This took far longer to make than what I would have thought. In any case, here's a summarized explanation of the events that succeeded the death of Alexander the Great.
The fact that Alexander's secretary was out there winning battles implies the man was such a good general that those close to him just absorbed tactical skill by osmosis.
Just had a biology exam and I'm sorry to correct you but he absorbed the tactical skill not by osmosis but by diffusion as (regrettably) tactical skill is not water
Pyrrhus literally made a cameo here. He's the main antagonist of the show "Rome: Pyrrhic Wars" and appears as a cameo in "Ancient Greece: Diadochi" All part of the Classical Antiquity Cinematic Universe.
Haha yes. I'm living 10 minutes away from the village of Evropos, built on the same location as ancient Evropos, were Seleucus was born. He's very well known and celebrated here.
The Antigonid and the Seleucid fanboy in me never has a good time when watching diadochi videos but I can’t stop, this period of history is so f****** cool
I have to agree, this is one of the most interesting eras of history. Most succession wars don't break out so soon after the fall of a great empire. Add to this everyone pretty much knew each other and all learned from Alexander.
And Philip. Antipater and Antigonus didn't start as Alexanders generals, but as Philips. They went from being generals in collapsing city states, to generals for the hegemon of Greece and later on Generals in the biggest and the strongest empire in the world. They were much more experienced than Alex. The other big players (Lysimachus, Ptolemy, Seuleuc, Perdiccas, Craterus?) were educated at the Macedonian court in Pella alongside Alex as a part of many Philips reforms.
Watching all this Kings & Generals meticulous movement of armies and depictions of battles made the spinny character images a refreshing touch lmao. Great vid man I love this period and the Diadochi in general
A correction is needed regarding the death of Seleucus. Ptolemy Keraunos was NOT ruling Makedonia, he had come to the court of Lysimachus as a refugee to join his sister Lysandra (who married Lysimachus son Agathocles) and half sister Arsinoe II, Lysimachus’ wife. Arsinoe’s scheming led to the execution of Agathocles, and so Ptolemy Keraunos and Lysandra fled to the court of Seleucus just before his invasion of Thrace. P. Keraunos personally murdered Seleucus in his tent. Some notable prophecies surrounding this, according to Appian of Alexandria’s “Syriaca”, are how when Seleucus visited the oracle of Didyma early in Alexander’s conquests he was told “Do not hurry back to Europe, Asia will be much better for you”. Appian also quotes an unnamed oracle who told Seleucus “If you keep away from Argos you will reach your allotted year, but if you approach that place you will die before your time.” Seleucus did his best to avoid every town named Argos, but he decided to stop at a grand altar in a temple, attributed by the natives to the Argonauts. Due to its origin, people in the town called that temple Argos. Seleucus was allegedly murdered by Ptolemy Keraunos while learning about this from the locals.
I like the use of images of diadochi where their likeness was recorded on statues, or made up by later artists. Also love the factoids about them, with some serious and some funny.
Indian campaign was grossly overlooked. Selecus fought the mighty mauryas there. A treaty was finally signed to give up anymore claims to Indian lands and in exchange Selecus was given 500 war elephants by emperor Chandragupta. Selecus handed his Greek daughters hand in marriage to the mauryan emperor. He took those 500 elephants to battle of ispus and finally won against Antigus.
A large empire that is split between generals who fight and conquer each other until only three kingdoms remain, trying to reunify the land... where have I seen this before?
I remember a book on Ancient Warfare that discussed warfare up until the fall of the Roman Empire, it said that the period of the Diadochi was essentially liked a super-sized version of the Greek city-states: each kingdom or territory was too weak to conquer the others successfully but also was too strong to be conquered by another.
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mgDYMBc8W6I.html They came after the Seleucid Empire who inherited their lands from Alexander’s conquest of the Achaemenid Persians. The Parthians would be succeeded by the Sassanid Empire, the last Persian successor-state before the rise of Islam…
14:25 This isn't accurate. Ptolemy Keraunos wasn't the king of Macedon until after he assassinated Seleucus. After Keraunos fled from Egypt, he went to Lysimachus' court, but after some time they fell out and Keraunos had to flee again. He joined Seleucus and his army and surprisingly, despite Ptolemy Keraunos personality being rather abrasive and hot-tempered, he became a friend of Seleucus and gained his trust. On their way to Macedon, Seleucus was about to be acclaimed as the king of Macedon but one morning he was invited by Ptolemy Keraunos on a hunting trip. Keraunos literally stabbed Seleucus in the back and rushed to Macedon, where he was proclaimed king. His head was being paraded on a spear 2 years later by the invading gauls. Also, Cassander was actually a really successful and capable king, who did much to rebuild and develop the Macedonian kingdom. His execution of the royal heir and consort was from our perspective, a straight up dick move, but from diadochi perspective, it was a sound strategic move considering the civil war and faction politics in Macedon. Some scholars even say Cassander is a king that's on the same level as Philip II based on his achievements. We forget that Macedon was exhausted and depopulated after the great campaigns.
First, does anyone here knows the manga Historie? It’s centered around Alexander’s rise and the life of Eumenes. And second, this whole thing kinda reminds me of the Han empire collaps, you know, rebellions, regional warlords and kinda figure head, although Alexander the fourth might not really fit this description. In the end, we have a few powerful warlords, Seleucus= Cao Cao, the most powerful ones, Ptolemaios= Liu Bei, the pretenders and lastly Lysimachus/ Kassander= Sun Quan. I know it’s not a perfect comparison, but I hope you can see my point.
WasteMan Lee Historie is definitely good, it’s about Eumenese and rn the Rise of Alexander. There is another manga named Kingdom which is about The Qin Wars of Unifying China from the Warring States Period. Both of these are solid and amazing
@@user-eb7pe9bp2q kingdom is awesome I just wish the fan translators would stick to the Chinese names. The Ravages of Time is an amazing Chinese manhua about the fall of the Han Dynasty.
Man, I been watching your videos since the ranking of the Roman Emperors and this is one of your best. Recently I began a campaing with Macedon in Rome II Total War and this gives so much context, thank you.
It's a shame this period isnt adapted into tv series / novels. I guess execs / authors assume readers will be turned off by this new setting? They rather set their stories in a pseudo-british/germanic medieval period than explore new characters and cultures 🤷♂️
Well technically Eunemes didnt betray Antigonos. When he accepted deal he convinced messanger to change oath slightly instead of swearing loyalty to Antigonos he and his men swore loyalty to Argeads (rulling dynasty). Dynasty made of baby, mentally disabled man (halfbrother of Alexander) And Olympias (mother of Alexander) Who was in greece and Eunemes was one of few successors who was friendly with her. So Eunemes swore to do what he thinks is best for Royal family . And he did.
As someone who is recently become fascinated by this period, this is a very good video explaining it, also I love the little intros for each major player
OMG!!! I’ve been saying the same thing about how the Wars of the Diadochi would be the perfect basis for a “GoT”-type show!!! Great minds think alike!!!
The fighting and the differences among the ancient Greeks ultimately led to their downfall. So many wars between the successor states weakened them enough, for the Romans and the Parthians to start conquering them
First of all, great video! I personally would like to see an ancient game of thrones during the crisis of the third century. Maybe you could make a video on it too.
Sure Alexander didn't exactly plan his successor effectively. However, the fact that he held his army and kingdom together while leading this den of vipers all over the world proves his claim to "the great" I mean clearly one of these usurping weasels would have been eager to backstab a lesser king before they made it through Asia minor.
Dumbass I am I didn't realize I'd be walking into Historie spoilers, but then again I'll be ancient whenever that manga gets finished. Good video as always bro.
Hey, thank you for doing this. This is a super glossed over period in history, most textbooks just go "So Alexander the Great Died and then Julius Caesar took Egypt" without mentioning how Rome conquered the Greek world slowly and methodically until reaching the Middle East and Egypt and that also ignores the states that formed in the wake of Alexander's death. People like to say the Ptolemies were the last Egyptians, yadda yadda, which is wrong, they were all Greek, just like how no one counts the Seleucid Empire as a "Persian" Empire. Like it goes Median, Achaemenid, *SKIPS SELEUCID* Arsacid, Sassanids, *ISLAMIC CONQUESTS, ignoring the Arab rulers, *Ikhanate of the Mongols, who aren't generally counted and then, bam, Safavids, the real "Persians", despite their leaders being Azeris...anyways, I ramble, but I say that to point out that you actually gave credit and mention to regimes that are literally pasted over, despite them being super important. You should do more like these. One on the Islamic Conquest of the Iberian Peninsula would be fun, since history books go "Ok so the Muslims beat the Visigoths, and then Charles Martel beats them but goes back to France, then in the 1400s the Portuguese, Castile, Leon, and Aragon reconquer the entire peninsula with no mention of the multiple regimes and slow wars that came and went."
More like: Rome happened and they all got rofl stomped in sequence, in a round about way because Pyrrhus started a war with both Rome and Carthage setting off a collission course between the later two.
The funniest part is that Kraterus, possibly the best of Alexander's junior generals, the man who took the place of Parmenion as the commander of the left flank at the battle of Hydaspes, LOST TO A FUCKING SECRETARY AND DIED.
Amazing video :) I've long looked for a perfect Diadochi video with everything important but that isn't as long as the 3 hour episodes of Kings and Generals 😅 And love the Cards to introduce new players to the audience 😂 Well, Many Subscribers to you good sir 🕵🏼🎩🙂
I have two submissions for Game of Thrones style of History: invasion of the Sea Peoples/fall of Bronze Age, and Post-Roman Western Europe from 476-850AD
Do you happen to know how Seleucus was assassinated? I haven't been able to find any specific details about how the assassination happened. Was he stabbed, poisoned or captured and executed?
Dan Carlin has a cool short Hardcore History episode on this (and the fall of the Roman Republic, which btw is more interesting than the Roman Empire imo)
Please tell me I'm not crazy. I KNOW FOR A APOLLO-DAMNED FACT someone made a parody of a Brandon Rogers video using the Diadochi factions of TW Rome 2 and now I can't find it anymore. Crazypills or did the video disappear?
A suggestion for representing people whose likeness didn't survive to the modern day: stick figures. Imo, using just the name makes me think it's a label for something on a map, and not a human, if that makes sense.
I have a feeling the wars of the diadochi were far bloodier than Alexander's campaigns. They degenerated into attrition warfare in the end costing who knows how many lives. Nevermind civilian deaths.