MACEDONIAN EMPIRE

macedonian empire, the name generally given to the empire founded by alexander the great of macedon in the countries now represented by greece and european turkey, asia minor, egypt, syria, persia and eastwards as far as northern india.[1] the present article contains a general account of the empire in its various aspects. it falls naturally into two main divisions:--i. the reign of alexander. ii. the period of his successors, the "diadochi" and their dynasties. 1. greeks and persians. i. _the reign of alexander._--at the beginning of the 4th century b.c. two types of political association confronted each other in the lands of the eastern mediterranean,--the persian monarchy with its huge agglomeration of subject peoples, and the greek city-state. each had a different principle of strength. the persian monarchy was strong in its size, in the mere amount of men and treasure it could dispose of under a single hand; the greek state was strong in its _morale_, in the energy and discipline of its soldiery. but the smallness of the single city-states and their unwillingness to combine prevented this superiority in quality from telling destructively upon the bulk of the persian empire. the future belonged to any power that could combine the advantages of both systems, could make a state larger than the greek _polis_, and animated by a spirit equal to that of the greek soldier. this was achieved by the kings of macedonia. the work, begun by his predecessors, of consolidating the kingdom internally and making its army a fighting-machine of high power was completed by the genius of philip ii. (359-336 b.c.), who at the same time by war and diplomacy brought the greek states of the balkan peninsula generally to recognize his single predominance. at the synod of corinth (338) philip was solemnly declared the captain-general ([greek: strategos autokrator]) of the hellenes against the great king. the attack on persia was delayed by the assassination of philip in 336, and it needed some fighting before the young alexander had made his position secure in macedonia and greece. the recognition as captain-general he had obtained at another synod in corinth, by an imposing military demonstration in greece immediately upon his accession. then came the invasion of the persian empire by alexander in 334 at the head of an army composed both of macedonians and contingents from the allied greek states. before this force the persian monarchy went down, and when alexander died eleven years later (323) a macedonian empire which covered all the territory of the old persian empire, and even more, was a realized fact. 2. extent of the empire. the empire outside of macedonia itself consisted of 22 provinces. _in europe_, (1) thrace; _in asia minor_, (2) phrygia on the hellespont, (3) lydia, (4) caria, (5) lycia and pamphylia, (6) great phrygia, (7) paphlagonia and cappadocia; _between the taurus and iran_, (8) cilicia, (9) syria, (10) mesopotamia, (11) babylonia, (12) susiana; _in africa_, (13) egypt; _in iran_, (14) persis, (15) media, (16) parthia and hyrcania, (17) bactria and sogdiana, (18) areia and drangiana, (19) carmania, (20) arachosia and gedrosia; lastly _the indian provinces_, (21) the paropanisidae (the kabul valley), and (22) the province assigned to pithon, the son of agenor, upon the indus (j. beloch, _griech. gesch._ iii. [ii.], p. 236 seq.; for the indian provinces cf. b. niese, _gesch. der griech. und maked. staaten_, i. p. 500 seq.). hardly provinces proper, but rather client principalities, were the two native kingdoms to which alexander had left the conquered land beyond the indus--the kingdoms of taxiles and porus. 3. system of government. the conquered empire presented alexander with a system of government ready-made, which it was natural for the new masters to take over. for the asiatic provinces and egypt, the old persian name of _satrapy_ (see satrap) was still retained, but the governor seems to have been styled officially in greek _strategos_, although the term _satrap_ certainly continued current in common parlance. the governors appointed by alexander were, in the west of the empire, exclusively macedonians; in the east, members of the old persian nobility were still among the satraps at alexander's death, atropates in media, phrataphernes in parthia and hyrcania, and alexander's father-in-law oxyartes in the paropanisidae. alexander had at first trusted persian grandees more freely in this capacity; in babylonia, bactria, carmania, susiana he had set persian governors, till the ingrained oriental tradition of misgovernment so declared itself that to the three latter provinces certainly macedonians had been appointed before his death. otherwise the only eastern satrapy whose governor was not a macedonian, was areia, under stasanor, a cypriote greek. in the case of certain provinces, possibly in the empire generally, alexander established a double control. the financial administration was entrusted to separate officials; we hear of such in lydia (arr. i. 17, 7), babylonia (id. iii. 16, 4), and notably in egypt (id. iii. 5, 4). higher financial controllers seem to have been over groups of provinces (philoxenus over asia minor, arr. i. 17, 7; see beloch, _gr. gesch._ iii. [i] p. 14), and harpalus over the whole finances of the empire, with his seat in babylon. again the garrisons in the chief cities, such as sardis, babylon, memphis pelusium and susa, were under commands distinct from those of the provinces. the old greek cities of the motherland were not formally subjects of the empire, but sovereign states, which assembled at corinth as members of a great alliance, in which the macedonian king was included as a member and held the office of captain-general. the greek cities of asia minor stood to him in a similar relation, though not included in the corinthian alliance, but in federations of their own (kaerst, _gesch. d. hellenist. zeitalt._ i. 261 seq.). their territory was not part of the king's country (_inscr. in the brit. mus._ no. 400). of course, in fact, the power of the king was so vastly superior that the greek cities were in reality subject to his dictation, even in so intimate a matter as the readmission of their exiles, and might be obliged to receive his garrisons. within the empire itself, the various communities were allowed, subject to the interference of the king or his officials, to manage their own affairs. alexander is said to have granted the lydians to be "free" and "to use the laws of the ancient lydians," whatever exactly these expressions may mean (arr. i. 17, 4). so too in egypt, the native monarchs were left as the local authorities (arr. iii. 5, 4). especially to the gods of the conquered people alexander showed respect. in egypt and in babylon he appeared as the restorer of the native religions to honour after the unsympathetic rule of the persians. the temple of marduk in babylon which had fallen began to rise again at his command. it is possible that he offered sacrifice to yahweh in jerusalem. in persia, the native aristocracy retained their power, and the macedonian governor adopted persian dress and manners (diod. xix. 48, 5; arr. vi. 30). a new factor introduced by alexander was the foundation of greek cities at all critical points of intercourse in the conquered lands. these, no doubt, possessed municipal autonomy with the ordinary organization of the greek state; to what extent they were formally and regularly controlled by the provincial authorities we do not know; pithon, the satrap of the indian province is specially described as sent "in colonias in indis conditas" (just. xiii. 4, 21). the empire included large tracts of mountain or desert, inhabited by tribes, which the persian government had never subdued. the subjugation of such districts could only be by a system of effective military occupation and would be a work of time; but alexander made a beginning by punitive expeditions, as occasion offered, calculated to reduce the free tribes to temporary quiet; we hear of such expeditions in the case of the pisidians, the tribes of the lebanon, the uxii (in khuzistan), the tapyri (in the elburz), the hill-peoples of bajaor and swat, the cossaei (in kurdistan); an expedition against the arabs was in preparation when alexander died. see a. kohler, _reichsverwaltung u. politik alexanders des grossen in klio_, v. 303 seq. (1905). 4. court. alexander, who set out as king of the macedonians and captain-general of the hellenes, assumed after the death of darius the character of the oriental great king. he adopted the persian garb (plutarch, _de fort. al._ i. 8) including a head-dress, the _diadema_, which was suggested by that of the achaemenian king (_just._ xii. 3, 8). we hear also of a sceptre as part of his insignia (_diod._ xviii. 27, 1). the pomps and ceremonies which were traditional in the east were to be continued. to the greeks and macedonians such a regime was abhorrent, and the opposition roused by alexander's attempt to introduce among them the practice of _proskynesis_ (prostration before the royal presence), was bitter and effectual. the title of _chiliarch_, by which the greeks had described the great king's chief minister, in accordance with the persian title which described him as "commander of a thousand," i.e. of the royal body-guard, was conferred by alexander upon his friend hephaestion. the greek chares held the position of chief usher ([greek: eisangeleus]). another greek, eumenes of cardia, was chief secretary ([greek: archigrammateus]). the figure of the eunuch, so long characteristic of the oriental court, was as prominent as ever (e.g. bagoas, plut. _alex._ 67, &c.; cf. arr. vii. 24). alexander, however, who impressed his contemporaries by his sexual continence, kept no harem of the old sort. the number of his wives did not go beyond two, and the second, the daughter of darius, he did not take till a year before his death. in closest contact with the king's person were the seven, or latterly eight, body-guards, [greek: somatophylakes], macedonians of high rank, including ptolemy and lysimachus, the future kings of egypt, and thrace (arr. vi. 28, 4). the institution, which the macedonian court before alexander had borrowed from persia, of a corps of pages composed of the young sons of the nobility ([greek: paides basileioi] or [greek: basilikoi]) continued to hold an important place in the system of the court and in alexander's campaigns (see arr. iv. 13, 1; curt. viii. 6, 6; suid. [greek: basileioi paides]; cf. the [greek: paides] of eumenes, diod. xix. 28, 3). see spiecker, _der hof und die hofordnung alex. d. grossen_ (1904). 5. army. the army of alexander was an instrument which he inherited from his father philip. its core was composed of the macedonian peasantry who served on foot in heavy armour ("the foot-companions" [greek: pezetairoi]). they formed the phalanx, and were divided into 6 brigades ([greek: taxeis]), probably on the territorial system. their distinctive arm was the great macedonian pike (_sarissa_), some 14 ft. long, of further reach than the ordinary greek spear. they were normally drawn up in more open order than the heavy greek phalanx, and possessed thereby a mobility and elasticity in which the latter was fatally deficient. reckoning 1,500 to each brigade, we got a total for the phalanx of 9,000 men. of higher rank than the _pezetaeri_ were the royal foot-guards ([greek: basilikoi hypaspistai]), some 3,000 in number, more lightly armed, and distinguished (at any rate at the time of alexander's death) by silver shields. of these 1,000 constituted the royal corps ([greek: to agema to basilikou]). the macedonian cavalry was recruited from a higher grade of society than the infantry, the _petite noblesse_ of the nation. they bore by old custom the name of the king's companions ([greek: hetairoi]), and were distributed into 8 territorial squadrons ([greek: ilai]) of probably some 250 men each, making a normal total of 2,000. in the cavalry also the most privileged squadron bore the name of the _agema_. the ruder peoples which were neighbors to the macedonians (paeonians, agrianes, thracians) furnished contingents of light cavalry and javelineers ([greek: akontistai]). from the thessalians the macedonian king, as overlord, drew some thousand excellent troopers. the rest of alexander's army was composed of greeks, not formally his subjects. these served partly as mercenaries, partly in contingents contributed by the states in virtue of their alliance. according to diodorus (xvii. 17, 3) at the time of alexander's passage into asia, the mercenaries numbered 5,000, and the troops of the alliance 7,000 foot and 600 horse. all these numbers take no account of the troops left behind in macedonia, 12,000 foot and 1,500 horse, according to diodorus. when alexander was lord of asia, innovations followed in the army. already in 330 at persepolis, the command went forth that 30,000 young asiatics were to be trained as macedonian soldiers (the _epigoni_, arr. vii., 6, 1). contingents of the fine bactrian cavalry followed alexander into india. persian nobles were admitted into the _agema_ of the macedonian cavalry. a far more radical remodelling of the army was undertaken at babylon in 323, by which the old phalanx system was to be given up for one in which the unit was to be composed of macedonians with pikes and asiatics with missile arms in combination--a change calculated to be momentous both from a military point of view in the coming wars, and from a political, in the close fusion of europeans and asiatics. the death of alexander interrupted the scheme, and his successors reverted to the older system. in the wars of alexander the phalanx was never the most active arm; alexander delivered his telling attacks with his cavalry, whereas the slow-moving phalanx held rather the position of a reserve, and was brought up to complete a victory when the cavalry charges had already taken effect. apart from the pitched battles, the warfare of alexander was largely hill-fighting, in which the _hypaspistae_ took the principal part, and the contingents of light-armed hillmen from the balkan region did excellent service. for alexander's army and tactics, beside the regular histories (droysen, niese, beloch, kaerst), see d. g. hogarth, _journal of philol._, xvii. 1 seq. (corrected at some points in his _philip and alexander_). 6. fusion of greeks and asiatics. the modifications in the army system were closely connected with alexander's general policy, in which the fusion of greeks and asiatics held so prominent a place. he had himself, as we have seen, assumed to some extent the guise of a persian king. the macedonian peucestas received special marks of his favour for adopting the persian dress. the most striking declaration of his ideals was the marriage feast at susa in 324, when a large number of the macedonian nobles were induced to marry persian princesses, and the rank and file were encouraged by special rewards to take eastern wives. we are told that among the schemes registered in the state papers and disclosed after alexander's death was one for transplanting large bodies of asiatics into europe and europeans into asia, for blending the peoples of the empire by intermarriage into a single whole (diod. xviii. 4, 4). how far did alexander intend that in such a fusion hellenic culture should retain its pre-eminence? how far could it have done so, had the scheme been realized? it is not impossible that the question may yet be raised again whether the eurasian after all is the heir of the ages. 7. divine honours. high above all the medley of kindreds and tongues, untrammelled by national traditions, for he had outgrown the compass of any one nation, invested with the glory of achievements in which the old bounds of the possible seemed to fall away, stood in 324 the man alexander. was he a man? the question was explicitly suggested by the report that the egyptian priest in the oasis had hailed him in the god's name as the son of ammon. the egyptians had, of course, ascribed deity by old custom to their kings, and were ready enough to add alexander to the list. the persians, on the other hand, had a different conception of the godhead, and we have no proof that from them alexander either required or received divine honours. from the greeks he certainly received such honours; the ambassadors from the greek states came in 323 with the character of _theori_, as if approaching a deity (arr. vii. 23, 2). it has been supposed that in offering such worship the greeks showed the effect of "oriental" influence, but indeed we have not to look outside the greek circle of ideas to explain it. as early as aeschylus (_supp._ 991) the proffering of divine honours was a form of expression for intense feelings of reverence or gratitude towards men which naturally suggested itself--as a figure of speech in aeschylus, but the figure had been translated into action before alexander not in the well-known case of lysander only (cf. the case of dion, plut. _dio_, 29). among the educated greeks rationalistic views of the old mythology had become so current that they could assimilate alexander to dionysus without supposing him to be supernatural, and to this temper the divine honours were a mere form, an elaborate sort of flattery. did alexander merely receive such honours? or did he claim them himself? it would seem that he did. many of the assertions as to his action in this line do not stand the light of criticism (see hogarth, _eng. hist. rev._ ii., 1887, p. 317 seq.; niese, _historische zeitschrift_, lxxix., 1897, p. 1, seq.); even the explicit statement in arrian as to alexander and the arabians is given as a mere report; but we have well-authenticated utterances of attic orators when the question of the cult of alexander came up for debate, which seem to prove that an intimation of the king's pleasure had been conveyed to athens. 8. intercourse and discovery. a new life entered the lands conquered by alexander. human intercourse was increased and quickened to a degree not before known. commercial enterprise now found open roads between the aegean and india; the new greek cities made stations in what had been for the earlier greek traders unknown lands; an immense quantity of precious metal had been put into circulation which the persian kings had kept locked up in their treasuries (cf. athen, vi. 231 e). at the same time alexander himself made it a principal concern to win fresh geographical knowledge, to open new ways. the voyage of nearchus from the indus to the euphrates was intended to link india by a waterway with the mediterranean lands. so too heraclides was sent to explore the caspian; the survey, and possible circumnavigation, of the arabian coasts was the last enterprise which occupied alexander. the improvement of waterways in the interior of the empire was not neglected, the babylonian canal system was repaired, the obstructions in the tigris removed. a canal was attempted across the mimas promontory (plin. _n.h._ v. 116). the reports of the [greek: bematistai], baeton and diognetus, who accompanied the march of alexander's army, gave an exacter knowledge of the geographical conformation of the empire, and were accessible for later investigators (susemihl, _gesch. d. griech. litt._, i. p. 544). greek natural science was enriched with a mass of new material from the observations of the philosophers who went with alexander through the strange lands (h. bretzl, _botanische forschungen d. alexanderzuges_, 1903); whilst on the other hand attempts were made to acclimatize the plants of the motherland in the foreign soil (theophr., _hist. plant._ iv. 4, 1). 9. coinage. the accession of alexander brought about a change in the monetary system of the kingdom. philip's bimetallic system, which had attempted artificially to fix the value of silver in spite of the great depreciation of gold consequent upon the working of the pangaean mines, was abandoned. alexander's gold coinage, indeed (possibly not struck till after the invasion of asia), follows in weight that of philip's staters; but he seems at once to have adopted for his silver coins (of a smaller denomination than the tetradrachm) the euboic-attic standard, instead of the phoenician, which had been philip's. with the conquest of asia, alexander conceived the plan of issuing a uniform coinage for the empire. gold had fallen still further from the diffusion of the persian treasure, and alexander struck in both metals on the attic standard, leaving their relation to adjust itself by the state of the market. this imperial coinage was designed to break down the monetary predominance of athens (beloch, _gr. gesch._ iii. i, 42). none of the coins with alexander's own image can be shown to have been issued during his reign; the traditional gods of the greeks still admitted no living man to share their prerogative in this sphere. athena and nike alone figured upon alexander's gold; heracles and zeus upon his silver. see l. muller, _numismatique d'alexandre le grand_ (1855); also numismatics: § i. "greek coins, macedonian." 1. history of the "successors." ii. _after alexander._--the external fortunes of the macedonian empire after alexander's death must be briefly traced before its inner developments be touched upon.[2] there was, at first, when alexander suddenly died in 323, no overt disruption of the empire. the dispute between the macedonian infantry and the cavalry (i.e. the commonalty and the nobles) was as to the person who should be chosen to be the king, although it is true that either candidate, the half-witted son of philip