After Alexander

Before we ease ourselves back into the main narrative again, I thought it would be a good idea to catch up with the life and times of Antiochus I until he acceded to the throne in 281 BCE. Then next week, we'll look around the world in 281 before plunging back into the hectic fight to keep Seleucus' ambition alive. Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol....

Continuing with our theme of less well known civilisations, today we're going to discuss the Nabateans- a Bedouin people who created a kingdom in Arabia and the Sinai peninsula around the time of the Successors, which would last until the eastern conquests of Trajan in 106 CE. Perhaps their most famous monument in the western world is the city carved into the rock at their capital, Petra. Howe...

Epirus- a small kingdom around what is now Albania- has been mentioned a few times on the show, but has always been on the political fringes. As such, It's been covered in nowhere near as much detail. So, join me on the third of our divergence episodes as we delve into the chaotic and complex history of Epirus. To those of you who have enjoyed hearing about the wars, infighting and shifting al...

India would be one of the last bastions of the Hellenistic kingdoms, which would survive for forty years after the collapse of Ptolemaic Egypt. However, the shadow Alexander the Great cast over the subcontinent would extend further than mere territory. From religion to cosmology, the influence left by the Yavanas would be profound... Sources for this episode: Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknow...

As I've mentioned in previous episodes, the moment when Seleucus re-entered Babylon marked the start of the Seleucid era- otherwise known as the 'Anno Graecorum' or 'Year of the Greeks'. But when exactly did this start getting used? Why were there two different ways of measuring it? And how long did its use last for? Sources for this episode: Anson, E. M. (2006), The Chronology...

Even among the successors, Seleucus has a reputation as a prolific city-builder; in all, he founded approximately 31 cities, including sites such as modern day Antioch and Laodicea, both situated in the Levant. While some of these places started out as attempts to swell the ranks of his armies, they would end up becoming heartlands of his empire... Sources for this episode: The Editors, Encyclopae...

As promised, this episode is going to be a recap of our narrative so far, stretching from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 until the death of Seleucus in 281. Along the way, I give you my two cents on the man, as well as the new, shiny, 21st-century epithet. It's time to review the life of the man known to contemporaries as Seleucus Nicator- Seleucus the Victor. Then, as promised, we&#3...

With the assassination of Agathocles in 282 came the perfect opportunity for Seleucus to strike Lysimachus' territories in Thrace and Macedon. The number of Hellenistic kingdoms is now rapidly dwindling- aside from the behemoth of the Seleucid realms, there's only Lysimachus' domains, Epirus and Egypt left. With Ptolemy now dead and a potential rival heir in Seleucid hands, the stage i...

With Demetrius dead, the Antigonid threat is out of the picture again for a bit- although rest assured, it's not the last time we've heard of names such as Antigonus II, so don't forget about them completely. Instead, the struggle begins for the throne of Macedon, with the principal contenders at the time Demetrius is taken off the chessboard being Lysimachus and Pyrrhus of Epirus. How...

Welcome to what I hope will be the first episode of a mini-series that will pop up every so often in your feed. In the 'Echoes of Alexander' mini-series, we're going to explore some of the impacts that the life of Alexander the Great had, to do a bit more justice to the man who's death was really the start of our story. This week, we turn our attention to the Greek language before Alexander arrive...

As with the stereotypical image of Wild West pioneers in the late 19th century, Seleucus' political ambitions are going to head west. With himself and Demetrius on the one hand and an alliance of Ptolemy, Lysimachus and Cassander on the other, a falling out was pretty much inevitable. This week, we're going to see the final act of Demetrius' story, which will include the beginnings of...

Just a quick note at this point to introduce the other podcast I run- Biopedia. This is a podcast where we discuss a different biological concept or topic in every episode. If that sounds like it might be for you, head over to Biopedia and join us. Regular content resumes next week!

Key points: -Once we get past Seleucus' life, there's going to be a recap episode and some tangent topics, before we introduce Antiochus I properly -I might experiment with making episodes a bit shorter in future, probably about the length of episode 12 -I'm going to be creating a modern epithet for each ruler in their recap episode (details in the episode) That's it for now, see you all next epis...

The Battle of Ipsus in 301 BCE, which saw the death of Antigonus I, was a gamechanger. Demetrius was still alive, but the power of their dynasty was momentarily in tatters. In Part 2 of our discussion of Ipsus, we're going to analyse what it meant for both the victors and the losers. A brief spoiler here- it's not going to mean the dawning of a new age of peace and mutual trust. Far from i...

Ipsus was a decisive turning point in the fate of the Antigonids, and indeed their opponents, but it didn't come out of nothing. In this episode, which I'm artificially going to dub Part 1, we're going to discuss the manoeuvring leading up to the battle, before getting stuck into the action. Then in Part 2, we'll get to the aftershocks and implications of the battle. Sources for th...

With the deaths of both Alexander IV in 311 at the hands of Cassander and Heracles (possibly the illegitimate son of Alexander the Great by Barsine) in 309 due to Polyperchon, the Argead royal line is dead. So, in 306 and 305, the generals and successors to Alexander take that final step on the road to the destruction of the empire- taking up the diadem of kinship. Sources for this episode: Bevan,...

Sadly for Seleucus, we can't send him off to the west again just yet, because we're going to have to pause and pay a bit of attention to the second generation of Successors. Given that Seleucus' son Antiochus is pushing nineteen by the time his father receives the diadem (spoiler alert!) in 305 as I once claimed- he and his siblings are going to become increasingly relevant on the worl...

After rampaging his way around the closer eastern provinces, Seleucus' peace deal with Antigonus allowed him to gaze further east and start greedily dreaming about conquest further afield. On the podcast today, we will see Seleucus copy both Alexander the Great and the Persians by invading India. But, as we saw in episode 4, he doesn't face the disunited political scene that they did. It&#...

With Seleucus back in Babylon, it appears that he is back in the game. However, not everyone is so keen on this new development as Seleucus himself. From pretty much 311 to 310, Seleucus is going to have to fight to keep his hard-won prize… Sources for this episode: Lendering, J., Livius, (2002, modified 2020), Diadochoi 6: The Babylonian War [Accessed 10/01/2021]. Lendering, J., Livius, (2006, mo...

Ever since the death of his father, Alexander IV had technically been king of Macedon. However, that would abruptly end in 309 BCE, when both he and his mother Roxane were assassinated on the orders of Cassander. You might think that this pretty much extinguished any Argead claims, but there are still a few loose ends flapping about. On the podcast today, we recap a bit of the Argead family and th...

Seleucus, now decidedly province-less, flees to Egypt and holes up with Ptolemy. There, he gets himself appointed as commander in chief of Ptolemy’s fleet in the eastern Mediterranean, cooperating with Ptolemy's brother Menelaus who was appointed as commander to forces dispatched to Cyprus. With the Third War of the Diadochoi going on in the background and with a bit of a foray into Egypt’s si...

A short break from the main narrative here to dive into Indian history. At the time of Alexander the Great, there was no one united India, just a lot of squabbling kingdoms and states as in the majority of the world’s history. Although the north was dominated by the Nanda empire, there was no one state which had central control. However, after Alexander left again some in India started getting big...

Antipater’s regency would be as short as it was rich in foreshadowing. With the appointment of Antigonus to try and flush out the pro-Perdiccas outlaws in Anatolia led by Eumenes, the groundwork was set for an eventual showdown between the satraps, who are increasingly shouldering off the burdens of the state. After all, with the king a minor, who’s going to stop them? Sources for this episode: Gr...

With Perdiccas getting too close to power for the liking of several major figures, it should hardly be a surprise that the First War of the Successors is about to begin. However, the tensions which have been building will not erupt over some grand territorial dispute or even the threat of an unwanted kingship. Instead, we’re going to witness an ancient Greek version of a body-snatching… Sources fo...

When Alexander died, there was initially one king- Philip III, Alexander’s half-brother. By the end of the next year, there were two kings- after the birth of Alexander’s only certified, legitimate son. However, the seemingly peaceful transfer from one regnal name to another hides all sorts of jostling going on in the background. Not quite yet violent struggles, but trust me, we’ll get there… Sour...