Prologue
Death of the Lord of Asia
As Alexandros Megas was returning from his campaign in Asia to Babylon, a number of bad omens started to appear as he closed upon the city that had become the capital of the new and vast Empire spanning from Egypt to the Indus. After crossing the Tigris Alexandros was met by the citizens of Chaldea, who advised him not to enter the city because their deity Bel had warned them that to do so at that time would be fatal for Alexandros. The Chaldeans also warned the Lord of Asia against marching westwards as he would then look to the setting sun, a symbol of decline. Calanus, an Indian gymnosophist who had joined Alexandros during the campaigns in Mallia, was weakened by the fatigue of the march back to Babylon, and decided to take away his life by self-immolation. A funeral pyre was built in Susa, and before, immolating himself alive on the pyre, Calanus uttered his last words to Alexandros. They were "We shall meet in Babylon".
In the early days of the Babylonian Sin month of the second quarter of 114th Olympiad, the astrologers of Babylon tried to install an ordinary person, a false king, on the Babylonian throne, who would take the brunt of all the bad omens. The Greeks, however, didn’t understand this ritual. A few days later, the embassy that Alexandros had dispatched to Siwa returned: Zeus-Ammon permitted that his deceased closest friend, Hephaestion, was to be venerated as a demi-god. This news had to be celebrated with the usual drinking party. And within a few days, the expeditionary force would leave, and Alexandros was looking forward to the first addition to his empire in more than two years.
Next morning, the King was in his pains, gravely ill. And during the following days, he rapidly declined. At one moment, he was so desperate that he gave his royal ring to his Chilliarch Perdikkas, saying that he had to leave his empire in the hands of 'the strongest one'. In the Fourteenth Year and the Second Month and the twenty-ninth day of his rule, the heir of Akhilles, son of Ammon, succumbed to the mysterious illness. The Lord of Hellas, Asia and All, Alexandros Megas, had died.
Within hours, all the Somatophylakes – bodyguards, and other notable generals and officers present at Babylon gathered around Alexandros’ deathbed. According to the traditions of Macedon, the army and the army only had the right to choose the new King. These crucial decisions were thus placed into the hands of the generals and satraps, who soon would become known as the Diadochi – successors. The solution should have been easy, because the deceased king had a brother, Arrhidaeus. He was however considered mentally unfit to rule, known to be autistic and suffering from epilepsy.
Perdikkas, the commander of the Hetairoi - Companion Cavalry who had allegedly been appointed by Alexandros as his successor, said that it was best to wait until Roxana, who was pregnant, had given birth. If it were a son, it would be logical to choose him as the successor to his father’s vast empire. To everyone else this was all too transparent: Perdikkas wanted to be in sole command of the Empire. Nearchus, the Navarch, objected. According to him Alexandros was already father of a three year old son, Heracles, the child of his former concubine Barsine. Again everyone could see through this proposal: Nearchus was married to a daughter of Barsine, and would thus as a close relative of the new king become far too influential. The others refused to even discuss this.
Now it was the turn for Ptolemaios, one of Alexandros’ closest personal friends to speak. He objected to the idea that a son of the Bactrian Roxana or Persian Barsine would be king of Macedonia. According to him, their children were mere half-breeds. Ptolemaios proposed that the most important decisions were to be taken by those generals and satraps present in Babylon, as a form of a joint regency council. The commander of the Phalangite Corps, Meleagros, the chief Infantry Officer of the whole Macedonian army, fiercely objected this proposal. Meleagros sided with Arrhidaeus. He was supported by the foot soldiers, who hated Alexander's oriental policy and wanted a single and pure Macedonian King, instead of a Persian or a council of corrupt cavalry generals.
The situation in Babylon quickly escalated. It seemed that the foot soldiers wanted to fight for Arrhidaeus against Perdikkas and the cavalry officers. Almost all of the cavalry, together with almost all the generals stayed loyal to Perdikkas, and quitting Babylon, established themselves in a separate camp without the walls of the city. Reconciliation was attempted, principally by the intervention of Eumenes, and it was agreed that the royal authority should be divided between Arrhidaeus and the expected son of Roxana, and that in the waiting Meleagros should be associated with Perdikkas in the regency. Later, at a general presentation of the army, the infantry were taken by surprise; 300 of the alleged mutineers were singled out and executed. Meleagros fled to a temple in Babylon, but was put to death by Perdikkas. Arridaeus became king under the name of Philippos the Third.
The generals had largely omitted the fact that Alexandros had taken two other official wives in addition to Roxana, both Persian. But this question had been solved in silence by Roxana. Before word of the King’s death had spread beyond the royal palace, she had one of the eunuchs of the palace summon Stateira, to an isolated wing of this sprawling, ancient palace of the Babylonian kings. The daughter of Darius was then forced to take poison; and her body was then dumped into a well. It was found on autopsy that she had indeed been carrying a son. Along with her was killed her cousin, Parysatis, the daughter of Darius’ predecessor.
Now it was time for the generals to divide and allocate Alexandros’ Empire to satrapies, often disregarding the earlier appointments done by the actual conqueror of the vast lands. Most of the final decisions were made by Perdikkas himself. The remaining infantry and cavalry reconciled and agreed that Antipatros should remain the general of Europe and thus de facto Hegemon of the Hellenes, Krateros protector and guardian of the kingdom of Arrhidaeus, Perdikkas holding the office of 'chiliarch' , making him the regent and overseer of the whole kingdom. Then the remaining satrapies in the west were allocated to those present, or too powerful to be removed. The situation in the East was kept as it was under Alexandros, as Perdikkas didn’t want to get the wrath of the faraway upper satraps, who held vast amounts of troops, upon him.
At this moment, the recently appointed satraps are starting to arrive to take over their governorships, Krateros marching towards Greece with a contingent of veterans, Ptolemaios arriving in Egypt to relieve Kleomenes, who was to become his lieutenant, and Queen Roxana waiting to give birth to a child, yet of unknown sex, but presumed according to prophesies of the Babylonian priests to be a boy. After the death of Alexandros, a Macedonian noble named Arrhidaeus was tasked with the preserving of his body and the preparing of the funeral cortege. This work, in which he was aided by Egyptian and Babylonian specialists, was expected to take at least two years.
