Bump this awesome TL. I love it. I cant wait to see how Alexander's three sons will do once they reach adulthood. Looks like Herakles is going to rule Krete. I wonder which of the three sons will have Alexanders ambition. I would guess Herakles. He is a bastard,ignored by many so he has a chip on his shoulder.
Of Satraps and Kings
- Thread starter SlyDessertFox
- Start date
Thank you! Glad you are enjoying it. They are indeed going to be very different figures, and Herakles does have, as you said, a chip on his shoulder. He was handed nothing (well, by the standards of children of royal blood goes), and has been dismissed his entire life. He has something to prove.
Indeed.Certainly not ignored by Perdikkas.
This timeline is very much alive, I was considering writing an update tonight, but one should be update this week. I have a 6 day weekend after tomorrow night, so I should have plenty of free time the next couple of weeks now that my nephews are gone and I'm broke lol.
Eh, not really. None of them really compare that well to any GOT characters.
That was just a joke! Now, more seriously: is people around Heracles -I mean the mercenaries and the Cretans- aware of his ancestry? And more important, is Perdiccas aware of his whereabouts?
I'm back guys! I have 2.5 updates typed up on my laptop from the flight back from Italy. I still have to read them over and spruce them up a bit (I was tired when I wrote them and didn't have any internet, so didn't have any references to check anything), but the first one will be up tonight. Cheers!
Herakles is beginning to use Alexandrian imagery and propaganda to his advantage, and it is probable he's boasted about his parentage to his men and to the cities as a powerful propaganda tool. When he begins minting coins he will no doubt mint himself in Alexander's likeness (as was the norm for the diadochi). There are rumors spreading back to the mainland, but Perdikkas will have more important things to deal with than Herakles.
I have big plans for Herakles! As for Hephaistion, I do find he would have been the best regent short of Eumenes as far as looking out for the best interests of Alexander's children goes, but he also has the misfortune of being the first regent, and all of the problems that that entailed (just ask Perdikkas OTL).
Chapter XVI
Chapter XVI: The Marriage of Pella 310-308
The arrival of Perdikkas in Makedon at the tail end of 310, would both mark his crowning achievement, and sow the seeds of his downfall. After overseeing an elaborate burial ceremony at Aigai (the burial of Alexander in fact, was only temporary until the construction of a more elaborate mausoleum in the city would be completed), he made his big annoucement. In January, he was to wed Kleopatra, daughter of Olympias, and sister to Alexander The Great. This marriage, tying him into the Argead family as Antikles had tried and failed to achieve before him, would make Perdikkas the father-in-law of the joint Kings of Kings, Alexander IV, and Amyntas V. Of more importance to his contemporaries and historical scholars for centuries afterwards, was the fact that he now had a legal claim to the throne himself. No longer satisfied with the regency, it appeared Perdikkas was moving to seize the crown himself.
Forever since, historical scholarship has been hostile to Perdikkas's motives, generally taking at face value the claim that he had his sights on the kingship for himself and rejecting Eumenes's claims otherwise as inherently biased. In recent decades however, this has merited a re-evaluation, and what was once the accepted consensus has now become incredibly controversial. Several historians, notably Alexandros Doukas, have questioned this narrative, insisting that it was far more sensible that Perdikkas intended instead to maintain a lock on the regency, and the marriage to Kleopatra was the most expedient way to do so. He notes that Olympias would have hardly consented to this political alliance if she suspected Perdikkas's intentions. Furthermore, he currently possessed all the powers of a king anyway, with the added propaganda value of being able to claim his actions as the will of the legitimate kings of the realm. Trouble might arise as Alexander and Amyntas became adults, but for the time being at least, being regent presented the most perks with the fewest drawbacks. Indeed, as past and future examples have shown, even adult kings are susceptible to the will of behind the scenes power brokers.
Regardless of Perdikkas's actual intentions however, this new development raised the alarm bells of other ambitious satraps. The most notable was Peukestas, who viewed it as best an attempt at consolidating authority before attempting to oust him, and at worst an opportunistic power grab for the kingship. When this news reached, him he immediately patched up relations with Peithon, and conspired with Seleukos and Eumedon to plan a response.
There were several obstacles that would make any early success difficult. First and foremost was the fact that the treasury in Susa was under the control of Aristonous, as staunch a Perdikkan loyalist as there ever was. While the military troubles posed by his position would be minimal, the possibility that he could escape along with the treasury before the city was captured would cause serious headaches for the insurgent cause. Militarily, despite Perdikkas being on the European side of the Propontis, he had left the bulk of his army in the east. There was an army with Eumenes and Leonnatos in Anatolia, and another with Perdikkas's brother Alketas situated in the Levant, strategically placed to be able to easily defend against invasion and rapidly march north to respond to any military threat. Success would require an immediate tangible victory against one of the armies, and neither the Levant (and subsequently Egypt) nor Anatolia were very forgiving to invaders. Furthermore, once Perdikkas learned of the brewing conflict, he would raise troops in Greece and speedily march west with fresh forces of his own.
With this in mind, the conspirators set about secretly raising troops throughout the summer and winter in preparation for the following campaigning season. While Perdikkas dealt with diplomatic affairs in Greece and with a recent arrival of Keltoi to the north, the coalition began preparing both Greek colonists and native Asiatics to bolster their core phalangites. The fact that there appears to be little noise made from the Greek and Makedonian troops about the Asiatics being recruited once more for the phalangites shows a growing willingness, likely borne out by increasing familiarity, to at least tolerate their presence.
Word of this was bound to trickle back west, and Aristonous soon caught wind that something was afoot (if not exactly what that something was) and dutifully relayed this information. Not knowing of the peace treaty with Peithon, Alketas had assumed the new troops being raised were to fight the latter, and declined to take any pre-emptive action. After all, even if they were preparing war, time was on the Perdikkan side. Perdikkan armies held the treasuries in Sidon, and Memphis (to which Perdikkas had made sure to deposit a large stockpile of gold as regent), along with strong defensive and strategic positions. Making the first move would both surrender his military advantage and cede the propaganda victory to their enemies, who could more easily portray themselves as the agrieved party defending themselves against the power-hungry agents of Perdikkas. Despite this, he still sent word to Greece to keep Perdikkas informed of these developments, but tellingly refused to provide such courtesy to Eumenes. His longstanding rivalry with the Kardian apparently trumped good strategic sense. If Eumenes could be kept ignorant of events and cast as incompetent, Alketas could better make a case to his brother for finally removing his rival.
When the campaigning season of 308 opened up, Seleukos and Peukestas converged on Susiana while Eumedon obtained passage through Armenia and descended on Nola, hoping to rescue the beleaguered Neoptolemos. Unsure of what he was up against, Eumenes left a token force with Prepelaos to guard Kilikia while he brought the rest of his army out of winter quarters to confront this new threat. In the meantime, Peukestas and Seleukos were unable to capture Aristonous, but the speed of their advance forced the him to abandon the cities treasury and take flight on his own. With his arrival in Alketas's camp came news of the full extent of the opposition. Against the council of Dokimos and Simmias, Alketas elected to go on the offensive. Rather than march north and link up with Eumenes or wait in the easily defensible Levantine mountains, he marched on ahead, unaware of the size of the forces facing him and unwilling to let Eumenes gain any credit for his victory.
As tends to happen when jealous and overconfident commanders come up against superior generalship, the results were predictably catastrophic. Alketas fell early in the battle (this appears to be a common occurrence in any battle associated with Seleukos, leading to the conclusion that it was a fundamental part of his battle plan to decapitate the enemy leadership),and his army's morale faltered. Dokimos and Simmias were able to salvage what was left and organize a retreat back into the Levant, but with their few remaining forces scattered across the local fortresses to provide adequate defense against an invasion, their offensive capabilities were incredibly limited.
With one army knocked out of contention, Seleukos and Peukestas briefly considered pressing on south towards Egypt, before scrapping it in favor of dealing with Eumenes first. The Kardian had only just deduced the full extent of the crisis, and was now learning that Alketas lie dead on the field and his army a skeleton of its former self. This also meant the coalition army had grown considerably as well, having absorbed defectors from the defeated Perdikkan army. Suddenly outnumbered, Eumenes withdrew from Kappadokia, leaving small garrisons in the mountain passes to slow down the enemy while he bided his time and waited for reinforcements from Perdikkas.
Given the delay in hearing about the news, Perdikkas worked as hastily as he could to gather a sufficiently sized force and rendezvous with Eumenes and Leonnatos. The rest of the year was spent cautiously jockeying for position, with Perdikkas looking to protect supply and communication lines to Sardis and Kelaini. Perdikkas eventually managed to outmaneuver his opponents, threatening their own lines of supply, while using the fleet to maintain control over the vital cities along the coast. With Eumedon tied up with Ariarathes in Kappadokia, Seleukos and Peukestas were forced to camp in an unfavorable position, and had to weather defections all throughout the winter.
Morale was given a slight boost when Eumedon made a daring advance past both Ariarathes and Perdikkas and arrived with much needed reinforcements in spring. Yet with their position weak and Perdikkas confident in victory, they were forced to give battle after a brief attempt to threaten Kelaini. The outcome of the Battle of Kelainai then was all the more surprising when Eumenes and Perdikkas were dealt a stunning defeat. Learning from past mistakes, Peukestas and Seleukos sacrificed a longer line in favor of a line of reserves to protect against the inevitable breakthrough in the center by crack-Perdikkan phalangites. Unlike in the last engagement where their superior cavalry was too late to swing the tide of the battle, the reserves were able to delay the collapse of the center long enough for Eudamos's Medians to achieve success on the right flank. Slipping behind the lines, he managed to capture the Perdikkan camp and its accompanying baggage train, while a larger contingent collapsed the Perdikkan flank. As rumors spread that Perdikkas himself had been killed, what was still a salvageable situation collapsed, and Perdikkas and Eumenes found themselves the next morning having to retreat with what few forces they had left.
With their position now untenable, Perdikkas and Eumenes split up. While the fleet maintained control of the Anatolian coast, Perdikkas went to raise troops in Greece while Eumenes was dispatched to do the same in Egypt. In this way, they hoped to divide the attention of their enemies and prevent them from fully capitalizing on their victory. As it was, Eudamos was forced to return east anyway to defend his satrapy against another invasion from Peithon. In the meantime, Seleukos was tasked with subduing the Anatolian coast while Peukestas aimed to capture the Levant and threaten Egypt, while at the very least hopefully obtaining timber and expertise to build a fleet capable of contesting the seas.
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I do plan to devote time to analyzing cultural change in the best way I can (I'm not a linguist for example so analyzing any linguistic evolutions will be difficult to say the least), and I do have some cool ideas for some cultural and religious evolutions.
Anyway, another update will be up by tomorrow.
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Chapter XVII
Chapter XVII: Peace
The Battles of Salamis and Gaza, 306 BCE
The alliance between Peukestas and Seleukos began fracturing before the dust even settled on the battlefield. Peukestas was, by far, the main beneficiary of their joint success. Bearing the brunt of the military and economic costs of the fighting, his rule stretched into Syria and the Levant, with his armies poised to strike at Egypt. Seleukos’s control of Babylonia was little more than a formality. All effective access to the region was possessed by Peukestas, who installed his own men in Assyria and Syria. Seleukos was left with the rugged Anatolian interior, not even wholly pacified. Aside from Ariarathes in Kappadokia, the northeastern coast of the peninsula was only nominally under his control through Mithradates II of Kios, and the Ionian Greek cities on the eastern coastline were protected by the formidable navy of Attalos.
It is no surprise then that Seleukos immediately began sending feelers to Perdikkas with hopes of a potential reconciliation. Peukestas was by far now the dominant player within the empire, and was thus a threat to them all. This did not mean Seleukos halted or even slowed his attempts to take the crucial Ionian coastal cities away from Perdikkas and thus deprive him of bases from which to launch another assault into Asia. If Seleukos did not wish to be relegated to little more than a secondary player, he needed control of the entire peninsula.
This was a difficult task, but Perdikkas’s navy was hardly insurmountable. There was only so much they could do to protect the coastal enclaves, and while they could prevent a total circumvellation as long as Seleukos lacked a comparable navy to contest the waters, they could not on their own halt a siege or prevent the storming of a city. For many smaller cities, this was often not even required, and diplomacy usually settled their fates in Seleukos’s favor. It was hardly in the economic best interests for these cities to endure a long a costly siege. The trouble brewed where Perdikkas had left strong and strategically placed garrisons. This was the case in Miletos, Ephesos, and Halikarnassos, which would prove exceptionally tough to crack. While Ephesos fell in due time, Miletos and Halikarnassos would endure as long as Seleukos lacked a navy. Lacking the wealth that the Perdikkans and Peukestas possessed, creating a large navy was an arduous task.
Eumenes
Facing a shortage of available recruits due to a lack of military colonies in Egypt at this time, Eumenes was forced to follow the precedent of his fellow diadochoi and recruit directly from the native Egyptians to fill out his new army. This is not to say the Egyptians would constitute a majority; Greek mercenaries were an abundant commodity that Eumenes tapped into. Yet it is another example of the increasing integration of native elements within the Makedonian phalanx, and once more, the silence from the Greek and Makedonian soldiers is deafening. One theory for this silence is, lacking any reason to believe they were being replaced, the soldiers were more willing to tolerate Asiatic and Egyptian elements having their own phalangite contingents. After all, the more soldiers in the army, the more likelihood that it’s them, not the Makedonian and Greek soldiers, dying on the battlefield.
While Simmias fought a delaying game in the Levant, he was busily raising and drilling an army able to effectively counter-attack. In the meantime, Peukestas was caught up in besieging Tyre while he built a fleet capable of contesting the Perdikkans at sea. An invasion of Egypt could not be successfully carried out without one, so there was no use in pushing further south as the campaign season for 307 drew to a close. Instead, he focused on Cyprus, an island of much strategic significance and a potential thorn in his side. As a naval base, it could not be better placed, allowing Perdikkan fleets and armies to cause trouble all along the coast, from southern Asia Minor all the way down the Levant. Perdikkas and his allies could effectively strike anywhere from the island, and there was little Peukestas could do to prevent this.
Yet Cyprus at this time was hardly a unified state, and was instead split into several kingdoms, each with their own agenda. There was Nikokreon, king of Salamis, the largest kingdonm on the island. Alongside him were lesser kings, Pasiktratis of Solon, Nikoklis of Paphos, Androkles of Amathos, Praxippos of Lapithos and Kyrenia, the Poutmiaton of Kition, and Stasioikos of Marion (to the confused reader, these names are not important to the story and will not be on the test at the end). Peukestas looked to exploit this division, and through bribery and sheer opportunism, managed to win over the kings of Lapithos-Kyrenia, Kition, and Marion. This was enough to at least force Eumenes to hand Dokimos a substantial detachment to deal with the insurrection, troops that were sorely needed to confront Peukestas on the mainland.
The climax in the struggle for Cyprus came late in 307, when Peukestas finally was confident in his newly constructed fleet’s ability to contest the waters. The siege of Tyre was nearing it’s conclusion, and diverting the Perdikkan fleet away from provisioning the city could hasten its fall. The focus of his expedition, led by his brother Theramenes[1] was Salamis, the capture of which Peukestas hoped would bring the entire island under his sway. Eumenes understood this all too well, and not fearing a Peukestid invasion of Egypt being imminent, was willing to divert significant resources to its defense under the trusted joint command of Dokimos and Prepelaos. The siege of Salamis would take up the rest of 307 and last into 306. It was defined by its engineering ingenuity and creativity, with seaborne siege towers and ladders and once more some of the largest land siege towers used to date.
Finally, the siege was decided on the 23rd of May, 306, with the Battle of Salamis. The two navies clashed, with the result being a resounding victory for Theramenes and the surrender of Dokimos and Prepelaos and with them the city of Salamis. With Salamis captured, the island of Cyprus had effectively fallen to Peukestas, dealing yet another setback to the beleaguered Perdikan cause.
By now Tyre had already fallen, and Peukestas was free to focus his attentions on preparing for an invasion of Egypt. Eumenes however responded to the loss in a typically unorthodox manner. Rather than bunker down and prepare to fend off an invasion of Egypt, he instead pressed into the Levant himself and challenged Peukestas to an open battle.
This was an incredibly risk move on the part of Eumenes, and Peukestas was all too eager to oblige. Peukestas commanded an army of over 60,000, whereas Eumenes was able to muster at most no more than 40,000 troops. An open battle relinquished the inherent benefits of defending the difficult to traverse Nile cataracts that should have negated Peukestas’s numerical advantage. Yet not knowing how much the loyalty of his troops--particularly the Makedonians, who were generally distrustful of being led by a Greek in the first place--would last after suffering yet another setback, an extended campaign defending the Nile was perhaps an even bigger role of the dice. Furthermore, a large portion of Peukestas’s men were those subsumed into his ranks after the defeat of Perdikkas and Eumenes 2 years prior, and likely still possessed some loyalty towards them and their cause. Loyalty to the Argead line was not as strong as before--after all it would not be long before Peukestas crowned himself King--but longstanding loyalty to Perdikkas and Eumenes was almost certainly present and could potentially lead to defections back to Eumenes’s ranks. So instead of wait, he chose to bring the fight to Peukestas, staking everything on one battle on the plains of Gaza. With him was the now 17 year old Alexander IV, who was witnessing the first major battle of his career.
The young King could hardly have picked a better commander to witness the fine arts of generalship. With few advantages on his side, Eumenes was required to use every stratagem in his arsenal. Waiting for a windy day to give battle, he ensured his army kicked up as much dust as possible, allowing the wind carry it into the faces of the enemy lines. With dust clouds screening his deployment, the wily Kardian stacked his left flank 12 ranks deep, deploying the bulk of his forces there at the expense of leaving his center and right dangerously weak. In order to make up for this, he deployed in an echelon formation, so his left would reach the enemy first, ideally providing them with enough time to win on the flank before the center and right flanks were engaged and routed.
The effort gone into screening his troops by the dust and with skirmishers then was essential. Peukestas could not know of his formation until the last moment, lest he re-arrange his own deployments accordingly to counter. As it was, the screening worked, and Peukestas was not prepared for the strategy made famous by the Thebans over a century and a half earlier and used to great effectiveness by Philip II. Eumenes was able to breakthrough on his left flank, but Peukestas successfully prevented a route and then began turning the tide with success on the center and right. Yet when the dust settled, both sides had fought the other to a stalemate.
Despite not achieving victory, the stalemate was enough to force Peukestas to seek peace.
The peace was hardly ideal for Eumenes and Perdikkas. Perdikkas had his own trouble brewing in Greece, dealing with larger and more frequent raiding from Keltic tribes to the north, and with unrest in the south, where opposition to his rule was still present. All this had prevented from from launching a an invasion of Asia, and tied up resources that allowed Seleukos to buy time to build a proper fleet of his own. When the final terms, which surprisingly excluded Seleukos, whose attempts at reconciliation apparently went unheeded, were hashed out, Peukestas was given Syria and Assyria, and still maintained garrisons in Sidon and Tyre. His immediate departure for the east suggests it was trouble with Peithon that prompted the peace offer, which was nevertheless never seen as anything more than a temporary truce for all sides to catch their breath and prepare for the next round. It is telling though that this is the first peace that recognizes any official division of territory. Although the treaty reaffirmed that Alexander IV and his younger brother Amyntas were the sovereign kings of the entire empire, it was a tacit concession that this was more a technicality than reality.
Seleukos let his outrage of being excluded from negotiations despite what he thought were promising negotiations of his own with Perdikkas, become well known. Dropping all pretense of dealing with Perdikkas, he instead issued a proclamation once more upholding the freedom of the Greeks, and encouraging them to throw out their garrisons. The chief aim of this was of course to cause as much trouble for Perdikkas in Greece as possible, while he finally brought the Ionian cities to heel. Preparing an expedition of his own to the peninsula to contest control, he reached out to two other figures that until now had little parts to be played in the diadochoi wars. Seleukos approached Ptolemy Lagos and Lysimachos for an alliance.
[1] Theramenes is a fictional character. I assumed it was likely that all these diadochi that otherwise never have any siblings or nephews etc. mentioned weren’t actually only children with surprisingly few relatives they could rely on.
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Alexander IV is getting old enough that he doesn't need tutors anymore and if he's at all smart, he should be working to make connections and alliances of his own. It will be interesting to see how the major figures on the Perdikkan side handle this - but they could do a lot worse than having someone like Eumenes for an adviser. Seeing the sons of Alexander begin to do things in their own right would be super interesting I think.
One possible thing I expect will endure is the use of various regents/viceroy type figures to govern different parts of the sprawling Empire. And things like an independent Lagid kingdom are probably inevitable.
One possible thing I expect will endure is the use of various regents/viceroy type figures to govern different parts of the sprawling Empire. And things like an independent Lagid kingdom are probably inevitable.
Argead Family Tree
I'm updating family trees. Here's a simplified Argead family tree:
I like people who don't get shafted in peace treaties.
I like T too.
Behind the scenes, Alexander is indeed making allies, though that is mostly restricted to those around him for the time being (that's about to change). Eumenes is the ideal person to be under-he combines great ability with loyalty to the Argead line (albeit partially out of self interest).