All rise! Long live the King! Long live Alexander!

Reading a random paragraph in Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, we could easily picture the king solemnly entering the Throne Room of his imaginary Palace on the way to his birthday party. 

“He put on his helmet, but the rest of his armor he had on as he came from his tent, namely, a vest of Sicilian make girt about him, and over this a breastplate of two-ply linen from the spoils taken at Ipsus. His helmet was of iron, but gleamed like polished silver, a work of Theophilus; and there was fitted to this a gorget, likewise of iron, set with precious stones. He had a sword, too, of astonishing temper and lightness, a gift from the king of the Citieans,... He wore a belt also, which was too elaborate for the rest of his armor; for it was a work of Helicon the ancient, and a mark of honor from the city of Rhodes, which had given it to him”. 

Well, the event is much less romantic. Plutarch’s description fits Alexander as he is leaving his tent before the Battle of Gaugamela. 

Dressed to impress!              

                                Happy birthday, Alexander!

The roaring times of the Antigonid dynasty

The Wars of the Diadochi broke out after Alexander’s death in 323 BC and his huge Empire went to “the strongest” as he may have intended to say on his deathbed in Babylon. However, it did not go to one single ruler as none of his generals had his vision or charisma. 

After endless battles, intermarriages, and lots of intrigues, Alexander’s generals eliminated each other and, in the end, started four distinct dynasties. Ptolemy initiated the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, and Seleucos the Seleucid dynasty in Asia. Cassander, the son of Antipater, founded the Antipatrid dynasty (the ancient Kingdom of Macedonia). In 306 BC, Antigonus Monophthalmus (the One-Eyed) declared himself and his son Demetrios kings. By doing so, the Antigonid dynasty replaced the Antipatrid dynasty. 

Antigonus may well have served under Philip II and lost an eye during the Siege of Perinthus in 340 BC. He later joined Alexander on his Persian campaign and was promoted to satrap of Phrygia in 334 BC. His main duty was to maintain Alexander’s line of communication and supply. As a result of the Partition of Babylon following Alexander’s death, he also received Pamphylia and Lycia. 

During the Wars of the Diadochi, Antigonus picked up momentum and managed to rule over all of Asia Minor, Greece, Syria, Phoenicia, and northern Mesopotamia. Fearing his increasing power, Seleucos, Ptolemy, Lysimachos, and Cassander joined forces against him. Antigonus was defeated and killed at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC after which his realm was split between Lysimachos and Seleucos. 

However, Antigonus’ son Demetrios Poliorcetes, by now having earned his stripes as Besieger survived said battle and took control of Macedonia in 294 BC. Cassander died in 297 BC without a successor as his sons had eliminated each other, paving the way for Demetrios to become King of Macedonia. Not for long because in 288 BC he was driven out by Pyrrhus and Lysimachos, and died as a prisoner of Seleucos. 

It was not until 277 BC that Demetrios’ son, Antigonus II Gonatas, regained the title of King of Macedonia. He ruled till about 239 BC, to be succeeded by Demetrios II Aetolicus, followed by Antigonus III Doson ten years later. 

Meanwhile, Rome became the rising power in the eastern Mediterranean, and soon the first conflicts with Antigonid Macedonia led by King Philip V (221-179 BC) erupted. His successor, Perseus, put up a fierce resistance against the expanding Roman Empire that coveted Macedonia’s wealth. The Romans conquered Antigonid Macedonia in 168 BC at the Battle of Pydna, turning Alexander’s homeland into a mere Roman Province. 

Although very eventful, the Antigonid dynasty was short-lived and lasted less than 150 years. 

Macedonia’s grand palaces of Aegae, Pella, Bylazora, and Dimitrias were thoroughly looted, and the houses of the wealthy Macedonians were plundered. Statues, paintings, jewelry, and other wonderful, precious artifacts from Greece and Asia were up for grabs. Roman generals and common soldiers alike took as much as they could carry. Only the gods know what happened to the collection of Macedonia’s precious libraries.

An introduction to Pyrrhus of Epirus

It was quite a surprise to stand face-to-face with Pyrrhus in Albania. It happened at the entrance to the Skanderberg Museum in Kruje, where his life-sized bust stood right next to the imposing relief figure of Skanderbeg, Albania’s hero. 

Pyrrhus of Epirus was a great-nephew of Olympias and cousin of Alexander the Great – not a small introduction. He was born in c.319 BC – not the right time to be the heir to the Molossian throne of Epirus. He got caught up in the fiery dispute between the sons of Cassander and Thessalonica, and, reigning briefly as a minor, he had to flee his homeland. He joined the court of Demetrios I (Poliorketes) as an exile, and in 301 BC, aged 18, he fought at the Battle of Ipsus. 

As a pawn in the War of the Diadochi, Demetrios, to befriend Ptolemy, gave him Pyrrhus as a hostage. That’s how Pyrrhus arrived in Alexandria. Well, it was not the worst place to grow up, and Pyrrhus most certainly took advantage of the situation, not unlike what Philip II had done at the court of Thebes. He made his way in Egypt and eventually married one of Ptolemy’s daughters, Antigone. 

Four years later, in 297 BC, with Ptolemy’s support, Pyrrhus returned to Epirus and began taking control of his own life. He started expanding his kingdom by annexing Illyria. His ambitions were not small, for when Antigone died, Pyrrhus made three diplomatic marriages to live peacefully with his neighbors. His first wife was Lanassa, the daughter of Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse. Her dowry was the islands of Leucas and Corcyra (modern Corfu). The next bride was the daughter of King Audoleon of the Paeonians living north of Macedonia. His third marriage was to Bircenna, daughter of the Illyrian King Bardylis II. Demetrios Poliorcetes as king of Macedonia, it should be said, had married Pyrrhus’ sister. 

By 288 BC, Pyrrhus turned against Demetrios and succeeded in getting the Macedonian army on his side. With Lysimachos as his new ally, they jointly ruled over Macedonia. Only for a while, though, since Lysimachos still had his mind set on all of Macedonia and expelled Pyrrhus. 

Once more, Demetrios and Pyrrhus made peace, which was again short-lived. When in 286 BC, Demetrios invaded Asia Minor, ruled by Lysimachos, the latter asked Pyrrhus to invade Thessaly to attack Demetrios from Greece. Pyrrhus soon defeated Antigonus Gonatas, Demetrios’ son, who surrendered Thessaly to him to make peace. 

Pyrrhus’ empire now included half of Macedonia, larger Epirus, and Thessaly. Yet, he still wanted more and eyed Magna Graecia, including the wealth of Sicily. His opportunity arose when Taras (modern Taranto) called for his help to repel an imminent Roman attack. Pyrrhus led his army across the Adriatic Sea, including 20 war elephants. He was victorious at Heraclea (modern Policoro, southwest of Metaponto) in 280 BC and a year later at Ausculum (modern Ascoli Satriano south of Foggia). 

At this point, Pyrrhus decided to stay in Italy, offering his help to Syracuse. He successfully lifted the Carthaginians’ siege in 278 BC and, in return, was proclaimed King of Sicily. The Medagliere, the strongbox room at Syracuse’s Museum, proudly exhibits coins of King Pyrrhus. 

His moment of glory would not last either because of the renewed threat from Carthage, ending Pyrrhus’ siege of Lilybaeum (modern Marsala) in a disaster. The people of Syracuse then decided not to continue the war. The Carthaginians defeated Pyrrhus in 275 BC on his return to Syracuse. 

At the end of that same year, Pyrrhus sailed back to Epirus, which, in his mind, offered new opportunities as his son, Ptolemy, tried to expand the kingdom. The next campaign took Pyrrhus to Argos in the Peloponnesus, where caught in a narrow street, he was killed by a woman who threw a tile from the housetop. 

This was not the death a man like Pyrrhus would have planned. He had fought in so many battles, always leading his men. He had been schooled by Demetrios Poliorketes, who had walked in the footsteps of Alexander and his father, Philip. He was not meant to die such an inglorious death. 

In the 2nd century AD, Pausanias witnessed a memorial to King Pyrrhus at Argos, integrating a panorama ‘carved in relief.’ The king was buried in his capital, Ambracia (a colony of Corinth in Epirus). 

Pyrrhus may have led a glorious life, but the Macedonians resented him because he let his Gauls plunder the tombs of the Macedonian kings at Aegae – an unforgivable crime!

Lysimachos in the wake of Alexander – Part II

 [continued from Lysimachos in the wake of Alexander - Part I]

Skipping the many details and intertwined relationships, let us pick up the story when Seleucos added his forces to those of Lysimachos and his allies to fight the elderly Antigonus Monophthalmus and his son Demetrios Poliorcetes. The battle took place in 301 BC at Ipsus and ended with Antigonus’ defeat and death. The victors subsequently divided his territory among them. Lysimachos acquired a significant share with Lydia, Ionia, and Phrygia, including the entire north coast of Asia Minor. Seleucos received Syria, and Cassander was now secure in Macedonia and Greece. 

Until then, Antigonus Monophthalmus had been the most successful among the generals in recreating Alexander’s empire. His son Demetrios attempted to follow in his father’s footsteps, but he lacked a broader view. 

Around that time, Nicaea died, and Lysimachos honored her by naming a city in Asia Minor after her, modern Iznik in Turkey. 

As Seleucos was growing ever more powerful, Lysimachos thought it wise to seek the support of Ptolemy. Around 300 BC, he elected to marry Arsinoe, the daughter of Ptolemy, and his mistress Berenice. Amastris, as said above, stepped back and divorced herself from Lysimachos, moving back to Herakleia Pontus. 

Although this marriage of Lysimachos was not a happy one, Arsinoe stayed with her husband till his death. She bore him three sons: Ptolemy I Epigonos, Lysimachos, and Philip. Her jealousy, however, incited her to convince her husband to kill his oldest son and heir, Agathocles (from his marriage to Nicaea), based on treason. The murder happened in 284 BC despite the young man successfully leading his father’s army in combat. Although he was only in his early thirties, his men loved him much. 

Meanwhile, Cassander died in 297 BC. His sons were more interested in fighting each other for power than ruling the country. Macedonia eventually fell into the hands of Demetrios. So, in 287 BC, Lysimachos agreed to fight alongside Pyrrhus to drive Demetrios out of Macedonia. They successfully ruled the country jointly until Lysimachos broke up with Pyrrhus and seized Macedonia for himself. 

Lysimachos’ greed and thirst for power equaled that of the other generals, now kings in their realms. The fighting was not over yet. 

Seleucos, in 282 BC, broke his alliance with Lysimachos as he attempted to take his territory in Asia Minor. The final clash happened in Lydia at Corupedium in 281 BC. It ended with the death of Lysimachos. By then, the King of Thracia must have been in his late 70s. He had lived a life of almost continuous and repeated battles, inspired by the greatest conqueror of all times, Alexander the Great. 

Like the other new self-proclaimed kings, Lysimachos had minted his own coins. However, he did not follow them by stamping his personal image on these coins but kept using the effigy of Alexander instead. Could that be seen as a late posthumous homage and tribute to his boyhood friend? 

Lysimachos is also being honored as a friend and benefactor of Samothrace. He received the title of Lysimachos Euergetes as inscribed on the altar erected in his honor and used during annual festivals. A stele found on the island reads a dedication of King Lysimachos from between 288 and 281 BC. Based on the surviving first fifteen lines, Lysimachos was honored for restoring sacred lands on the mainland initially granted to Samothrace by either Philip II or Alexander the Great or by Philip Arrhidaeus III and Alexander IV. There were boundary stones for said sacred land near Alexandroupolis in Greece. 

Money was never an issue throughout all those years of bickering, conniving, and fighting. Lysimachos, like all the other generals, had cashed his share of Alexander’s fortune. In his case, it was a mere 9,000 talents in silver and gold, roughly worth several billion in today’s value. The money was safely kept on the Acropolis of Pergamon. However, when Attalus III gave the city to Rome in 133 BC, the entire treasure (not limited to Lysimachos’ share) fell into Roman hands. This fortune contributed largely to the rise of the Roman Empire – but that is another story.

Alexander’s treasure located at Kyinda / Cyinda?

High atop the Karasis, a mountain in southern Turkey's heart of the Taurus Mountain Range, rises a mysterious stronghold discovered in recent years. Speculations run high whether or not this could be the legendary fortress of Kyinda, where the war booty of Alexander the Great was kept. The location in Cilicia is mentioned by Strabo in his Geography (Book 14-5.10): "Above Anchiale lies Cyinda, a fortress, which at one time was used as a treasury by the Macedonians." Diodorus (Book 18-62.2 and 19-56.5) refers to Cyinda while talking about Eumenes and Antigonus Monophthalmus retrieving money from its treasury during the Diadochi Wars. Still, so far, the location has not been found. (After Eumenes had exploited its resources in 318 BC, some 10,000 talents remained for Antigonus in late 316 BC. Later, Antigonus paid his army for three months out of the money he took from Cyinda for the campaign of Ipsus – see Bosworth, The Legacy of Alexander.

Alexander was the wealthiest man on earth when he died in Babylon in 323 BC. During his campaigns, he had amassed colossal booty, including the treasuries of the Persian Kings in their Royal Palaces of Ecbatana, Persepolis, Susa, and Pasargadae. All this wealth was in the hands of Alexander and, at his death, became a severe subject of dispute and fight among his generals until forty years later, his Empire was finally divided between Seleucos, Ptolemy, Lysimachos, and Cassander. We know about the occupied territories, the underlying killings, and the personal greed of Alexander's successors (the Diadochi), but what happened to his treasures?

Pierre Briant is a marvel in figures, facts, and statistics (see: Alexander the Great. Man of Action/Man of Spirit), and I gladly will quote him while adding up the figure material.

Alexander's first substantial booty was taken in Damascus after the Battle of Issus. Briant accounts for it as follows: "silver earmarked for enormous payments to the army, vestments of a host of noblemen and women, gold place settings, golden horse-bits, tents decorated with royal splendor, and chariots abandoned by their owners and overflowing with unheard-of wealth." At that time, Alexander needed the money badly to pay his army for future campaigns, as he had left Macedonia in debt and with borrowed money, but it gave him a first glimpse of the wealth that could be his.

When Darius fled the Battlefield of Gaugamela, he left Alexander "a treasure worth roughly 4,000 talents (between 75 and 100 tons of silver), his bow, his arrows and his chariot". Yet Alexander was just starting his march through the Persian Empire, taking possession of one Royal City after the other, and evidently, there was more to come.

The first stop was at Susa, "which boasted one of the Empire's largest treasure stores, where the Great Kings stocked their precious metals. The ancient authors estimated its value at between 40,000 and 50,000 talents –from 1,000 to 1,250 tons of gold- plus 9,000 talents (225 tons) of the gold coins known as darics." By the way, the value of the textiles alone was worth more than 5,000 talents and included more than 100 tons of purple cloth colored with a mixture of dye from the Gulf of Spetses and honey to keep the color fresh. Do we have any idea what this looked like, I wonder?

At this stage, Alexander possessed more than substantial reserves of precious metal, and his financial worries were history. Previously, Pelusium in Egypt had contributed to the royal treasury with 800 talents (20 tons of silver and gold), Babylon with 18,000 talents (4,500 tons of silver and gold), and now he was heading for the grand palace of Persepolis, where the unbelievable sum of 120,000 talents or 3,000 tons of gold awaited him! According to Plutarch, 10,000 spans of mules and 5,000 camels were needed to transfer this enormous load to Susa. The wealth and figures are beyond comprehension, even in antiquity, as according to the standards of the 5th century BC, the booty at Persepolis alone was about 300 times the equivalent of the annual national income of Athens.

After Persepolis, Alexander laid siege to nearby Pasargadae, the former capital of Persia, where another 6,000 talents were added to his financial reserves. Meanwhile, Darius was still on the run ahead of him, supported by a small but faithful band of soldiers, using 7,000 or 8,000 gold talents (175 or 200 tons) from the treasury of Ecbatana before leaving the remaining sum to Alexander. The size of this booty is not mentioned by the ancient writers, but we do know that Alexander left 6,000 Macedonian soldiers in Ecbatana to guard it. However, he could have used every single man for his upcoming campaigns further East. I wonder how many men were ever in charge of guarding Fort Knox.

Anyway, a simple sum of all the figures above gives us the most impressive amount of gold and silver alone, and we only know the main provenances of the money.

     Alexander's booty                                      in talents

     Pelusium                                                           800

     Babylon                                                        18.000

     Gaugamela                                                     4.000

     Susa                                                              50.000

     Susa, golden Darics                                       9.000

     Persepolis                                                   120.000

     Persepolis, Darius personal                           8.000

     Pasargadae                                                     6.000

     Total                                                            215.800

This list does not include the Indian campaigns, which must have yielded vast amounts of precious stones, ivory, and textiles. We get a subtle hint when we read Arrian's account of the gifts from Taxiles when Alexander reaches the Indus: "200 talents of silver, 3,000 oxen and over 10,000 sheep for sacrificial purposes, and some thirty elephants." These were only gifts, meaning Taxiles could easily spare them! There was gold and silver from minor cities and towns, livestock, horses, cattle, slaves, jewelry, etc. After campaigning around the Aornos fortress, for instance, Arrian casually tells us, "the Macedonians took possession of more than 230,000 oxen, of which Alexander chose the finest specimens since they seemed to him of remarkable beauty and stature and he wished to send them back to Macedonia to work the land." A casual remark, it seems, but just try to picture 230,000 pieces of cattle together in a field!

On the other hand, it is evident that Alexander was confronted with huge expenses on logistics; moving and feeding an army of tens of thousands was not a small matter. We know he loved rewarding his friends and granting bonuses to his most meritorious and valorous soldiers. The army ended up spending more money than they ever thought they would possess, and although it helped to boost the world economy of those days, the men got used to living above their means. We'll remember that at the splendid Susa wedding of 324 BC, Alexander had to step in and with a gesture that once more shows his magnanimity, he acquitted their debts, paying the incredible amount of 20,000 talents from his own pocket (this is more than what the treasury of Babylon had yielded!). Another chunk was taken by Harpalos, who, unfit for military service, had been appointed by Alexander as Imperial Treasurer. He led a life of crime and debauchery in Babylon. So when he learned that Alexander was heading back for Babylon in 324 BC, Harpalos cowardly fled to Athens, taking "considerable sums" of the king's money with him.

But all this was minor compared to the enormous wealth left after Alexander's death, which his successors undoubtedly divided among themselves. We know, for instance, that Lysimachos' money was safely kept on the Acropolis of Pergamon - a mere 9,000 talents in silver and gold, roughly worth several billion in today's value. A similar or higher amount must have been the share of Ptolemy, Seleucos, and Cassander. Where can one find a safe and trustworthy place to keep such enormous amounts of money, jewelry, and precious stones?

This brings us back to Strabo, who names the stronghold of Kyinda (or Cyinda), which was never found until now. In recent years, a strange-looking ruin was spotted on a nearly 2,000-meter-high mountain top in the remoteness of the rough Taurus Mountains. Could this be Seleucos' secret hiding place? After all, his capital city of Antiochia, modern Antakya, lies only 150 km further south and certainly was not defendable enough to keep the treasury safe.

When Mustapha Sayar, a Turkish archaeologist, and his friend and colleague Adolf Hoffmann, Manager from the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul, set out by helicopter in search of what could be Kyinda, they could not believe their eyes. A closer look at the walls perched high on the needle rocks in the Cilician landscape reveals ruins of massive straight walls; slowly, their trained eye discovers building after building, thick outer walls and watchtowers, and even a large hall right above the precipice. A secret building complex, hidden from the human eye for eons, as even the local farmers are not aware of anything up there. Soon, an expedition is put together. An expedition it is, for there are no roads on this steep slope, and the climb upwards is demanding and strenuous. Archaeologists, as well as the local manpower, are full of excitement and anticipation. Who were the builders of this fortification on the Karasis? When was it built? And most of all, for what purpose?

Strategically, this fortress is ideally situated. The ruins emerge out of nowhere, and the high, straight walls wrap around the entire mountaintop. It is almost a miracle that the spot has never been discovered before.

Both archaeologists soon agree that this must be a fortress from the days of the Diadochi, Alexander's successors. Wrestling through the thick undergrowth, they marvel at the perfectly cut stone blocks and their precise fitting. The architects from antiquity must have been near geniuses. Pretty soon, they discover a relief of an elephant above one of the doorways, the emblem used by Seleucos and his successors - a solid confirmation that this fortification matches the period they suspected. The elephant was the wonder weapon of the ancients. We all remember Alexander's victory over Porus and his war elephants in 326 BC. Since then, the elephant has been considered a symbol of power, and it was used by Seleucos on the reverse of the coins he minted.

At the bottom of the imposing walls, the archaeologists find a hidden entrance leading through a vaulted tunnel with smooth, close-fitting stone walls. Niches covered with soot lead us to believe that oil lamps once lit the passageway, and high air shafts guaranteed good air circulation. Is this tunnel leading them to the hidden treasure? But then suddenly, the corridor ends, and all that is left to see is a pool of clear water, a treasure of another kind, for, without water, life up here would not have been possible.

Back on the mountaintop, Hoffmann's men figured out that the large hall right above one of the steep faces of the Karasis must have served as a storage area, measuring 60 x 12 meters. By deduction, they estimate that approximately 700 tons of wheat could be stored there, a sound supposition as the room shows a good ventilation system. Thanks to such storage space, the fort could be manned and defended for years in a row. Next to it is a small vaulted room, built in the same fashion as the underground passage to the water spring. This may be where the treasure was kept. Yet not a single coin, no jewelry, and indeed no treasure has been found here either, although the historian Diodorus tells us that the Kyinda treasure amounted to at least 10,000 talents, i.e., 200 tons of pure silver.

The place was practically impregnable, so what happened? Too many questions still need to be answered, despite all the high-tech equipment used to measure the place's layout. It is generally agreed that the Celts swept down to cities like Delphi, Ephesus, and Pergamon to loot the precious gifts stored in their temples. The same may have happened at Kyinda.

Finally, Mustapha Sayar and Adolf Hoffmann end up with an excellent computer reconstruction of what they believe to be the legendary Kyinda, but no trace of a treasure. So the place still remains shrouded in mystery.

I'm curious to hear what happened since this program aired on German television ZDF in March 2006. So far, all is quiet, and even on the internet, very little information is available about Kyinda (or Cyinda). It feels like hunting for the Golden Fleece, but who knows what secrets are buried somewhere? We may need Schliemann's luck to find the treasure of Alexander the Great. Let's keep our eyes peeled!

[Pictures of Kyinda come from the Terra-X program on German TV]

Seleucos Nicator, in the wake of Alexander

Here I was in Syria, visiting Apamea. The Cardo Maximus is at least two kilometers long, flanked by rows and rows of columns. Initially, there were 1200 of them, now about 400 still standing – an awe-inspiring view.

I hear that Seleucos (later called Seleucos Nicator, i.e., the Victorious) built this city and named it after his wife, Apame. During the mass wedding party that Alexander the Great organized in Susa in 324 B.C. as a symbolic fusion between east and west, between Macedonians and Persians, Apame, the daughter of Spitamenes the Bactrian, became Seleucos' bride. It seems to have been one of the few successful marriages, for she accompanied her husband on all his expeditions, even as far as India – even though traveling cannot have been very comfortable in those days.

For those who don't know, Seleucos was one of the generals in the army of Alexander the Great. Upon Alexander's death in 323 B.C., he and his fellow generals got caught up in a series of succession wars that went down into history as the Wars of the Diadochi. Those were very confusing times when every general tried to get the best or most prosperous tracts of land since Alexander had not appointed any successor (his son with Roxane, the later Alexander IV, was not born yet, and Heracles, his son with Barsine, was, in fact, a bastard son). The initial division of Alexander's Empire among his generals, in which Seleucos was appointed satrap of Babylon, lasted only a short time. Less than a year later, despite his best intentions, Perdiccas was murdered by his own generals, Seleucos, Peithon, and Antigenes, when he invaded Egypt. Ptolemy, retaining Egypt for himself, came to terms with the murderers by granting them, respectively, the provinces of Babylon, Media, and Susiana.

After that, Seleucos managed to stay more or less out of further conflicts and successive Diadochi Wars, and finally included Persia and Media in his conquests. He even made an alliance with King Chandragupta of India. The Diadochi Wars were over by now, but Alexander's generals' fierce fighting and endless greed were still causing more wars. Seleucos defeated Antigonus Monophthalmus in the Battle of Ipsus and killed Lysimachos on the battlefields of Lycia in 281 B.C. Soon afterward, Seleucos died too, assassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunus, son of Ptolemy I of Egypt, at one time one of Alexander's generals. Brother in arms with Ptolemy for so many years, he is killed by his son in later life. How glorious can one's life be?

If Alexander could have foreseen his own untimely death, I'm sure he would have provided arrangements for his succession. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Yet, there certainly was no room in his mind for the constant wars and futile bloodshed that unfolded.

Between all this fighting and conniving, Seleucos still found time (and money) to expand and structure his Empire. After using Babylon as his kingdom's capital, he moved it to Antioch-on-the-Orontes, today's Antakya in Turkey. He was at ease in this part of the country that he built another marvelous city further inland (initially started by his rival and enemy Antigonus Monophthalmus). He called it Apamea in honor of his wife. It thus became one of his main cities. But he didn't stop there, of course. He also built Laudetia, now Lattakia, the Syrian port on the Mediterranean, which he named after his mother (to keep things in the family), and later on, he founded Seleucia-on-the-Euphrates (named after himself!) as his Empire by then reached from the Mediterranean all the way to the Indus! Alexander's example definitely was not lost on him.

Well, this is what the books have to say. Now I am finding myself in Syria, driving up to Apamea. The first thing I see is a high, flat-topped hill crowned with many towers connected with city walls – 16 km long, they say. Well, well,… The bus drives uphill and stops at the northern end of the Cardo Maximus, at the Antioch Gate, so I can walk down the road to the other end of the city. I'm immediately drawn to the Cardo with all those impressive columns, of course, but I can't help turning around to take a closer look at the rubble behind me, where the very gate is supposed to be. Now that's a surprise! A surprise I am the only one to notice, though, for this gate is Hellenistic! Once you have seen the Hellenistic towers in Perge (inside the Roman walls), you can't miss recognizing them even in ruins – like in Side and Sillyum, all in today's Turkey. And now I find them here, of all places! If ever I expected this! Seleucos had quite a master to follow in his footsteps!

Alexander's achievements did indeed leave an everlasting imprint on his entourage and on his generals. This is what the birth of Hellenism truly means. Even in his boldest and most daring dreams, Alexander the Great could not have envisaged this to happen. Still, it did – and this proves how Alexander has changed history in geography, economy, army tactics, and architecture! The Romans copied him, and so did the Persians, the Indians, the Italians of the Renaissance, the British with Christopher Wren – you just name it! Nothing was left unchanged; nothing was ever the same. As I often say, there was a time before Alexander and the world after Alexander. We owe him so much. We owe so much to his Hellenization!

Alexander never ceases to amaze me, for here again, I saw what he accomplished and instigated others to do so many years after his death! Isn't that amazing?