Alexander Recovers
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Topic: Alexander Recovers
Posted By: meninwhite
Subject: Alexander Recovers
Date Posted: 04-Aug-2005 at 12:17
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The historian Arnold Toynbee, a classicist who was the son-in-law of another famous classicist, published "What If Alexander the Great Had Lived On?" as part of his book "Some Problems of Greek History." Recognising the enormous spread of Hellenic culture--carried all the As in your TL, Alexander recovers, but while he's recovering from his Alexander circumnavigates the Arabian peninsula, and has the In the Mediterranean, Alexander allies with Rome and conquers Carthage. In the east, both India and China are conquered. Mahayana Buddhism Africa is circumnavigated both from the east (by the Phoenicians) and The world ruler, c. 1968, when the essay was published, was Alexander |
VI. Politically, the world state is made up of federations of city Replies:
Posted By: Anujkhamar
Date Posted: 04-Aug-2005 at 13:21
| you really like Alexander don't you? (mean that in a non-gay way) |
Posted By: Maju
Date Posted: 04-Aug-2005 at 13:36
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Interesting hypothesis but I won't follow Toynbee to the letter. Just
Alexander recovers and consolidates his Empire with a succesful
expedition in Arabia as he had planned. His dynasty continues at least
for the upcoming centuries. He finds the west divided between Rome, Etruscans (in decay), Carthage, many Greek colonies (specially in Italy) and the numerous Celtic tribes basically. We have to recall here that the last opposition to Roman hegemony in Italy came from the Greeks who, leaded by Pyrrhus, only 42 years after Alexander's death, had a good chance of defeating the Romans. I can imagine therefore that Alexander himself or his son alexander IV would come to help the Greek colonies and would (unlike Pyrrhus) had defeated them decisively. Maybe they would have intervened decissively even before, during the Samnite Wars, for instance, and maybe Alexander himself would have lead that campaign. Only once Rome had been subdued, would Macedonians find, maybe, necessary to deal with Carthage. You can follow from here... Important notes: 1. This situation would mean that Etruscans would have survived, as they would have been "liberated" from Roman control by the Macedonians. 2. Don't forget the Parthians, who since 250 BCE threatened the Asian part of the Hellenistic domains and evenually would become the arch-enemies of Romans. 3. Don't forget also that since c. 200 BCE, Celts were being threatened by Germans that invaded one after the other most of Celtic tribes. This was the main pretext for caesar to invade Gaul... but, without a solid Rome, Germans could have reached the Po and the Garonne easily. |
Posted By: Belisarius
Date Posted: 04-Aug-2005 at 19:14
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Yes, meninwhite does have somewhat of an unhealthy admiration with Alexander of Macedon. The author of this essay is wrong. Before his death, Alexander made it somewhat clear his intention of invading the Arabian peninsula. After all, why waste money and resources spending months marching a large army further east, when Arabia is near his resource and administration base. ------------- |
Posted By: Constantine XI
Date Posted: 04-Aug-2005 at 19:27
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If Alexander recovered he would simply have ended up killing himself
shortly after with another of his mindless drinking binges. These
binges, going for weeks at a time, were well noted for the stupid ideas
and paranoia which they induced in Alexander, such as the unfounded
charge of treason brought against some of his most loyal generals and
the resultant execution of the men. For good measure their 6000 troops
were also killed whose only crime was to have been serving under the
direct command of some of Alexander's imagined enemies. Brilliant as Alexander was on the battlefield, I cannot help but think he was just a ticking time bomb of self destruction. ------------- |
Posted By: The Guardian
Date Posted: 04-Aug-2005 at 20:38
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Alexander recovers......they poison him again ------------- It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up. &nb |
Posted By: Belisarius
Date Posted: 04-Aug-2005 at 21:10
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Yes, Alexander burned down Persepolis during one of his drinking
binges. Interesting how he critcized his father for excessive drinking
when he excessively drank himself. I would suspect superstition coming into play if Alexander was ever to recover, if he was poisoned. He believed himself a demigod, and so it would have seemed to the conspirators that he possessed divine powers. ------------- |
Posted By: Raider
Date Posted: 05-Aug-2005 at 03:24
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"In the Mediterranean, Alexander allies with Rome and conquers Carthage." I disagree. I think it would have been logical to ally with Carthage against Rome. "I can imagine therefore that Alexander himself or his son alexander IV would come to help the Greek colonies and would (unlike Pyrrhus) had defeated them decisively. " But there is a question. Wether those greek cities prefered the macedons to Rome. A large despotic empire or a smaller republic. |
Posted By: Maju
Date Posted: 05-Aug-2005 at 10:00
|
Italian Greeks undoubtedly opposed Roman expansion and Pyrrhus went in
their help... would have the Macedonian empire lasted, they would have
intervened, no doubt, and it's possible they would have had more
success than Pyrrhus - though this one was a great general, admired of
Hannibal... maybe they would have failed and Alexander's empire would
have crumbled after that defeat. Or maybe there would have been a
stalemate in southern Italy for decades or centuries. Still, I think
that the most likely is that the very succes of the Macedonian empire
would have aborted Roman expansion and left Rome as an irrelevant
historical accident without major consequences. I don't know how their relation with Carthage would have been, as Carthage used to be an ally of Persia and rival of Greeks. |