Conquest and Empire (Canto) by A. B. Bosworth

Author:A. B. Bosworth [Bosworth, A. B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1993-03-26T06:00:00+00:00

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Epilogue: the shape of things to come

Alexander’s death led inevitably to the dismemberment of his empire. There was no immediate successor, and from the outset the marshals at Babylon had no intention of empowering a genuine king. If we may believe Curtius and Justin, their first plan was to await the birth of the child conceived by Rhoxane.1 Nothing guaranteed a male issue, and it was patent that the ultimate monarch would be a figurehead. The regency would be everything. This settlement with its unborn king was immediately denounced as preposterous. Incited by the phalanx commander Meleager, the infantry mutinied and pressed the claims of Arrhidaeus, Alexander’s mentally deficient half-brother. The result was a compromise. Arrhidaeus was proclaimed king, assuming the regnal name of Philip (III), and a few months later Rhoxane’s child, fortunately a son, joined him in the kingship, named Alexander (IV), after his father. It was a dual kingship, as contemporary documents show,2 but this strange pairing of fool and infant was never more than a political expedient. The kings were the puppets of their protectors, first of Perdiccas, who became the effective guardian of the kings at Babylon and then of Antipater, who assumed the guardianship at Triparadeisus (321) and transferred the hapless rulers to Macedonia. The farce ended abruptly late in 317, when Arrhidaeus’ wife, Eurydice (a granddaughter of Philip II), challenged the current guardian, Polyperchon, and attempted to enforce regal authority.3 She and her husband were dead within months, and the ultimate victor of the power struggle in Macedon (Antipater’s eldest son, Cassander) interned the infant Alexander with his mother at Amphipolis, pointedly denying them royal privileges. The phantom of royal power remained for a few years. In 311 Cassander was appointed general of Europe ’until the majority of Alexander, son of Rhoxane’ (Diod. XIX.105.1). Then the curtain came down. The last of the Argeads was murdered with his mother, and the bodies were concealed on Cassander’s orders.4

But the process of dissolution was well advanced even before the demise of the kings. The settlement of Babylon had effectively separated Macedon from the eastern empire; Antipater and Craterus were placed over the Balkans in a very obscure division of authority,5 while Perdiccas commanded the royal forces in Asia. During the civil wars that ensued the separation of Macedon became more and more an established, recognised fact, until Cassander in 316 entrenched himself as the effective ruler. Similar developments occurred elsewhere, particularly in the western empire, where the most able of Alexander’s officers were assigned satrapies. Egypt became Ptolemy’s undisputed territory after his successful defence of it against Perdiccas’ invasion. He regarded the country as ‘spear-won’6 and governed it without reference to any higher authority. The main challenge to separatist ambitions came from Antigonus. The most effective satrap of Asia Minor during Alexander’s lifetime, he was appointed general of the royal forces operating against Eumenes and the remnants of the armies of Perdiccas (320). Once appointed, he set his sights on the total control of Asia, blatantly ignoring the directives that came from the royal guardians in 317.

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