Macedonian Queens

Discuss Alexander's generals, wives, lovers, family and enemies

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marcus
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Re: Macedonian Queens

Post by marcus »

Alexias wrote:
marcus wrote: As for the girls staying in Susa - they were to be educated in the "Greek" way, and they couldn't be expected to travel around with the army while Alexander was still chasing after their father. Better to have kept them safe and protected/guarded in an area that had already submitted. Companionship for the queen mother is unlikely to have been the primary reason for keeping them in Susa.

ATB
Sorry, I meant after the marriages. Surely the army then was on home territory and there would be no reason they could not travel in safety to the summer residence at Ecbatana, or to Babylon. Unless for some reason Alexander felt they would be safer at Susa? Perhaps things were still unsettled after the purges and Alexander feared a potential rebellion.
Oh, I see. Well, as Athena's Owl says, we can't be sure they stayed in Susa. During the summer months they might well have gone up to Ecbatana.

BTW, it was Strabo who mentioned about the heat being so intense that lizards didn't cross the street in the mid-day sun:
Strabo XV.III.10
Alexander preferred Babylon, because he saw that it far surpassed the other cities in magnitude, and had other advantages. Although Susis is fertile, it has a glowing scorching atmosphere, particularly near the city, as [Aristobulus] says. Lizards and serpents at mid-day in the summer, when the sun is at its greatest height, cannot cross the streets of the city quick enough to prevent their being burnt to death mid-way by the heat. This happens nowhere in Persis, although it lies more towards the south.

ATB
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