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.
Dividing The Spoils- Death of A Legend
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war
-Marcus Antonius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
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.