II - The Successors
II: The Successors
"The king must conduct himself with patience, courage, and fortitude on all occasions. In joy and sorrow, in prosperity and adversity, in victory and defeat. He must conduct himself with calmness and dignity without giving in to emotions." - Khanti (1:2)
Everyone was baffled by the sickness that was slowly killing Alexander the Great. Many people assumed he couldn't die. His conquests had surpassed those of any previous conqueror, and many accepted his claims to be the son of Amun Ra and Zeus. Alexander's inner circle watched helplessly as he became worse and his doom became more certain with each passing day, while also closely eyeing each other. They were generals, not monarchs and administrators, and being designated a member of Alexander's inner circle, although a gift when he was in good health, felt like a fool's errand as Alexander appeared to be on the verge of falling apart at any moment. Nobody in his inner circle knew what to do, and no one appeared willing to speak up about it in order to ensure a proper and easy transition in the future.
Belshazzar's Feast
Since Alexander's return to Babylon, ominous indications had been reported. A monk from Calanus' order had become terminally sick and had resolved to commit suicide himself by immolation at Susa. Alexander was halted as he went forward to say farewell by the monk, who cryptically remarked that the monk would see Alexander in Babylon before calmly joining the fiery pyre and sitting down as he was burnt to ashes in front of 40,000 troops of Alexander's army. This would be one of the first practical acts of Buddhism that the Greeks would see. The monk's comments took on a deadlier tone as Alexander got paler by the second due to his ill disposition. Other occurrences took a nasty turn as well. An imposter ran into the Palace a few days before Alexander fell ill, put on the royal diadem and royal robes left by Alexander as he left to exercise, and sat on the throne of the empire. The invader claimed to be acting on the orders of Serapis, an Egyptian spirit deity linked to the Sun but to a lesser extent than Ra and his incarnations. Alexander, unimpressed and suspecting a more aggressive reason, killed the invader. This act vividly reminded Alexander's court of the events surrounding the renowned Babylonian King Belshazzar. Three centuries before, during a great feast thrown by Belshazzar, guests witnessed a disembodied finger write a strange line on the wall: Mene mene tekel upharsin, which indicated that Belshazzar had been weighed by heavenly balance and found lacking. His kingdom would disintegrate, and new emerging nations such as the Medes and subsequently the Persians would split it. Though the famous writing on the palace walls had long faded, this incursion seemed to have the same significance to the superstitious Greeks, Persians, and Babylonians.
Though a conqueror unmatched in his military prowess, Alexander the Great, despite his strong and disciplined personality had barely managed to hold together his vast empire administratively for the past 2 years. What hope did his other generals have? In large part, this was Alexander’s own fault. He had trained an excellent staff system but he had never made clear who his second in command was. To avoid favoritism, he had deliberated divided the highest occupations among all of his lieutenants, diffusing the spread of his power. In the short term, this strategy was useful, but as Alexander’s Empire tried to transition from a military state into an entrenched imperial power, in the long term, it was a hazardous strategy. Despite his sickness, Alexander continued to convene his seven Somatophylakes – his bodyguards. Aristonous, Lysimachus, Peithon, Leonnatus, Perdiccas, Ptolemy, and Peucestas were men of varying talent and varying competency in military campaigns, but they were all characterized by their unflinching loyalty to Alexander the Great.
Eumenes
All of the Somatophylakes were normal bodyguards, but one name stands out when talking about Greco-Buddhism and its history. Leonnatus. Having accompanied Nearchus and Onesicritus during the Persian Voyage, Leonnatus [1] was the only member of Alexander’s inner circle who was intimately familiar with the monks of Buddhism that they had brought over from Taxila, and he would later become the first Diadochi to embrace Buddhism fully. An anomaly who joined the meetings was Eumenes, a boyish-looking middle-aged Greek, who was discriminated against by the Macedonian-dominated military for his Greek origins, which some like Hephaestion looked down upon as foreigners and conquered subjects. Despite his role as a secretary and following Alexander around with a roll of paper and a pen rather than the sword and shield, Eumenes did have some military experience leading small squadrons of cavalry during the campaign in India.
Alexander reportedly ignored the worried look his inner circle gave at his sickly complexion as he laid out the plans for his invasion of Arabia. The Arabs had not threatened Alexander’s Empire, and border tribes near the Levant and Egypt had been working with local authorities to clamp down on local bandits as well. However, in 324 BCE, when many unconquered nations like the Scythians, Caucasian Albanians, Pontics, etc sent gifts to Alexander, the Arabs sent no one. Though the Arab tribes were content to remain on neutral terms with the new Hellenic empire on their borders, unless militarily subjugated, they would not send gifts to a foreign monarch. To Alexander, this was worrying. The Arabs and their geographic position put them in a prime position to block the waterways connecting Egypt and India, both of which were a part of Alexander’s Empire. Coughing and wheezing greatly, Alexander drew up plans to conquer the coastlines of the Arabian Peninsula.
As Alexander’s health continued to decline, two days prior to the planned invasion of Arabia, a few members of Alexander’s inner circle started to believe that Alexander was the victim of an assassination plot. The words of the monk who had immolated himself in Susa echoed in the heads of Peithon and Peucestas as they finally ended their silence with the other members of the Somatophylakes. The two Macedonians accused Calanus and the monks he had brought with him of an assassination plot against Alexander and argued for an arrest. Leonnatus, a friend of Calanus was outraged and threw backbiting words at the two, firm in his position that Calanus would be the last person with any motive to conduct an assassination. Peithon and Peucestas argued back, retorting by maintaining their accusation and pointing out that Taxila was a conquered city, and that maybe the Taxilans had used Calanus as a means to getting close enough to Alexander to pull off an assassination. It wasn’t a bad assessment, but Leonnatus who knew about the nature of Calanus and his small order of monks that had been established in Babylon personally simply could not see Calanus having any drive to do such a thing, remembering how Calanus had disapproved of the violence that Nearchus had wrought during the early parts of his Persian Gulf Naval Campaign.
A coin depicting Leonnatus
The First Greco-Buddhist Diadochi
Before the argument could become violent, Ptolemy and Perdiccas both restrained Peithon and Peucestas, remonstrating the two, agreeing belatedly with Leonnatus that Calanus and his monks did not seem the kind of people who would be implicated in an assassination plot. After all, there were more who would love to see Alexander dead. Though the Persians had been allotted a large amount of autonomy, they held no love for Alexander as conquered peoples. Alexander’s own Greek subjects were even more rebellious, revolting multiple times when Alexander had been in the East. Alexander had also executed Callisthenes, Aristotle’s beloved grandnephew, and many whispered that in despair Aristotle had somehow arranged the poisoning of his former student Alexander. Then there was the matter of Macedonian conservatives who disliked Alexander’s strange notions of cultural fusion. The 70-year-old ferocious general Antipater and his son Cassander were the leaders of this conservative faction. Alexander had repeatedly sent orders asking Antipater to resign his post in Pella, but Antipater simply sat still in Pella, opting to send his son Cassander as a messenger on his behalf to Babylon. Cassander too had just arrived in Babylon a few days prior and would certainly have some motive to see Alexander dead. And then there was of course the growing dissatisfaction in the military – especially among the legendary Silver Shields – regarding Alexander’s training of Persians in the phalanx style so that he could recoup the losses that the phalanxes had garnered in the past decade. In fact, the military that was being drawn up to invade Arabia had very few Greeks in it beyond its officers. Out of a planned 100,000 soldiers/sailors who would invade Arabia on behalf of Alexander, only 6000 were planned to be Greek soldiery. This had created a serious break between Alexander and his troops once again, despite the reconciliation at Opis.
On June 11, 323 BCE, it all came crashing down as finally Alexander succumbed to his illness.
Alexander the Great's death.
Before he died, however, Alexander had managed to appoint Perdiccas as his regent. Perdiccas was an able member of the inner circle, but he was a descendant of non-Greek dynasties who had ruled Macedonia before the Argeads had come to power, and though his family had continued to hold high positions, the Macedonians distrusted him based on his lineage. There were many companions who were angered by losing out to Perdiccas for the regency. Craterus, the revered Macedonian general, in particular, was stung by being looked over by Alexander. It was a second offense to him from Alexander who had sent Craterus to Macedonia at the head of veterans to return home – it was a discharge from the army, despite it being an honorable one. Ptolemy who had always believed himself loved and cared for by Alexander due to his clever wit and administrative prowess felt despair at being looked over. It was made an even greater blow by the fact that Ptolemy was a childhood friend of Alexander. Leonnatus too had hoped that Alexander would at least consider him. The fact that he hadn’t been considered at all was also a blow to Leonnatus.
Following Alexander’s death, Perdiccas managed to successfully destroy any rebellious mood in Babylon by raising Arrhidaeus, Alexander’s slightly mentally troubled half-brother as King Philip III whilst reaching an agreement with the other members of the Companions to wait out Roxana’s pregnancy, deciding that if Roxana’s child was a male, then the child and Philip III would be co-rulers with Perdiccas continuing as regent until the child reached adulthood. It was Ptolemy’s idea which he voiced in a meeting two days after Alexander’s death that laid the foundation of dissent among the successors of Alexander. Ptolemy, having listened to objections from many factions who didn’t want a half-Bactrian King (Roxana’s child) or a mentally disabled King (King Philip III), proposed that a board of top ranking Generals needed to be appointed to rule the Empire in the name of Alexander’s empty throne.
This idea of negating the monarchy was a subtle and disguised crack at Perdiccas. As the appointed regent, logically, it was Perdiccas who would be the guardian of the Empire until the two decided monarchs were both adults. Ptolemy’s idea was ignored, but it was the first visible crack among the companions and the former inner circle. Perdiccas wished for Leonnatus to stay in Babylon, but Leonnatus, who was disgusted by the factionalism in the court, which he considered to be an insult to Alexander’s memory, rejected the offer and instead, he returned to Pella, taking Calanus’s daughter who had arrived from Taxila a few weeks prior as his wife. A few monks and family members followed Leonnatus to Pella where Leonnatus was made commander of an army 20,000 strong and given the title ‘General of Europe’.
Then there was Meleager, the leader of the Infantry, who basically raided the palace with his loyal palace, at the same time to gain access to Alexander’s body, which he and the infantry believed that by right was theirs. Alexander had reportedly predicted a conflict on his succession, but even he couldn’t have thought that this conflict would start just 48 hours after his death. It was Eumenes who diffused the situation, getting both Meleager and Perdiccas to back down from attacking each other. Philip III who had sanctioned Meleager’s sudden entrance into the palace to seize the body was himself questioned. Though childlike in many ways, Philip III was capable of arguing back and argued that as the situation was diffused, making an additional fuss was simply trying to stretch a controversy. Against the backdrop of this situation, Antipatus, Craterus, and Leonnatus were made the custodians of the European portion of the Empire. Philip III’s court was increasingly becoming a sham court.
Despite these problems, Perdiccas managed to successfully wade through the crisis, even managing to secure the loyalty of Ptolemy during the upheaval with Meleager. But now, Perdiccas was forced to deal with the infantry and its mutineers. Perdiccas didn’t have the authority of Alexander to simply execute anyone without a second thought, and instead, Perdiccas proposed a lustration so that the armies could let go of their taint. Meleager was convinced to come with his infantry after pro-Perdiccas spies spread rumors in his camp about dissent against Meleager, and Meleager also came to the conclusion that a lustration would silence his opponents, so he agreed to the idea. When the lustration took place outside of Babylon a week after Alexander’s death, Philip III was sent by Perdiccas, asking the infantry to surrender all prominent mutineers. Perdiccas had successfully deceived Meleager as he and his supporters were taken as prisoners under the name of Philip III. But this came at a cost. From that point on, no one trusted Perdiccas.
Roxana, the new Queen Mother
After that, Perdiccas conspired with Roxana to assassinate the two Persian princesses that Alexander had taken as his wives as well as to remove any future claims to the Empire. A week afterward, Roxana gave birth to a healthy son who was named after his father. Upon his naming, he became King Alexander IV, co-ruling with his uncle Philip III. The compromise Perdiccas had made had survived with the birth of a male heir. Following the birth of Alexander IV, the biggest problem for the Macedonian Empire was how to accommodate the companions and inner circle. Ptolemy demanded the rich and fertile Egypt. Perdiccas was reluctant to give such a rich province to his rival, but in the end acquiesced on the condition that Cleomenes of Naucratis, a pro-Perdiccas member of the court, became Ptolemy’s second in command in Egypt. Lysimachus was given command over the Hellespont, looking over the crossing point between Europe and Asia whilst Eumenes received Cappadocia. The other companions were already satraps and so kept their positions in Persia.
It was a fragile peace, held together only by the memory of Alexander the Great and the loyalty it radiated. It would come crashing down not too soon after.
[1] Read the previous chapter if you missed this.
Next Chapter: Leonnatus in Greece.
