WI : Zopyrion invades Dacia

GdwnsnHo

Banned
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zopyrion

Zopyrion was an Alexandrian General that was either the governor of Thrace or Pontus.

Assuming he was the governor of Thrace - Could he have taken his invasion force and conquered Dacia for Alexanders Empire, bringing the Getae, and other Dacian groups under his control.

And if he was successful, what would the repercussions be? Besides news of success reaching Alexander. (Including a Butterfly Net around the deaths of Agis of Sparta and Alexander of Epirus.)
 
From what I understand, the Getae were subdued by Alexander himself. They eventually rebelled and reasserted independence against Antipater after AtG's death.

Zopytion did manage to march on Odessos, which is on the Black Sea, and was the farthest north a Macedonian Army ever marched. He failed, however, and his army was harassed by Getae rebels on the way home. So, if he could not handle a single city-state/ colony in the far northern hinterlands of the larger Greek world, I don't think he could have handled the vast and volatile cultural-block of Dacia.
 

GdwnsnHo

Banned
To play advocate - he only came back because all his supplies were lost in a storm, and knew he couldn't complete the siege without them - who knows what would have happened besides - but with an invasion of Dacia, no freak storms. Hence why I think it may still be an interesting question
 
Any sustained campaign/occupation in Dacia will take up a lot of troops, and that'll have negative affects on Antipater once shit hits the fan after Alexander dies. It'll be harder to fight the Lamian War in Greece with manpower having been depleted supplying the war in the east and the north, though once reinforcements from the (rapidly falling apart) royal army in Babylon arrives, it'll be easy for veterans to deal with the Greek revolt. Macedon (as in the diadochi state) will be feeling the manpower shortage particularly hard though in the coming wars.

Meanwhile Diadochi Dacia will be dealing with the fact they're ruling over a hostile populace and reinforcements from the homeland are no longer forthcoming (Macedon lacks the manpower to send help even if they wanted to and is busy being fought over, and Lysimachus has taken Thrace as his own successor state). Withdrawal is probably the best idea for Zopyrion's army if they manage to last until the Diadochi era.

And then the Celts invade and things get really dicey for Dacia...

This is all assuming though that the invasion of Dacia is a success, and that it manages to last until Alexander's death and the collapse of the empire, neither of which are guaranteed.
 
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