Why didn’t Alexander choose a successor before he died?
I think on some level he could not think in terms of the manifestation of his death. Like, in the end, he either didn't genuinely believe that he could or would die, or he thought that once he was dead the world would no longer be important so fuck you. These are manifestations of his megalomania and/or justified self-regard.But maybe it's right, and he either said "Krateroi" or "Craterus" and everyone basically decided fuck that.I wonder how much of it is true. I certainly believe the stories of his future plans - mixing East and West, building a road all the way to Gibraltar, founding strings of cities. I mean he already built Alexandria and trained a bunch of Persians in the Macedonian way of war. It resonates.
>>18219163He already had one? I can't tell if this bait or not, it's not some wild secret that Alexander had a brother, who succeeded him and was considered a legitimate ruler by all involved. He had a son posthumously who was also proclaimed king and was considered legitimate. Neither of them had a successor, Alexander did.
>>18219163too FAVSTIAN for his own good
>they were going to listen to him
he was a drunk frat boy with daddy's army that's why
>>18219245This. There was no scenario in which it didn't all fall to pieces.
>>18219163he did, its just said successor didn't have the skill or charisma to keep things together
>we're going to build a 500 year empire in 30 years! >you Greeks, those hated Persians that you love me for defeating? You're going to marry them and train them just like they were Greek!>Whats that? You want to return to Greece for a while instead of spending another 10 years marching through African desert with your new Persian bff's?>come now, glory is eternal, now let's drink!>I am slain! Alas, had i not left my most loyal men to run foriegn states so far away.>alright then you bastards see which one of you can run shit then! ughhhhh.
>Polyaenus writes that Antigonus liberally rewarded the Argyraspides who brought him Eumenes as prisoner. But, in order to protect himself from future acts against him, he ordered a thousand of the Argyraspides to serve under Sibyrtius, while he isolated others by having them remain in garrisons in remote, uncultivated countries, eventually managing to get rid of them all this way.who was in the wrong here
>>18219708Silver shields were greedy boomers and shouldn’t have sold out Eumenes.
>>18219708I wonder if the regretted it later when they realized antigonas just wanted to be rid of them
>>18219163How many 32 year old rulers of brand new empires leave behind a smooth succession?
>>18219724Eumenes lost the baggage train. Which contained their wives and children. He wasnt fit to lead anymore.
>>18219724>>18221178Eumenes indeed ancient equivalent of Ned Stark
>>18219698>we're going to build a 500 year empire in 30 years!Sounds pretty based>you Greeks, those hated Persians that you love me for defeating? You're going to marry them and train them just like they were Greek!This is an intelligent gambit and the only way the empire was ever going to last.>Whats that? You want to return to Greece for a while instead of spending another 10 years marching through African desert with your new Persian bff's?Headcanon. Nobody wanted to go back to greece.>I am slain! Headcanon. We have no idea if his death was an assassination or not.>Alas, had i not left my most loyal men to run foriegn states so far away.This is an intelligent gambit as well. You're also going out on a limb and assuming an assassination at the hands of one of his generals in the conquest. All of the contemporary accusations of an assassination were levied toward the cup-bearer Iolaus working on behalf of his father Antipater, who is one of those "most loyal men" he left abroad that you're referring to.
Bimo
>>18219163I was surprised learning that he had a child and a wife.
>>18219163Obvious move would be making the brother regent for the baby
He had one, but the reason you don't know him is they intentionally eliminated them so the power went to one of the generals instead.
>>18219163Yes, Alexander definitely said "Toi kratistoi!" and absolutely did not actually ever mean to possibly say "Toi Krateros!". Yep, mm-hm. We are sure of that.
>>18219163The fact that they would even ask him who his successor should be is indicative of their intention to seize power after he died because there were already existing succession laws and they would have just followed those, nobody needed to ask Phillip of Macedon who was going to succeed him when he dies because the law would have made it obvious that it's Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great had a son and a brother, they were basically committing sedition by even asking him this, they were basically saying:>who's going to succeed you when you die, and don't say something stupid like "your son", it's gunna be one of usAlexander's response was more of a statement of fact that an endorsement (you're going to fight over it anyway so I guess the strongest will win)
>>18222901Anytime I read something about Alexander he is always being based
>>18219163so he wouldnt get killed WHOOPS
>>18222901based and intelligent take
>>18222901Good take
>>18219163Why was Perdiccas such a retard?
>>18222901>existing succession laws>had a son and a brotherWhy didn't they follow them?
>>18223103 Because his son was an infant and any General watching over him would just use him as a puppet to truly rule. Same goes for his brother since his brother was apparently mentally handicapped.
>>18222901>there were already existing succession lawsNo there weren't. Philip and Alexander were both declared king despite not being the heir by primogeniture and historically Macedonian succession has been violent and messy before them too.>nobody needed to ask Phillip of Macedon who was going to succeed him when he dies because the law would have made it obvious that it's Alexander the GreatWrong again. Alexander was third in line by primogeniture and had to literally murder his uncle to take the throne. If it was so obvious and clean then that wouldn't have been necessary.>Alexander the Great had a son and a brother, they were basically committing sedition by even asking him this, they were basically saying:I do fundamentally agree with you on this point but it's worth mentioning that his son wasn't born yet and his brother was retarded
>>18219698Yes. Had Alexander not been poisoned, he would've formed the GRECO-PERSIAN-ARABIAN-INDIAN-CHINESE empire and we would've been in space by 300 AA (AFTER ALEXANDER)
>>18219163He didn't plan on being poisoned to death.He was poisoned btw. It's very hard to kill yourself with alcohol in a single night.Or malaria. He'd campaigned in malarial countries for over a decade. So did his troops. Oh but ONLY he suddenly got malaria...
>>18223767Christianity would have been strangled in the crib if Alexander had lived.
>>18223776The religion definitely would've been interesting. Probably something similar to Manichaeism
>>18223776Ah, well, too bad he couldn't find the will to continue after his most trusted companion died a few months earlier.
>>18223776>The Archimedes Palimpsest is a priceless 13th-century prayer book containing hidden, erased texts from antiquity, most importantly unique works by the ancient mathematician Archimedes, like The Method and Stomachion, discovered by scholars at The Walters Art Museum. Created by scraping text from older parchment, cutting, and reusing pages for a prayer book, this unique manuscript was painstakingly conserved, imaged with advanced techniques (like UV and X-ray), and transcribed to reveal lost mathematical and historical treasures, offering unparalleled insight into ancient science and literature. Against Diondus was also in the palimpsest. It's hard to say if Christianity was a good thing. Hierosuloi was one of the most offensive acts to Greeks. There is probably a relation somewhere there with Christianity and how and maybe why it happened. Possibly from outside (((influences))), if you catch my drift.
