alternatehistory.com

Original source here: Arrian's Campaigns of Alexander:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Anabasis_of_Alexander/Book_I/Chapter_V#18

Modern Source: goo.gl/Zjk15W

Alexander's Balkan campaign is incredibly fascinating to me. The argument could be made that Alexander's leadership and generalship was forged in the crucible of this campaign. One thing that the modern historian I linked to believes is that Alexander got incredibly lucky in his Pellium campaign against the Illyrians Cleitus and Glaucias. He essentially blundered into a horseshoe-shaped valley ringed with mountains and the barbarians occupying the heights. English, the historian, seems to believe that if the Illyrian cheiftain had been bolder and had rained down missiles from three sides he could have severely bloodied Alexander's troops. Setting aside the Illyrians were inferior troops to the Macedonian phalanx, this seemed to be the perfect situation to butcher a phalanx. Perhaps we can sweeten the deal and have Glaucias' Taulantians arrive a day early, cut off Alexander's retreat (as they did a day later), and have the barbarians have a full-on battle of encirclement and destruction.

So our POD is Alexander and most of his army is slaughtered in a barbarian ambush/encirclement. The twenty-year old king is dead, with the only other sizeable Macedonian army already holding down the fort across the Hellespont under Parmenion. Macedon is virtually naked, meaning the Illyrian tribes could sweep into its undefended borders and wreak havoc until Parmenion's army could make it back across the Hellespont. And with Parmenion's son Philotas dead along with Alexander's force, Parmenion would doubtless be looking for revenge.

Thebes, already in revolt, could spearhead a wider insurrection of Greek city-states, each one attempting to shake off Macedonian rule. The Persian Empire under Darius remains inviolable.

With a power vacuum in the Balkans where the Macedonians briefly held hegemony, who fills that void? Do the Persians seize the opportunity and launch a third invasion? Does one of the city-states (Thebes?) decide to assert their dominance?
Top