Funeral Wisdom of the World

When we think of the crossbow we imagine all those great medieval battles and sieges of castles. But, in fact, crossbow was invented at least a thousand years before the arrival of Middle Ages. The mystery of its origins still remains, but most historians agree that crossbow first appeared in China or cultures neighboring it. Earliest Chinese manuscripts describe the giant crossbow catapult used in military campaigns around sixth century BC. Other manuscripts state that crossbow was not just used as a military weapon but also as a toy and for setting up traps for hunting purposes.

A century later Chinese manuscripts already describe a crossbow as a hand held military weapon used for ambush. And in the third century BC, Chinese crossbow was already well developed and used quite widely all over the empire. Archaeologists unearthed the remains of multiple crossbows during the discovery of the famous Terracotta Army in the tomb of Chinese emperor who ruled in the third century BC.

It seems that somehow, Chinese crossbows found their way to Greece. This might have happened even before the establishment of the empire of Alexander the Great. Anyways, some type of crossbows called gastraphetes were widely used by ancient Carthaginians in Sicily as far as 397 BC . And during siege of Tyre in 332 BC by Alexander the Great, reliable sources describe the use of these weapons by the Greek besiegers.

Alexander the Great and his Macedon generals had great impact in the development and extension of the Silk Road network of routes. Their campaigns are thought to be the first major step in opening the big connection between the East and the West. Alexander’s empire extended from Greece to Central Asia. In Fergana Valley, which is located in modern Tajikistan, he founded the famous city Alexandria Eschate which later became the major point of northern Silk Road.

After his death Alexander’s general Ptolemy and his descendants got Egypt and became first Greek pharaohs. Egypt heavily depended on trade, it had large sea ports on Red Sea and established routes to the Middle East and India and to the South, reaching East Africa.

As for Greek kingdoms in Central Asia, they lasted for the next three hundred years. They were trying to continue the expansion to Sogdiana and India and set up new Greco-Indian kingdoms there. Ancient historians noted not once that Greek kingdoms led their expeditions to China and Chinese Turkestan around 200 BC, which constitutes the first verified by documents contact between China and the West.

When Alexander the Great took over Persian empire, he officialy married Darius’s daughter Stateira II  in 324 BC at Susa. It was a great wedding ceremony, where many officers of Alexander were married to noble Persians.  Alexander’s favorite Hephestion had as his bride Drypetis, sister of Stateira II.

Later, in 327 BC  Alexander also married a Bactrian noble Roxana from Balkh province.  Alexander professed his love for Roxana and took his new wife to accompany him during his military campaign in India.

After the end of campaign Hephestion died leaving Drypetis a widow. Within eight months after his death Alexander died too.  Roxana was pregnant when king died and soon gave birth to posthumous son Alexander IV Aegus.  The empire that Alexander built started collapsing, his generals were successfully tearing it apart. Thus Roxana and her son became the pawn in the intrigues of the generals.

In her own turn Roxana mercilessly murdered Stateira II and her sister Drypteis and ordered to throw their bodies into a well.  For a while Alexander’s mother Olympias managed to protect both Roxana and her son in Macedon. Yet soon Olympias were assassinated by the orders of Cassander in 316 who were seeking kingship over Macedon.
In the end the surviving Alexander’s generals signed the peace treaty recognized Alexander IV’s rights and explicitly stated that when he came of age he would succeed Cassander as ruler.

As the son of Alexander was growing up, his supporters started to declare that he  should now exercise full power and that a regent Cassander was no longer needed. Well, the response of Cassander’s response was extremely swift and definitive because he was not going to say goodbye to his kingdom.  So in 309 BC he commanded to secretly assassinate the 13-year old Alexander IV and his mother Roxana. The orders were carried out, and they were both poisoned. This was the end of the great Argead dynasty, the founders of the Macendon kingdom, to which Alexander the Great belonged.

The only fragile thread of the dynasty was Heracles, an illegitimate son of Alexander the Great, who was born from Persian concubine Barsine.  Heracles was never acknowledged by Alexander the Great, but still he was a threat to Cassander. So Cassander gave a minor bribe to Heracles protector Polyperchon  in exchange for his murder. When Heracles was finished the ancient Argead dynasty terminated completely.

It seems that Alexander the Great not only defeated Darius III and captured his family. He also became the new head of household, replacing the former Persian king. At the time of the Battle of Isis in 333 BC, Darius was married to Stateira I, who was known as the most beautiful woman on Earth. After Darius fled from the battle, Alexander captured his family and treated it with great respect.

Unfortunately, very soon Stateira I died giving birth. It looks like the child that she was pregnant with, was not from Darius but from Alexander. Maybe, that partially explains why , Sisygambus, who was Darius’s mother, refered to Alexander as her only son. It is possible that he took over all household and have assumed the role of a king and husband to Stateira I.

When Alexander the Great died one year later after Stateira’s death, all Darius’s family mourned him as a very close relative. Sources say that they were very much in grief because of this loss. This also indicates personal relationships.

At the decisive Battle of Issus that took place in 333 BC, Darius III and his army were completely defeated by a young Macedonian king Alexander the Great. It was not just any defeat, it was an event that changed the course of history. By losing the battle Darius lost everything, including his family.

It was the habit of Persian kings of those times to carry their harem and all family during the war campaigns. So after Darius’s army was routed, he fled leaving his mother Sisygambis, his wife Stateira I, his children, and many others to the mercy of Alexander

Sisygambis was a very proud woman, so never forgave Darius for his desertion. After all, she was the daughter of king Artaxerxes II Memnon. Alexander captured her but threated mother of Darius extremely well. Sisygambis was so ashamed of Darius that she even refused to mourn his death. When Persian noblemen called upon her with the news, she said that she had just one son Alexander and he was the king of all Persia.

It seems like a true statement, because Sisygambis really experienced maternal instincts towards Alexander the Great. Contemporary sources say that when she learned about Alexander’s death, Sisygambis was so devastated that she did not want to live anymore. She had herself sealed into her rooms and died of grief, starvation and sorrow.

Without going into history details, people sometimes think that Alexander the Great did not have children and, thus his vast empire had to be divided by his generals. Quite the opposite, Alexander had two sons.  Although one of them was from a concubine and could not really pretend to take the throne, the other one was a legitimate heir - Alexander IV.

The problem was that he was a posthumous child, who was born after the death of his father. While Alexander the Great was dying, his wife, Bactrian princess Roxana was pregnan, and nobody knew if the child would survive or what gender it would be.  There was another legitimate pretender to the throne - Alexander’s half-brother Philip Arridaeus, who was mentally ill.

This led to the split of Alexander’s generals in two conflicting parties. One wanted to give full power to Phillip, while the other wished to wait for the birth of the heir of Alexander and to give him the throne under the control of the regent. The last one led by general Perdiccas won, eliminated all partizans of Phillip and repartitioned all the territories between former generals and satraps of Alexander. In its turn these tragic events led to the infamous War for Succession or Wars of the Diadochi.

In the archives of my web analytics company I read an intriguing ancient story related to sudden and unexpected death of Alexander the Great.  Alexander’s death has been reinterpreted many times over the centuries. And the debate surrounding the cause of Alexander’s sudden death has never been clearly resolved. Here are some clues from the ancient sources.

In the fourth century BC there were quite persistent rumors claiming that Alexander the Great did not die of illness but was poisoned by one of his generals. Well, many had powerful motivations for seeing Alexander gone. Yet, people whispered to each other only one name of the alleged assassin: “Antipater”.  The latter was a famous Macedonian general, supporter of Phillip II of Macedon and his son - future Alexander the Great.  So, how close to truth were these rumours?

Antipater was a great friend to both the little Alexander and his mother, Olympias. In fact, Olympias and Antipater were so close that there was a gossip at the time that he was the real father of Alexander. Later Antipater aided Alexander in his struggle to secure his succession after Philip’s death.

After Alexander left to conquer the world, Antipater remained in Greece serving as the regent of Macedon in his absence. He successfully won many battles against other Greek states and subdued them. Plutarch even mentions, that Alexander the Great became jealous when he heard of Antipater’s victories.

Everything seemed fine, but Antipater’s former close relationship with the  Olympias greatly deteriorated.  Ancient Greeks used to say that Olympias had psychic abilities. Maybe, she already smelled a rat?

Probably, due to Olympias requests, suddenly Antipater lost his title of Macedon regent and was replaced by another general old Alexander’s  veteran Craterus.  Antipater was  ordered the latter to lead fresh troops into Asia.  Exactly at that time Alexander the Great suddenly dies in Babylon which allows Antipater to procrastinate with the transition of power from him to Craterus. Amazing coincidence, isn’t it?

Exactly dated to that time ancient sources start consistently mentioning the rumors that Antipater had been responsible for poisoning the great king.  Sources say that there was a huge threat to  Antipater’s position.  In numerous letters Olympias had been writing to her son that Antipater was preparing unrest and disloyalty in Macedon. Antipater was summoned to apear in front of Alexander in Babylon and answer these charges.

Citing his fear of an uprising in Greece, Antipater had sent his son Cassander in his place. Cassander managed to bring the poison to Babylon in a mule’s hoof. He passed the poison to his younger brother Iollas was the royal cup bearer, who administered it while serving wine to Alexander.