Who Should the King Have Picked?

[Tre]

Fellow Companions!Can we do the King one better?If it was you in Alexander's place, who would you have picked to run the empire after his demise? Who had the talent? Was there anyone out there who could have held his kingdom together?I thought this would be an interesting topic.Regards,Tre

[susan]

It's definitely a three-pipe problem, I'll think over the weekend.Susan

[Thalestris-Alexandros]

In Alexander's voice: "To Krateros."

[agesilaos]

By my way of thinking the only way to fairly judge any candidate's chances of success is by reference to the events between Alexander's death in Babylon and the settlement at Triparadeisos.Clearly anyone who did not attempt to gain power lacked either the will or the political base to hold it. So potential candidates are reduced to Meleagros/Aridaios, Nearchos/Herakles, Perdikkas/Alexander IV and Ptolemy who were present and Krateros, Antipater and Olympias who were not.Meleagros and hos protege can be dismissed as their position arose solely from the confusion of the succession and cannot have represented a realistic choice for Alexander, he had no place for a non-entity and a half-wit.Nearchos and Herakles are equally imposssible as he did not even receive the support that Meleagros did.Perdikkas went on to prove himself too autocratic, lacking the gravitas and auctoritas to hold the Empire together.Ptolemy, of course, knew his limitations and grasped at a kingdom rather than the Empire.Krateros may have been popular with the troops but he subsequently allowed himself to be out-thought and out-fought by Eumenes, which does not speak well of his ability.Which brings us done to Ying and Yang, the Regent or the Queen Mother. Knowing his mother's volatile and capricious nature he could not entrust her with the power he had denied her on setting out on his expedition but sadly her poison had turned him against Antipater who with the added authority of Alexander's mandate could have held things together, as he was to do after Triparadeisos until his death. His age ruling out any lasting settlement.Thus Alexander's choice was probably the most realistic, 'To the strongest.'

[maciek]

Hi companions!!
I thought about it and I have such idea that maybe Eumenes was the man! Just think he was very intelligent, some kind of grey eminency in Alexander's court. He appeared a very good tactic after Alexander's death - if not Antigonos who knows what could happen then. It's true that Macedonians didn't trust and like him but later the Macedonians and the Greeks ruled the Hellenistic world - so if he would stay alive he might repair whole empire once again. I think he might be the only man who fully could understand AlexanderGÇÖs ideas for the new shape of the world.Maciek M
Maciek

[Pam]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before, but what if Alexander had predeceased Hephaestion? Could Heph. had accomplished the task? Those of you who know these things,can you tell me if he had the power base from which to operate? Also if he had been alive at the time of Alexander's death would the king have chosen him?
Regards to all, Pam

[marcus]

We don't really know enough about Hephaistion's abilities to know whether Alexander would have entrusted him with the empire. For myself, I suspect not.However, if Alexander *had* predeceased Hephaistion and appointed him as his successor, I have a feeling he would have had to get rid of Craterus (and probably some others), before they stabbed him in the back. Ultimately, we would have ended up with the same mess that really occurred after Alexander's death.My own bet would be on Craterus, but that's probably too subjective a view. The truth of the matter is that Alexander had allowed none of his officers to develop enough as a personality and general, to be able to fill his shoes.All the bestMarcus

[Linda]

MarcusBut Alexander *did* in effect entrust Hephaestion with the empire...ok he might not have believed that he himself was going to die so soon, but by making Hephaestion chiliarch and marrying him into the royal family, he was placing trust in him as an administrator, guardian for his children etc. Maybe you don't have faith in Hephaestion's abilities, but I suspect Alexander did. He wasn't another Alexander or Philip, (no-one was, it is clear), but come on, give the man a break for once...

[aen]

Ptolemy's the man for me, without a shadow of doubt. A consolidator and builder; popular with the army, and not just in the cavalry agema, but in the phalanx as well; possessed of enough vision to amalgamate local religion with Hellenic; not afraid of getting his hands dirty when necessary, but capable of Philipic diplomacy as well; not to mention a host of other details. Would have had to have played on those rumours of his paternity, I think, in order to secure his position. And I donGÇÖt see how he could have sustained things without a head to head with both Perdicass and probably Craterus. I wonder if in settling for Egypt he wasnGÇÖt being a whole lot cleverer than we might suppose.