I may change up a few of the appointed satraps). I am doing that just so people who aren't too familiar with the background get the background leading up to the wars of the diadochi first. Believe me though, there will be a lot of divergences.


Also, I made a cover image.

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I am interested too and I hope that we are not going to read the same course of diadochoi OTL taking also into account that Arridaeos Alexandros is
mentally handicapped and at any rate he and his mother were duly dispatched by Olympias.

I don't see a scenario where either of them could survive. Maybe Alexander IV under the right circumstances, but certainly not as the king of even a majority of Alexander's empire.
 
I don't see a scenario where either of them could survive. Maybe Alexander IV under the right circumstances, but certainly not as the king of even a majority of Alexander's empire.

Really? Considering how unexpected outbursts from the army saw Arrhidaeus made king and later Eurydice his queen, I don't see why similar outbursts couldn't rescue either Arrhidaeus or Alexander IV. Neither died immediately and depending on how things shape up, especially in Macedon, they might have a shot at survival. Also, if Roxana fails to off Alexander's other wives, there's a possibility of a rival posthumous child or a rival queen for would-be kings (or even Arrhidaeus) to marry, in keeeping with Argead custom. Or maybe Roxana's child turns out to be a girl and she becomes Arrhidaeus' queen herself. ;)
 
And produce proper incestuous monsterspawn like Joffrey Baratheon?

I meant Roxana :p It'd take far too long for her daughter to grow up, when Arrhidaeus had plenty of available half-sisters, nieces and sisters-in-law he could marry.:D
 
I meant Roxana :p It'd take far too long for her daughter to grow up, when Arrhidaeus had plenty of available half-sisters, nieces and sisters-in-law he could marry.:D

Don't you think that Stageira's child(daughter of Darius) will attract greater legitimacy and support? he can be claimed as Greek(father Greek) and as Persian,and the Greeks are more amenable to Persians than Bactrian barbarians...
 
Don't you think that Stageira's child(daughter of Darius) will attract greater legitimacy and support? he can be claimed as Greek(father Greek) and as Persian,and the Greeks are more amenable to Persians than Bactrian barbarians...

Well, it all depends on how Slydessertfox puts the butterflies to work. But yes, Stateira II or one of her children would at least theoretically outrank Roxana or one of hers.
 
Hmmm. There are a few ways I realize now that they could have survived. Even though I would still expect Arrhidaeus to be a puppet of whoever can get their hands on him.
 
Okay, I have a lot ready to update, but its written in my notebook which I don't have on me at the moment.

Anyway, how could I go about making the Greeks win the lamian war?
 
Okay, I have a lot ready to update, but its written in my notebook which I don't have on me at the moment.

Anyway, how could I go about making the Greeks win the lamian war?

The Athenians could wait for a year more (or almost,for the other generals of Alexander,Leonnatos and Crateros to get tied down in Asia from the problems caused by Perdiccas);they had the money for mobilization in hand and should expand their citizen body to metics,increasing their hoplite strength and at the same time they would extend their tax basis and certain categories of slaves who as citizen-proletarians would man extra triremes of the fleet which should rise to 300 triremes and conduct constant
exercises in order that the oarsmen should hone their skills to perfection;they would also await the completion of mobilization of their Corinthian and Argive
allies that could add 10-15000 thousand more men and another 40-50 triremes from Corinth.

When the campaign started and general Leosthenes was about to inflict the first defeats to the Macedonians, to persuade the Thessalians with their cavalry to cut the road of retreat to the Macedonians of Antipater to Lamia.The Macedonians would be then caught on open ground and destroyed.
The Greeks then should organise a Congress in Corinth which would act as a provisional government for all cities that wanted(or forced) to participate and organise common forces in case of future...entanglements and that in view of the increasing Roman power in the west or new macedonian intervention in their affairs.Then...
YOU AWAIT EVENTS...(make peace with macedonians) if they are willing to offer idemnity etc...don't forget you will have Pyrros in a few years...
 
Okay, that works. Stuff might get a little more interesting here after the next update (i.e. not in the next update but the update after that lol)
 
Chapter 1: First Signs Of Trouble
The valiant profit more their country than the finest, cleverest speakers.
-Plautus

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Nebuchadnezzar's palace at Babylon

It was not long before Perdiccas stepped up to the plate and hastily convened a general meeting in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar. Surely Perdiccas had wanted to get this meeting together as quickly as was possible, in an attempt to prevent Craterus in Cilicia, and Antipater still in Macedon, from attending. Both of them were in a great bargaining position, and no doubt Perdiccas would rather not have them at the meeting to sway decisions. Alexander's corpse was placed in the throne room with his diadem, scepter, and even the signet ring he gave to Perdiccas, around him. The idea was that Alexander would be watching over them as they divided the spoils of his empire.

The question that came up first, was that of who should be king. Everyone knew Alexander's former wife Rhoxane was due to have a baby shortly, but whether it was a girl or a boy was as of yet still unknown obviously. There were two other candidates, Heracles, an illegitimate son of Alexander, whom he had never actually acknowledged as his own, and Alexander's half brother, Arrhidaeus. Heracles was still a young child, and Arrhidaeus had the brain of one, apparently suffering from some mental defect. The Cretan Nearchus, a close friend of Alexander's, suggested Heracles be made king, but the others gawked at the thought of an illegitimate child who was not even full blood Macedonian, be made king. In any case, Nearchus being a Greek, was speaking out of turn. There was obviously a personal motive for Nearchus, as he had been married to a relative of Heracles at the mass weddings prior to Alexander's death.

Meleager, an infantry commander from the first days of Alexander's campaigns who never rose up in rank like the others, proposed the next obvious choice, and this was Arrhidaeus. After all, Arrhidaeus was a full blooded Macedonian, unlike Heracles and Rhoxane's future baby. The idea was waffled around for a short while, until Ptolemy stated the obvious; Arrhidaeus had a mental capacity of a child, and was not mentally capable of ruling a vast empire. Instead, Ptolemy proposed a board of some of the top ranking generals be appointed to rule the empire, and make decisions by majority vote. In this way, Ptolemy argued, the empire would be safely run by talented and well accomplished men. This decentralization proposal was clearly an attempt to wrestle power away from Perdiccas, and would be the first of a series of punches between each other in the events to come. Yet again however, the plan did not gain enough support.

Eventually, they settled on waiting for Rhoxane to give birth in a few weeks. If it was a boy, a board of four would be appointed as the regents/guardians. These were Craterus in Cilicia with his decommissioned veterans, Alexander's bodyguards Perdiccas and Craterus, and old man Antipater, who was still ruling in Macedonia. Presumably, if the child was a girl, these four would be the rulers of the empire. Control of Europe was given to Craterus and Antipater, while Leonnatus and Perdiccas were given power over Asia. In an attempt to prevent Craterus from returning to Babylon and taking power with his veterans, Craterus was given access to the treasuries in the empire. It is no coincidence Ptolemy, who was of a higher ranking than Leonnatus, was left out of the arrangement by Perdiccas, who already determined he was not one to be trusted.

The men in throne room swore an oath of loyalty to the four men entrusted with the empire. The cavalry soon followed suit. The infantry however, would prove a different story.
 
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