WI: The Macedonian empire remained united after Alex the great died?

[isabella]

ok then, what if he names Ptolemy his successor, and spends 11% of the time he spent drinking on preparing Ptolemy for his death, and this less drinking only prolongs AtG's life for 6 or so weaks. And Ptolemy still does what I said with regards to Greek mythology & Zoroastrianism

Alexander would have ZERO reasons for naming Ptolemy as his successor and his OTL death was far too early for him having any thought about the argument. If Alexander had married Cleopatra Eurydice instead of his father or had a son by Stateira before his death the things would be much different

 

[Elfwine]

ok then, what if he names Ptolemy his successor, and spends 11% of the time he spent drinking on preparing Ptolemy for his death, and this less drinking only prolongs AtG's life for 6 or so weaks. And Ptolemy still does what I said with regards to Greek mythology & Zoroastrianism

Pretty much the same as I already answered as far as "what rulers do with eligible candidates for the throne that were not actually chosen".

Ptolemy has no ideological or legal basis for being accepted as "rightful" more than anyone else who can claim Alexander totally meant him to be his heir, and even if he manages to deal with that, there's no system in place for anyone he picks to have any greater legitimacy than anyone else ambitious enough.

"What if I make another tiny, barely noticeable change?" doesn't really alter this situation.

 

[Collondi]

That comes with its own problems: because Alexander would be marrying into one of the prominent Macedonian baronial families, which are factionalized and by doing so he's inherently pissing off and leads to future conflicts. The one benefit of marrying non-Macedonian women is that at least you don't create cleavages within the Macedonian elite itself.

the fact that Alexander IV was only half-Macedonian was -not- that big of an issue after 323BC : the one person who tried to exploit it was Meleager's rebellion against Perdiccas, which was swiftly crushed.

In the end Alexander IV was killed not over his ethnicity but because Kassander wanted to be king of Macedon and Alexander's generals had already partitioned the empire and didn't want the inconvenience of an Argead lording over them.

The simple truth is that the rate of survival for child kings in both Persia and Macedon was dubious at best, a child king almost certainly gets killed by one faction or another

Let’s say Alex’s ilness was something far slower, or that he started worrying about the possibility of suddenly dying. Could he have made sure Perdiccas’s legitimacy as a reagent was more secure? If the regency is strong then so is the child king, and it’s not at all unheard of for former child kings to retake control once they’re of age. Or if Perdiccas simply kills Alexander IV and makes himself king, then the Macedonian empire remains intact, just under the Orontid dynasty rather than the Argeads.

 

[isabella]

Let’s say Alex’s ilness was something far slower, or that he started worrying about the possibility of suddenly dying. Could he have made sure Perdiccas’s legitimacy as a reagent was more secure? If the regency is strong then so is the child king, and it’s not at all unheard of for former child kings to retake control once they’re of age. Or if Perdiccas simply kills Alexander IV and makes himself king, then the Macedonian empire remains intact, just under the Orontid dynasty rather than the Argeads.

If Alex had time to organize things then Craterus would be the regent not Perdiccas as that alleged “to the strongest“ was really most likely “to Craterus” as the two things in Ancient Greek sound really alike and Craterus was away, in a precarious position and pretty much disliked by the other generals

 

[RousseauX]

If Alex had time to organize things then Craterus would be the regent not Perdiccas as that alleged “to the strongest“ was really most likely “to Craterus” as the two things in Ancient Greek sound really alike and Craterus was away, in a precarious position and pretty much disliked by the other generals

Craterus had definiteily fallen out of favor by 323 BC for opposing Alexander's cultural mixing programme, that's why he was dispatched home to Macedon away from Alexander's court in Babylon

Perdiccas was -definitely- the intended regent, the single act Alexander took to appoint a regent was to hand his signet ring to Perdiccas: and this was recogized by just about everyone.

 

[RousseauX]

Let’s say Alex’s ilness was something far slower, or that he started worrying about the possibility of suddenly dying. Could he have made sure Perdiccas’s legitimacy as a reagent was more secure? If the regency is strong then so is the child king, and it’s not at all unheard of for former child kings to retake control once they’re of age. Or if Perdiccas simply kills Alexander IV and makes himself king, then the Macedonian empire remains intact, just under the Orontid dynasty rather than the Argeads.

In OTL the reason why the first war of the successors happened was because Perdiccas was making a play to marry Alexander's full sister Cleopetra, and EVERYONE thought that was him making a bid for the throne

So that brought him into a war against Antipater, Craterus in Macedon/Greece and Ptolmey in Egypt, not nesessarily because of any loyalty to the Argeads but because King Perdiccas was likely a mortal danger to those men

In ATL it stands to reason he would have tried to do the same thing: the difference though is maybe he wouldn't have needed to give away so much to Ptolemy and the other generals in the partition of Babylon if his political position was more secure. So I guess King Peridiccas/Queen Cleopetra had a better shot at happening.

But even then though all of Alexander's generals and bodyguards are still out there, and Perdiccas was just not very good at gaining the loyalty of his men nor picking who to trust. His military record against the other Macedonians was also pretty dubious so I think the Perdiccan regime still collapses.

The big difference tho is that the butterflies probably mean Craterus doesn't die in battle against Eumenes. The two men who had the best chance of reigning over a unified Alexendrian Empire for another generation were probably Craterus and Antipater when Alexander died, and Antipater was already in his late 70s.

Craterus was the one man who had both the military talent, prestige and was young enough to have a chance of holding the empire together, plus he was married to a Persian princess who (assuming he doesn't divorce her as otl) his children could be recognized that legitimate by the Persians as well. So he would be kinda like a stronger version of Seleucus Nicator. It would be ironic if the very man who most opposed Alexander's inter-marriage project realize his dream of a mixed Macedonian-Persian monarch reigning over the entire empire.

 

[Wr1t3r]

His son would be like 1 years old when Alex is 34, and would almost certainly be killed as part of a succession struggle that is endemic to both the Macedonian and Persian monarchies

For context his wife was pregnant with Alexander IV when Alexander died

Ok, let's say after the conquest of the Achaemenids, AtG appoints Ptolemy to be like his prime minister (still below AtG, but with a lot of power, but AtG can fire him whenever he wants, etc) then, AtG adopts an heir and spends 11% less time drinking, and spends that extra time on grooming his adopted son, and preparing ptolemy for PM work after his (AtG's death). And they still do what I said with regards to Abolishing slavery & Zoroastrianism

 

[Elfwine]

What does "like his prime minister" mean as far as what specific powers Ptolemy has?

What does he teach his adopted son as far as "how to be king"? Being a traditional Macedonian king in a traditional way?

I ask this because these answers are going to shape how things go - that Alexander has four cups of wine instead of five isn't nearly as important as say, how Alexander approaches that you can't rule an empire this size from Macedon or with Macedonians alone (there simply aren't enough trained administrators), but ignoring/upsetting the Macedonians is also going to undermine his hold on the rest of it.