WI Darius III is not murdered?

Following his defeat in Gaugamela Darius had managed to escape the battle with a small core of his forces remaining intact. The Bactrian cavalry and Bessus managed to catch up with him, as did some of the survivors of the Royal Guard and 2,000 Greek mercenaries.
At this point, the Persian Empirehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Empire was divided into two halves – East and West. On his escape, Darius gave a speech to what remained of his army. He planned to head further East, and raise another army to face Alexander while he and the Macedonians headed to Babylon. At the same time he dispatched letters to his Eastern satrapies asking them to remain loyal.
The satrapies, however, had other intentions. Bessus murdered Darius, before fleeing eastwards. Alexander would pursue Bessus, eventually capturing and executing him the following year. The majority of the existing satraps were to give their loyalty to Alexander, and be allowed to keep their positions, however, the Persian Empire is traditionally considered to have fallen with the death of Darius.
WI Darius III wasnt murdered by his kinsman Bessus (who briefly succeeded him as Artaxerxes V)? Could he had mustered another army to face Alexander?
How is this altering History? Any thoughts?
 
If you want a really exciting change to history (just not very probable) have Darius gather an escort and run all the way to Qin. Naturally that is improbable as he needs to go through several satrapies and past the Yuezhi. If he gets there, Alexander will try to follow. Naturally the sensible course of action is for Alexander not to risk a battle after a very long journey and for Qin is to hand Darius to Alexander. However, we are dealing with a collision of two great conquerors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Huiwen_of_Qin and no one ever said Alexander was over cautious, so let us assume that Alexander's demand is couched in a sufficiently insulting form that Qin sends his ambassadors back without their noses. If Alexander is just slightly cautious he might recruit the Yuezhi and perhaps the Xiongnu as allies.
 
The Qin? Uh, the Qin are in an almost totally unknown stretch of territory the better part of a thousand miles away, over a large mountain range-plateau, or, alternatively, a desert basin, with no friendly territory in between. If you're going to have Darius keep on running then at least send him somewhere semi-sensible, like Magadha.

Bessus couldn't raise an army to speak of after Darius in OTL, and the richest areas of the empire had already fallen by that point, so I can't see any reason why things would be significantly different if Darius had lived on. At some point he was going to either be betrayed or give himself up, and one of the two was going to happen sooner rather than later.
 
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I'm no Persian History expert, but my gut feeling is that he raises another (small) army to be sacrificed before the alter of Alexander. Maybe he leads a harassing guerrilla band.
 
The Qin? Uh, the Qin are in an almost totally unknown stretch of territory the better part of a thousand miles away, over a large mountain range-plateau, or, alternatively, a desert basin, with no friendly territory in between. If you're going to have Darius keep on running then at least send him somewhere semi-sensible, like Magadha.

I assumed that he could simply follow the Silk Road. Alas, the Silk Road only seems to be documented 150-200 years later. So Darius probably could not have just signed on as a caravan guard. However, there were silk textiles in China http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90782/6228297.html and silk is found in the West in an Egyptian tomb of approximately 1000 BC and probably mentioned by Homer.
 
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I get the impression that the betrayal of Darius by Bessus and the subsequent reaction by Alexander of making a show of respect for the dead king, marrying his daughter and executing the traitors went a long way in providing legitimacy to his rule over Persia.
 
I get the impression that the betrayal of Darius by Bessus and the subsequent reaction by Alexander of making a show of respect for the dead king, marrying his daughter and executing the traitors went a long way in providing legitimacy to his rule over Persia.

I think that if Alexander captured Darius alive he would force him to surrender his crown to him in order to legitimise the "translatio imperii" to him and then have him rule Persia as his sub-king or vassal...
 
My opinion would be that in case of Darius could flee without suffering murder and could join loyal forces in the east and maintain at least some of the satrapas loyal to him he probably could have certain success in managing some kind of guerrilla/irregular war against Alexander, in OTL it was the tactic used in Sogdiana and Bactria with certain success.

The fact that the legitime king Darius III continues alive surely could made more satrapas to try to resist Alexander, this could cause a harder and longer campaigns in the East with far more casualties for Alexander troops, this naturally could delay or avoid at least initially the campaign of India against Porus and other Indus kings.

The butterflies would be enormous, Alexander could even survive because the circumstances that surrounded his death in 323 BC in OTL would be very differents in TTL, in fact instead of planning campaigns against Arabia and Carthage, he could stay still in 323 BC thinking in consolidating his reign over the persian lands because the longer resistance in the East.
 
following Darius defeat in Gaugamela the eastern satrapies turned to a loose alliance of renegade provinces... Darius must lure them to his cause somehow (either with money or something like that...)
Or else he has to disguise himself and seek refuge to India or Qin (Quin seems a little far fetched to me... India is more plausible...)
 
Darius' military track record versus Alexander wasn't that great. So even if he anticipated Bessus' plot, it wouldn't have been long before he lost to Alexander, again, and some other satrap who was sheltering him might betray his overlord to the Macedonian forces in an attempt to save his own arse. How would Alexander deal with Darius if he captured is another matter. He was very accomodating to the Persian Royal Family because he needed every ounce of possible legitimacy to secure the acceptance of the Persians as their new emperor. But could he have trusted Darius to accept a new role as a puppet-ruler of some remote part of the Persian Empire?
 
Darius' military track record versus Alexander wasn't that great. So even if he anticipated Bessus' plot, it wouldn't have been long before he lost to Alexander, again, and some other satrap who was sheltering him might betray his overlord to the Macedonian forces in an attempt to save his own arse. How would Alexander deal with Darius if he captured is another matter. He was very accomodating to the Persian Royal Family because he needed every ounce of possible legitimacy to secure the acceptance of the Persians as their new emperor. But could he have trusted Darius to accept a new role as a puppet-ruler of some remote part of the Persian Empire?

How about Darius foiling Bessus's plans to kill him and seeks shelter to India? He could raise another army there and get better Generals to advise him....
 
How about Darius foiling Bessus's plans to kill him and seeks shelter to India? He could raise another army there and get better Generals to advise him....

I'm not so sure his influence is as strong among the Indian kingdoms as it is within the Persian Empire. To the Indians, Darius would just be a king without a kingdom, and I doubt they would mobilize for him.
 
I'm not so sure his influence is as strong among the Indian kingdoms as it is within the Persian Empire. To the Indians, Darius would just be a king without a kingdom, and I doubt they would mobilize for him.

Maybe if he offers them in return some of his eastern lands in exchange of their support? Samarkand maybe or a useless part of Gedrosia?
 
Originally posted by Don_Giorgio
Or else he has to disguise himself and seek refuge to India or Qin (Quin seems a little far fetched to me... India is more plausible...)

In reference to the Quin, well the Quin are at this time only a little kingdom in China, the most great kingdom (at least in extension) at this time is Chu.

China circa 329 BC.jpg

China circa 329 BC.jpg
 
Originally posted by Don_Giorgio
Maybe if he offers them in return some of his eastern lands in exchange of their support? Samarkand maybe or a useless part of Gedrosia?

At this time the most powerful empire in India is the Nanda Empire, so Darius refuges at Nanda Empire and tries to get the help of Nanda against Alexander?

The real political situation at the world at this time could be seen at wonderful Talesmann site looking maps of 335 BC and 323 BC:
http://www.worldhistorymaps.info/images/East-Hem_335bc.jpg
http://www.worldhistorymaps.info/images/East-Hem_323bc.jpg
 
At this time the most powerful empire in India is the Nanda Empire, so Darius refuges at Nanda Empire and tries to get the help of Nanda against Alexander?

If Darius manages to convince Nanda Emperors that they were in danger if Alexander passes through Hydaspes he would have had his chance to avenge Alexander... He could raise an Indian army and try to stop him from entering India... If he is succesfull he could use this army in reconquering Persia...
 
I doubt that Darius even with Nanda help could be succesful in reconquering Persia although probably he could be capable of obligate Alexander to maintain a hard military presence in the satrapies of Eastern Persia, could be even Darius could defeat Alexander armies in Indus river, so satrapies of Indus would not be under the control of Alexander (Porus would be a kingdom vassal of Darius and/or the Nanda).

Another consecuence could be prevent the formation of the Maurian Empire under Chandragupta, it seems that one of the principal reasons for Chandragupta seize of power agains the Nanda was the little actions of the Nanda against the invasion of the greeks in the Indus, in this ATL this would be all the contrary, so the Nanda Empire could survive a lot of more time than in OTL.

And naturally this, as I say before, could eventually butterfly the death of Alexander in 323 BC, although Alexander could have a hard and long frontier war with Nanda/Darius in the Indus/Eastern Persia -this could prevent/delay possible campaigns of Alexander in the West and also the possibility of a fussion between persians and greeks in the old Aquemenide Empire-
 
I doubt that Darius even with Nanda help could be succesful in reconquering Persia although probably he could be capable of obligate Alexander to maintain a hard military presence in the satrapies of Eastern Persia, could be even Darius could defeat Alexander armies in Indus river, so satrapies of Indus would not be under the control of Alexander (Porus would be a kingdom vassal of Darius and/or the Nanda).

Another consecuence could be prevent the formation of the Maurian Empire under Chandragupta, it seems that one of the principal reasons for Chandragupta seize of power agains the Nanda was the little actions of the Nanda against the invasion of the greeks in the Indus, in this ATL this would be all the contrary, so the Nanda Empire could survive a lot of more time than in OTL.

And naturally this, as I say before, could eventually butterfly the death of Alexander in 323 BC, although Alexander could have a hard and long frontier war with Nanda/Darius in the Indus/Eastern Persia -this could prevent/delay possible campaigns of Alexander in the West and also the possibility of a fussion between persians and greeks in the old Aquemenide Empire-

A potential Alexander defeat could have caused a rebellion amongst his persian subject which would lead to civil war and force Alexander to abandon Eastern Satrapies to Darius and retreat to Babylon.
 
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