Search found 2874 matches

by Paralus
Sat Aug 19, 2023 1:59 am
Forum: The Diadochi
Topic: Greco-Bactrian Kindom video
Replies: 0
Views: 1455

Greco-Bactrian Kindom video

Fascinating video on Bactria-Soghdiana and the northwestern Greco-Indian kingdoms. While it focuses on art and coinage, it is a good summary of the Greco-Bactrian kindom post Alexander. Independent and largely cut off from the west, this kingdom flourished. The cities were all built in the Greek fas...
by Paralus
Sat Mar 18, 2023 11:20 am
Forum: The Diadochi
Topic: Researching Seleucus's rise to power
Replies: 13
Views: 13942

Re: Researching Seleucus's rise to power

A grasping individual was Peithon. Antigonos well knew what danger he represented and had him eliminated. Unlike Peithon, Antigonos hadn't gained the station of somotophylax and had been left guarding the rear of the great anabasis. Gaining "preferment" under Alexander was real coin in the...
by Paralus
Sat Mar 18, 2023 1:29 am
Forum: The Diadochi
Topic: Researching Seleucus's rise to power
Replies: 13
Views: 13942

Re: Researching Seleucus's rise to power

Wow, you are a pretty rude person, no wonder the forum is dead with people like you lurking here. A lot of this history is very ancient and open to interpretation anyway. To discuss and politely offer opinions is not nonsense. It might, and probably does, read as fairly direct. As Alexias has expla...
by Paralus
Fri Mar 17, 2023 11:51 am
Forum: The Diadochi
Topic: Researching Seleucus's rise to power
Replies: 13
Views: 13942

Re: Researching Seleucus's rise to power

Seleukos' "rise to power" is quite explicable without all this nonsense regarding poisons. As is Alexander's death.
by Paralus
Thu Mar 16, 2023 12:59 am
Forum: The Diadochi
Topic: Researching Seleucus's rise to power
Replies: 13
Views: 13942

Re: Researching Seleucus's rise to power

Seleukos, at the time of Alexander's death, was commander of the hypaspist agema , a position Hephaistion had held at Gaugamela. Hence we see him termed ἑταίρων/hetairon at Hydaspes where he is contrasted with the somatophylakes Ptolemy, Perdikkas and Lysimachos who all share the galley with Alexand...
by Paralus
Mon Mar 06, 2023 6:27 am
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Discussion on Chaeronea
Replies: 28
Views: 56642

Re: Discussion on Chaeronea

Actually, upon a fresh search, Hammond does allocate for Theban massed depth at Chaeronea in both his works pertaining to this ( Studies in Greek History , p. 542, 1973 ed., and Philip of Macedon , pp. 151-152, 1994 ed.)- but for the Thebans and Sacred Band per se, thus the allied army could still ...
by Paralus
Sun Mar 05, 2023 10:34 pm
Forum: Alexander's contemporaries
Topic: Kleopatra
Replies: 4
Views: 2526

Re: Kleopatra

Alexander has written quite a few papers relating to the ambitions, alliances and power plays of the Diadochi. The Territorial Ambitions of Ptolemy I is a good adjunct to his Kleopatra. Friendship and Betrayal: The Alliances Among the Diadochi is another worth the read. Of course, that which started...
by Paralus
Sun Mar 05, 2023 12:12 am
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Discussion on Chaeronea
Replies: 28
Views: 56642

Re: Discussion on Chaeronea

While on logic: I wanted to point out that the findings on the Theban skeletons are not sufficient to say anything about the presence or absence of cavallary: that 2 out of 254 men had wounds consistent with a fatal assault by a rider doesn't prove there were a few hundred of them. Furthermore: a d...
by Paralus
Thu Mar 02, 2023 10:53 pm
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Discussion on Chaeronea
Replies: 28
Views: 56642

Re: Discussion on Chaeronea

Let's for the moment accept Hammond's rationale for the Macedonian and Greek lines and apply it to the archaelogy of Marathon. Here we've two tumuli: that of the Plataians and that of the Athenians. These are 3.2km apart. Applying Hammond's rationale, the Athenians thus held the right wing and the ...
by Paralus
Thu Mar 02, 2023 12:56 am
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Discussion on Chaeronea
Replies: 28
Views: 56642

Re: Discussion on Chaeronea

…Nothing compels us to believe that the Macedonians fell facing the Sacred Band where the mound sits. On this basis Hammond places the right of the Greek line. Nonsense… We are most certainly led - if not ‘compelled’ - to believe that an oak tree near the Cephissus, which was named after Alexander ...
by Paralus
Wed Mar 01, 2023 4:34 am
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Discussion on Chaeronea
Replies: 28
Views: 56642

Re: Discussion on Chaeronea

Plutarch, Alex. 9.2 does not mean that the Macedonian left was Alexander's position nor that of the Sacred Band. Unless you suppose the Macedonian army camped piecemeal with the left over here, the centre there and the right over there. Near to the river is logical for the obvious reasons. The Maced...
by Paralus
Tue Feb 28, 2023 5:25 am
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Excavations in Alexandria
Replies: 11
Views: 4198

Re: Excavations in Alexandria

That's definitely no spear. A xyston, of cornel wood (if we take Arrian at his word), would be far too heavy to wield at that diameter. All depictions have the shafts far thinner; hence their shattering. It is no sarissa either. Some photos of a sarrisa wielding guard and longche bearing symposium g...
by Paralus
Thu Feb 23, 2023 7:58 am
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Discussion on Chaeronea
Replies: 28
Views: 56642

Re: Discussion on Chaeronea

…Even should we accept Hammond's 30,000 hoplites for the allied army… Well, superfluous to mention, Hammond did not just pull that out of the air with baseless arbitrariness; in the same passage of Demosthenes mentioning 2,000 cavalry provided, he also mentions 15,000 infantry (non-citizens among t...
by Paralus
Wed Feb 22, 2023 10:40 pm
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Discussion on Chaeronea
Replies: 28
Views: 56642

Re: Discussion on Chaeronea

...The multiple head wounds on three of the hoplites’ skulls The nature of the wounds on the Theban dead provides some evidence in this debate. The sharp force trauma wounds on the skulls from Chaironeia are consistently on the top of the head. The angle of all but one of the injuries suggests the ...
by Paralus
Tue Dec 20, 2022 9:38 am
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Discussion on Chaeronea
Replies: 28
Views: 56642

Re: Discussion on Chaeronea

Chris, I can't place your unpaved road on Google maps. The road that cuts straight across the mouth of the valley appears to be paved across the river and railway (as far as the images go). At the river, I can't make out if there is a dam, weir, or floodgates near or under the bridge, but flooding ...