Where have all the Persians gone?

[adisciplus]

We have many examples of Macedonian soldiers being greatly displeased at Alexander's adoption of Persian customs (Arr. 7.8.1;Plut. Alex. 71). Some Persianization examples include:

• Early in the campaign, Alexander adopted the title “king of Asia” and the Persian tent
  After the death of Darius, he began wearing Persian royal dress
  In Bactra, Clietus had to beg Persian ushers for an audience with Alexander
  In Bactra, he adopted the practice of proskynesis, vocally objected to by Callisthenes and Cassander
  In Babylon, he adopted the Bagoas as a royal advisor
  In Susa, he welcomed the 30,000 Persian epigoni
  In Susa, he forced the Asian brides onto 80 of his Companions
  In Opis, he adopted Persian arrangement of feasting and concentric seating
  In Opis, he introduced Persians into the Companion Calvary and created Persian units in the Macedonian fashion within his army and shortly afterward incorporated Persians into the Macedonian phalanx
  In Opis, he added 1,000 Persian honor guard, including Darius’ brother Oxyarthres, who executed Macedonian mutineers
  About this time, he named select Persians “kinsmen” and gave them the Persian privilege of kissing the king
  and he married three Asian princesses.

As further evidence of the lack of true integration, after Alexander’s death, most of his Companions rejected their Persian wives.

The question I have is what happened to all the main groups of Persians after Alexander’s death:
- Royal advisor
- Satraps
- Persian cavalry, honor guard, Persian-only units and mixed units of footsoldiers

We also know that some of the Persian customs (e.g., concentric seating at feasts) were continued upon Alexander’s death. Was this evidence of the Successors becoming more accepting of Persians/Persian customs?

[adisciplus]

In a quick read of Diodorus, there is near silence on what became of the Persians that outnumbered the Macedonians in Alexander's final years:

• Diodorus, 18.7 Peithon’s army is made up of Macedonian’s not Persians
  Diodorus, 18.16 Perdiccas is able to defeat Ariarathes’s army that contains 30,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry, suggesting some Persians still with the army
  Diodorus, 18.22 Perdiccas’ attack against Isaurians mentions only Macedonians
  Diodorus, 18.29 Perdiccas gives Eumenes a portion of his army, but not much cavalry
  Diodorus, 18.30 Eumenes’ had 20,000 foot soldiers “of every race” but they are not a match for the Macedonian phalanx (thus, Eumenes’ troops are not the Asian troops that had been trained in Macedonian fashion)
  Diodorus, 19.14 At this time Peucestes had ten thousand Persian archers and slingers, three thousand men of every origin equipped for service in the Macedonian array, six hundred Greek and Thracian cavalry, and more than four hundred Persian horsemen.
  Diodorus, 19.27 Eumenes’s army consists of 6000 mercenaries, and about 5000 “men who had been equipped in the Macedonian fashion although they were of all races.”
  Diodorus, 19.82 describing the left wing of Demetrius containing 1500 horsemen “of all kinds,” 1500 javelin throwers, archers and “Persian slingers,” in the middle majority were mercenaries, and on his right wing the remaining elephants.

The mentions in Justin and Photius are understandable curtailed, but also fail to mention the Persians that had previously been incorporated into the Macedonian ranks or separate units

• Justin Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus 14.4 “auxiliaries of the east”
  
  Photius' excerpt of Arrian's Events after Alexander, “Antipater, being appeased, appointed him [Antigonus] ]to the command of the forces which had crossed over with him to Asia 8500 Macedonian infantry, and the same number of foreign cavalry, together with half the elephants….”

In the wars of the Successors, mercenaries and new raised local troops are mentioned more frequently than Persians. The Persians that are mentioned are not in the standard phalanx, in which thousands had recently been trained. Although there is much mention of cities revolting, none is attributed to Persian units returning home (much as the Macedonian's under Krateros had demanded and the Greeks in the upper satrapies had begun). Unlike the Greeks and Macedonian's these Persian units were freshly arrived in Babylon, so they would likely have wanted continued employment.

Does anyone know of any mentions of the Successors either overturning Alexander's adoption of Persian customs or continuing them?

[agesilaos]

An answer is coming, i raised the point or similar ages ago in a thread called 'The Elusive epigonoi' or somesuch you can search for it if you are desperate but I warn you the older post have some strange formatting quirks

[Paralus]

We're told of 30,000 Asians trained in the Macedonian manner - as a "counter phalanx". Where they all went is an intriguing question. There are undoubted notations of these operating under the Diadochi after ALexander's death. There were, as adisciplus notes, 5,000 in Eumenes' satrapal army. While Diodorus notes that the "Macedonians" in Peithon's army betrayed the surrendering Greek colonists, Macedonian infantry made up a small contingent of this force (3,000 chosen by lot from those at Babylon) with the rest being furnished by the satraps of the "upper satrapies" (Diod.18.7.3). Those satraps were unlikely to send their small Macedonian satrapal guard. It is near certain that these are all native troops as we see in the later satrapal alliance.

It is very tempting to believe that these trained Asians became part of the satrapal forces after Babylon (Peucestas brought 3,000 from Persia - Diod. 19.14.5). Certainly the royal army will have kept a goodly share out of necessity (with 10,000 Macedonians sent home with Krateros) and we see this at Paraitekene where Antigonos, commander of those forces, fields 8,000 (Diod. 19.29.3). The sources aren't terribly interested in them and here it is a pity that Arrian's "Successors" has not come down to us other than in an extreme summary of dot point proportions for it is likely he will have mentioned some of this. Nothing precludes that those with Peucestas were trained by him but Antigonos' 8,000 are near certainly inherited from the royal army he was given to pursue Eumenes and the other "Perdikkans".