Unorthodox Angles/Andrew Gramling
Echoes from History: The Last Daughter of Alexandria, and the End of the Hellenistic Age Part V
The family structure was designed in large part to provide mutual benefit to each of its members and create a cohesive unit that can potentially achieve much more than each individual is capable of achieving on their own. But, like anything else on earth, the family structure is still subject to human nature, and simply labeling it as flawed doesn’t begin to accurately describe all of the nuances that occur and have occurred throughout human history.
A royal family, capable of ruling over kingdoms and empires while helping to create stability and prosperity, is equally capable of extremely atrocious acts, even towards their own kin. In Alexander the Great’s case, in order to consolidate his own power following the death of his father, King Philip II, he decided it was necessary to eliminate any threat to his inheritance to the throne of Macedon.
Amyntas IV, who was the son of Perdiccas — brother and predecessor of King Philip — making him Alexander’s first cousin, also had claim to the throne. Having once held the throne himself, Amyntas possessed a potentially formidable claim to the kingship, although Macedonian succession depended upon considerably more than hereditary rights alone. Perhaps exile would push Amyntas into the arms of the meddling Persians, or ignoring him would ultimately lead to Alexander one day becoming a victim himself, but for whatever reason that is not completely known, amid allegations of conspiracy whose reliability remains uncertain, Alexander had Amyntas put to death, which was not unheard of for competing members of a royal family in ancient times. Alexander’s treatment of Amyntas contrasted heavily with Philip’s treatment of him, however. After displacing him as king following Perdiccas’ death since he was far too young to rule, Philip kept Amyntas alive and even trusted him enough to eventually marry him to his daughter, Cynane, who was Amyntas’ first cousin. The death of Amyntas left Cynane alone to raise their only daughter, Adea, who was raised to become a warrior, and one that Alexander did not appear to be threatened by as he let her live. It was never known how much Cynane resented her brother for the execution of her husband, but she did not appear to openly move against him.
After handling his domestic affairs, Alexander began to focus on the territories surrounding Macedon, which had previously seen much conflict. Philip had already spent years using diplomacy and pursuing military campaigns alike to ensure a successful resolution to each dispute, and now that he was no longer present, some of his old rivals did not recognize the authority of his successor, and some never recognized Philip’s authority to begin with, particularly the Illyrians and other peoples along Macedon’s northern frontiers.
After successfully handling the situation with the Illyrians militarily, a rumor began circulating that Alexander had been killed in combat. Thebes, Greece’s former dominant power before being defeated by Macedon, took this as an opportunity to reclaim some of their status and rebelled against Macedonian control and the power structure created by the League of Corinth, which stated that no member would overthrow another government or engage in any unauthorized warfare, which Thebes violated by killing certain Macedonian-aligned officials and besieging the Macedonian garrison in the Cadmea— the fortified citadel of Thebes.
Upon receiving news of the rebellion, Alexander marched rapidly to Thebes and offered the defenders an opportunity to submit, but the Thebans refused. The Thebans rejected diplomacy, but they were completely unprepared for Alexander’s next move. With his capable army that his father spent decades building up, along with a coalition of Greek members of the League of Corinth, Alexander attacked Thebes, also aided by the Macedonian garrison that the Thebans had not yet captured. Following the city's defeat, Alexander's Greek allies, some of whom had longstanding grievances against Thebes, participated in the decision to destroy the city, killing an estimated 6,000 and taking an estimated 30,000 of its inhabitants as slaves, in keeping with a brutal practice of ancient warfare. While Athens had also participated in anti-Macedonian activities, Alexander accepted a reconciliation with them instead of taking further military action.
Thirty-six years after the Thebans crushed the Spartans in combat, they were then blitzed by Alexander, and the city brought to ruins. Alexander demonstrated that the ability to move swiftly and strike decisively could be just as important as the strength of an army itself. He succeeded in reasserting Macedonian authority in a fraction of the time that Philip had spent establishing it because the foundation was already laid out for him. Reuniting much of Greece and securing Macedon’s borders was only the beginning of a much larger campaign— something his father had spent years preparing for, but had never lived to accomplish: conquering the Persian Empire.
