Failed Futures: If Alexander The Great Hadn’t Died, He Might Have Conquered Europe, Circumnavigated Africa, and Built His Own Silk Road
History Unplugged Podcast
History Unplugged
4.2 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 8 December 2022
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Alexander the Great’s death at 323 BC in Babylon marked the end of the most consequential military campaign in antiquity. He left behind an empire that stretched from Greece to India, planted the seeds of the Silk Road, and made Greek an international language across Eurasia, all in 13 short years. He became and remained the biggest celebrity in the ancient world, probably only replaced by Jesus a few centuries into the Christian era.
But what if he had not died as a young man? What if he had lived years or decades more? How much more influence could he have had? We have clues about Alexander’s plans for the future – and they come from Greek chroniclers Diodorus and Arrian, writing centuries after his death. They include conquering the Mediterranean coast all the way to the Pillars of Hercules (Rock of Gibraltar), building a tomb for his father Philp that would be as large as the Great Pyramid of Giza, and transplanting populations from Greece to Persia and vice versa to unite his domains through intermarriage.
To explore this hypothetical scenario is Anthony Everitt, author of “Alexander the Great: His Life and Mysterious Death.” We look at the life of the most influential person in the ancient world, and explore the ramifications of his life having even more influence.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | In Alexander Weft, seeing as he had no more worlds to conquer, that's a quote from Hans |
| 0:09.3 | Gruber in Diehard, which is a very convoluted paraphrase from Plutarch's essay collection |
| 0:14.0 | Moralia, without getting into the accuracy of the sourcing, there's plenty of truth |
| 0:18.1 | in that unattributed quote from Mr. Gruber. |
| 0:20.2 | Alexander the Great's death in 323 BC in Babylon marked the end of the most consequential |
| 0:25.3 | military campaign in antiquity. |
| 0:26.8 | He left behind an empire that stretched from Greece to India, planning the seeds for |
| 0:30.7 | the Silk Road, and made Greek and international language across Eurasia all in 13 short years. |
| 0:36.3 | He became and remained the biggest celebrity in the ancient world, was probably only replaced |
| 0:40.2 | by Jesus a few centuries into the Christian era. |
| 0:42.6 | But what if he hadn't died as a young man? |
| 0:44.8 | What if he had lived years or decades more? |
| 0:47.1 | How much more influence could he have had? |
| 0:49.1 | We have clues about Alexander's plans for the future, and they mostly come from Greek |
| 0:52.3 | chroniclers like Diodorus and Aryan, writing centuries after his death. |
| 0:56.1 | And then include conquering the Mediterranean coast, all the way to the pillars of Hercules, |
| 0:59.6 | building a tomb for his father Philip, it would have been as large as the Great Pyramid |
| 1:02.4 | of Giza, and transplanting populations from Greece to Persia and vice versa, Tinae's |
| 1:07.3 | domains through Intermarit. |
| 1:08.3 | There are many more plans Alexander had, including possibly circumnavigating the Arabian Peninsula |
| 1:13.2 | and Africa, and to explore all of these hypotheticals and see how plausible they were or weren't, |
| 1:19.2 | his Anthony Everett, author of Alexander the Great, his life in mysterious death. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Unplugged, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Unplugged and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.