Two thousand three hundred and thirty-six years ago, Alexander the Great died in Babylon from a mysterious illness. Several months before his death, his closest friend (and probable lover) Hephaestion died in Ecbatana from a similar illness. This is a story of what might have happened had neither man died such a premature death.
The Campaigns of Alexander
- Thread starter Monopolist
- Start date
THE CAMPAIGNS OF ALEXANDER
“Personally, I have no data from which to infer what precisely what Alexander had on his mind, and I do not care to make guesses; one thing, however, I feel I can say without fear of contradiction, and that is that his plans, whatever they were, had no lack of grandeur or ambition: he would never have remained idle in enjoyment of any of his conquests, even if he had extended his empire from Asia to Europe, and from Europe to the British Isles. On the contrary, he would have continued to seek beyond them for unknown lands, as it was ever his nature, if he had no rival, to strive to better his own best.”
Arrian’s Anabasis, 7.1
ALEXANDROS III THEOS OF MAKEDONIA
Lived
(July 20, 356 – June 10, 303 BC)
(July 20, 356 – June 10, 303 BC)
Reigned
(October (?), 336 – June 10, 303 BC)
(October (?), 336 – June 10, 303 BC)
Aristides of Massalia and his Campaigns of Alexander
Aristides of Massalia was born nearly 250 years after the death of Alexander, and he wrote his history on Alexander’s campaigns nearly fifty years after that. Though there are other sources that lived much closer to Alexander’s day on his life (including a large portion of Alexander’s personal historian’s account), Aristides’ account is the favored ancient source for most modern historians on Alexander’s life and deeds. Ancient sources, depending on their culture, tend to be very polarized on Alexander and his accomplishments – Macedonian Greeks view him as a national hero; Athenian Greeks view him as a tyrannical megalomaniac; Persians view him as a brutish usurper. It is hard, oftentimes, to gain the full truth as to who Alexander was and what exactly he did from our ancient sources because of their blatant biases either for or against him. Aristides, on the other hand, is fairly balanced – he has some moments where he holds Alexander in great reverence, especially with regards to his military prowess and his foresight in creating Greek cities all across potential trade routes, but is not afraid to criticize Alexander, especially with regards to his motives for war and in his belief that he is a god, even though worship of Alexander was still done in Aristides’ day. His neutral take towards an incredibly polarizing figure from history probably stems from him being a citizen of an uninvolved Greek city – though Aristides reports that this might not have been the case, had Alexander followed through on a campaign into Spain and potentially all the way to Massalia.
…
Aristides of Massalia was born nearly 250 years after the death of Alexander, and he wrote his history on Alexander’s campaigns nearly fifty years after that. Though there are other sources that lived much closer to Alexander’s day on his life (including a large portion of Alexander’s personal historian’s account), Aristides’ account is the favored ancient source for most modern historians on Alexander’s life and deeds. Ancient sources, depending on their culture, tend to be very polarized on Alexander and his accomplishments – Macedonian Greeks view him as a national hero; Athenian Greeks view him as a tyrannical megalomaniac; Persians view him as a brutish usurper. It is hard, oftentimes, to gain the full truth as to who Alexander was and what exactly he did from our ancient sources because of their blatant biases either for or against him. Aristides, on the other hand, is fairly balanced – he has some moments where he holds Alexander in great reverence, especially with regards to his military prowess and his foresight in creating Greek cities all across potential trade routes, but is not afraid to criticize Alexander, especially with regards to his motives for war and in his belief that he is a god, even though worship of Alexander was still done in Aristides’ day. His neutral take towards an incredibly polarizing figure from history probably stems from him being a citizen of an uninvolved Greek city – though Aristides reports that this might not have been the case, had Alexander followed through on a campaign into Spain and potentially all the way to Massalia.
…
An excerpt from Aristides’ The Campaigns of Alexander
Book Five [1]
31. After this [2] all those Macedonians that were unfit due to age or other health concerns – around ten thousand in total – were decommissioned by Alexander at their own request, as he had desired at the start of all of this. Alexander paid the veterans all of the wages they were owed up to this point for their service, and added on what they would be owed for the march back home. On top of this, every man received one talent’s bonus, and was promised that all their children by Asian wives would be left in Asia, and cared for by Alexander himself. It was feared how these children, illegitimate and half-Asiatic, would grow and prosper in Macedonia; in this vacuum, Alexander fixed himself, promising to give them a Macedonian education, train them for the military, and one day show their fathers back home what men they have become in the east. Alexander would mostly follow through on this promise, training their boys to become men, with many serving in distinction in his later campaigns; however, not everyone would one day see their father again. The girls of these veterans were also brought up by Alexander and his court – they were educated in the traditional way, until they came of age, at which point most were sent to whichever of Alexander’s many colonies needed them most. Girls of noble stock were not subject to this, and instead became a permanent fixture within the royal court. A few of these women would later end up gaining some kind of fame within the court, the most notable being Eirene, Ptolemy’s favorite mistress after the infamous Thaïs’ passing. [3]
The ten thousand veterans were to be led home by Craterus, with Polyperchon as his second-in-command. The reason for these two men to lead the veterans home were as follows: Craterus had been ill for some time, perhaps beginning to show signs of aging (he was now nearly fifty), and he was someone Alexander could trust entirely in leading his veterans home safely, having conducted many missions for him before, including leading these very same men on the alternate path from India; meanwhile, Polyperchon was ancient, older than most of the veterans, and Alexander wanted to inject youth into his command for upcoming campaigns. His son, Alexander, remained with the army, taking over his father’s command with the infantry. In addition to those reasons, Alexander was concerned that these men did not see his vision for the empire, and so felt it better for all that they returned home, where there were no Persians or other easterners.
Once Craterus reached Macedonia, Alexander wished him to take over the regency from Antipater; this in hindsight was a poor decision by Alexander, as it is thought to have driven Cassander and Iollas to try and poison the king [4], but Alexander had his reasons for it. Antipater was getting old, and he did not consider it wise to let Antipater serve him in that capacity until he died, as that was unpredictable and could perhaps have devastating consequences, so Alexander felt that he could replace the old general with a “new Antipater” whom he could trust to govern the Greeks for at least a decade. [5] There were baser reasons too: Alexander was becoming irritated at Antipater’s disputes with his mother, and wanted to separate them; also, Alexander had not seen Antipater since he had left Macedonia ten years earlier, and Antipater had not yet seen the wonders of the East. From Macedonia, Antipater was to bring ten thousand men to Babylon as replacements for the veterans Craterus was leading back.
32. Craterus and Polyperchon marched the veterans west from Opis; Alexander and the remainder of the army, however, would march east to Media, at the cool summer palaces of the Achaemenids in Ecbatana. Along the road, he would stop at the plains of Nesaea, where Persian kings’ mares were pastured. The magnificent sight of the tens of thousands of horses was breathtaking to the king; when he learned that nearly a hundred thousand more horses once roamed the pastures, Alexander swore to restock Nesaea to its former glory and beyond, and indeed, by the end of his reign, Alexander would see Nesaea nearly equal its earlier size, with the finest mares from all across his conquests being brought to this place to grow his personal herd.
In addition to this, popular legend persists that while he was at Nesaea, Atropates, who ruled Media for Alexander, presented the king with one hundred Amazon warriors. Each of the women was equipped like cavalrymen, but carried axes instead of spears. They wore their hair short, mimicking men, and their right breast was smaller than their left, to ease their archery. Alexander sent the women away, fearing that his men might desire them; despite this, Alexander told them to inform their Queen that he would visit her and get her with child [6], remarking that there could be no more legendary a union than that of a god and an Amazon, and no more prodigious a child than what such a union could produce. No historians from Alexander’s time mentioned this episode, and never again is Alexander mentioned to have communed with Amazonians or to have sought their Queen as a wife; for these reasons, I believe the story to be a fantasy and nothing more. The story is an entertaining one though, and is worth recording for posterity I think.
33. Alexander arrived in Ecbatana shortly after these famous episodes. Upon arriving, he would offer sacrifices to the gods, as was custom to celebrate such an occasion, and then opened a festival that would feature literary and athletic contests. Alexander himself is said to have submitted a play satirizing Harpalus, his wives, and Athens into the competition. (Harpalus’ actual story to this point I will tell once I finish this one.) As for the play, all who saw it laughed until they wept, appreciating the comedy, and it would win first prize. [7] It was still popular for a number of years after Harpalus’ death for comedic playwrights hoping to gain Alexander’s favor to satirize Harpalus, a favorite being to compare the bumbling treasurer’s plights to that of Odysseus.
Alexander enjoyed these contests with his closest friends, drinking long and hard into the night. During one of these nights, Hephaestion retired to bed early, feeling ill. His doctor, Glaucias, recommended him to go on a diet; Hephaestion at first planned to ignore this, but Alexander had caught wind of the doctor’s advice, and convinced Hephaestion to follow it. His condition worsened the day after, but by the end of the week he had fully recovered, and would rejoin Alexander and the other companions in merriment. [8] It is rumored that it was in the relief of Hephaestion’s recovery that Alexander’s eldest son would be conceived; just counting the months from when Hephaestion recovered to when Roxane gave birth, the story is a plausible one. [9]
34. As promised, I will now turn to the story of Harpalus. Harpalus was a boyhood friend of Alexander’s, having been educated by Aristotle as a young man with Alexander and the other great Macedonian generals. Unfortunately for him, however, he was lame in one leg, preventing him from serving as an officer for Alexander. Nevertheless, Alexander invited him to come along on his Persian campaign, wishing to include his friend on the great adventure. As I mentioned earlier, Alexander appointed Harpalus as his treasurer once he had conquered the great treasuries of the Achaemenid kings, and entrusted him to send him reading material while on campaign in the east. In the latter regard, Harpalus always did well, sending the king plenty of histories and plays and odes to keep him occupied. However, in the former regard, he had shown himself to be quite suspect, only maintaining his position from his long personal friendship with Alexander. He had run from his king with stolen gold before, but Alexander had forgiven him – probably reminiscing on their childhood friendship – and allowed him to return to his previous role. This, clearly, was in poor judgment.
While serving in Babylon in this capacity, Harpalus learned of the talents of an Athenian woman called Pythionice; intrigued, he invited her to join him in Babylon, an invitation she immediately accepted. Harpalus loved her, but she did not love him, so he sought to win her love by using the treasury’s great reserves to please her, bribing her for her favor with rare fish from the Red Sea as well as other exotic and expensive luxuries. In due time, the couple would produce a daughter, and it seemed Harpalus had finally won her over; however, shortly thereafter Pythionice would die tragically. In mourning, he had monuments of her built in Babylon and in Athens that rivaled any of the great heroes of the Trojan War; bought musicians to sing at her funeral; and built a temple to her, claiming she was the goddess Pythionice Aphrodite. All this had come at the cost of a few hundred talents, which had been stolen from the treasury.
Recalling the success of his first application to the Athenian brothels, Harpalus invited a woman called Glycera to be his new “Aphrodite”. Noting that the first wife was now a goddess, Glycera immediately accepted and ventured east to Babylon; she was met, however, by Harpalus on the Anatolian coast, for evidently he could not wait for her to make it to Babylon on her own. The couple made their way to Tarsus; there, Glycera and her new husband were hailed as king and Queen, received proskynesis [10] from the people there, and a statue of Glycera was commissioned instead of one of Alexander, as it was supposed to be.
It was at this point that Harpalus had learned that Alexander had returned from the Indian campaign and the experience in Gedrosia; evidently, he did not have much confidence in his friend returning, or else he might not have been so foolish. Alexander did not believe the messengers that first told him of Harpalus’ treachery, and had them locked up until the truth of what they told was verified. That Harpalus betrayed him shocked him for a time, but Alexander would quickly come over that, focusing his efforts on resolving the situation and, later, finding humor in foolish Harpalus’ story.
35. Fearing that Alexander would seek to execute him for his blasphemy and his wasteful spending of the Royal Treasury, Harpalus decided to flee from the east. Gathering six thousand talents from the treasury, and six thousand men to protect him, Harpalus decided to go to Athens, as he had been made an honorary citizen of Athens after donating some grain to them while they struggled with famine. There, he proposed to the Athenians that with his army and funds contributed to their own, they could secure independence for Athens and other Greek cities from Alexander – essentially, he wanted them to protect him from the great king. Athens split itself into two factions debating the merits of Harpalus’ plan versus remaining at peace with Alexander; in the end, Demosthenes’ choice to support remaining at peace with Macedonia tipped the scales in favor of that argument, and the Athenians decided to not harbor Alexander’s estranged treasurer for the time being.
Meanwhile, Athens was dealing with another problem: Alexander’s so-called Exile’s Decree, which allowed all exiled Greeks to return to the homes they were exiled from, would force the Athenians to abdicate Samos, and let the Samians return to their island. Naturally, the Athenians opposed the decree, and wished to appeal to Alexander for an exception to this rule.
Only a few weeks after turning Harpalus away for the first time, he would return for a second time – only this time, he came with just seven hundred of his six thousand talents, and none of his soldiers. He bribed the harbormaster to let him inside the city [11], but shortly after arriving he was placed under house arrest by the Athenians, and all of his talents were confiscated. Demosthenes was then sent out to deal with the Macedonians, the goal being to trade Harpalus to Alexander for keeping Samos in the hands of Athenians. The Macedonians were in the better position, however, and Demosthenes agreed to hand over Harpalus and convince the Athenians to worship Alexander as the son of Zeus [12] in exchange for Athens being able to make their case to the king.
Harpalus, however, managed to escape from Athens before being arrested by the Macedonians; despite not having his money, he clearly had powerful friends in Athens that sympathized with his plight and wanted to see him escape – some say he had bribed the harbormaster to smuggle him out in case of emergency when he first came into the city, others believe that the demagogue Hyperides and his war-loving faction smuggled him out so that he might be able to help Athens fight the Macedonians at a later date. For me, both stories seem equally as likely. Whatever the case truly is, no one alive today knows for sure what the truth is, especially since shortly thereafter Harpalus was killed by a Spartan mercenary called Thibron, who would usurp his funds and set off to conquer Cyrene. His fortunes, however, were not separated from Alexander’s as Thibron had hoped, and the great king would meet the Lacedaemonian adventurer during his winter in Egypt following the Arabian conquests.
36. After Demosthenes’ dealing with the Macedonians, and Harpalus’ dramatic end, the Athenians would learn that half of Harpalus’ seven hundred talents were missing. Well known as a corrupt city, it was assumed that someone had stolen these talents for his own benefit, rather than the benefit of the city. After a long and laborious hunt to find those responsible for the crime, two men were charged: Demades, a notoriously corrupt and hated politician, and Demosthenes, who had been one of Athens’ leading figures since Philip’s ascension to the Macedonian throne. Both men were primarily convicted because they had been willing to work with the Macedonians to help their city, and in particular it is clear that the accusations against Demosthenes were unfounded and unjust, only charged against him because his former friend Hyperides stood to become the leading anti-Macedonian voice without Demosthenes there to overshadow him. He was then imprisoned, like a common thief. I do not care for all of Demosthenes’ positions, but having learned his history, I have come to respect him greatly as an orator, and it saddens me to know that this is injustice happened to him, for it is my belief that Demosthenes was completely innocent of the crimes he was accused of. The Athenians would eventually release him and forgive him of the crimes he was charged.
37. Returning to Alexander in Ecbatana, after the festival and the competitions that went with it, Alexander turned his attention onto the Cossaeans, a nearby Iranian tribe of brigands that had not wholly submitted to him yet. They were hill people, living in fortified strongholds at the peaks of the greatest hills – in war, they would draw the enemy in by showing themselves on the slopes, and either retreating lazily back upwards into their strongholds or disappearing to one of their many other hiding places; this would frustrate their enemies so much that they would give up and return to their homes, letting the Cossaeans return to their lives as they had been, which largely was robbing those who passed on the roads below. Despite their success in the past, the Cossaeans’ would not be able to hold out against Alexander. They hadn’t expected him to attack during the winter (as few commanders lead winter attacks), and so were unprepared to fight him; as a result, they were easily defeated, and submitted themselves to Alexander’s rule.
Once these people were properly conquered, Alexander sent Heraclides east to build ships for an expedition on the Hyrcanian Sea. [13] Alexander had long been anxious to extend his knowledge of the area; the main concern for him was to find out exactly what the Hyrcanian Sea actually was: did it join with the Black Sea; was it a gulf that joined with the Erythraean Sea [14] to the east; was it a gulf that led to a completely new ocean, with new peoples, plunders, and resources; or was it simply a large lake? He could not know for sure without having it explored; after all, some were unsure if the Arabian Gulf was a lake or a gulf before he had the area explored. Alexander also wished to gain intelligence on the peoples of the area, for he had not ruled out marching against them and colonizing the area – especially if it had turned out that it did connect to the Indian Ocean. Heraclides was to start at once, and to report immediately to him once he had finished exploring the area.
38. After this, Alexander (and the royal court that followed him) returned to Babylon. Once he had made himself comfortable in Nebuchadnezzar’s old palace, he was approached to by embassies from all over the world: Libyans, Carthaginians, Iberians, Celts, Italians, Ethiopians, Scythians, and Greeks not yet under his dominion all came to try and make Alexander their friend. The Libyan delegation even brought Alexander a crown in recognition of his rule over all Asia. Some of the delegations asked for his judgment in great disputes in their own territories; Alexander offered his thoughts, accepting the role he’d been cast in: King of the World.
Differing from all the other delegations there were the Athenians; already ruled by Alexander, they wished for Alexander to make an exception for Samos as a part of his Exiles’ Decree, as Demosthenes had fought for in his final months in the city. As it turned out, Alexander would not budge on the issue like the Athenians had hoped – he believed in the Samians’ cause, and noted that the other Greeks were ecstatic that the Samians were to return to their home. If Athens did not comply, he threatened, he would be forced to march at the head of an army and besiege their city, and force them to surrender Samos to its rightful owners. Needless to say, the Athenian delegation was deeply disappointed at the response Alexander had given them; it seemed that he was set against them. Athens would continue to delay abandoning Samos, however, as Alexander marched south into Arabia; instead, they prepared another delegation that might please Alexander more in the hopes of wooing him over to their side in the end. That delegation reached him while he was campaigning in Arabia [15]; I’ll write on that event once I reach that point. The Aetolians too appealed to Alexander for an exemption, as they did not wish to be evicted from Oeniadae, which they occupied after exiling its original citizens; in that case as well, Alexander supported the exiles. The Aetolians were less persistent.
39. It was not long after arriving back in Babylon that Roxane, daughter of Oxyartes, gave birth to a son, who would be named Alexander, after his father. It had been many years since Alexander had first taken the throne, and since his recent experiences in India, some in his inner circle were concerned that he would pass without leaving behind an heir – at least, an heir more capable than his poor brother, Arrhidaeus. Because of this, it was with tremendous joy that the new prince was welcomed into the world; westerners and easterners alike celebrated, and Alexander saw the occasion as an opportune time to start a festival and games in the boy’s honor.
It was not long afterwards that Barsine [16], Darius’ daughter, was found to be pregnant as well; she would remain in Babylon, and would give birth to a daughter shortly after the army began its campaign against Saba that upcoming winter. That daughter would be called Cleopatra, after Alexander’s favorite sister.
[1] – Not entirely an arbitrary choice for what number book I’m on. I’ve mapped out the earlier parts of his history to look like this:
1. Philip’s assassination; Thrace and Illyria; Thebes’ revolt; Troy; the Granicus; Halicarnassus; Gordium
2. Cilicia; Issus; Syria; Tyre; Gaza; Egypt; Oracle of Siwah; Ammon
3. Gaugamela; Persian Gates; burning Persepolis; pursuit of Darius; Bessus’ usurpation; Parmenion’s execution; Bactria and Sogdiana; Bessus killed
4. Bactria and Sogdiana; continuing on into India; Taxila; the Hydaspes; mutiny at the Hyphasis; Mallian campaign
5. Gedrosia; Pasargadae; purge of Darius’ satraps; Exiles’ Decree; Susa Weddings; mutiny at Opis; veterans led back home by Craterus; Harpalus’ story and Athens’ pleas to retain Samos; preparations for the Arabian campaign
[2] – I am starting after the banquet celebrating the end of the mutiny at Opis. At Opis, Alexander told his oldest veterans that they would be disbanded and sent back to Macedonia. All of the Macedonians in the army protested this, fearing that they would all be replaced by what they saw as their conquered subjects (Iranians, Mesopotamians, etc.), and unsure that they wanted to return back to their rather unimpressive homes, where they really didn’t have any interest or stake to anymore. When Alexander informed them that he was perfectly willing to disband every single one of them and replace them with Iranians and other Asians, they gave in and reconciled with Alexander, leading to a great feast in which the new order of the empire was laid out, with Macedonians in the inner-circle, Iranians in the second, and others on the outside. I’m starting at this point because I feel like it’s good to get a small refreshment period going, before I get to the PoD (that Hephaestion lives) – and even after the PoD, as the real changes from OTL begin from Alexander’s OTL death on.
[3] – Obviously, none of the stuff about how girls were raised was actually addressed by one of the ancient authors, but it was a question that entered my mind while writing and I decided to give it an answer.
[4] – More in due time.
[5] – I should note that it was never stated whether Craterus was going to permanently replace Antipater as Alexander’s regent in Macedonia IOTL.
[6] – Up to this point, this story is almost word-for-word out of Arrian (7.13).
[7] – This play was actually written and performed at this time, and small scraps of it have survived; however, it’s universally agreed upon that a playwright called Python wrote it, with Alexander perhaps contributing a couple lines. I decided that it’d make sense ITTL for it to be remembered as Alexander’s play, just as an extra thing that the “son of Ammon” is good at. What’s the play actually about? Harpalus, dubbed as “son of a phallus”, is the main character. He’s lonely, so some Magi summon his dead Athenian wife Pythionice from the monument Harpalus built for her. The dialog focused around current events: Harpalus and his current Athenian wife Glycera’s recent escapades, as well as making fun of Athens in general.
[8] – This is the PoD. Hephaestion pulled a Patrick Star after being given this advice IOTL, eating a whole chicken and downing a flagon of wine; here, he rests while the illness isn’t so bad, and he recovers.
[9] – Hephaestion fell ill IOTL in autumn 324, so Alexander’s son would have been born in spring 323. We’ll say he has an April birthday, just for the hell of it (the actual date isn’t important). So this is not OTL’s Alexander IV; as I explained, the idea is that the relief that Hephaestion lived through his illness cheered Alexander up, and, er… sped up the process of conceiving a child with Roxane.
[10] – Proskynesis was a Persian custom of submission to those of higher social rank, particularly to the king. According to Herodotus, a two people of equal rank kissed on the lips; one of a slightly lower rank than another would kiss his superior on the cheek; and someone of an inferior social rank would have to completely bow before the person of higher rank. Alexander allowed his Iranians to practice this with him; the Macedonians and the other Greeks strongly objected, feeling that only gods should be treated this way (which Alexander believed he was at this point). Over time, however, some began to get used to the idea – the first Macedonians to kiss Alexander did so after the mutiny at Opis.
[11] – I should note that this was James Romm’s guess at how Harpalus managed to get his way into Athens in his Ghost on the Throne; no ancient source says how he did it.
[12] – Demosthenes famously told the Athenians “Let him be the son of Zeus, and Poseidon too if he wants”. One can feel the sarcasm twenty-five hundred years later.
[13] – The Caspian Sea.
[14] – Essentially the Indian Ocean, though sometimes it seems to refer to the Red Sea.
[15] – Modern Aden.
[16] – Also known as Stateira. I’ll use Barsine in the timeline, as that is what Arrian calls her.
Book Five [1]
31. After this [2] all those Macedonians that were unfit due to age or other health concerns – around ten thousand in total – were decommissioned by Alexander at their own request, as he had desired at the start of all of this. Alexander paid the veterans all of the wages they were owed up to this point for their service, and added on what they would be owed for the march back home. On top of this, every man received one talent’s bonus, and was promised that all their children by Asian wives would be left in Asia, and cared for by Alexander himself. It was feared how these children, illegitimate and half-Asiatic, would grow and prosper in Macedonia; in this vacuum, Alexander fixed himself, promising to give them a Macedonian education, train them for the military, and one day show their fathers back home what men they have become in the east. Alexander would mostly follow through on this promise, training their boys to become men, with many serving in distinction in his later campaigns; however, not everyone would one day see their father again. The girls of these veterans were also brought up by Alexander and his court – they were educated in the traditional way, until they came of age, at which point most were sent to whichever of Alexander’s many colonies needed them most. Girls of noble stock were not subject to this, and instead became a permanent fixture within the royal court. A few of these women would later end up gaining some kind of fame within the court, the most notable being Eirene, Ptolemy’s favorite mistress after the infamous Thaïs’ passing. [3]
The ten thousand veterans were to be led home by Craterus, with Polyperchon as his second-in-command. The reason for these two men to lead the veterans home were as follows: Craterus had been ill for some time, perhaps beginning to show signs of aging (he was now nearly fifty), and he was someone Alexander could trust entirely in leading his veterans home safely, having conducted many missions for him before, including leading these very same men on the alternate path from India; meanwhile, Polyperchon was ancient, older than most of the veterans, and Alexander wanted to inject youth into his command for upcoming campaigns. His son, Alexander, remained with the army, taking over his father’s command with the infantry. In addition to those reasons, Alexander was concerned that these men did not see his vision for the empire, and so felt it better for all that they returned home, where there were no Persians or other easterners.
Once Craterus reached Macedonia, Alexander wished him to take over the regency from Antipater; this in hindsight was a poor decision by Alexander, as it is thought to have driven Cassander and Iollas to try and poison the king [4], but Alexander had his reasons for it. Antipater was getting old, and he did not consider it wise to let Antipater serve him in that capacity until he died, as that was unpredictable and could perhaps have devastating consequences, so Alexander felt that he could replace the old general with a “new Antipater” whom he could trust to govern the Greeks for at least a decade. [5] There were baser reasons too: Alexander was becoming irritated at Antipater’s disputes with his mother, and wanted to separate them; also, Alexander had not seen Antipater since he had left Macedonia ten years earlier, and Antipater had not yet seen the wonders of the East. From Macedonia, Antipater was to bring ten thousand men to Babylon as replacements for the veterans Craterus was leading back.
32. Craterus and Polyperchon marched the veterans west from Opis; Alexander and the remainder of the army, however, would march east to Media, at the cool summer palaces of the Achaemenids in Ecbatana. Along the road, he would stop at the plains of Nesaea, where Persian kings’ mares were pastured. The magnificent sight of the tens of thousands of horses was breathtaking to the king; when he learned that nearly a hundred thousand more horses once roamed the pastures, Alexander swore to restock Nesaea to its former glory and beyond, and indeed, by the end of his reign, Alexander would see Nesaea nearly equal its earlier size, with the finest mares from all across his conquests being brought to this place to grow his personal herd.
In addition to this, popular legend persists that while he was at Nesaea, Atropates, who ruled Media for Alexander, presented the king with one hundred Amazon warriors. Each of the women was equipped like cavalrymen, but carried axes instead of spears. They wore their hair short, mimicking men, and their right breast was smaller than their left, to ease their archery. Alexander sent the women away, fearing that his men might desire them; despite this, Alexander told them to inform their Queen that he would visit her and get her with child [6], remarking that there could be no more legendary a union than that of a god and an Amazon, and no more prodigious a child than what such a union could produce. No historians from Alexander’s time mentioned this episode, and never again is Alexander mentioned to have communed with Amazonians or to have sought their Queen as a wife; for these reasons, I believe the story to be a fantasy and nothing more. The story is an entertaining one though, and is worth recording for posterity I think.
33. Alexander arrived in Ecbatana shortly after these famous episodes. Upon arriving, he would offer sacrifices to the gods, as was custom to celebrate such an occasion, and then opened a festival that would feature literary and athletic contests. Alexander himself is said to have submitted a play satirizing Harpalus, his wives, and Athens into the competition. (Harpalus’ actual story to this point I will tell once I finish this one.) As for the play, all who saw it laughed until they wept, appreciating the comedy, and it would win first prize. [7] It was still popular for a number of years after Harpalus’ death for comedic playwrights hoping to gain Alexander’s favor to satirize Harpalus, a favorite being to compare the bumbling treasurer’s plights to that of Odysseus.
Alexander enjoyed these contests with his closest friends, drinking long and hard into the night. During one of these nights, Hephaestion retired to bed early, feeling ill. His doctor, Glaucias, recommended him to go on a diet; Hephaestion at first planned to ignore this, but Alexander had caught wind of the doctor’s advice, and convinced Hephaestion to follow it. His condition worsened the day after, but by the end of the week he had fully recovered, and would rejoin Alexander and the other companions in merriment. [8] It is rumored that it was in the relief of Hephaestion’s recovery that Alexander’s eldest son would be conceived; just counting the months from when Hephaestion recovered to when Roxane gave birth, the story is a plausible one. [9]
34. As promised, I will now turn to the story of Harpalus. Harpalus was a boyhood friend of Alexander’s, having been educated by Aristotle as a young man with Alexander and the other great Macedonian generals. Unfortunately for him, however, he was lame in one leg, preventing him from serving as an officer for Alexander. Nevertheless, Alexander invited him to come along on his Persian campaign, wishing to include his friend on the great adventure. As I mentioned earlier, Alexander appointed Harpalus as his treasurer once he had conquered the great treasuries of the Achaemenid kings, and entrusted him to send him reading material while on campaign in the east. In the latter regard, Harpalus always did well, sending the king plenty of histories and plays and odes to keep him occupied. However, in the former regard, he had shown himself to be quite suspect, only maintaining his position from his long personal friendship with Alexander. He had run from his king with stolen gold before, but Alexander had forgiven him – probably reminiscing on their childhood friendship – and allowed him to return to his previous role. This, clearly, was in poor judgment.
While serving in Babylon in this capacity, Harpalus learned of the talents of an Athenian woman called Pythionice; intrigued, he invited her to join him in Babylon, an invitation she immediately accepted. Harpalus loved her, but she did not love him, so he sought to win her love by using the treasury’s great reserves to please her, bribing her for her favor with rare fish from the Red Sea as well as other exotic and expensive luxuries. In due time, the couple would produce a daughter, and it seemed Harpalus had finally won her over; however, shortly thereafter Pythionice would die tragically. In mourning, he had monuments of her built in Babylon and in Athens that rivaled any of the great heroes of the Trojan War; bought musicians to sing at her funeral; and built a temple to her, claiming she was the goddess Pythionice Aphrodite. All this had come at the cost of a few hundred talents, which had been stolen from the treasury.
Recalling the success of his first application to the Athenian brothels, Harpalus invited a woman called Glycera to be his new “Aphrodite”. Noting that the first wife was now a goddess, Glycera immediately accepted and ventured east to Babylon; she was met, however, by Harpalus on the Anatolian coast, for evidently he could not wait for her to make it to Babylon on her own. The couple made their way to Tarsus; there, Glycera and her new husband were hailed as king and Queen, received proskynesis [10] from the people there, and a statue of Glycera was commissioned instead of one of Alexander, as it was supposed to be.
It was at this point that Harpalus had learned that Alexander had returned from the Indian campaign and the experience in Gedrosia; evidently, he did not have much confidence in his friend returning, or else he might not have been so foolish. Alexander did not believe the messengers that first told him of Harpalus’ treachery, and had them locked up until the truth of what they told was verified. That Harpalus betrayed him shocked him for a time, but Alexander would quickly come over that, focusing his efforts on resolving the situation and, later, finding humor in foolish Harpalus’ story.
35. Fearing that Alexander would seek to execute him for his blasphemy and his wasteful spending of the Royal Treasury, Harpalus decided to flee from the east. Gathering six thousand talents from the treasury, and six thousand men to protect him, Harpalus decided to go to Athens, as he had been made an honorary citizen of Athens after donating some grain to them while they struggled with famine. There, he proposed to the Athenians that with his army and funds contributed to their own, they could secure independence for Athens and other Greek cities from Alexander – essentially, he wanted them to protect him from the great king. Athens split itself into two factions debating the merits of Harpalus’ plan versus remaining at peace with Alexander; in the end, Demosthenes’ choice to support remaining at peace with Macedonia tipped the scales in favor of that argument, and the Athenians decided to not harbor Alexander’s estranged treasurer for the time being.
Meanwhile, Athens was dealing with another problem: Alexander’s so-called Exile’s Decree, which allowed all exiled Greeks to return to the homes they were exiled from, would force the Athenians to abdicate Samos, and let the Samians return to their island. Naturally, the Athenians opposed the decree, and wished to appeal to Alexander for an exception to this rule.
Only a few weeks after turning Harpalus away for the first time, he would return for a second time – only this time, he came with just seven hundred of his six thousand talents, and none of his soldiers. He bribed the harbormaster to let him inside the city [11], but shortly after arriving he was placed under house arrest by the Athenians, and all of his talents were confiscated. Demosthenes was then sent out to deal with the Macedonians, the goal being to trade Harpalus to Alexander for keeping Samos in the hands of Athenians. The Macedonians were in the better position, however, and Demosthenes agreed to hand over Harpalus and convince the Athenians to worship Alexander as the son of Zeus [12] in exchange for Athens being able to make their case to the king.
Harpalus, however, managed to escape from Athens before being arrested by the Macedonians; despite not having his money, he clearly had powerful friends in Athens that sympathized with his plight and wanted to see him escape – some say he had bribed the harbormaster to smuggle him out in case of emergency when he first came into the city, others believe that the demagogue Hyperides and his war-loving faction smuggled him out so that he might be able to help Athens fight the Macedonians at a later date. For me, both stories seem equally as likely. Whatever the case truly is, no one alive today knows for sure what the truth is, especially since shortly thereafter Harpalus was killed by a Spartan mercenary called Thibron, who would usurp his funds and set off to conquer Cyrene. His fortunes, however, were not separated from Alexander’s as Thibron had hoped, and the great king would meet the Lacedaemonian adventurer during his winter in Egypt following the Arabian conquests.
36. After Demosthenes’ dealing with the Macedonians, and Harpalus’ dramatic end, the Athenians would learn that half of Harpalus’ seven hundred talents were missing. Well known as a corrupt city, it was assumed that someone had stolen these talents for his own benefit, rather than the benefit of the city. After a long and laborious hunt to find those responsible for the crime, two men were charged: Demades, a notoriously corrupt and hated politician, and Demosthenes, who had been one of Athens’ leading figures since Philip’s ascension to the Macedonian throne. Both men were primarily convicted because they had been willing to work with the Macedonians to help their city, and in particular it is clear that the accusations against Demosthenes were unfounded and unjust, only charged against him because his former friend Hyperides stood to become the leading anti-Macedonian voice without Demosthenes there to overshadow him. He was then imprisoned, like a common thief. I do not care for all of Demosthenes’ positions, but having learned his history, I have come to respect him greatly as an orator, and it saddens me to know that this is injustice happened to him, for it is my belief that Demosthenes was completely innocent of the crimes he was accused of. The Athenians would eventually release him and forgive him of the crimes he was charged.
37. Returning to Alexander in Ecbatana, after the festival and the competitions that went with it, Alexander turned his attention onto the Cossaeans, a nearby Iranian tribe of brigands that had not wholly submitted to him yet. They were hill people, living in fortified strongholds at the peaks of the greatest hills – in war, they would draw the enemy in by showing themselves on the slopes, and either retreating lazily back upwards into their strongholds or disappearing to one of their many other hiding places; this would frustrate their enemies so much that they would give up and return to their homes, letting the Cossaeans return to their lives as they had been, which largely was robbing those who passed on the roads below. Despite their success in the past, the Cossaeans’ would not be able to hold out against Alexander. They hadn’t expected him to attack during the winter (as few commanders lead winter attacks), and so were unprepared to fight him; as a result, they were easily defeated, and submitted themselves to Alexander’s rule.
Once these people were properly conquered, Alexander sent Heraclides east to build ships for an expedition on the Hyrcanian Sea. [13] Alexander had long been anxious to extend his knowledge of the area; the main concern for him was to find out exactly what the Hyrcanian Sea actually was: did it join with the Black Sea; was it a gulf that joined with the Erythraean Sea [14] to the east; was it a gulf that led to a completely new ocean, with new peoples, plunders, and resources; or was it simply a large lake? He could not know for sure without having it explored; after all, some were unsure if the Arabian Gulf was a lake or a gulf before he had the area explored. Alexander also wished to gain intelligence on the peoples of the area, for he had not ruled out marching against them and colonizing the area – especially if it had turned out that it did connect to the Indian Ocean. Heraclides was to start at once, and to report immediately to him once he had finished exploring the area.
38. After this, Alexander (and the royal court that followed him) returned to Babylon. Once he had made himself comfortable in Nebuchadnezzar’s old palace, he was approached to by embassies from all over the world: Libyans, Carthaginians, Iberians, Celts, Italians, Ethiopians, Scythians, and Greeks not yet under his dominion all came to try and make Alexander their friend. The Libyan delegation even brought Alexander a crown in recognition of his rule over all Asia. Some of the delegations asked for his judgment in great disputes in their own territories; Alexander offered his thoughts, accepting the role he’d been cast in: King of the World.
Differing from all the other delegations there were the Athenians; already ruled by Alexander, they wished for Alexander to make an exception for Samos as a part of his Exiles’ Decree, as Demosthenes had fought for in his final months in the city. As it turned out, Alexander would not budge on the issue like the Athenians had hoped – he believed in the Samians’ cause, and noted that the other Greeks were ecstatic that the Samians were to return to their home. If Athens did not comply, he threatened, he would be forced to march at the head of an army and besiege their city, and force them to surrender Samos to its rightful owners. Needless to say, the Athenian delegation was deeply disappointed at the response Alexander had given them; it seemed that he was set against them. Athens would continue to delay abandoning Samos, however, as Alexander marched south into Arabia; instead, they prepared another delegation that might please Alexander more in the hopes of wooing him over to their side in the end. That delegation reached him while he was campaigning in Arabia [15]; I’ll write on that event once I reach that point. The Aetolians too appealed to Alexander for an exemption, as they did not wish to be evicted from Oeniadae, which they occupied after exiling its original citizens; in that case as well, Alexander supported the exiles. The Aetolians were less persistent.
39. It was not long after arriving back in Babylon that Roxane, daughter of Oxyartes, gave birth to a son, who would be named Alexander, after his father. It had been many years since Alexander had first taken the throne, and since his recent experiences in India, some in his inner circle were concerned that he would pass without leaving behind an heir – at least, an heir more capable than his poor brother, Arrhidaeus. Because of this, it was with tremendous joy that the new prince was welcomed into the world; westerners and easterners alike celebrated, and Alexander saw the occasion as an opportune time to start a festival and games in the boy’s honor.
It was not long afterwards that Barsine [16], Darius’ daughter, was found to be pregnant as well; she would remain in Babylon, and would give birth to a daughter shortly after the army began its campaign against Saba that upcoming winter. That daughter would be called Cleopatra, after Alexander’s favorite sister.
[1] – Not entirely an arbitrary choice for what number book I’m on. I’ve mapped out the earlier parts of his history to look like this:
1. Philip’s assassination; Thrace and Illyria; Thebes’ revolt; Troy; the Granicus; Halicarnassus; Gordium
2. Cilicia; Issus; Syria; Tyre; Gaza; Egypt; Oracle of Siwah; Ammon
3. Gaugamela; Persian Gates; burning Persepolis; pursuit of Darius; Bessus’ usurpation; Parmenion’s execution; Bactria and Sogdiana; Bessus killed
4. Bactria and Sogdiana; continuing on into India; Taxila; the Hydaspes; mutiny at the Hyphasis; Mallian campaign
5. Gedrosia; Pasargadae; purge of Darius’ satraps; Exiles’ Decree; Susa Weddings; mutiny at Opis; veterans led back home by Craterus; Harpalus’ story and Athens’ pleas to retain Samos; preparations for the Arabian campaign
[2] – I am starting after the banquet celebrating the end of the mutiny at Opis. At Opis, Alexander told his oldest veterans that they would be disbanded and sent back to Macedonia. All of the Macedonians in the army protested this, fearing that they would all be replaced by what they saw as their conquered subjects (Iranians, Mesopotamians, etc.), and unsure that they wanted to return back to their rather unimpressive homes, where they really didn’t have any interest or stake to anymore. When Alexander informed them that he was perfectly willing to disband every single one of them and replace them with Iranians and other Asians, they gave in and reconciled with Alexander, leading to a great feast in which the new order of the empire was laid out, with Macedonians in the inner-circle, Iranians in the second, and others on the outside. I’m starting at this point because I feel like it’s good to get a small refreshment period going, before I get to the PoD (that Hephaestion lives) – and even after the PoD, as the real changes from OTL begin from Alexander’s OTL death on.
[3] – Obviously, none of the stuff about how girls were raised was actually addressed by one of the ancient authors, but it was a question that entered my mind while writing and I decided to give it an answer.
[4] – More in due time.
[5] – I should note that it was never stated whether Craterus was going to permanently replace Antipater as Alexander’s regent in Macedonia IOTL.
[6] – Up to this point, this story is almost word-for-word out of Arrian (7.13).
[7] – This play was actually written and performed at this time, and small scraps of it have survived; however, it’s universally agreed upon that a playwright called Python wrote it, with Alexander perhaps contributing a couple lines. I decided that it’d make sense ITTL for it to be remembered as Alexander’s play, just as an extra thing that the “son of Ammon” is good at. What’s the play actually about? Harpalus, dubbed as “son of a phallus”, is the main character. He’s lonely, so some Magi summon his dead Athenian wife Pythionice from the monument Harpalus built for her. The dialog focused around current events: Harpalus and his current Athenian wife Glycera’s recent escapades, as well as making fun of Athens in general.
[8] – This is the PoD. Hephaestion pulled a Patrick Star after being given this advice IOTL, eating a whole chicken and downing a flagon of wine; here, he rests while the illness isn’t so bad, and he recovers.
[9] – Hephaestion fell ill IOTL in autumn 324, so Alexander’s son would have been born in spring 323. We’ll say he has an April birthday, just for the hell of it (the actual date isn’t important). So this is not OTL’s Alexander IV; as I explained, the idea is that the relief that Hephaestion lived through his illness cheered Alexander up, and, er… sped up the process of conceiving a child with Roxane.
[10] – Proskynesis was a Persian custom of submission to those of higher social rank, particularly to the king. According to Herodotus, a two people of equal rank kissed on the lips; one of a slightly lower rank than another would kiss his superior on the cheek; and someone of an inferior social rank would have to completely bow before the person of higher rank. Alexander allowed his Iranians to practice this with him; the Macedonians and the other Greeks strongly objected, feeling that only gods should be treated this way (which Alexander believed he was at this point). Over time, however, some began to get used to the idea – the first Macedonians to kiss Alexander did so after the mutiny at Opis.
[11] – I should note that this was James Romm’s guess at how Harpalus managed to get his way into Athens in his Ghost on the Throne; no ancient source says how he did it.
[12] – Demosthenes famously told the Athenians “Let him be the son of Zeus, and Poseidon too if he wants”. One can feel the sarcasm twenty-five hundred years later.
[13] – The Caspian Sea.
[14] – Essentially the Indian Ocean, though sometimes it seems to refer to the Red Sea.
[15] – Modern Aden.
[16] – Also known as Stateira. I’ll use Barsine in the timeline, as that is what Arrian calls her.
I feel like I should have a small hello post... so here it is. 
Hi! Um... this is probably the one million and first Alexander the Great timeline on this site (still less than the number of US Civil War timelines), and there probably will be more. I had some reservations about doing a timeline that is so often done on here, but Alexander living has always been a favorite PoD of mine, and is one that I find easy and fun to write about, and so here we are today. I hope that I will offer a fresh perspective on the idea, but I also recognize that I will probably rehash old ideas done in much better timelines. Having Hephaestion live as my PoD was partly with that in mind; I honestly think him living changes a lot, but I suppose readers will be the judge of that.
Readers of Xamm Anim have probably already noticed that I'm using basically the same format; that will be the format I use throughout the timeline. I plan on being two updates ahead of what I've posted, so I'll post whenever I've finished an update. Hopefully that's not too erratic, and if it becomes so, I have some room to post without feeling to pressured to maintain that pace. In fact, ideally, I'd like it if I could post once a week... but I can't promise.
Besides all that... umm... I guess I'd like to remind readers to comment. Please criticize if you see something to criticize - I'm not a perfect editor, and I certainly wouldn't consider myself an expert on the period, so I'm sure there'll be something to hack at. Also, I do hope you like the timeline.
Also, as a sidenote, I feel that I should credit calling Alexander "Alexandros Theos" (Alexander "the God") to Endymion, who referred to Alexander as such in his deservedly famous "Blood and Gold" timelines, since I got the idea from that timeline. Here is a link to the most recent version of that timeline; read it if you already haven't.
Hi! Um... this is probably the one million and first Alexander the Great timeline on this site (still less than the number of US Civil War timelines
), and there probably will be more. I had some reservations about doing a timeline that is so often done on here, but Alexander living has always been a favorite PoD of mine, and is one that I find easy and fun to write about, and so here we are today. I hope that I will offer a fresh perspective on the idea, but I also recognize that I will probably rehash old ideas done in much better timelines. Having Hephaestion live as my PoD was partly with that in mind; I honestly think him living changes a lot, but I suppose readers will be the judge of that.Readers of Xamm Anim have probably already noticed that I'm using basically the same format; that will be the format I use throughout the timeline. I plan on being two updates ahead of what I've posted, so I'll post whenever I've finished an update. Hopefully that's not too erratic, and if it becomes so, I have some room to post without feeling to pressured to maintain that pace. In fact, ideally, I'd like it if I could post once a week... but I can't promise.
Besides all that... umm... I guess I'd like to remind readers to comment. Please criticize if you see something to criticize - I'm not a perfect editor, and I certainly wouldn't consider myself an expert on the period, so I'm sure there'll be something to hack at. Also, I do hope you like the timeline.
Also, as a sidenote, I feel that I should credit calling Alexander "Alexandros Theos" (Alexander "the God") to Endymion, who referred to Alexander as such in his deservedly famous "Blood and Gold" timelines, since I got the idea from that timeline. Here is a link to the most recent version of that timeline; read it if you already haven't.
Amazing intro, you have me hooked! I assume Aristides is this TL's Arrian? Also, one nitpick: Heracles was the eldest son of Alexander, not Alexander IV (though I guess he was illegitimate, so I can see why Aristides wouldn't recognize him as such). Other than that though, this is going to be great.
Nice! Can't wait for more.
Subscribed
Thanks, all of you!
That was the idea; it'll be obvious for the first couple of updates especially, since I took quite a bit from Arrian up to the point when Alexander starts marching his army around the Arabian Peninsula.
I am aware of Heracles' existence. His role in this timeline is either going to be very limited or non-existent, however - there are a lot of people who don't buy that Heracles really was Alexander's bastard, and the only reason he became important IOTL was because he was actually out of his mother's womb, while Alexander IV, obviously, was not.
Here, well, a major part of the idea is that Alexander lives long enough to have a few sons that live to adulthood; you'll notice that I have Alexander living for exactly twenty years longer than what he did IOTL... so Heracles will remain unimportant, at least up until the moment Alexander dies. His heirs might take an interest in him. Holy Shit. Not only have you returned, but you've come back with the best PoD of all antiquity! Subscribed!
I hope this TL lasts a year at least and that we'll be seeing many interesting changes soon! Will Rome fall to Alexander's might? Do you need any research help? Can I draw commissions of historical portraits of people like Alexander, including buildings, warriors and weapons/armor to vastly improve TTL's atmosphere?
I hope this TL lasts a year at least and that we'll be seeing many interesting changes soon! Will Rome fall to Alexander's might? Do you need any research help? Can I draw commissions of historical portraits of people like Alexander, including buildings, warriors and weapons/armor to vastly improve TTL's atmosphere?
I look forward to more as well.
Holy Shit. Not only have you returned, but you've come back with the best PoD of all antiquity! Subscribed!
Thanks, I appreciate the nice comments!
I don't think I need any research help, but please feel free to draw whatever you want to draw. I've liked the drawings you've done for Errnge's timeline and others I peruse through; you're a good artist.
I've finished piecing together an update, so I'm ready to post the beginning of Book VI! I can pretty much guarantee updates won't happen so quickly again... so I guess enjoy the two within twenty-four hours.
Anyways, here it is:An excerpt from Aristides’ The Campaigns of Alexander
Book Six
1. Notably missing from all those delegations that visited him in Babylon were the Arabs; not one of their many tribes contacted Alexander, while all the other peoples of the world were trying to gain his favor. Alexander took great offense at their absence, and it is because of this that he justified his war against them. In addition, it was well known to Alexander through Herodotus that the Arabs only worshiped two gods, Uranus and Dionysus [1], and Alexander wished for himself to become the third of their gods, believing his exploits to be great enough to rival those of those two gods; also, Alexander knew of the great wealth of the Arabs, and he wished to bring that wealth under his control, and even expand it. However, it is clear to me that he had long before made his mind that the Arabs would be his next conquest, and that these reasons were merely justifications for himself and his commanders to make the meaning of the war less arbitrary. In my view, Alexander wished to conquer the Arabs primarily because they were a people that had yet to be conquered by anyone, and knew that it was within his capabilities to be the first. This was always what motivated him: to be the first to do anything, or, if that was not possible, to outshine all others that had come before him, even if they were gods or ancient heroes. Like Achilles, he sought immortality for his name and deeds, and in that, I believe it safe to say that he succeeded. Even today, all men of the world know the name Alexander, and not an insignificant number worship him as a god, the son of Ammon and master of the world.
2. Regardless of his motivations for the campaign, Alexander throughout the year would prepare diligently for his Arabian war. If there was one thing about Alexander that makes him greater than any other commander before or after him, it was that he was the best at preparing his army for what lie ahead; he always knew everything there was to know about the terrain and people ahead, and would nearly always find ways to use what he knew to his advantage, with only Gedrosia besting him – and even there, he did better than anyone who had come before him or since.
Intelligence reports were now coming in to Alexander from his admirals on Arabia, which would help shape plans for the campaign. Arabia, as it turned out, was an extraordinarily large country – almost as large as India. It was reported that there were many harbors and islands from which Alexander could base new settlements that could grow and become rich facilitating trade between India and Alexander’s western lands. Two islands were found near the mouth of the Euphrates: one close, only fifteen miles or so away, and the other lay two sailing days away opposite of Gerrha. The closer one was densely wooded, and was devoted to Artemis; Alexander named this one Icarus, after the island in the Aegean, which was of course named after the famous boy who fell from the sky when he flew to close to the sun. The further one was called Tylus; it was nearly three hundred miles from the mouth of the Euphrates, and though it was not wooded or heavily inhabited, it was fit to grow crops for all seasons.
Though its size was similar to India, its geography was very different. The chief difference is water: in India, there are some of the greatest rivers in the world, and there are entire months where all it does is rain; in Arabia, nearly all the land is desert, and there are no rivers or lakes. Its freshwater comes from wells and springs, and from rainfall, which comes on a seasonal basis: during the spring and summer it rains in the south, and during the fall and winter it rains in the north. Its rains have never rivaled that of India though, and the land generally remains quite arid.
Alexander’s only disappointment in the scouting of the Arabs was that none of his men managed to sail around the entire peninsula: Archias reached Tylus but did not sail on; Androsthenes got further, reaching the end of the eastern side of the peninsula, but turned back at that point; and Hiero nearly made it to the Red Sea, but he too grew fearful and turned back. [2] Though none of the men completed the task Alexander hoped they would, they did come back with important information: locals had told them that the winds would most favor ships entering the Red Sea between September and November, and would somewhat favor ships through March. [3] Meanwhile, in the Persian Gulf, the wind would favor them most during the summer.
3. At this point, it seems appropriate to me to explain the ways of the Arab people in general, for there is no better time to introduce their alien ways and history than before I begin describing the campaign.
There are two lands in Arabia, one of which is called Arabia Kaki [4], and the other which is called Arabia Plousia [5]. The cultures of these lands are very different, and are only connected through their common language. Arabia Kaki is a country defined by its great deserts and crippling poverty; there are great cities on the coast, but the inner lands are dominated by nomads and brigands, whom are greatly jealous of the city people and always look to raid their caravans and gain wealth of their own. The great cities fear the desert and the tribes that live there greatly, and even during peace maintain a strong guard to watch over the desert and their trade. Of the entire Arabian Peninsula, Arabia Kaki dominates the overwhelming majority of it, stretching from the southernmost reaches of Mesopotamia to Najran and from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf. The richest and most powerful kingdom within Arabia Kaki is Gerrha; the Gerrhaeans dominate most of the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, especially in the lands between Alexandria-in-Susiana and Keta [6]. Gerrha itself is as rich a city as any in the world, including Athens and Babylon and Susa, and it has been home to many powerful and influential people. Besides the Gerrhaeans, there is Eddor [7], Omana [8], Moscha [9], and Salalah on the eastern side of the peninsula, as well as the people of Maketa, who were ruled by the Persians. These countries are all relatively peaceful towards one another, and instead focus any martial efforts towards combatting pirates or raiders, of which there are many. There were no great ports on the western side of the peninsula during Alexander’s lifetime, only nomadic tribesmen and a few mildly prosperous fishing villages. In the far north near Sinai, however, there are some large cities built around oases; chiefly amongst them being Petra and Tayma [10].
Arabia Plousia, meanwhile, is a much smaller and much more prosperous land. It is located in the far southwest corner of the peninsula, and is only separated by a few miles of water from Ethiopia. Most of the land is ruled by four competing kingdoms, called Saba, Hadramaut, Kataban [11], and Minos [12]. The Sabaeans are easily the most powerful and prestigious of these kingdoms, and ruled over the other kingdoms for centuries. They controlled the greatest percentage of the lucrative frankincense, myrrh, and cinnamon trades, and they had by far the largest population of any Arab nation, which they were able to support through their ancient dam outside of Mariaba [13], the Sabaean capital, which kept their fields green even in the desert environment. The dam was built around the same time as the Pyramids [14], and it is generally thought that the dam was as great a marvel as anything built besides the Pyramids in the Mediterranean, because of its practicality and ingenuity.
4. The cities of Arabia Plousia tended to be very jealous of one another, and would compete in displaying their wealth. The easiest way to do this was through the building of great walls. Arab walls were not very tall, but were very long and were well-built, even though they were only built from mud brick. Mariaba is universally thought to have the most impressive walls out of all the Arab cities; its walls have a long and complicated series of turrets and watchtowers, and are lined with spaces for archers to fire at a besieging enemy. These walled cities contrasted mightily with the cities of Arabia Kaki, most of which were unbounded – only the northern oasis cities and Gerrha had walls of note.
The palaces of Arabia Plousia were well renowned for their luxury; many tales that might seem outlandish about how gold, silver, and other precious and valuable things are commonly used and displayed are true. But besides serving as the impressive symbol of power for the royal family, the palace was also used as a citadel in leading Arab cities, being built with this purpose in mind. When a city was in danger of falling to enemy forces, everyone that could would evacuate into the palace while their warriors defended the palace walls and halls. When Alexander conquered Azal [15] and Mariaba from Saba, the last of the fighting took place at the palace that dominated the center of the city. In contrast, the palaces of Arabia Kaki were only used as the homes of the leading family, and had no defensive fortifications. The typical Arabian home, meanwhile, tended to be much more modest, being built of mud brick (as were most buildings throughout the peninsula).
The Arabs are lovers of art and poetry, and they tend to dedicate their work to the gods. Peculiarly, they do not offer much in these fields to either Dionysus or Uranus, the chief gods of the Arab pantheon, but to other gods like Artemis, Apollo, Hermes, and Zeus. They are especially good at poetry; they are as natural of poets as Greeks are actors, though none of them is as skilled as Homer. They are also a superstitious people, and often rely on oracles to bring them wisdom, though none of them is as renowned as Delphi.
5. I will now return to Alexander’s story. When spring came, Alexander left Babylon to venture down the Euphrates to check on his new harbor [16] and the warships being constructed there; while on the way, a canal known as the Pallacopas was visited by the king, as it was realized that it needed his attention. Now, the source of the Euphrates is in the mountains of Armenia; during the spring and summer months, the snow in the mountains melts, causing an influx of extra water into the river and creating floods. At least, it would flood the rivers, should the Pallacopas not exist – instead, the Pallacopas diverts extra water into marshes and lakes that would not harm the many settlements and farms that occupy the banks of the Euphrates. By autumn, the snow stops melting, and so the level of the Euphrates drops; however, some of the water still finds its way into the canal, and drains the Euphrates of a great deal of water that would greatly help farmers irrigate their crops. Unless the canal was blocked by a sluice at this time, this disastrous process would continue to afflict farmers in the region.
Knowing all of this, Alexander made it a priority to see the construction of such a sluice. He ordered the Babylonian governor to create it, who then hired ten thousand Assyrian workers complete it. However, they would fail – the ground near the site they wished to build the sluice was composed of soft clay, which proved unable to hold back the Euphrates’ overflowing water. Alexander then proposed that construct a very efficient sluice a few miles upstream, where the ground was made of harder stuff – this, when tried, solved their problem. Near the site of Alexander’s sluice he saw a good location for a settlement; there, he had the oldest and most disabled Greek mercenaries garrison and encouraged nearby locals to settle with them to create a small town. This town would grow under Alexander’s patronage, and would become an important place in Mesopotamia, known as Alexandria-on-the-Pallacopas. [17]
Upon founding this town, Alexander would go on to check the progress being made at Alexandria-in-Susiana – how his fleet was shaping up, and how the city was progressing. He found both to be in good shape for his plans, and then returned back to Babylon.
6. Once he returned to Babylon, he found Peucestas, having come from Persia with twenty thousand men for Alexander’s army; most of these men were from Persia itself, but others were of neighboring tribes like the Cossaeans that Alexander subdued recently. Upon meeting Peucestas and his Iranian troops, Alexander thanked both the troops and their captain: the troops for their loyalty and obedience to an outside, and Peucestas for successfully implementing an orderly and effective government so quickly, which had been no mean feat in the wake of the debacle with Orxines. [18] The Persians were then enrolled within the regiments of the army. All archers and other skirmishers, their regiments were all commanded by Macedonian officers, who donned native dress and weaponry. A single regiment would be sixteen men: twelve would be Persians, and the other four Macedonians.
None of my sources comment on how Alexander’s veterans from all his campaigns to this point took the news of the twenty thousand easterners being added to their army; as this is the case, I will speculate. I believe the reaction was a very mixed one. It is true that many of the Macedonians did not care much for Persians, and many of the Greeks despised them for their invasions of Greece under Xerxes; these facts cannot be argued, just as it cannot be argued that water does not flow downstream. However, it is important to note that many men received promotions, now being paid up to twice as much as they had been previously, and that all the Macedonians were returned to their native weapons and gear, which most had had to abandon as the army went further and further into the depths of Asia fighting Persians and Bactrians and Indians. Also, it is clear that since the reconciliation at Opis that there was a tide brewing in favor of the king’s policy towards the conquered easterners, for they had demanded the honor of performing proskynesis on Alexander, a practice which many actively despised before. Those that were left in the army by this point had either grown to accept Alexander’s policies, or refused to make a point of showing their distaste of it in public anymore, as Alexander had worked hard to make sure that his officers and army were in full support of his compromises to rule Asia as a Greek.
Also awaiting him with fresh troops were Philoxenus from Caria and Menander from Lydia. In addition, during this time Alexander brought many mercenaries that he had disbanded from his satraps to Babylon to join his army. All these men accounted for, and added to what he had left over from his earlier wars, Alexander had a force of about fifty thousand men for his Arabian campaign. Included in this total are his cavalry – they numbered around eight thousand. Ethnically, the army can be roughly divided into three: Macedonians, Greeks, and easterners. There were around twelve thousand Macedonians (many of whom were in command positions), fourteen thousand Greeks (nearly all mercenaries), and there were the twenty-four thousand easterners – most of whom Peucestas had led over; the rest already having been added to Alexander’s units – especially the cavalry – earlier on. In addition, thirty elephants that had been brought from India were to join the army in Arabia. The elephants were something of an experiment for Alexander, as he wished to learn what their limits were for future reference.
7. In order to get used to the new arrangements, Alexander had his men drilled constantly for the couple months before they were to set out against the Arabs. The sailors were also drilled, for their expertise was crucial to the success of the whole operation. In order to bolster morale, Alexander made games out of the training, staging simulated battles as contests – for instance, the crews of two of his ships would pelt apples at each other until one submitted. Drills were also conducted with the elephants – though he had marched with the elephants back from India, his army had almost no experience with them in battle, and even many of those that had marched with the elephants back from India were still fearful of the great beasts. Over time, this fear would go away, but it still persisted even into the beginning stages of the Arabian campaign.
While his men drilled, Alexander prepared the strategy of the campaign with his chief officers. Of chief concern for many of the officers was the problem of supplying the men and beasts that would make up the expedition – no one wanted this desert march to go like Gedrosia had two years earlier, least of all Alexander, for even the king acknowledged that the march was executed poorly. The solution, however, was similar to Gedrosia: the fleet would supply the army; only this time, the fleet would be tasked with providing food and water to the army, whereas before the army was responsible for water and the fleet food. This was decided upon purely because there was not enough readily available water in Arabia to supply so many men. It was clear to everyone, most of all Alexander, that this forced the army to be too dependent on the navy and could doom them all if the winds did not cooperate. Some would voice their concerns to Alexander; Alexander told them that though this was far from an ideal scenario, he had learned how the Arabian winds behaved, and declared it impossible that the wind would destroy them as it had before. The army would have to stay near the coast as much as possible, especially through the desert areas. The hope in the fleet carrying the supplies was that the army would carry as little as possible, which would maximize speed by lessening the burden for the soldiers in the desert. Also, Alexander returned to his father’s practice of forbidding the soldiers from bringing their wives and children on campaign (though it was the magnitude of his war that forced Alexander to compromise here, and not a change in logistical principles); they would be left in Babylon, where they would be comfortable and safe. Only he and a few officers would be exempt from this rule, so that Alexander’s vision of an empire ruled by officers of eastern and Macedonian ancestry might be more easily attained.
8. Alexander himself planned to travel with Nearchus and his fleet for the campaign; he trusted command of the army to Hephaestion, the man he loved over anyone else, and who, as chiliarch, was nominally second-in-command to Alexander in the army. [19] Through Hephaestion, Alexander believed, the army would still have their king leading them at the front, only in a different form. Such was their relationship: as Alexander famously told Sisygambis, mother of Darius, when she confused him and Hephaestion, “that man too is Alexander”.
Alexander’s choice to not directly lead the army was a great experiment for him and his troops, for his men trusted no man to lead them like Alexander, and Alexander loved to be a leader of men. Obviously, Alexander did not choose for Hephaestion to lead the army instead of himself out of whim, or even out of love for Hephaestion and a desire to see him excel (though that certainly did console him) – he did it primarily because he could no longer comfortably march with the men. Indeed, since that fateful arrow pierced his lung while fighting the Mallians, Alexander always had some sort of vehicle for him to ride in instead of walking, as walking great distances was uncomfortable and burdensome for him now. He would eventually recover, but he would never quite be the same as he had been before the injury, becoming much less reckless in battle. He had other reasons for riding with the fleet too, such as allowing Hephaestion greater opportunity to show his ability, giving himself better oversight over supplies, and giving him the ability to scout ahead to find potential sites for great cities to flourish in his name, but the chief one must have been that his injuries kept him from marching.
[1] – See Herodotus (3.8)
[2] – This and the paragraph above it are heavily based off Arrian 7.20.
[3] – I’m using this site as my source for that. Winds blow northwest between September and November, and northeast between December and March.
[4] – “Poor Arabia”; this is basically referring to the all of the Arabian Peninsula outside of Yemen, but mostly the center and north of the peninsula. Gerrha, technically, is within these borders, though they are certainly not a poor people.
[5] – “Rich Arabia”; I’m referring to Yemen, which was much more prosperous than the Arabs of the modern United Arab Emirates. The Greeks IOTL were supposed to have called it Eudaemon Arabia, but I didn’t really like that name. Arabia Plousia sounded a lot better.
[6] – Qatar.
[7] – Roughly around modern Umm al-Quwain.
[8] – Modern Sohar.
[9] – Modern Muscat.
[10] – Tayma is most famous as being where Nabonidus, the last King of Babylon, spent most of his reign. Nabataea was starting to rise in importance during this era.
[11] – Usually anglicized as “Qataban”.
[12] – Ma’in, or the Minaean Kingdom. Why I’ve called it Minos will come later.
[13] – Ma’rib.
[14] – Not quite. I believe it was built around 1500 BC though – it was a very, very old structure, that lasted for over two thousand years before it finally burst in around 550 AD.
[15] – Sana’a.
[16] – Alexandria-in-Susiana (or Charax, as it was called under Seleucid rule) is what’s being referred to.
[17] – This chapter was heavily based off of what Arrian tells us in 7.22. Alexandria-on-the-Pallacopas is my name for the settlement though; I’m not aware that it ever became big enough for its name to be recorded.
[18] – Orxines was a Persian aristocrat that reportedly overstepped his power to become satrap while Alexander was off fighting in India. Ancient sources are split on his innocence: Arrian and Plutarch say that Orxines was in the wrong, both for usurping the satrapy and for not punishing those who robbed Cyrus’ tomb and fixing it back up; Curtius, on the other hand, says that Orxines was a decent and good man who hadn’t done anything wrong, but fell victim to Bagoas (a Persian eunuch that Alexander was quite close to) poisoning Alexander’s mind with lies about Orxines. Whatever the case with Orxines is, it is clear that Peucestas was an excellent choice by Alexander to rule Persia – he was a Macedonian that was completely loyal to Alexander (important for controlling the old regime’s original seat of power), and was willing to “Medize” to gain the favor of the Persians he ruled. Indeed, we are told that the Persians thought quite highly of him, and he would rule as Persia’s satrap for seven years after Alexander’s death, only losing his position when Antigonus Monophthalmus had him removed after defeating Eumenes in their war. Clearly, Aristides adopts the view that Orxines was guilty; I did that because I've based him on Arrian.
[19] – Alexander did in fact plan to travel with the fleet for his Arabian campaign; IOTL, Perdiccas (Hephaestion’s replacement as chiliarch) was to lead the army on land. It seems a reasonable guess to me that Hephaestion would have gotten that honor instead were he alive to have received it.
The amount of research in this timeline is astounding. This timeline is amazing already.
It wasn't technically necessary to hold down though. Ptolemaic Egypt had traders from India residing in Red Sea ports but Egypt never controlled Yemen.
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
Yemen was very rich and fertile during this time period from agriculture and trade so it'll be worth conquering by Alexander the Great. The Hadhramaut will be a good location as any for an Alexandria or two.
Since the question was asked, I decided to try and figure out approximately how much on Arabian campaign would have cost... here's what I've come up with:
IIRC, the average soldier during Alexander's day would have earned one drachma a day. Alexander's army is fifty thousand in number, so it costs fifty thousand drachmae a day to pay the army. Six thousand drachmae equaled one talent, so that number becomes 25/3 (or 8.333) talents to pay the army every day. If we say a month equals thirty days, it costs 250 talents to pay the army for a month; times that by twelve months per year, and it costs 3000 talents per year for Alexander to have an army of 50,000 men.
Add that to the cost to maintain the fleet. According to Victor Davis Hanson's A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War, it cost one talent to maintain a trireme for a month; that, of course, becomes 12 talents for a full year. Alexander's fleet of one thousand ships hasn't yet been finished... I'd put the size of his navy for the campaign at around 300, plus extra ships for transporting grain and such. The cost of maintaining the triremes would equal 3,600 talents... we'll say the cost of maintaining the other ships, plus the larger wages for officers in the army, bump that total up to 4,000 talents, making the total cost of paying his soldiers and sailors 7,000 talents.
Now, the state of Alexander's treasury:
Robin Lane Fox says that, if the rumors are true, the Achaemenids left behind 180,000 talents total in the treasury and in palaces and such. To put it in today's terms, 180,000 talents is worth about 4.7 billion USDs. By the time of Alexander's death IOTL, there were 50,000 talents remaining - substantially less than what he had to start with, but still an enormous amount, far more than any other nation at the time. Because he reputedly spent 10,000 talents on Hephaestion's funeral, that number increases to 60,000 talents for the beginning of the Arabian campaign. The empire pays 12,000 talents annually to Alexander in tribute.
So, paying the army and navy for a year-long campaign (which will be about the length of the campaign) would take up a little over half the year's tribute.
Now, that said, there are other garrisons and pockets of troops that Alexander would have to pay, as well as pack animals. There would also be substantial loot to be made during the Arabian Campaign, particularly in Yemen. It's arbitrary, but I'll say paying for other troops and pack animals is slightly more expensive, so I'll tack on an extra five hundred talents to the year's total.
Food and water would be gathered on site or taken as tribute; it might seem like that would be a big cost (it certainly will be a major logistical hurdle), but I don't think it would have been - in fact, I don't think it would have cost almost anything. The problem is procuring it on location. I could be wrong though. I'll add another five hundred talents as the cost of food and water; I think it's less than that, but that'll be what I say.
So. I've come to about 8,000 talents for the year's campaign. How long would it take for the campaign to pay off? Well, this is arbitrary too (I'm sorry about that!), but if the entire empire before adding Arabia brings in 12,000 talents, I think it's fair to say that the Arabian Peninsula would start off by bringing in, what, 1200 talents per year? I'd say that's a conservative enough estimate. With that in mind, it'd take about seven years for the campaign to have made a profit.
What does all this mean? Well, I'm not entirely sure if this answers whether such a campaign was worth it or not. In the end... it's probably not, because it's more land and people for Alexander to govern, and thus making the empire that much more unstable. Fiscally, however, it's not a bad deal - Alexander would still be making money for the year (it's less expensive than a funeral!), and the land itself should make a profit in a few years.
If you see anything to argue with in my calculations, feel free to do so. I'm probably way off... it was fun doing it though! What does that say about me... hmmm....
BTW, 8,000 talents equals 208 million USDs, if anyone's interested.
IIRC, the average soldier during Alexander's day would have earned one drachma a day. Alexander's army is fifty thousand in number, so it costs fifty thousand drachmae a day to pay the army. Six thousand drachmae equaled one talent, so that number becomes 25/3 (or 8.333) talents to pay the army every day. If we say a month equals thirty days, it costs 250 talents to pay the army for a month; times that by twelve months per year, and it costs 3000 talents per year for Alexander to have an army of 50,000 men.
Add that to the cost to maintain the fleet. According to Victor Davis Hanson's A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War, it cost one talent to maintain a trireme for a month; that, of course, becomes 12 talents for a full year. Alexander's fleet of one thousand ships hasn't yet been finished... I'd put the size of his navy for the campaign at around 300, plus extra ships for transporting grain and such. The cost of maintaining the triremes would equal 3,600 talents... we'll say the cost of maintaining the other ships, plus the larger wages for officers in the army, bump that total up to 4,000 talents, making the total cost of paying his soldiers and sailors 7,000 talents.
Now, the state of Alexander's treasury:
Robin Lane Fox says that, if the rumors are true, the Achaemenids left behind 180,000 talents total in the treasury and in palaces and such. To put it in today's terms, 180,000 talents is worth about 4.7 billion USDs. By the time of Alexander's death IOTL, there were 50,000 talents remaining - substantially less than what he had to start with, but still an enormous amount, far more than any other nation at the time. Because he reputedly spent 10,000 talents on Hephaestion's funeral, that number increases to 60,000 talents for the beginning of the Arabian campaign. The empire pays 12,000 talents annually to Alexander in tribute.
So, paying the army and navy for a year-long campaign (which will be about the length of the campaign) would take up a little over half the year's tribute.
Now, that said, there are other garrisons and pockets of troops that Alexander would have to pay, as well as pack animals. There would also be substantial loot to be made during the Arabian Campaign, particularly in Yemen. It's arbitrary, but I'll say paying for other troops and pack animals is slightly more expensive, so I'll tack on an extra five hundred talents to the year's total.
Food and water would be gathered on site or taken as tribute; it might seem like that would be a big cost (it certainly will be a major logistical hurdle), but I don't think it would have been - in fact, I don't think it would have cost almost anything. The problem is procuring it on location. I could be wrong though. I'll add another five hundred talents as the cost of food and water; I think it's less than that, but that'll be what I say.
So. I've come to about 8,000 talents for the year's campaign. How long would it take for the campaign to pay off? Well, this is arbitrary too (I'm sorry about that!), but if the entire empire before adding Arabia brings in 12,000 talents, I think it's fair to say that the Arabian Peninsula would start off by bringing in, what, 1200 talents per year? I'd say that's a conservative enough estimate. With that in mind, it'd take about seven years for the campaign to have made a profit.
What does all this mean? Well, I'm not entirely sure if this answers whether such a campaign was worth it or not. In the end... it's probably not, because it's more land and people for Alexander to govern, and thus making the empire that much more unstable. Fiscally, however, it's not a bad deal - Alexander would still be making money for the year (it's less expensive than a funeral!), and the land itself should make a profit in a few years.
If you see anything to argue with in my calculations, feel free to do so. I'm probably way off... it was fun doing it though! What does that say about me... hmmm....
BTW, 8,000 talents equals 208 million USDs, if anyone's interested.