The Death of Alexander the Great: Explained
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 12 June 2022
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Alexander the Great’s untimely death at Babylon in 323 BC triggered an unprecedented crisis across his continent-spanning empire.
Within a couple of days, the very chamber in which he died witnessed a gore-soaked showdown between his previously united commanders and soldiers. Within a fortnight, Babylon saw the first siege of the post-Alexander age.
In this special explainer episode to mark the anniversary of Alexander’s death, Tristan brings to life the imperial implosion that was the immediate aftermath of the Macedonian king's death - a subject he knows one or two things about, seeing as he’s written a book on it!
Tristan’s book The Perdiccas Years, 323-320 BC (Alexander's Successors at War) is available on Amazon here.
This episode was produced by Elena Guthrie and mixed by Aidan Lonergan. It contains translations of contemporary speeches by JC Yardsley & music from Epidemic Sound.
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Further Reading - Primary Sources
Arrian Events After Alexander 1.1–1.9A.
Curtius 10.5–10.10.
Diodorus Siculus 18.1–18.6.
Justin 13.1–13.4.
Plutarch Life of Eumenes 3.
Secondary Sources
Anson, E. (1992), ‘Craterus and the Prostasia’, Classical Philology 87 (1), 38–43.
Anson, E. (2015), Eumenes of Cardia, Leiden, 58–77.
Bosworth, A. B. (2002), The Legacy of Alexander: Politics, Warfare, and Propaganda under the Successors, New York, 29–63.
Errington, R. M. (1970), ‘From Babylon to Triparadeisos: 323–320 bc’, The Journal of Hellenic Studies 90, 49–59.
Meeus, A. (2008), ‘The Power Struggle of the Diadochoi in Babylon, 323bc’, Ancient Society 38, 39–82.
Meeus, A. (2009), ‘Some Institutional Problems concerning the Succession to Alexander the Great: “Prostasia” and Chiliarchy’, Historia 58 (3), 287–310.
Mitchell, L. (2007), ‘Born to Rule? Succession in the Argead Royal House’, in W. Heckel., L. Tritle and P. Wheatley (eds.), Alexander’s Empire: Formulation to Decay, California, 61–74.
Worthington, I. (2016), Ptolemy I: King and Pharaoh of Egypt, New York, 71–86
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Engines on History Hit. |
| 0:14.3 | I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and in today's podcast episode, well this weekend, the |
| 0:18.9 | 11th of June, is the anniversary of the death of Alexander the Great, that flateful day |
| 0:24.1 | in Babylon in 323 BC. |
| 0:27.1 | And if any of you know me, if there is an Alexander anniversary, we're likely, it's |
| 0:31.5 | possible that we do something special surrounding it's a special episode. It's one of my favorite |
| 0:35.6 | periods in ancient history. And that's what we're going to be doing today. We have got an |
| 0:39.3 | hour long explainer episode talking all about the last days of Alexander the Great and |
| 0:45.1 | the immediate chaotic aftermath that ensued following his passing in Babylon in the hours, |
| 0:51.6 | days and immediate weeks following his death. It's an amazing story and I really do hope |
| 0:57.0 | you enjoy. A lot of praise must go out to our producer, our ancient producer Alaina. She's |
| 1:02.0 | been working hard to make sure that we get a lovely voice artist for some of these speeches, |
| 1:06.5 | for some of these passages from the literature, the surviving texts that you'll be hearing |
| 1:10.2 | in this podcast episode. So thank you Alaina for that. I'm always grateful. And of course |
| 1:14.7 | to our editor, Aiden, who's been working many, many, many hours on this special explainer |
| 1:20.1 | episode, getting it right, making it sound awesome, getting rid of all my mistakes and |
| 1:24.8 | so on. So Alaina, Aiden, I'm incredibly grateful to both of you for the time and effort |
| 1:29.0 | you've put into this very special episode. Last thing for me before we really kick off |
| 1:33.1 | this episode, I will be at Chalk Valley in a couple of weeks time for a few different |
| 1:36.9 | talks and reenactments from the assassination of Julius Caesar to a talk on the death of Alexander |
| 1:41.9 | the Great. So make sure to have a look at that. We'll put a link in the description. But |
| 1:45.7 | that's enough rambling on from me. I do hope that you enjoy. |
... |
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