After Alexander

Bactria is the other big power in our eastern question. Today we will be introducing the state, as well as covering the efforts of Seleucus II to retake the east of his empire. Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol. I). London: Edward Arthur.  Grainger, J. D., (2014), The Rise of the Seleukid Empire (323- 223 BCE), Seleukos I to Seleukos III. Barnsley: Pen &...

Seleucus is beginning to head out eastwards again- somewhere we haven't been for a long time. Let's familiarise ourselves with Andragoras, governor of Parthia, and the Parsi who we last discussed in episode 42... Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol. I). London: Edward Arthur. Broderson, K. (1986), The Date of the Secession of Parthia from the Seleucid Kingdom....

After Hierax evicted Seleucus from Anatolia, the peninsula descended into chaos. But one of the monarchs of the Hellenistic period would not stand for that. It's time for Attalus I of Pergamon to step up to the plate... Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol. I). London: Edward Arthur. Grainger, J. D., (2014), The Rise of the Seleukid Empire (323- 223 BCE), S...

Antiochus Hierax and Seleucus II are finally going to have something of a showdown in the Fraternal War. Ancyra is waiting for us- but the results might not be pretty. Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol. I). London: Edward Arthur. The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2024), Ankara (online) (Accessed c. 01/03/2024). Grainger, J. D., (2014), The Rise of the Se...

239 BCE saw the death of someone who has been in the background of our Seleucid story for what feels like forever. As such, we should give him a proper sendoff. Say goodbye to Antigonus II... Sources for this episode: Bennett, J. E., Li, G., Foreman, K., Best, N., Kontis, V., Pearson, C., Hambly, P. and Ezzati, M. (2015), The future of life expectancy and life expectancy inequalities in England an...

Hierax is making his move and Seleucus II is doing his best to counteract it. Let's see how he does in the early phases of what is known as the Fraternal War. Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol. I). London: Edward Arthur. The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2024), Ankara (online) (Accessed c.27/02/2024). The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2023), Lydia (o...

Seleucus II may have been in our focus for the political and military drama so far, but he also has a wife and children who will become the players on the stage in the next generation. Let's take some time to introduce them while we still have some breathing space... Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol. I). London: Edward Arthur. Espenshade, T. J., Guzman, J....

Antiochus Hierax has behaved himself up until this point in our narrative, but it won't stay that way for long. To the government in Sardis, Antiochus III 'the Hawk' has arisen in Anatolia to claim the throne from his brother. But who are this faction of the Seleucid dynasty he's working with? Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol. I). London: Ed...

The Third Syrian War plays out and it turns out miracles do exist- Seleucus II has managed to claw his way back out of the quagmire. However, this is not without a heavy defeat in Palestine and some rumblings from Anatolia... Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol. I). London: Edward Arthur (eBook). Grainger, J. D. (2014), The Rise of the Seleukid Empire (323- 22...

The title of this episode says it all. Today, we're going to be dealing with the fate of Antioch once Ptolemy III comes strolling over. Plus, we'll finally get to move Seleucus around a bit and see some divine justice being doled out by the weather system...Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol. I). London: Edward Arthur (eBook). Grainger, J. D. (2014), The Rise...

To mark the fiftieth episode of After Alexander, we're going to go back in time all the way to the first wars of the successors to focus on Alexander IV. Specifically, we will focus on a point in his life we didn't mention the first time around- Alexander the Little was married! Sources for this episode: Berger, B. M. (1960), How Long Is a Generation? The British Journal of Sociology 11(1)...

It doesn't feel like that long ago that we were here last, but Syrian War III is here- seven years after the first settled on Syrian War II. Get ready to see Ptolemy III rampage through Syria and the Middle East in a way Egyptian kings haven't done since Thutmose III more than a thousand years previously. Something tells me it's not going well for the Seleucids... Sources for this episode: Bevan,...

We've dealt with Antiochus the Unfortunate, but now let's circle round to Egypt and deal with Ptolemy III. What were his motivations? How had his sister Berenice and her rival Laodice reacted to their husband's death? Most importantly- how does all of this connect to the upcoming Third Syrian War? Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol. I). London: Ed...

Introducing my newest venture- being one half of the Autocrat podcast! Autocrat is a podcast which aims to explore Roman civilisation from beginning to end. Beginning with the mythology and the stories of Aeneas and Romulus, the podcast will trace the journey through the Roman Kingdom, the Republic, the Empire and all the way to 1453 and beyond. Who knows if we'll make it that far, but we hope...

Here at After Alexander, we go through the narrative of the Hellenistic Era chronologically without a focus on individual stories. However, if you feel like listening to a funny, well-sourced show which focuses on individual monarchs' stories, feel free to listen to the Alexander Standard. Taking after the Rex Factor started in 2010, the Alexander Standard ranks all the successors to Alexander...

This week, I thought we'd try a mathematical way to assess how stable the Seleucid dynasty has been so far. To do so, we're going to compare average reign length and longest reign length with other dynasties from history. Prepare for some well known names- including a cameo from the Sun King himself, Louis XIV of France... Sources for this episode: The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (202...

Hello everyone, just a quick note that the YouTube comments are active on all videos and in the community tab. Feel free to drop me a line there as an alternative to the show's email address and stay tuned for extra features such as polls in future!

This week, we're going to witness some of the fallout from the death of Antiochus II in 248 BCE. We don't just have one new monarch Seleucus II, but we have three- his full brother Antiochus Hierax will come to claim the crown from Anatolia and there is his half-brother Antiochus the Younger (the son of Berenice Syra) to contend with as well. Seleucus II will have to deal with the chaos of...

It's time for another mini-series! This time, we're going to look ahead to some scattered stories from Greek history in the centuries and millennia after the fall of the Hellenistic kingdoms. Today, we're jumping forward to the 1860s CE to witness how a Danish prince was chosen to be King of the Hellenes as Georgios I. His family ruled over Greek- with some intermissions- until Konstan...

Hello everyone, Vince here with a quick update on how the podcast schedule is probably going to work from now on. I'm likely as not going to try out a monthly schedule- meaning that a new After Alexander will show up on the first Saturday of every month and a Biopedia on the third Sunday- although that may vary depending if I have more or less time for it in a given month. Who knows, there may...

We've left Antiochus II behind, but that doesn't mean we can't explore the family tree in more detail in the meantime! This week, we head back down memory lane to remind ourselves about the existence of Achaeus the Elder, younger brother of our founder Seleucus I. Achaeus was the progenitor of a family who will become more prominent in our story in future decades, and as such deserve s...

With Antiochus II's death, it's time for a recap episode! For the third time in our series, we're sat around the metaphorical campfire, just as we did when we said our goodbyes to Seleucus I and Antiochus I. The empire may be transitioning from the third generation of Seleucid royalty to the fourth, but that doesn't mean we can't take a minute to reflect on the last fifteen years...

We're going to have to say goodbye to two rulers in this episode- first Ptolemy II and then Antiochus II will meet their ends and pass on the mantle to the next generation. In Egypt the crown passes to Ptolemy III who seems ready for another fight over Syria. However, the situation in the Seleucid realm is far murkier, with the peace agreement from a few years ago disinheriting Laodice's sons- at...

We return to the narrative with the introduction of Berenice Phernophorus, the daughter of Ptolemy II and the younger sister of Ptolemy III. Our story today takes us through the disagreements surrounding the details of the end of the Second Syrian War, the birth of yet another prince called Antiochus- and sets the stage for the last chapter in the reign of Antiochus II... Sources for this episode:...

Jumping back west from our examination of Bactria and the Parthians over in the east, today we're back in west. Antiochus II made two marriage alliances which we haven't really discussed at length before. So, today, let's examine the marriages of two women called Stratonice- a sister and a daughter of the king. Sources for this episode: 1) Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol. I). Londo...