After Alexander: The Time of the Diadochi (323-281 BC)

When Alexander the Great died in 323 BC without a chosen successor he left behind a huge empire and ushered in a turbulent period, as his generals fought for control of vast territories. The time of the Successors (Diadochi) is usually defined as beginning in 323 BC and ending with the deaths of the last two Successors in 281 BC. This is a major publication devoted to the Successors and contains eighteen papers reflecting current research.
Several papers attempt to unravel the source history of the very limited remaining narrative accounts, and add additional materials through cuneiform and Byzantine texts. Specific historical issues addressed include the role of so-called royal flatterers and whether or not Alexander's old guard did continue to serve into their sixties and seventies.
Three papers reflect the recent conscious effort by many to break away from the Hellenocentric view of the predominantly Greek sources, by examining the role of the conquered, specifically the prominent roles played by Iranians in the administration and military of Alexander and his Successors, pockets of Iranian resistance which eventually blossomed into Hellenistic kingdoms ruled by sovereigns proclaiming their direct connection to an Iranian past and a continuation of Iranian influence through an examination of the roles played by certain of the Diadochis Iranian wives.
The papers in the final section analyze the use of varying forms of propaganda. These include the use of the concept of Freedom of the Greeks as a means of manipulating opinion in the Greek world; how Ptolemy used a snake cult associated with the foundation of Alexandria in Egypt to link his kingship with that of Alexander; and the employment of elephant images to advertise the authority of particular rulers.

Table of Contents

Preface (Víctor Alonso Troncoso)
Introduction (Edward M. Anson)

I
The Diadochi History in Cuneiform Documentation (Tom Boiy)
The Heidelberg Epitome: A Neglected Diadoch Source (Pat Wheatley)
Seleucus vs. Antigonus: A Study on the Sources (Franca Landucci Gattinoni)
Duris of Samos and the Diadochi (Frances Pownall)
The Diadochi, Invented Tradition, and Alexander’s Expedition to Siwah (Timothy Howe)
Strabo, India and Barbequed Brahmans (Brian Bosworth)
What We do not Know about the Age of the Diadochi: The Methodological Consequences of the Gaps in the Evidence (Alexander Meeus)

II
The Battle of Gabene: Eumenes’ Inescapable Doom? (Edward M. Anson)
Alexander’s Argyraspids: Tough Old Fighters or Antigonid Myth? (Elizabeth Baynham)
Agora XVI 107 and the Royal Title of Demetrius Poliorcetes (Paschalis Paschidis)
Adeimantus of Lampsacus and the Development of the Early Hellenistic Philos (Shane Wallace)

III
Iranians in the Diadochi Period (Marek Jan Olbrycht)
Nullis umquam regibus nisi domesticis. Cappadocia, Pontus and the Resistance to the Diadochi in Asia Minor (Luis Ballesteros Pastor)
The Female Element of the Political Self-Fashioning of the Diadochi: Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus, and their Iranian Wives (Sabine Müller)

IV
Alexander the Great, Ptolemy I and the Offerings of Arms to Athena Lindia (Giuseppe Squillace)
Propaganda Strategies and Political Document. Philip III’s Diagramma and the Greeks in 319 B.C. (Elisabetta Poddighe)
The Alexandrian Foundation Myth: Alexander, Ptolemy, the Agathoi Daimones and the Argolaoi (Daniel Ogden )
The Diadochi and the Zoology of Kinghip: The Elephants (Víctor Alonso Troncoso)