An Interbellum Period That is Just as Confusing as You’d Expect (Hellenistic Period and the Wars of the Diadochi)

Today we are looking through the year 318/17 BCE, the interbellum year between the first and second Wars of the Diadochi. New alliances are made, people die, many a siege happen. Keep an ear out for the Crow snores, it's rare that he snores but he graced you all today. Pre-order Liv's Odyssey adaptation (!!!), The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. https://geni.us/TheOdysseyBook Submit your question for the next Q&A via email http://mythsbaby.com/questions or a voice note https://www.speakpipe.com/LTAMB. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby http://patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter ourpodcast guest https://www.mythsbaby.com/contact form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest! CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events. Sources: The Library by Diodorus of Sicily translated by Robin Waterfield, Alexander's Heirs: the age of the successors by Edward Anson. Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here:mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions http://mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions. Learn more about Liv's next group trips https://travelbugxlivalbert.my.canva.site/ to GREECE! Application deadline is November 30 (Subject to change due to demand). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Liv Albert?

  Hey nerds, really quick note from me. I want to tell you that we now have the applications open for the next set of listener group trips. This is us going back to the original, the trips that we have held in the past that have been so much fun, so successful, and pretty affordable in terms of wandering around Greece with a bunch of nerds. So check out the details and get your applications in at mythsbaby.com/groups.

• 1:09Speaker 01

  Hello all and welcome back to Let's Talk About Myths, Baby. It's Michaela Panglish, your resident history nerd here to tell you more about the Wars of the Daidokai, that delightfully fun period of time between Alex's death and the establishment of the various Hellenistic empires. The start of the Hellenistic period, really. I'm currently writing this on a ferry, heading to the island to visit some family, and that is not at all thematic, but it's a really good environment to just settle into the workflow and get some things done. Didn't expect that, but hey, here we are. So what happened last time? Pudikus had died and our guy Ptolemy rolled into the scene to make friends with his soldiers. That all seemed to go down well. And then we had to deal with the rest of Pudikus's allies around Asia. Eumenes was dealt with by just letting the guy become friends with the new

• 1:54Speaker 01

  head guy in Asia, Antigonus. We heard a little about Perikys's brother-in-law, Adalys, so I'm sure that will come back into the picture. We had a little moment with the OG source of the times, Hieronymus, so that was cool. What a loss, man. I bet that shit was really interesting. God, the amount of sources that are lost are, is actually pretty astounding and heartbreaking for me, but that's because for some reason I love all those old dead guys and their old bland writing. It's fun, for all of us, I like to tell myself. But I've been wrong before, or maybe that's why I'm here, to make it not so bland. There was something about Antipater in Europe, and the narrative ended with Ptolemy closing off the access to Egypt from Asia. It was a fun little lap to the end of the first war, and now we are entering an interbellum,

• 2:38Speaker 01

  an interwar period of this time. We got some foundations to set, some people to die, some new seats of power, and the ever-shifting balances that happen when all the men of this period...

• 2:52Speaker 01

  Um, are there women in this episode? I mean, eh, yes, but like I mentioned, so we will have to suffice with that. And I say that just to plant a seed of thought, what was happening with the Hellenistic women? Because they were certainly around and had immense amounts of powers at the same time. I mean, look at last episode with Queen Eridyce. She was only seventeen and was able to actually get a lot of soldiers onto her side. And this is something that I find really interesting about the Hellenistic period, the power that women display and have throughout the whole time. It is more obvious after the wars, but even now there are powerful women. Think Olympias, Alex's mom. That woman was formidable, and was seen as a real problem to the men in her vicinity. So much so that she was

• 3:37Speaker 01

  straight up forced out of the area, is kicked out of the Macedon and forced to go to other lands for her own safety because she held enough sway, enough power, that she could potentially be a real threat to the men around her. So hell yeah, Hellenistic women. But that's enough rambling. Let's get into this interbellum period and see how the foundation is set up for the next war.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  An interphalan period that is just as confusing as you'd expect. Hellenistic period and the wars of the Diadochi.

• 4:33Speaker 01

  Eumenes has been dealt with in the way that worked best for both Antigonus and him. He had allied himself with Antigonus, spared his life and the lives of his men. But there were still other allies of Pheidicus popping up rounds that Antigonus wanted gone. These being Alchates, Pheidicus's brother, and Adalus, Pheidicus's brother-in-law, married to Pheidicus's now deceased sister Adelante. These two made a brief entrance last episode. I mean, more Adalus than Alchates, but you know that happens when you're in charge of the entire navy. So they were both under threat of death now that Pheidicus had passed and the custodianship of the kings had passed to Antipater. And boy, was Antipater and his allies serious about this.

• 5:14Speaker 01

  Okay, Antigonus let Eumenes go, but that's one guy and like, they knew him beforehand, so we've all been there. Truly, this is the most toxic friend group in the entire history of the world. Like, the drama, at least the tracks. Antigonus left Cappadocia and headed to Bessidia while Chytis was with his army. He marched his men quickly, managing to cover 2,500 states in seven days. That's around 65 kilometers, or 40 miles for our Americans, a day. Because of the speed of the march, he was able to capture the hills around the city of Cretepolis, where he would wage war on Alchates and his army. Alchates heard of Antigonus's presence and drew up his men immediately,

• 5:58Speaker 01

  marching out to the hill to take on the men who had come to put an end to his life. The battle was ferocious, both sides taking heavy, heavy losses, until Antigonus gathered up his cavalry of 6,000, and that's a big number, I'm raising my eyebrows at, and you should all too, and charged into the enemy's phalanx, breaking up any hope of defense they had. This worked, and then his men on the high ground beat back their opponents. Alcetus was in a tough position. He was separated from the rest of his men and his means of defense had been broken apart. Yet, he somehow managed to break through Antigonus's forces and make his way back into safety. Antigonus led his entire army down from the hills, even the elephants.

• 6:42Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, he had elephants, like thirty, I think? A number of elephants regardless. Well, he arranged his men thus, with the elephants at the front, the cavalry coming around the sides and the infantry, which was apparently superior to Alcetus's men in fighting, coming at them. Alcetus's men descended into a desperate frenzy. Confusion and fear permeated the air, and it all happened so fast that Alcetus couldn't even get a phalanx into position. Antigonus's men won. They captured a number of men, including Adalus and some other high-ranking men, whose names aren't entirely new, but I can't be bothered to explain who they are because they like, don't show up again? So, I've just decided it's not that important.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Sorry about that. But Alcetus manages to escape, along with his bodyguards and pages, and ran off with Pasidians to the city of Termesis. After the battle, Antigonus enrolled Alcetus's men into his own army. He treated them with great kindness, and because of this, he raised the power that he already had to even greater heights. Yet the Pasidians that Alcetus had run off with assured him that they wouldn't abandon him. They were loyal to him to the very end. And the reason for this was thus. Perdicus had died, and Alcetus was very aware of the precarious position this left him in. He decided that the Pasidians were his best bet for allies, since they were accustomed to wars and lived in a rugged country with strong fortresses.

• 8:12Speaker 01

  Whenever he campaigned with them, he would give them the biggest reward, shared all the profits of war, and allow them to take half of the booty. He was also just generally nice to them. He didn't raise his voice and he invited the top men in their ranks to dine with him and gave them many gifts. Basically, you win more Pasidians with honey than vinegar. The Pasidians were on his side. Antigonus survived at Termesis, made camp, and demanded that Alcestis be handed over to him. The elders of the community felt that was wise, but not the young, not the ones who had campaigned with Alcestis. They wouldn't be okay with this, and they said no. The elders worried though, and argued with the youths. Why would you put yourself in a precarious position because of a foreigner?

• 8:57Speaker 01

  Someone not of this land? But they realized that the young'uns would not be swayed. So one night, all the elders met in secret to come up with a plan. They sent a representative to Antigonus, saying that they would hand Alcestis over to him. This was the plan. In a few days, Antigonus would attack the city and get the light-armed men to come out of the defenses by pretending to fall back. When the young men were busy pushing Antigonus's men back, that would be the perfect time to hand Alcestis over. Antigonus moved his army back and the young men of Termesis ran out after him. In this moment, the old men got their slaves and the other young men, who hadn't sided with Alcestis, to capture him. But Alcestis saw what was coming and quickly killed himself, so that he wouldn't fall

• 9:41Speaker 01

  into Antigonus's hands. The old men still kept their promise. They laid Alcestis's body on a beer and brought it out of the city to Antigonus. While this saved the city from further war, the younger men who had sided with Alcestis were quite pissed off. They returned from the battle and overtook a part of the city. They decided that they would burn down that part of the city, then run off with the weapons and ravage the farmland that Antigonus had. Eventually, they decided that maybe this wasn't the best idea. But they still want to go and fuck with the farmland and destroyed a decent amount of the enemy's farmland.

• 10:18Speaker 01

  Antigonus meanwhile had Alketis's body and he decided to just mutilate it cuz yeah, of course, why not? That seems totally reasonable. He left it unburied regardless of the valet that had already descended upon it. But the young men of the city somehow managed to get a hold of Alketis's body and they found a place to bury it with full honors. Diodorus then decides to give us a little life lesson. You see, when you treat others with kindness, it, as he puts it, casts a spell upon them. It makes those you are kind to develop an unending loyalty and devotion for you. That's beside the point after this Antigonus decides to leave Pheidias with his entire army and head to Phrygia.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  Because when he was at Crete Polis, Aristodemus of Miletus, don't, don't worry about it. It's not important, I think, I'm pretty sure. So let's just go with this guy's not important except for in this exact moment. Well, Aristodemus of Miletus came to him and told him that Antipater had passed away. Whoa, that came out of left field. Didn't expect that one. And that Polypericon of Macedon had taken over the rulership of Macedon and the custodianship of the kings. This made Antigonus very excited. His plan, you see, was to keep Asia for himself and the power that he had there.

• 11:41Speaker 01

  But let's get back to that later. I wanna know more about how Antipater and his death because that was kind of sudden. Right. So back into the Europe branch of the war in Macedon. Antipater fell ill and because he was so old, it was likely to be terminal. His body simply couldn't handle that anymore. At this moment, the Athenians decided to send a man, Demades, who often advocated for the Macedonians, so he seemed like a safe bet to them. To ask Antipater to honor his promise of removing the garrison Phamenechia, a hill on the Piraeus. Antipater was originally friendly with Dematis, but after Perdicus had been, you know, lightly murdered in his camp, some letters were discovered in the royal archives,

• 12:26Speaker 01

  which showed that Dematis had sent word to Perdicus to cross into Europe at his earliest convenience and attack Antipater. Which doesn't look great for the man, but hey. Antipater thus removed his favor without being too obvious as to why. When Dematis arrived at court and began making his demands, including a couple of threats against the garrisons, Antipater didn't say a thing. Instead silently directed the executioners to take Dematis and his son Demais, who had just joined him, away to death. Fun story. Thanks for that, Diodorus. That's literally it. That's all he tells us about that. Well, Antipater was now on his deathbed.

• 13:10Speaker 01

  And while there, he decided to appoint Polypericon to his current job. Polypericon was actually quite a big deal in a way. Not only was he a general under Alex, but he was also a general under Philip too. He was pretty much the oldest one there and had quite a bit of experience to draw from, so he would probably do a good job in the position. Antipater then appointed his son Cassandra to take the role of Kilian, which we learned last time is just a guy in charge of a bunch of other guys. But here's some fun new information from Diodorus about the position of Kilian that we didn't get to learn last time. It was originally a Persian concept

• 13:50Speaker 01

  that was then adopted by Alex when he was doing the whole adopting Persian customs thing. And after a while, it became a very highly respected position within the ranks. So really, Antipater was just following tradition in this. And Cassandra was still young, so maybe he was just trying to make the point that he wasn't yet in a space where he could actually run an empire with skill. He needed more time and practice. Which of course Cassandra understood, right? Right? No, no, of course he didn't understand that. Instead, he got quite disgruntled with the appointment and was pissed that his father's position went to someone who was in no way related to the family, especially when he

• 14:32Speaker 01

  had had such a young, virile son who could do the job well if he would just be given the chance. He started taking trips with his friends into the countryside, asking them questions about this new post for Polyparagon, what they thought about it and if it was a good idea. One by one, Cassandra talked with them and asked them for help if he would seize power, promising rewards which won them over really fast. Not only did he do that, but he also sent secret emissaries to Ptolemy to just make sure that they were on good grounds. And hey, maybe he wanted to make an alliance with him. That could be cool. Oh, and also, maybe he could send a fleet his way into the Hellespont from Phoenicia.

• 15:15Speaker 01

  He sent similar messages to other leading men in the area and all the while pretended he was on an extended hunting trip, so no one in Macedon would expect that he was about to blow this shit up, or at least try to. And when Polyparagon had finally assumed the position, I'm assuming Antipater was fully dead at this point, he discussed things over with his tyro, his friends and companions, for if he should send for Olympias, Alex's mom, to return to Macedon, so she could look after Alex's son. What was his name again? Oh, okay, it's Alexander Ford. That's a great name. It's really original. She had fallen out with Antipater several years earlier, so that's why she skedoodle off.

• 15:58Speaker 01

  But now he was out of the picture and Polyparagon could use the help with the young Alex. Hey, it would be helpful to have a royal woman at back at court.

• 16:19Liv Albert?

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• 17:04Liv Albert?

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• 17:46Liv Albert?

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• 18:22Speaker 01

  And now we're hopping back over to Asia, to whatever Antigonus is up to. Because that's what's important right now. I'm starting to see the picture of what the next war is going to look like. Hmm, Antigonus versus Cassandra, perhaps, or probably not, more like Antigonus versus Polyparicon. It's, it's definitely Antigonus versus someone, for sure. Well, the news about Antipater's death was starting to spread around Asia, and it was causing some issues, some unrest. See, everyone who had any sort of power in Asia started to make their own moves towards establishing the power that they had already had. But Antigonus is apparently the only one we should really care about.

• 19:03Speaker 01

  So at this point, Antigonus had already dealt with Eumenes in Capidocia and taken over his army. And then he had gone and dealt with Alcatas and Atlas and then taken over their armies. And Antipater had earlier made him the big general, the general plenipotentiary of Asia, which means that he already had amassed quite the army at this point. He was starting to become pretty full of himself. He was sure that he could eventually have control over the entire empire and that he had a right to do to it for some reason or other. He then decided to stop listening to the kings or the custodians. They weren't his bosses, he thought. He didn't have to do a single thing that they, any of them said.

• 19:47Speaker 01

  And on top of all this, because he had such an army, he was certain that he could gain control over the treasuries, the main ones being in Ecbatana, Susa, and Caenida in Cacilia. No one would bring an army against him. He was set, so he felt. Also, he had elephants, so like, I don't know, he could definitely handle things. Antigonus then sent for Hieronymus. Remember him from earlier? That historian who is Diadorus's source and who we don't have his writings except for a couple experts here and there? And, and that's a damn disappointment, but also, isn't that very true to life anyways? Well, he sent for Hieronymus, the historian, Eumenes's pal.

• 20:29Speaker 01

  He bestowed upon him many gifts and then made him his official go-between for him and Eumenes. He sent him off to ask Eumenes to forget about the Capidocia battle. Say that he would become friends and allies with him. And, and many, many expensive gifts that would greatly expand his wealth would be on the way. He would also get a bigger satrapy and to be the bestest friends of all time to Antigonus in these coming days. He sent Hieronymus off and then carols all the rest of his attiro, his friends, together to let them know what he was planning to do. To run Asia over and dispel all the satraps who weren't his friends and then redistribute it among them.

• 21:12Speaker 01

  So this was all going on and moving over to Hellespont and Phrygia, there was Aridaeus. And no, not the king, a different Aridaeus. And I think actually we've already met this Aridaeus, actually. These names are too much for me, oh my god, I apologize. Well, Aridaeus figured out that what Antigonus was up to. And not only set up his satrapy for defense, but also set up some garrisons in some other important cities around the area. The largest city that was the most advantageous, the most important, was Caesicus. This is a city that was along the Hellespont. Not quite all the way, but maybe about halfway? It was located on the Anatolian side, the Turkish side of the Hellespont.

• 21:56Speaker 01

  Basically, it was just a very strategic city, protected the entry into either Asia or Europe and would be a good place to hold in the case of war. Aridaeus led an army against them to try and overtake it. He took them by surprise and since most of the men of fighting age were outside the city in the countryside, they didn't have much to defend themselves with. What ended up happening was the citizens were driven into the walled city and held there by Aridaeus and his army. This was very much unexpected. And the problem with not knowing when an invading force is going to come is that you are unlikely to be particularly prepared for whatever was to come. In all honesty, you're probably not gonna have much at all prepared to go and

• 22:40Speaker 01

  this is exactly what happened with the people of Caesicus. They were not prepared for a siege and simply did not have enough men to defend them or provisions to get them through the difficult times. Remember, the only real reason Eumenes was able to hold out in Nora was because it was already significantly well-stocked.

• 23:00Speaker 01

  While none of this deterred the people of Caesicus, they weren't going to just sit down and let Aridaeus do whatever he wanted. So they started with envoys. They sent them to try and convince Aridaeus to call off the siege, that they would do whatever he wanted, as long as he allowed them to keep their city intact. Except, excepting a garrison, cuz fuck that, they're not gonna do that. In secret, they started raising their own army to defend the city walls, made up of young men and slaves of fighting age. Aridaeus wasn't a fan of the no garrison idea. And at that point, the envoy said, "Well, hmm, let's bring this idea back to the people, see what they say about the idea."

• 23:45Speaker 01

  "You see, we can't just make these decisions without the input of them." Cuz, democracy, I guess? Aridaeus agreed, and there was a truce. And during this time, the Caesician people continued building their defenses. This was enough to screw over Aridaeus, which I can't help but feel totally fine about, to be honest. The Caesicians had amassed enough of a force to defend their city. And on top of that, the city was incredibly well-built, with enough defenses, both natural and built, to make the job... Of sieging it incredibly difficult, even without defenders.

• 24:24Speaker 01

  The city was on a peninsula, so there wasn't a lot of land access and the Chisikians had control of the sea themselves. So there was no way that Aridaeus could come in that way. They had sent men to Byzantium to ask for help, for men to defend their cities and anything else that they may help them. And the Byzantians were incredibly helpful to agree and jump to action at haste. Not only did they send men and provisions, but they also sent a number of warships to patrol the coasts, picking up anyone from the countryside and ferrying them into the city. Within a short amount of time, the city was teeming with men who could defend it and

• 25:05Speaker 01

  Aridaeus, knowing that he was completely out of luck, simply returned to his satrapi, having achieved absolutely nothing. Antigonus was in the Phrygian city Kilaine when he heard about the siege of Chisicus. He felt that the best move would be to align with Chisicus. Not only would it be an entrance into Europe, but it also had the vigor to withstand foreign forces. So he got his own little army together. Actually, it wasn't really little, it was kinda large, and set off to help. He arrived too late, Aridaeus had already left, um, but he still wanted to let the know that he was on their side and would help them if he could. So maybe he didn't exactly do what he wanted,

• 25:50Speaker 01

  but he made his position known well enough that he had a reputation in the city at that point. Well, what he does decide to do is send envoys to Aridaeus telling him that what he did was very bad. He presumed to put a Greek ally city under siege and one that hadn't done a single thing wrong. Secondly, that he obviously was going to start a rebellion and make his satrapi his own kingdom. So Antigonus told him to quit his job, quit the satrapi. That was the only way for peace to be assured. He would get a single city instead. Aridaeus, however, refused this offer, which I don't think is surprising and was honest with the envoy about it.

• 26:34Speaker 01

  What he was doing was preparing for war with Antigonus. He immediately sent out a general to end the siege on Nora and gain Eumenes as an ally. Antigonus wasn't a fan of this idea to no one's surprise, and so he sent an army to go deal with him. He himself would head off to Lydia to expel the satrap Clytus in charge there. But Clytus assumed that such a thing would happen, so he set up garrisons in the most important of cities and immediately sailed off to Macedon to tell the kings and polyparagon what was going on. Ephesus fell to Antigonus at once because he happened to have inside help, and nope, we're not getting any more information on that, sorry about it.

• 27:18Speaker 01

  A man named Ischylus of Rhodes made his way into the harbor with money from Kilikia that he was eventually going to bring to Macedon to give to the kings, and Antigonus seized this money instead, claiming that he needed it to pay the mercenaries, and thus making his plans very clear to all those around him. He was no longer hinting at the idea of what he wanted. He was actively and publicly proclaiming it clearly to everyone around him. After this, he seized Crimea and went around attacking all the other cities, either defeating them by force or using diplomacy to get them on his side. And now, we're going to move back to Eumene's, because that poor guy was just going through it.

• 28:03Speaker 01

  Sometimes he had good luck, sometimes he had the absolute worst luck of all time and was just surviving. And I hope you all remember this, when Perikas was still alive, he was given the satiopy of Cappadocia and all of its neighboring territories. This allowed him to amass quite the amount of wealth, and he was well-known for having money and men abound. He was also known as being good at his job. He had defeated both Craterus and Neoptolemus in battle, and they were both very well-known generals with Macedonian troops, no less. As soon as he amassed this reputation, well, that's when he was driven into the Fort of Nora, where he was currently all tied up.

• 28:46Speaker 01

  The siege went on for a solid year, and he was quickly losing hope. How could he possibly expect to get out of this situation? But then, Antigonus changed his mind and instead invited him to come to his side, to become one of his allies. When the ills were made, Antigonus ended the siege, and so Eumene's was saved from great misfortune. He continued on in Capitokia, raising an army from his old friends and the old soldiers who knew, who now made their living in the countryside. And remember, he was very popular. So he actually managed to do this quite easily and in a very short period of time. He was, this army was of considerable size altogether.

• 29:28Speaker 01

  And then later, he was assigned a new post, that of the royal army and protector of the kings. But that's not really important right now, so why is Diodorus even bringing it up? Like, he's like, I'll just, oh, I'll tell you about that when the time is right. So why tell us now, Diodorus? Whatever, I'm, am I mad about this? Is it necess- I'm gonna keep going because otherwise I'm not gonna stop. We head back to Europe to Cassandra and his disappointment in not being given control of Macedon and the rest of Europe when his father passed away. He wasn't discouraged. He was still going to figure this all out and gain the position he should have been given so long ago. The Macedonians seemed to like Polyparagon, which was quite a problem for him.

• 30:14Speaker 01

  And Cassandra met in private with his friends and sent them off as his agents to Hellespont. While he went off on a hunting trip, and there's bunny ears on that one, so as to make sure no suspicion would be looked this his way. When everything was ready, he packed himself up and headed to the Hellespont through the Carinese. He sailed to Antigonus in order to get help, to make friends with the guy, and let him know that Ptolemy was also a friend of his. Antigonus, probably seeing something of value here, called the young man over, made an alliance with him, and told Cassandra all about the size of his army and fleet and that they were available to him at once. He pretended that this was just because Antipater was of his friend,

• 30:59Speaker 01

  but in truth, he just wanted Polyparagon out of the way so that he could gain Asia for himself. And then we head back over to Macedon again, where the departure of Cassandra and the reason for it was quite clear to Polyparagon. He knew what was coming, that a war was going to come at last. I guess you can't trick a guy who's been around long enough to see a couple wars go down.

• 31:25Speaker 01

  Polyperikon had decided long ago that he wouldn't do anything unless his tyrant, his companions, were okay with the plan. So we called them all together to discuss the issues. It was pretty clear that Cassander would be able to retain the Greek cities since his father had set up garrisons in some of them, and in others there were oligarchs that were filled with friends of his late fathers. Cassander would definitely get military support from the other generals, specifically Ptolemy and Antigonus. His friends felt that the easiest way to undermine Antipater's power, and thus Cassander's, was to give up the garrisons in the Greek cities and get rid of the oligarchies. And hopefully, this would endear them to him enough that they would want to be on his side.

• 32:10Speaker 01

  All the ambassadors that were around were invited to a meeting where they were told, where they told them the good news. Democracy was making its way back into Greece. They wrote it all up and had it sent off with the ambassadors. I'm not gonna read it all the way through, and absolutely none of you can make it me. You can certainly go and find it yourself. It's in chapter eighteen of Diodorus' Siculus, but basically it just reiterated the earlier points, pointed to the amity between the Macedonians and the Greeks during the Lamiad War, and all of their old ancestral and ties, I guess. All that fun stuff.

• 32:50Speaker 01

  Well, every city got a copy of this proclamation, and Polyperikon wrote to Argos and the other cities to send the politicians appointed by Antipater into exile, so they could hold no sway, and to confiscate all their property so they had no resources left. He then wrote to Olympias, asking her to please, please come back to Macedon and take over the care of the young king, until he was old enough to inherit his father's kingdom. He also sent a letter to Eumenes, telling him to not end his friendship with Antigonus, but to still side with the kings. Perhaps Eumenes could come to Macedon and work as if one of the custodians of the kings?

• 33:34Speaker 01

  But if he really wanted, he could also stay in Asia, where he would be given an army and funds to fight Antigonus. "The kings," he said, "returned to him his old satrapi and every other benefit he had."

• 33:59Speaker 01

  And just like that, we have entered the year 318/17. The interbellum period between the first war and the second one. There was lots happening here, new-ish characters establishing their place within this weird and deeply fragmented empire. Which means we get to start the second war next week. And whose side are we on this time? I gotta be so honest, I don't particularly care for Antigonus or Cassandra. And in all honesty, I'm not really a huge fan of anyone else in the picture. I mean, I still love Ptolemy, but like, he didn't show up during this year at all. He was just bopping around Egypt, doing his thing, making friends.

• 34:47Speaker 01

  But now when the narrative is where it's getting really interesting. Thinking ahead to what the Hellenistic kingdoms were called and who they must be related to. Like the Antigonids are obviously descended from Antigonus. And there is no way that they can't be. And Slucus was mentioned last episode, I believe, just a, just a quick mention. But that he gained his hatchet fee from Antigonus somewhere or other, was it Antipater? Oh God, but we know he's around. And then of course, there's Ptolemy with the Ptolemaic dynasty. And we know that Ptolemy is not going to be leaving Egypt for anything over the next while. And you know, that's just his place. He got what he's wanted.

• 35:31Speaker 01

  Okay, well, I won't keep you guys around forever. That just doesn't seem fair. We will get into the second war next week. Find out what's going on with all these wacky guys, these dudes being pals, the friends falling into darkness. I can't wait. Let's Talk About Myths Baby is written and produced by Liv Albert. You know her, you love her. Michaela Panglish is the Hermes to all your Olympians, the producer, writer, researcher, fairy rider. Select music by Luke Chaos. Thanks Bud. The podcast is part of the Memory Collective Podcast Network, a collection of creators that all strive to bring you accurate and reliable information on the ancient world. These include the wonderful friends at Movies We Dig,

• 36:14Speaker 01

  the partial historian Sweetbitter, and so much more. Get ad-free episodes, etc. by subscription to the Oracle Edition on Patreon at patreon.com/MythsBaby or via the link in the episode's description. Are you a scholar or academic or an expert in something from antiquity, from Greece to Rome to Egypt to anywhere in the Near East? We would love to have you on the show as a conversation guest. Go to mythsbaby.com/contact and fill out our podcast guest form. We want to hear from you, so please do reach out. Talk to you all next week. Bye-bye.

• 37:43Speaker 02

  I've got big news. I switched to Verizon and got the new iPhone 18 Pro. Shh. I can keep my old phone. And I also get the latest iPhone every year. Shh, anything else? Verizon let me choose Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad on them.

• 37:56Speaker 03

  Everybody, listen up.

• 37:58Speaker 02

  Shh. Switch to Verizon and get the new iPhone 18 Pro now. No trade-in needed. And the latest iPhone every year with Simplicity Plan. Plus, choose Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad on us. Simplicity Plan with Simplicity Pro required. Plan and device payment purchase are separate agreements with separate terms. Service plan for Watch or iPad required. Additional terms apply for all offers.

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