Pod Insights Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! | Greek Mythology & the Ancient Mediterranean That One Time When Alex Said Hey Guys, Figure It Out (The Wars of the Diadochi and the Hellenistic Period) About this episode Some more fun history time for you all! This time we are diving into the Wars of the Diadochi, well more like Alex dying and all the Greek rebellions and the Lamian War in this episode. Starting off a new subsection of episodes based on the Hellenistic series, because we all need some more Hellenistic lore in our lives!
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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.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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2:14 Speaker 03 Hello and welcome back, all you lovely, lovely nerds, to Let's Talk About Myths, baby. You're here with me, Michaela Panglish, your Hermes and exhausted student at the end of semester, to talk about a time period which we don't often give much attention to. Did you guess that it was the Hellenistic period? Because if you did, you get a cookie, you wonderful human beings, you. Yes. The Hellenistic period, that very mysterious and not well-known period of time between Alex the OK's death and Actium. I was originally planning on making this a six-episode series, split into two, that looks at the wars of the Dido Kai and each of the major, there's the quotation marks there, Hellenistic kingdom, and then sort of the aftershock and influences of the Hellenistic period on the wider Mediterranean.
2:59 Speaker 03 But honestly, after spending considerable time on this, I literally could not figure out a way to do the Hellenistic period justice while keeping that format. It just isn't possible. Okay, well, okay, it is possible, but I don't think that it does this period justice to do it that way. The Hellenistic period is often let out of any Greek history classes, or Roman history, or if it is included, it's very brief, you get a week on it, basically. It is a period that a whole lot of people just don't seem to care about. That is such a disappointment and disservice to the world as a whole,
3:40 Speaker 03 because the Hellenistic period is just this wacky, amazing, wonderfully amalgamous period of time. This is a period that is about the mixing of peoples and cultures from all over the Med. Everywhere where the Greeks go is just, I don't know, it just becomes this amazing mixture of cultures and peoples, nah! Which brings me into my own thoughts on why this time period is often left out of the conversation. It is precisely this mixing. You see, the Hellenistic period is the time when you can't point at something and go, "That's Greek!" with ease. It ain't easy to do that at all, not in, not in the slightest during the Hellenistic period. And for this reason, I think that's why it doesn't get attention.
4:23 Speaker 03 It's the racism that seeps into the field oh so often that makes the Hellenistic period not a very comfortable time for certain people to spend significant amounts of time in. That's also what makes it so beautiful and colorful and wonderful and so, so much like our own time. This is a time of large cosmopolitan cities where people from many different backgrounds come together and share their own practices and beliefs and traditions. It's where Greeks go, "Hey, hey, that sounds like a fun idea." And Babylonians go, "Hmm, you know, that god does seem pretty cool. And hey, a gymnasium might actually be nice to have around."
5:02 Speaker 03 And I think if I tried to squish it all down into one episode or six episodes, I would be doing it a great disservice. And this time period deserves so much more than that. So I refuse. Instead, instead, we are going to take our, our time, dear listeners, our sweet, sweet time, and get through it at the speed that we do.
5:43 Speaker 03 That one time when Alex said, "Hey, guys, figure it out."
6:02 Speaker 03 We start in the year 323 BCE. Okay, okay, okay, so we are starting with the event that starts it all. Alex's death. That is all we will really be getting into about Alex. I mean, okay, he he'll pop up here and there with some little things, but mostly we're gonna be talking about his friends and their ideas of him. Maybe also talk about his body, but you know, that's about all. But to start the Hellenistic period, we first need Alex to die. He died in Babylon, surrounded by his friends and other loved ones. Well, mostly his friends, because they were his atyroide or his most beloved companions.
6:46 Speaker 03 He was dying, and they asked him, "Hey, Alex, what's what's going to happen to your kingdom once you finally die?" And he responds with, "To aristo pro aurumae gar epitaphion agona genesomenon moet honfilon." Or, "To the best, for I foresee that my funeral games will take the form of a memorable contest among my friends." And then he died, which is kinda a dick move, but who am I to judge him? Who am I to judge the ancient men? I am but a simple woman, living in the 21st century,
7:30 Speaker 03 who has already had her death plan figured out and where her limited assets will go in case of death, because, you know, no one wants to deal with that incredibly stressful task of deciding where your things go when you die. Unless you're an ancient man, in which case you may just want to? Or it's like, or an anecdote can be used as a fun and delightful reason to fight for like 50 years. Seriously, almost half a century, these conflicts go on. But what exactly are these conflicts? Because I haven't actually gotten into them quite yet, but the next series of wars are commonly called the Wars of the Diadochi, the Wars of the Successors. This is the result of Alex's negligence.
8:11 Speaker 03 Actually, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense because Alex the OK was really bad at doing things like planning ahead. That's one of the theories on why he kept on going after defeating the Persian Empire. He just couldn't imagine doing anything but conquering new lands. He had no end planned for when he was done conquering. How was he going to end up holding all that land that he got his hands on? Because, you know, he got quite a bit. I could see him being like, hmm, why don't I just die? Perhaps I should just give up on life and let all my pals figure it out. Which is exactly what he does and, oh, boy, does it go fucking insane, like, immediately.
8:55 Speaker 03 So now Alex is dead and his body is barely cold before all hell breaks loose. He died childless, mostly, so there was no obvious heir. The infantry pushed for his brother Ariadaeus to become the next king. But see, there was a problem with Ariadaeus, that he was basically not... Well, to use the words of Diodorus Siculus, he was afflicted with incurable mental problems. There isn't really any information in my text on what this means. I would love to get some scholar on the show who knows more about him because it is extremely interesting. But according to a note in the back of my text, it says that Ariadaeus was capable of functioning fairly well,
9:39 Speaker 03 but that he was often prone to displays of emotion in public. After this, it has a note that perhaps he was autistic. Which is really interesting to think about and, once again, would absolutely love to get someone on the show who knows more about him. Anyways, the infantry wanted Ariadaeus to take charge. Next, a group of Alexander's closest friends and bodyguards got together to talk out plans. And they also had the support of the Companion cavalry, who were the elite heavy cavalry of the Macedonian army and were the chosen companions, I guess. Or shall we call them the Hetairoy? I know we mentioned them a little bit earlier, who became the closest guards to the king. Well...
10:22 Speaker 03 This group of friends decided to sell a little delegation of men to talk to the infantry. Maliega was the head of this. I should just make a quick note on the Hetairoy because they are a distinctly Macedonian concept. Often, these were men that Alexander or any of the kings grew up with, was raised with, was trained with. They were his best friends and they would stand by the king throughout his entire reign, being his closest generals, his closest bodyguards, his closest companions. That's why they use the words Hetairoy, which really just means companion, friend. Anyways, back to the infantry and the delegation headed by Maliega.
11:09 Speaker 03 So we're gonna meet a lot of people in this episode and in the next couple of episodes that we talk about it. But it's truly insane. Um, let's do a little backstory on Maliega. Maliega isn't the most important, but he does do some things right now. So he was an officer of the army. He went with Alexander as he conquered Asia Minor, and he was incredibly experienced. He was pretty high ranking, um, but it's very possible that him and Alex weren't quite besties. Alex never actually promoted him within the army and sometimes they got into little fights. So back to the current events. Okay, so Maliega and all of the other guys were sent to talk to the infantry to get them onto the side of the companion cavalry.
11:55 Speaker 03 Literally immediately, Maliega heads up to the infantry and says, you know what, guys? You made the right decision. I'm on your eyes, your side. Let's keep this energy up. Now, Maliega was the leader of the Macedonian infantry at this point. They took him on and eh, some fights went down. It's also worth mentioning that some sources claim that it was Maliega himself who actually incited the infantry. Regardless of the reason, the infantry under the command of Maliega gave him all shit. I cannot emphasize enough how quick chaos unfolds in this time. The men who originally sent Maliega turned tail and left Babylon to get ready to fight. Yet some thought that it would be better to make peace and convince them to do such.
12:39 Speaker 03 Supposedly, this agreement came from the help of Eumenes? Keep that name in the back of your mind. We'll get to him next episode. The result of this is that Ariadaeus was raised into the kingship alongside the unborn child of Alex and Roxana. But Perdicus was made regent of the kingdom, with Maleger closely associated with him and all of Alexander's close friends were given various satrapies, the Persian word for provinces, to manage. So now we on to another major player, Perdicus. Remember this name. We're gonna talk about him lots in this episode and the next. Perdicus was also a Macedonian general, a bodyguard to Alex and also part of the Hattaword. He did good when he was campaigning with Alex,
13:24 Speaker 03 and by that I mean they took on the Achaemenid Empire together and fought lots of battles and, I don't know, he just did war good. But Perdicus is also a very important character to remember, because, like I said, we're gonna talk about him so much. At this point, all you need to know about him is that he was a Hattaword to Alex, and now he is the regent for the Macedonian Empire, under Ariadaeus, and possibly the son of Roxana, if she does give birth to a son.
13:53 Speaker 03 Once Perdicus gets enough power, he decides to punish the infantry for all the difficult things that they did. He goes after the infantry when they are gathered for a review. He had all the troublemakers arrested and then executed. And when Maleger realized what was happening, he took off to a temple to get away from the madness. Unfortunately, seeking sanctuary in a temple did absolutely nothing for him. And Perdicus's men found him and put him to death on Perdicus's order. Perdicus is the one who decided which of the generals got which satrapie, and I apologize in advance for this list. I will say, it's a condensed one. He was the one who decided
14:34 Speaker 03 that Ptolemy would get Egypt, Media would go to Python, and Eumeneus got Paplogonia, Cappadocia, and the neighboring territories. Antigonus got Pamphylia, Lycia, and Greater Phrygia. Menander got Lydia. Lysimachus got Thrace, and finally, Maston was given to Antipater. Okay, there's the list. Really, these are the names I'm pretty sure we all need to know. Ptolemy, Python, Eumene, Antigonus, Menander, Lysimachus, Antipater. I think those are all the important ones. Some might not be that important, but
15:12 Speaker 03 there are so many people in this period. It's just, it's wild. I, I, I should make y'all a graph. I will forget, but I should. Oh yeah, frick, Seleucus, that's embarrassing. Okay. Seleucus didn't actually get a territory. He got to be leader of the Companion cavalry. That was just quite fun, but Seleucus is also important, you know, the Seleucid Kingdom anyways. So now we have Maleger dead. Ariadeus is technically the king, but really Perdicus is the one in charge and making his own moves. Some of Alex's other pals are off in their own provinces, doing their own thing. The next major event was a revolt.
15:57 Speaker 03 God, I love the smell of a good revolt in the morning, but not Perdicus. He wasn't too happy about this. It was the Greek provinces that revolted. Now that Alex was dead, they all felt that, well, they could actually go back and govern themselves. This started with the Greeks in the Upper Satripes, who were placed there while Alex was alive and kind of put up with it all because, well, Alex was really good at subjugating people, so they kind of just accepted their lot. Well, now that he was dead, they were really, really missing that good old Greek way of life. Perdicus then sent Python to deal with this revolt. Another guy, right? Python. Who was Python? And how important is he really?
16:40 Speaker 03 Well, if you remember from earlier, he was the guy who was left in charge of media. He was part of Alex's bodyguard before he died, and he was a competent enough general. There's nothing really more about him. He's, he's kind of just here for the moment. He's not the most important guy, but you know, still here. Kind of in the same camp as Maleger, but look, all the men that we're going to see is going to have some close tie to Alexander and his life, usually within his hetero or the Companion cavalry. We can just assume that they're good generals, good enough at least to continue to have power while here. But this one, right, so he was in charge of Media. Now, Media was the empire that covers sort of the coast of Asia Minor, um, and a bit into the mainland of what is modern day Turkey.
17:25 Speaker 03 It was Chrysus's old kingdom, if you remember from the Herodotus Book One episodes. Almost the very western part of the Asian Empire. Well, Piphon felt that he could not only squash this revolt, but also get the Greeks on his side by treating them pretty well. Once he got them on his side and in his armies, he could then go out on his own and rule over the upper satrapies by himself. Pheidippus suspected such a thing could happen, so he ordered Piphon to put all the revoltors to death once he got back control. I don't know how exactly he thought this would help if Piphon was planning on, you know, doing his own thing, but hey, it's what he said. Piphon eventually meets the revoltors in battle,
18:08 Speaker 03 and with some light bribery, he was actually able to win a victory. Their next battle was a little more fun. They fought and fought, and then the traitor on the Greek side took a bunch of his people and ran off to a nearby hill. As soon as the rest of the army saw this happen, they descended into chaos and they themselves tried to flee. Piphon had managed to defeat them, and the next day, he sent a message trying to convince them to lay down their arms, go home, etc., etc. This worked, actually, um, and they swore a couple of oaths to each other, and then they, everyone was about to be happy and head off for home. The rebellors were happy because, well, they were alive, and Piphon, because he won over the hearts of more people. That is, until Piphon's army remembered what Pheidippus had said,
18:53 Speaker 03 and they, independently of Piphon, went off after the revoltors and attacked them, killing everyone and taking all their property. Piphon's plans were dashed, and he headed back to Pheidippus with his own Mastonian army.
19:10 Speaker 03 Which leads us right into the Lamian War. This is really where the fuck we between all of Alex's old pals starts. For me, when I was looking into all of this, it was really the Lamian War that started the wars of the Diadochi. It had to exist before because of course it did. I mean, Alex just up and died without leaving any sort of plan for what was happening next. I mean, I do suppose he wasn't planning on dying right away, but still, when you are the head of a giant empire such as he was, you would think he would have some sort of backup plan. Regardless, we do get some fun history out of it. You're going to get a lot of new names in this as well. I will give you some backstory on each of them as we meet them, as I have been. So far, we have met Maliga, who promptly died,
19:56 Speaker 03 Podekis, who was ruling the empire quite happily at his own whims, and then Python, who was kind of doing things and then, you know, immediately gave up.
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22:57 Speaker 03 Well, the Lamian War takes place entirely in Greece, where, if you remember, Antipater has been set up as the satrap in charge. Quick terminology thing, like I said earlier, satrap is just province, essentially. And the satrap is the person who is in charge of that province, the governor, the premier, for all our Canadian listeners. Antipater had been around for a long while, being a general and politician, not only under Alex, but also under his father Philip. Phil, I think I'm going to call him Phil. He was one of Phil's most important heritaries. And after he died, he assisted Alex in gaining the throne. While Alex went off to fight the Persian Empire.
23:39 Speaker 03 Antipater stayed home in Macedonia and acted as regent of there and Greece. He crushed a variety of revolts and managed all the affairs of the Greek world. After Alex died, he was put in charge of the entirety of the European provinces, largely Macedonia and Greece, and thus we get the Lamian War. Greece has always held a very important part of the Macedonian Empire. It has always gotten special privileges and was allowed a certain amount of independence that other provinces just never received. During Alex's life, he restored a number of exiles back to their homes in Greece as a way to gain favor and also to have men who were loyal to him within the city. Diodorus literally says that he did this in order to counteract the revolutionary
24:23 Speaker 03 and rebellious tendencies of the Greeks. Which I love, cuz moot. Hugging revolution on, my dudes. Overall, this was generally a great idea and worked really well for him, except for when it came to the Etoleans and the Athenians. They didn't like this, not at all. See, the Etoleans had exiled the Oenidai from their homeland. And because of Alex returning people, they felt that they might be punished for this action. The Athenians, on the other hand, had done the Athenian thing and made a clerarchy on the island of Samos and then refused to give it up. But they knew that they couldn't take on Alex's forces.
25:04 Speaker 03 They just simply didn't have the manpower, so they just kept quiet and didn't start in trouble, just bided the time until the right opportunity arose, which is of course when Alex died. The Athenians made a bid for freedom. They knew of a group of mercenaries nearby and with a not-so-tiny amount of money that was left with them, they asked a man by the name of Leosthenes of Athens to hire these mercenaries to act within his own interests so as to not gain the attention of Antipater. He did so, and because these mercenaries had a lot of experience in and around Greece, they were ready to go when the time came. Alex dies, the Athenians had armors made for the mercenaries, and now Leosthenes could
25:47 Speaker 03 be not so secretive. He went off to Etoia to see if they would like to work together, which they did. And from there, he contacted the Locrians, the Phocians, and their neighbors to also help them gain independence from Macedonian rule. A debate was held in Athens where some high-class people argued, urged them all not to do this, but since the majority felt that they wanted to make a bid for freedom, they decided if they had to do it, they had to go all out and that the Athenian people should make the freedom of the Greeks their business, as Diodorus says. That's so Athenian, man. It's almost painful. It's almost a caricature. It's insane. Anyways, it's what they did.
26:29 Speaker 03 Athenians then went around Greece and tried to recruit other cities. Most did, either as independent city-states or as an official part of the Confederacy. But not all. Some of the city-states chose neutrality. Of these were the Thessaleons, the Oetaeans, the Theonicaeans, and the Malleans. Also, some Illyrians and Thracians joined the cause as well because they were not the biggest fan of the Macedonians either. Lyoseneus was then sent north through Boeotia with the soldiers to make a stand. After a brief spat with the Boeotians, which ended in an Athenian victory, he set up camp at Thermopylae. You know that famous pass where the Greeks fought the Persians? That's where they went. Well, at this point, Antipater had decided that he needs some other people with him.
27:15 Speaker 03 He sent a message to Craterus and, oh, look, a new name. And this name, we do need some backstory on. So Craterus was another general of Alex's and one of the Diadocor. He was a big fan of Alex, did a lot to help him in his campaign, and even married a princess named Amastros, who was the daughter of Darius III's brother, Oxyathres. Basically, he was around and important. Antipater sends to him to give him aid on the Greek mainland, and he agrees. Antipater then makes his way down to meet the Greek army under Lyoseneus. The Thessaleons at first were on Antipater's side, but they are effectively convinced to go to the Greek side. At this point, the Greeks have a numerical advantage.
28:00 Speaker 03 Antipater then flees for the town of Lamia, where he could hold camp until he figured out what to do. The city had walls, you see, so it was safe. So now we're at Lamia, which sounds like it's going to be pretty important, given the name of this entire part is the Lamian War. And indeed, quite a bit of things happen here. Liosines comes with the army and camps nearby, building a large and fortified environment that even had trenches. That's so fun. They siege the town relentlessly, but at some point, the Etonians go to Liosines and say, hey, um, so we actually have some things we have to attend to at home. Is it chill if we head off there? They do so, and Liosines decides the best way then is to is to smoke Antipater out
28:45 Speaker 03 of Lamia by cutting off their access to supplies. This went really well for them, actually, and Antipater was almost screwed, but, well, the Greeks got some incredibly bad luck. One day, Liosines went out to assist the men working in the trenches. While there, don't know how this happened, but he was struck upon the noggin with a stone, where he promptly passed out and died two days later. Seriously, that really sucks. What a bitch way to go, but that was just the face of Liosines, I suppose. He was placed by Antiphilus. We don't need to get much information on him. Things will be wrapping up here eventually anyways. He was a guy. He took charge.
29:29 Speaker 03 The Greeks decided to give up on sieging Lamia at this point, as Antipater had managed to get word out to a man, Leonatus, to ask for help. The Greeks burned their camp, sent off their baggage trains, and headed out to meet up with Leonatus before he could actually meet up with Antipater. Their army was considerably smaller, since the Etonians had left, but they did have the Thessaleans, who were excellent horsemen, with them still, and that gave them some hope. They met up with Leonatus, and eventually, they trapped him in some unnamed marsh, where he was overtaken and killed. What a victory for the Greeks. They are really doing exceptionally well in this fight. However, since Lamia was no longer
30:09 Speaker 03 being sieged, Antipater was able to make his way out. And on the day after the fight with Leonatus, he met up with the remainder of Leonatus's army. They joined, all under the control of Antipater, and got ready to take on the Greeks. So on land, as we can see, the Greeks were doing exceptionally well, but by sea? Well, that was a different story. Surprisingly, the Greeks were no match to the Macedonians while on the water. They cut their asses handed to them over and over, and this is mostly because their fleet was considerably smaller than the Macedonians. By like a hundred ships. It was simply a numbers game. The Macedonian fleet was under control of a man named Cletus, who? Cletus? That's truly Cletus. Beautiful.
30:55 Speaker 03 Anyways, of a man named Cletus, who off the coast of Akhenades Islands, beat the Greeks led by Eution. Defeating him twice and destroying many ships. But back to land, right? Kratos had now left Calichia and eventually made his way to Macedon to help Antipater. He brought many more soldiers with him, and so the Macedonian force just grew. Once he met up with Antipater and Thessaly, he willingly gave up control of his army to Antipater. And they made camp by the river Peneus. Their army was extensive with up to forty thousand heavy infantry, three thousand archers and slingers and five thousand cavalry. The Greeks camp made camp nearby and they had significantly less numbers.
31:40 Speaker 03 They had only about twenty-five thousand foot soldiers and three thousand five hundred cavalry. They were really, really hoping that the cavalry could pull through here. But perhaps their luck was running out. So they had lost numbers, not only to the previous battles they fought, but also to the men just up and leaving for various reasons. It's the same old story. No standing army means that the army consists of the citizen body and well, the citizen body only has so much free time to wage war. Men came and went, and because of this, their army just dwindled as the days went by.
32:16 Speaker 03 Antipater started to lead his men up to the Greek camp every day and challenged them to fight. The Greeks held out, hoping that more of their men might return and they would have a better chance. However, as time went by, they had no choice but to meet the Macedonian forces in battle. The Thessalonian cavalry did their job, actually, which is great, except that Antipater called up the infantry, who then managed to break through the Greek phalanx and kill many, many men. The Greeks withdrew to the hills in hope that the high ground would help them in maintaining an advantage. This worked for a while, they were able to keep the Macedonians away from them, and eventually the Macedonians did withdraw.
32:57 Speaker 03 Yet the Greeks had sustained heavy casualties, and their numbers had dwindled even more. At this point, two Greek officers, Menon and Antiphilus, met up to discuss what steps should be taken next. They wanted to wait for their allies to return the Italians, but they also had to be honest with themselves. While they were managing to keep the Macedonians off, they were losing many, many men, and they decided that the best step was to try and sue for peace. They sent heralds to Antipater to try to come to an agreement on ending the war. Antipater refused, not to eventually come to an agreement, but that he wouldn't make an agreement with the Greeks as a collective.
33:41 Speaker 03 Each city would have to come to him individually to make peace and negotiate. This is genius. By doing this, he is pulling the Greek army apart, city-state by city-state. The Greeks were succeeding because they were working together, and I mean, this is tale as old as time in Greek history. When they are divided, they don't do well, but when they are joined together as a unit, they are able to take on great empires. And Antipater tore this apart with a simple rule: they could not exist collectively. They had to remain within their individual states. The Greeks weren't a fan of this solution and continued to fight.
34:21 Speaker 03 However, Antipater and Critterius laid siege to Thessalonian cities, destroying them one by one. The fear this caused, well, this fear was enough for the Thessalonian cities to agree to the terms. And each town, city, and village started sending envoys to Antipater to sue for peace individually. This continued on throughout the Greek mainland with other cities realizing what was coming and in an effort to keep themselves safe, sending envoys to Antipater to come to some sort of agreement. Antipater effectively quickly dismantled Greek unity. Yet the Etoleans and the Athenians still refused to make any sort of peace with the Macedonians.
35:01 Speaker 03 The Athenian people were worried and they urged their leaders to send to the Macedonians to make peace. But the leaders refused to do so. The main one was Demades, who, since he wouldn't work with Antipater to keep Athens safe, was stripped of all his citizen's rights by the citizen body. They then sent another envoy to Antipater and Antipater finally agreed to meet with them and come to some sort of terms. Yet he said they would have to be okay with whatever he handed to them. The Athenians had no say in what the terms to peace would be. They had no choice. Their own army was nothing compared to the Macedonians and there was simply no way that they could meet him in war and have any sort of chance.
35:47 Speaker 03 They agreed to his terms. Yet, as it is always the case with Athens and other Greek cities, Antipater was incredibly lenient on his sentencing. They could keep their city, their farms, and everything else, but he changed their constitution. Now, the only people who could participate in politics were people with more than 2,000 drachmas and they would be the ones who were allowed to partake in administration and to vote. Democracy was essentially dismantled.
36:18 Speaker 03 These people, about nine thousand, governed the city according to Solon's laws, and a Macedonian garrison was installed in the city under the command of Menilius. They were to prevent any revolutionary matters. It was a police state. How fun. When it comes to the clerikeon, Samos, this was up to the kings. Kings, plural. Yeah, so Roxana had given birth to a son after all, Philip III, who now had joined kingship with Ariadais, which is something, except for the fact that, you know, Philip III is a child and Ariadais is described as having some sort of, you know, disability. So Podeikis was still regent and essentially king.
37:02 Speaker 03 It was up to Podeikis. Well, what happened to Samos? It doesn't say. Well, the rest of the Greek cities were treated with a similar level of leniency. Really, the ancient Greeks could rebel as much as they could possibly want, and they would still be treated so gently in the end. Thus ends the Lamian War. Oh, and also, we're still in the year 323.
37:41 Speaker 03 Well, friends, that's it for the end of the beginning of this little series. We looked at the Lamian War. Who knew about that? I like knew the name but didn't know details. Can you believe that I was planning on doing the entirety of the First War of the Diadochi in this episode? I don't know if you know any of it, but like, that is so much, and I didn't even really get into the whole war at all. I just got to the end of the Lamian War. But hey, more episodes. I don't know if it's just that I ramble so much or that there's so much information that I feel needs to be part of it all, but I can't easily find things to cut out, to condense it.
38:24 Speaker 03 Not that I think that you guys want a condensed version of it all. I mean, that's why I've changed my plans for these episodes on the Hellenistic series after all. We really just got through the beginnings of it. The Lamian War was just the pin in the grenade, that is, the war is the diadochi. There was tension beforehand, you know, everyone was aware of the existence of the grenade. But it wasn't really until this moment that we see the actual conflicts coming out. We'll get more into this next week. Because I really just wanted to focus on the Lamian War, so I didn't talk about what else was happening in the wider Med, such as in Asia and in Egypt. But like Perdicus and Eumenus and Ptolemy and there's stuff going on.
39:09 Speaker 03 I think those names familiar to you, by the way, I hope so, especially with Ptolemy. You guys have to know that one, right? Anyways, so this forty year period is absolutely insane. And it's just the thing that catapults the Hellenistic period into existence. It's because of these wars that we get all these different cultural interactions happening in the Med with the Macedonian Greeks, bopping around, bringing Macedonian culture, Greek culture and all the other cultures of the people moving around with them, such as Thracians, Lyrians, Medians, Cappadocians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Just a wonderfully exciting mixing part of cultures and ideas. And you know what? I'm really, really excited to explore this more.
39:52 Speaker 03 I know this will take quite a long time, actually, and you all receive episodes as I get slots in the production schedule, which Liv and I are planning to change up next year, which, you know, iron out the details after I graduate, because turns out writing a thesis is hard, who would have thunk, not me. And also, I don't want to forget about Herodotus, we've only done his first book. And honestly, Herodotus is one of those authors, you just think he's talking about the Persian Wars, but there is so much delightful things, like when it comes to the Persian Wars, we really have book one, and then books seven and eight. So there's still books two through six, it's what's happening in there, we'll get there anyways, whatever.
40:37 Speaker 03 Ah, I think Herodotus would be proud of how I tell stories too, because I just can't seem to stop rambling, even now. Anyways, and if any of this has seemed over the top or ridiculous, blame history. Or blame my lack of sleep, because I literally didn't sleep last night, I haven't slept in over twenty-four hours, maybe thirty-six, I don't know math. You know, I just I had two presentations for classes today and an essay that's well due tomorrow, but there's a flex due date for the end of the week. And let's be honest, I'm going to take the flex due date. I'm exhausted as well as this episode. But I think
41:18 Speaker 03 the exhaustion was really, really worth it. Now I'm going to go edit this now and get it uploaded. So you all get it at just the right time. Love you all. See you next week. Let's talk about myths. Baby is written and produced by Liv Albert, that wonderful human being with the weirdo Greek cat that we all love talking about. And shall we hear? Michaela Panguish is me, the Hermes to all your Olympians, producer and other things too, cat mom. I'm around. Select music by Luke Chaos. Thank you, Luke. The podcast is part of the Memory Collective Podcast Network, a collection of creators that strive to bring you accurate and reliable information on the ancient world. These include all the wonderful
42:00 Speaker 03 friends at Movies We Dig, The Partial Historian, Sweet Bitter, and so much more. Get ad free episodes and other wonderful things by subscription to the Oracle Edition on Patreon at patreon.com/mithsbaby or via the link in the episode's description. Lots of things go down on Patreon, guys, and much more in the future when I am no longer controlled by the taxing schedule of upper education. Come on over, let us know how you're doing, what you want to learn about, what books you're currently reading. Oh, and please, dog pictures? Everyone has cats. I love all the cat pictures. Don't get me wrong. Love the cats. I have cats, but come on, I want more dog pictures. Send me videos of your dogs going tippy tappy, tippy tappy and and and barking at things. I want it. Anyways, I love you all. I'll
42:44 Speaker 03 see you next week for the continuation of the first war of the Diodo Kai series. Bye.
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Previous Conversations: Life At the Far Edges of a Crumbling Empire... w/ Owen Rees Next Conversations: The Empire is Back. . .and This Episode is the Seleucids w/ Dr. Talia Prussin Page updated October 31, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated