Alexander and the Early Successors: Major Successor Dates

League of Corinth

founded by Phillip in 338

324

Exiles Decree

Exiles Decree impact

Alexander made the unilateral decision of the exiles decree which would have caused at least administrative chaos. Alexander was behaving like a tyrant towards cities for whose interests he claimed to have conquered the East.

Perdiccas

had been the chief cavalry officer after the death of Hephaestion

Seleucus

had been head of the Shield Bearers/silver shields

Meleager and Attalus

demanded that Arrihidaeus was to be made King--> Demonstrates the loyalty of the army to the Argead line. Cavalry remained loyal to their officers and refused to accept the choice of the infantry and they were still committed to Rhoxane's unborn child.

Eumenes received

an enourmous chunk of Asia Minor- not only Paphlagonia but also Cappadocia. Leonnatus and Antigonus were instructed to use their armies to pacify the region for him.

Menander

was retained in Lydia where he had been satrap since 331 BC

Ai Khanum

Magnificent Hellenistic city which has been found in Afghanistan. Probably founded as a simple fortress by Alexander by flourished for a hundred years or more. Inscriptions of the moral maxims from the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi in Greece more than 3000 miles from the original copies. The journey of these inscriptions show the general mobility of the period and also since the maxims 'know thyself' and 'nothing in excess' formed a central part to Greek popular mobility, that Ai Khanum was a Greek city on the other side of the empire.

Who stayed out of the Lamian War

Those who had suffered the most under Macedonian rule e.g. the Spartans who had been defeated by Antipater in 331 or profited the most e.g, the Boeotians who had been freed of Theban hegemony in 335 BC

25,000

number of army in Greece in the Lamian War

Leosthenes the Athenian

led the Athenian forces in the Lamian War

322

Ptolemy also annexed 5 cities in Cyrenaica as a province of Egypt to control the caravan trade from the interior of Africa and especially the export of silphium (a plant now extinct in the region) which was widely used in the Med for culinary and medicinal purposes. A pro-Ptolemiac oligarchy was put in place which annoyed Perdiccas

Spring 321

Ptolemy stole the body of Alexander as it passed through Syria. Ptolemy kept the body in Memphis and then moved it to Alexandria where a cult sprang up around the body.

Ptolemy in 321

First successor to mint coinage with Alexander's head on it

June 320

invasion of Egypt under Perdiccas failed and he is killed

summit at Triparadeisus

320BC. carefully maintained the image that there was still one unified empire under Phillip III and Alexander IV

late summer of 319

Antipater died

Polybius

"all kings mouth platitudes about freedom at the beginning of their reigns"

Polyperchon wrote to the Greek cities 315

the first of the successors to publicly proclaim the freedom of the Greek cities

early in 318 BC

Athenian democrats contacted Polyperchon and requested his help in changing the regime which had been imposed by Antipater. With the army encamped outside of the walls, the leaders of the oligarchy were deposed and executed in May 318 BC.

Summer 317 BC

Demetrius of Phalerum restored democracy fell again in favour of a puppet ruler of Cassander, Demetrius of Pharlerum. He ruled Athens for the next 10 years with the backing of the Macedonian garrison

Reign of Demetrius of Phalerum

Menander of Athens

chief surviving representative of the type of comic plays that were being shown at the end of the fourth century.

317 BC

Cassander takes Macedon

winter 317/316

besieged the forces of Olympias at Pydna. After she was defeated, Cassander had won the right to be the protector of Alexander IV and Rhoxane

Cassander held elaborate state funerals

for Phillip III and Eurydice Adea and even for Cynanne who had been dead for six years. Phillip and Adea

tomb 2 at Vergina

Phillip III and Eurydice Adea on the hunt fresco which dominates the tomb, he is shown not as someone with a mental handicap but instead as a Macedonian hero.

Alexander IV and Rhoxane

under house arrest on the citadel of the merchant town of Amphipolis.

From 316

Cassander founded three cities, two within Macedon (Cassandreia and Thessalonica). He also refounded the Boeotian city of Thebes. Needed a bulwark of loyalty in southern Greec against the unremitting hostility of the Aetolians.

resources stored at Ecbatana, Susa and Persepolis

around 25,000 talents

11,000 talents

annual income of Antigonus' territory in 315

40,000 foot and 5,000 horse

Antigonus huge standing army in 315

island of Delos

at the center of the league of Cycladic islands organised by Antigonus and was therefore lost from Athens which had controlled it from the fourth century and it remained free for almost 150 years until the Romans restored it to Athens.

15 months

siege of Tyre

Cities of Teus and Lebedus in Asia Minor

asked permission to import grain from abroad. In his reply, Antigonus says that he doesn't usually allow this and prefers if grain is taken from within his own realm but in this case, he magnanimously gives his permission

papyrus production in Syria

nurtured by Antigonus so that they wouldn't have to import it from egypt

310/309

Cassander had Alexander IV and his mother poisoned

Diodorus 18.2

"since there was no longer an heir for the empire all those who held nations or cities began to hope for royal power, and began to regard their subordinate territories as spear won kingdoms."

tomb 3 (the Prince's tomb) at Aegae.

Alexander IV and Rhoxane buried

Heracles and Barsine

killed at a feast by Polyperchon

306 BC

Demetrius and Cyprus

Rhodians and cyprus

were asked by Demetrius to support him in his invasion of Cyprus but they refused

after conquest of Cyprus

Ptolemy was reduced to the holdings he had in 323

Antigonus after Cyprus

was declared King by envoy Aristodemus of Miletus. he also sent a diadem to Demetrius showing intention to establish a dynasty

Rhodians

appealed to the clause in the peace of 311 which declared the freedom of the Greek cities

Demetrius appears

Summer of 305 BC

siege engine used by Demetrius

(also used at Salamis) over 40m tall

saviour cult to Ptolemy

instituted by the Rhodians after the repulsion of Demetrius

aftermath of siege of Rhodes

Antigonids agreed to recognize Rhodian authority and the Rhodians agreed to help the Antigonids in any campaign, except against Ptolemy

Colossus of Rhodes

Colossus was a 32m tall bronze statue of their presiding deity Helios- matched the besieger's giganticism with their own. Rhodian neutrality was the foundation of their subsequent prosperity

Spring of 303

drove Ptolemy's garrison out of Sicyon

304

lifting the siege of Cassander at Athens

Spring 302

Demetrius refounded the Corinthian League

Battle of Ipsus (301)

Antigonus was killed and Demetrius escaped by the skin of his teeth.

"all kings mouth platitudes about freedom at the beginning of their reigns"

Polybius on freedom