Alexander the Great’s
death left a massive power vacuum, exacerbated by the fact his heirs
were a foetus and a man with the mind of a child. Worse still, their guardians were a
large number of bold, intelligent and fiercely competitive men, any
one of whom would make a great king in his own right.
These men, the Diadochi
[Successors], embarked almost immediately on a massive war, from the
coast of modern day Albania to Pakistan to Libya, and all points in
between.
But no less vicious
were the machinations of the women Alexander left behind, most
prominently Roxanne (one of his wives), Olympias (his mother), and
Adea (AKA Eurydice, wife of Alexander’s half-brother).
When Alexander died, he
was in his early thirties. The most obvious successors were absent
(Hephaestion had died a short time earlier, and the greatest general,
Craterus, had just been sent west). His half-brother, Philip
Arrhidaeus, was a grown man but had the mind of a small child (it is
suspected the jealous and ruthless Olympias had poisoned him to
damage his mind, and remove him as a potential rival to Alexander
[her son]). The only other credible blood heir would be the child of
Roxanne, his wife.
However, Roxanne was
only pregnant. There was no guarantee she would give birth to a son
rather than a daughter. To make matters worse, she was only the
daughter of a Bactrian satrap, and lacked the regal pretensions of
Alexander’s other wives (Macedonian kings were permitted multiple
wives).
To enhance her
position, Roxanne took the brutal step of (along with the regent
Perdiccas) having Alexander’s other two wives murdered. One of
them, Stateira II, was the daughter of Darius, once ruler of the
Persian Empire (and, therefore, of rather better pedigree than
Roxanne).
As it happened, she did
give birth to a son, whom she named Alexander. He and Philip
Arrhidaeus become joint monarchs, although in truth the power lay
(for a time…) with the regent, Perdiccas.
Two women, Cynane and
her daughter Adea, who also had royal Macedonian blood, travelled
east with the plan of marrying Adea to Philip Arrhidaeus. However,
Perdiccas (allied to Roxanne) sent his brother Alcetas to remedy the
problem by assassinating the two women. Cynane fell, but when the
soldiers realised the identities of the women they had been sent to
kill and that Adea still lived, their respect for the royal house
made them her protectors rather than her killers.
Later, a botched
invasion of Egypt led to Perdiccas’ death. After he was killed (by
his own troops), Adea, backed by the sentimental support of the army,
demanded a share of authority. She seemed to attain it, but only
briefly. Antipater, the aged, respected veteran viceroy of Macedon
during Alexander’s adventures, arrived on the scene. The army was
in vengeful mood and very nearly murdered him, but Antigonus and
Seleucus rescued the viceroy. Adea tried to provoke further mutiny,
but in the end authority was settled on Antipater, Antigonus and
Seleucus.
Antipater, a loyal
servant of the Argead dynasty but understandably not well-disposed
towards the now powerless Adea, accompanied her back to Macedon.
However, he died shortly thereafter, and political turmoil ensued.
Adea made another bid
for power, allying with Cassander, the son of Antipater. Against her
was Olympias, Polyperchon (the rather feeble successor, as per
Antipater’s will, of the viceroy) and Roxanne.
For perhaps the first
time in history, two armies, both led by women, approached one
another.
However, the same
loyalty that had prevented the Macedonian soldiers killing her years
ago, now worked against Adea. They couldn’t bring themselves to
even fight the mother of the legendary Alexander, and surrendered to
Olympias.
Olympias came to power.
Adea, wife of Alexander’s half-brother, found her days numbered,
and that number was very small. At first, she and her husband were
strictly confined, but Olympias was concerned by the sympathy the
Macedonians felt towards them. In line with her usual response to a
problem, Olympias chose to kill those who might be a threat. She
presented Adea with a sword, rope, and poison, to choose her own
death. Adea first of all killed her husband, the unknowing, blameless
Philip Arrhidaeus, whom Alexander had taken to Asia and protected,
and then hanged herself with one of her own garments, shunning the
rope Olympias gave her.
By contrast, Roxanne
was protected by the violent, volatile and cunning Olympias (because
she was the mother of Alexander’s son). However, Olympias’
uncompromising and arrogant manner lost her much support, and she
faced perhaps the wiliest of the Diadochi: Cassander. Antipater’s
son gradually built up his strength, even as it drained away from the
bloodthirsty Olympias.
Eventually, he bottled
her up in a port city, and she surrendered herself, Roxanne and
Alexander. The surrender included the condition Cassander show her
mercy. He did not, and had her killed by the relatives of her many
victims.
Defeat to Cassander
removed the shield that had protected Roxanne and her son. Cassander
kept the young Alexander alive until he reached his mid-teens, at
which point he became a threat, and was killed. His mother was also
assassinated, and thus ended the Argead line of kings in Macedon.
For more reading on
this, I highly recommend James Romm’s Ghost On The Throne, which I
reviewed here.
Thaddeus
