PolledHistory: Wars of the Diadochi

The Diadochi Wars (Greek: Sucessor Wars) were a series of wars that were waged between the sucessors of Alexander the Great after his death. They are quite underappreciated for its importance. It ended in a two century long period known as the Hellenistic era where Greek culture and language spread and mixed in the world.

Part 1 - Alexander 

Alexander the Great was a Macedonian Greek king of the Argead royal dynasty. He was a skilled person whose father was Philip II. He had a plan: to engulf the Persian empire and create a huge, new, Greek empire. 

He set out and in about a decade, fully subjugated the Persians, taking over large swathes of land and forming a world-encompassing empire. Almost the entire known world was under his grasp and he was extremely succesful. He went back to Babylon but then died at a young age in 323 BC. His expansive empire would be fought over for the next decades in a very intense chain of twists and turns.

Part 2 - The Early Diadochi Wars

There were two main parties direcly after the death of Alexander. One of which, lead by a man named Meleager, favored the acceessiom of Alexander's brother to become king of the massive empire. The other major party was lead by another man known as Perdiccas, an important person, favored that Alexander's unborn child should be king.

 

They decided to make both Alexander's brother and son (Alexander IV) co rulers. But Perdiccas changed his mind, killing Meleager and his supporters: one of the first major twists in the story. Perdiccas rewarded his generals by partitioning his empire. Soon there would be many rebellions across the empire when they heard Alexander died. They put the rebellions down, however. The satrap (governor) of Greece, Antipater, crushed them. Perdiccas then allied with a man named Eumenes when they defeated a rebellion in Cappadocia together.

But the empire was still very unstable. The generals and satraps did not trust each other and probably, in no time, would attack each other. Perdiccas got too ambitious, and he wanted to join the royal family, and basically married another wife (divorcing Antipater's daughter) (to join the royal family). But the letter he sent was intercepted by a man named Antigonus, one of the governors.

Antigonus informed other governors, including Antipater. Antipater, Antigonus, and the satrap of Egypt, Ptolemy, who was a friend and historian of Alexander, teamed up, revolted against Perdiccas, and stole Alexander's body from Perdiccas. Perdiccas tried to invade Egypt and his ally Eumenes fought Antigonus. Eumenes, though had no previous experience, managed to win. But Perdiccas failed in Egypt and he (Perdiccas) was murdered. The empire was repartitioned. Seleucus, Peithon, and Antigenes, Perdiccas' generals, were rewarded. Antigonus eventually defated Eumenes. By this time, peace had been restored temporarily.

Chapter 3  - The Late Diadochi Wars

When Antipater (governor of Greece) died, peace was broken. Antigonus defeated Eumenes and Antipater was replaced by somebody called Polyperchon though Antipater's son was challenging him. Cassander allied with Antigonus and Eumenes with Polyperchon. Eumenes accepted the deal, even after being defeated by Antigonus and being made his 2nd in command.

Eumenes fled to the eastern provinces and Antigonus chased him, and eventually Eumenes and Antigonus battled. Eumenes won. And they fought again, but Antigonus lost, but Eumenes was betrayed by the silver shields (an elite unit he had inherited. It was comprised of Alexander's war veterans) and was killed.

 

Polyperchon by this time tried to consolidate his rule in Greece but failed. Later,Cassander defeated Polyperchon, and had Alexander's mother Olympias killed. These wars are extremely full of random twists and turns and betrayals. Polyperchon escaped.

By this time, Antigonus had control over a huge portion of the empire.  He was the major player at this time. However, the other diadochi got scared and teamed up against Antigonus. Antigonus was paranoid, killing many. Seleucus, one of his allies and governors (yes, the one that, with two others, ended Perdiccas' control), who was very beneficial for Antigonus, escaped to Egypt cause he was scared of death.

Ptolemy (the governor in Egypt) allowed him in. Then all of the diadochi went together to end Antigonus' dominion. He sent friends and allies to take care of the other frontiers in war. One of them, Ptolemaios, was competent so Antigonus left Syria (where he was attacking) to help out Ptolemaios. He left his son Demetrius in charge in Syria. But Ptolemy and Seleucus suddenly defeated Antigonus' son. 

Seleucus left Egypt with an army given by Ptolemy. Seleucus then entered Antigonid Mesopotamian territory. Seleucus then heard of Demetrius' rearrival. A man named Cilles tried to defeat Demetrius in his advance but Demetrius was victorious. In the same time Antigonus defeated Cassander. 

Antigonus and Demetrius attacked Ptolemy but then Antigonus was faced with a problem from the native Nabataean tribes. Antigonus took a long time with the Nabataeans, and when he was about to finally attack Egypt, Seleucus had conquered the province of Babylonia and made Mesopotamia Seleucid territory.

Antigonus made peace with the coalition so he could focus on defeating Seleucus. Cassander then killed Alexander's relatives, (yet again, lots of executions) basically ruining the chances  of Alexander's family - the Argead dynasty - to be powerful again. 

Seleucus and Antigonus fought in the Babylonian War for Babylonia and Mesopotamia. Its quite a mysterious war but we knew Seleucus won though he had much less manpower. Antigonus, with a huge, expensive, and important army, lost. This was a huge blow for Antigonus. Seleucus gained everything east of the Euphrates - more than half of Alexander's original empire - from modern day Turkey until the border with India. Seleucus became a major player in the dynamics of the diadochi war.

Seleucus was busy fighting the Mauryans (Indians) so Antigonus had time. The ambitious man Antigonus then looked westward, and had some original success. Antigonus declared himself king of Macedon. Then everyone else did. In 306 BC, there was order - the empire was basically partitioned. Ptolemy ruled Egypt, Cassander and a man named Lysimachus in Greece and Thrace respectively, Antigonus in Asia Minor and Syria and Seleucus in the east. 

Antigonus continued to try to invade  further to the west, and Demetrius (his son) almost defeated Cassander. Lysimachus in Thrace joined to help Cassander, attacking parts of Asia Minor. Antigonus then surrounded his army, and it looked as if Lysimachus was about to lose power. But then, Seleucus came with 500 elephants from India, crushing Antigonus at the Battle of Ipsus. Antigonus died, and Demetrius escaped. The death of Antigonus basically made Lydimachus ruler over much of Asia Minor and Seleucus over Cappadocia. 

 

After Cassander died, Cassander's sons co ruled but then Demetrius came. Demetrius, however, then lost against Lysimachus. He tried to head over to Seleucus to get support, but became his prisoner. Demetrius' son became king in Macedon. Seleucus then fought Lysimachus and Seleucus defeated Lysimachus. Seleucus basically took over everything besides Greek Macedon (under Ptolemy (who was dead)'s son and Egypt (under Ptolemy's younger son). Seleucus then wanted to live his last years in Macedon but then was killed. Then, Macedon was taken back by Antigonus' descendants. Three major successor states emerged finally after about fifty years after the death of Alexander, the Seleucid Empire (everything besides Egypt and Macedon) the Ptolemaic Empire (Egypt) and the Antigonid Empire (Macedonia and Thrace). 

That's all for today.