Hello professor Reames! I just read your earlier answer about Antipatros, yet I still have to ask: didn't Alexander foresee how dangerous letting so much power consolidate in the hands of such a man could be? In the Macedon proper, nonetheless! Do you think, if Alexander had lived enough to return to Greece or at least after his conquests were solidified, that he would have removed Antipatros from his position as regent?
Why Antipatros Couldn't Become King
Antipatros couldnāt become kingānot while an Argead lived. So why remove him? Also, it could have been dangerous. See, Antipatros had held the role of regent at least back to Perdikkas III, and his father/grandfather Iolaos, held it under Perdikkas II. That suggests a sort of hereditary position. To simply āremoveā him from it would require a damn good reason.
Just like, when ATG came to the throne, he couldnāt just āfireā the Bodyguards (Somatophylakes) who his father had appointed. He had to wait until either they died, or they were reappointed (by him) to a more prestigious position such as a satrapy (as happened with Balakros).
If regent was indeed an hereditary role in Macedon, by removing Antipatros, Alexander wouldāve had to be VERY careful about who he put there, if not Kassandros (which heād have done when iron floated). Supposedly, towards the end of his life, he did send Krateros back to Macedon to become regent, as heād apparently been quite ill, so it was a āmedical leaveā from active military duty. Although as Iāve said elsewhere, I think his real job, at least at first, was to oversee the construction of a fleet in Cilicia, for Alexander to attack Carthage. They just didnāt want to advertise that too soon. He may (or may not) have been intended to then go with the army to Carthage.
Antipatros was, meanwhile, summoned to Babylon. Again, some have assumed he was being called on the carpet for over-reach back home. Iām not so sure. If Alexander was about to leave Persia for Arabia and/or Carthage, itās possible that he wanted somebody Very Experienced to hold the fort in Babylon/Persia. Itās possible, again, that he intended to leave Hephaistion there, but that obviously fell through. Even so, the orders to Antipatros and the sending home of Krateros happened sometime in the summer of 2024ābefore Hephaistion died. So that would have reflected what he intended before Hephaistionās death cast a spanner in his original plans.
In short, I think there are ways to interpret these orders that arenāt negative. Itās possible he was worried about Antipatrosā consolidation of power, but I kinda doubt itābecause that assumes Antipatros could make a bid for the kingship. And he couldnāt. Especially back home in Macedon, the citizens wouldnāt have accepted a non-Argead while an Argead lived.
The mistake I think folks commonly make is forgetting the āmust be an Argeadā ruleā¦or discounting it because that dissolved in the Successor Wars. But it didnāt dissolve until surviving Argead males were dead. Nobody called himself ākingā until after, even when they were acting like kings, and may well have planned to kill the king(s) as soon as they could get away with it. AND note that the Successor kings were really keen to marry an Argead woman (Kleopatra or Thessalonike). Furthermore, I suspect the idea that they could become kings themselves developed over time. Initially, they just wanted to carve off a chunk of the empire to effectively rule over, as satrap.
That (religious) royal charisma of the Argead line MATTERED, and was very, very deeply embedded in the consciousness of Macedonian tradition.
So, theories that Parmenion/Philotas were plotting to kill Alexander to become king, or that Antipatros planned to do soā¦those arise from not understanding how Macedonian kingship worked. And, furthermore, are kinda modern. Sure, itās possible they wanted to kill Alexander (specifically) because they thought heād got out of controlā¦but theyād need an Argead to replace him. (Which would have been either Arrhidaios or, earlier, Alexander of Lynkestis.)
Such a supposition also assumes Philotas was part of Dimnosās plot n the first place, and I donāt believe he was. I think he was just an arrogant little shit who didnāt take seriously, and so failed to report, Dimnosās plot, then fell victim to his own stupidity. š As for the supposed plot of Antipatros (and Aristotle) to poison Alexander (much later), thatās a product of the Successor Wars. Negative propaganda about Antipatros by his enemies.
So, I donāt think either plan was real anyway, at least not on Parmenionās or Antipatrosās part. (Dimnosās plot was certainly real.) Yet if they had been, neither Parmenion/Philotas nor Antipatros could have become king themselves. Ergo, any concerns on Alexanderās part wouldnāt have been over Antipatros consolidating power to take the throne, but consolidating power to assassinated HIM, specifically.












