Macedonia History

Why did Alexander the Great's empire fall?   (click headline for original source) It’s a really big mess. Dramatic though. The following was spread out across more than a dozen Wikipedia articles, and I’ve drawn together what I can to form this comprehensive and long summary. In short: Lots of fighting between generals resulted in three of them claiming empires in Asia, Greece and Egypt. All of these later fell to the expanding Romans. In long: Alexander , the military genius who conquered all the land from Greece to India in a decade without ever losing a battle, suddenly died in June 323 BCE. He was only 32 and had no children (yet - his wife Roxana would give birth after his death), and had made plans to invade Arabia and set up his capital at Babylon - plans which would never be put into effect. No one knows for sure if he got sick or was poisoned; it could have been either. Regardless, his generals immediately began fighting over who should take...

Long before George R.R. Martin penned his tale of war, intrigue and treachery the ancient world was scene to its own version of The Game of Thrones. When Alexander the Great died in Babylon 323 BC, he left the greatest empire the world had yet seen with no clear successor. While both of his wives (Roxane the daughter of Oxyartes of Bactria; and Stateira , daughter of Darius) were pregnant, he had no (legitimate) children yet born; though a four year old son of his former mistress Barsiné, named Heracles, was claimed by some to be Alexander’s illegitimate son. Alexander had made no provision for what was to happen in the case of his death. For a ruler who habitually took unnecessary risks; leading his Army, literally, from the front this was particularly irresponsible. But it was completely in character for Alexander, who ever refused to acknowledge his own mortality. The bust of Alexander now in the Louvre, portrays the conqueror in his last years; and is considered the b...

The name generally given to the empire founded by Alexander the Great of Macedon in the countries now represented by Greece and European Turkey, Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria, Persia and eastwards as far as northern India.' The present article contains a general account of the empire in its various aspects. It falls naturally into two main divisions: - I. The reign of Alexander. II. The period of his successors, the " Diadochi " and their dynasties. I. The Reign of Alexander. - At the beginning of the 4th century B.C. two types of political association confronted each other in the lands of the Eastern Mediterranean, - the Persian monarchy with its huge agglomeration of subject peoples, and the Greek city-state. Each had a different principle of strength. The Persian monarchy was strong in its size, in the mere amount of men and treasure it could dispose of under a single hand; the Greek state was strong in its morale, in the energy and discipline of its soldiery. But t...