Dividing the Spoils: The War for Alexander the Great's Empire, Robin Waterfield, c. 2011

I have earlier entries with regard to this book back in 2019, but I've completely forgotten it. I forgot that I actually read it, so I'm starting again. As if this is the first time I've read this book.  

Ten maps. Crucial.

Preface.

The Legacy of Alexander The Great.

Philip II (father) and Olympias (mother). Philip II had come to power in 359 BCE. 

Son, Alexander and daughter Cleopatra (so, brother-sister).

"Cleopatra" -- the "fame" or the "glory" of her father. 

Philip II, murdered by his bodyguard/lover, Pausanias, 336 BCE, 23 years on the throne. 

Pausanias raised the ire of one of Philip II's principal generals, Attalus.

Supposesdly Attalus arranced for the gang-rape of Pausanias, but Philip II did not punish Attalus for this. So, Pausinias turned on his lover, King Philip II and had the latter murdered. Philip's son Alexander becomes king and immediately moves out of Macedon, through Thrace, and across the Hellespont to take on Persia and "conquer" the known world. 

 Alexander himself had a lover: Hephaestion, who had died of excessive drinking.

Alexander himself died (murdered, like his father): 3:30 p.m. June 11, 323 BCE (king for 13 years). 
murder
excessive drinking (alcohol poisoning)
malaria relapse

Back to Philip II.

Olympias in voluntary exile back to Epirus, southwest of Macedon. When Alexander departed for the east, Alexanders/Philip II left Antipater in charge of Alexander's holdings. Olympias-Alexander were a team; there was a suggestion that Philip II was going to put Antipater in as king, instead of his son. That would have been reason for Olympias to kill Philip II. In any event, Philip was poisoned (actual killer not know for sure). Despite this anger with Antipater, Olumpias left him in charge, but she wielded considerable power. 

So, that's the family history up to that point.

But how did Macedon become the dominant power in that region. Read the history of Philip II. Link here. Link: https://share.google/aimode/HhzaRj2RpC4WTvcYM.  

Now the geography.

Macedone (northwest of "Greece" proper). Then Thrace. The the Hellespont, the body of water, the Dardanelles. The peninsula to the west of the Dardanelles (Hellespont) was known as the Thracian Chersonese in antiquity, which is known today as the Gallipoli Peninsula, now a part of Turkey.

Alexander's troops embarked from two points on the peninsula. The main body of his troops crossed farther north, where he himself crossed at the southernmost trip of the peninsula to "land" him near the ancient city of Troy on the eastern shore (or the western shore of Turkey). 

On page 5, in one short paragraph, the author lists the sequence of events when Alexander conquered  Darius (for the first time). 

Alexander retreats to Phoenicia and protects his read by taking Egypt in 332 (p. 5 at the bottom).

Two years later, Alexander attacks Darius again (who had two years to raise a new army).

This time, Alexander finishes the job and defeats Persia for good (330?). It was the end of the Persian Empire -- it has been ruled by the Archaemenid house for 200. years. And then in one short page, the conquests of Alexander into Bactria, and then western India, modern-day Pakistan. His troops had had enough and the army pulled back to Susa. Alexander and all his generals took "eastern" wives, some more than one. Non-Greek (eastern wives) were all considered inferior by the Macedonians / Greeks.

Then, a summary of Alexander the Great's empire.

The author notes that the empire was a patchwork. Five separate geographic areas:

• European territories, one such bloc: Macedon, Greece and Thrace;
• separated from Asia by the Hellespont;
• Asia Minor, is another bloc, bordered to the east and southeast by formidable mountains;
• Egypt, wiht natural defenses of desert and sea, Egypt always considered itself a separate unit, and even under Achaemenid rule often strove for independence;
• Syria, west of the Euphrates was caught between Asia and Egypt, was long a bone of contention;
• finally, east of the Euphrates the eastern satrapies stretched all the way tot he Indus River in Pakistan.

Page 7.

Felt he was divine; incredibly upset when his troops mutinied in 325 in India and his will was thwarted.

He came to eliminate the hated Persian rules not simply to replace them. 

Adopted Persian customs, p. 7.