Why do you think it took Alexander such a long time to *actively* go about making an heir? I understand that marriage in the early 20's was uncommon but that for him it was especially undiplomatic to tie himself down to one particular faction at court at the start of his reign. His father himself was very quick to marry into peace. Why did it take Alexander so long to address that issue? He could have officiated his union with Staitera whenever. Or had anyone he wanted at 25 after Issus.
First, I've been preparing for, then in New York for some cool things I'll talk about later. But it's slowed down my answers. (Now, I have to catch up for the time spent preparing, so I'll still be slow.)
Also, I realized I answered this once before, so here is the other (somewhat shorter) reply.
Argead Inheritance and Alexanderâs (lack of) Heirs (Take II)
A lot of historians have asked why Alexander didnât marry earlier and put off producing an heir. My own answer involves what I think were some unrecognized attempts mixed with bad luck. To really understand, however, we have to look at the behavior of prior Macedonian kings, and how the Argead Dynasty understood succession. Buckle-up Buttercup, this is a longer one. đ
Letâs begin with Philip (II) and his older brother Perdikkas (III), the only two prior kings whose ages of first marriage we know or can reasonably guess. Let me also preface it by saying that while prior Macedonian kings sometimes had more than one wife, nobody had seven.* (The most Iâm aware of are two, maybe three.) Philipâs military and political success led to an expansion on royal marriage in Macedon.
Perdikkas III ruled c. 5 years. Weâre unsure how much older he was, but 2-3 years and possibly more. At his death, he had a son about a year old (Amyntas). We donât know the name of Perdikkasâs wife, or when he married, but he was married at least 2 years. At his death, he would have been 25-30, probably closer to 30. My guess is he married after coming to the throne (for reasons Iâll skip as this is already long enough).
Philip married 5 times in his first 5-6 years; all were political. He was c. 23/24 when he came to the throne. For his first marriage, he wasnât given much choice. Like Beth Carney, I consider Audata the first wife (not Phila), and he married her as part of a deal with Bardylis to prevent all-out invasion of Upper Macedonia following his brotherâs death (along with half the Macedonian army) on a battlefield in Lynkestis. That marriage made him a client king.
This marriage may explain his rapid second marriage to Phila of Elimeia (independent kingdom until Philip). He probably contracted it shortly after to get the skillful Elimeian cavalry, et al., on his side for a second go at Bardylis just the next year. No grass grew under Philipâs feet.
In addition, Bill Greenwalt has proposed that Philip and Olympias were betrothed some years prior by their brother and uncle, respectively, when she was still a girl and he was in his teensâa backroom alliance against the threat of Bardylis. Obviously, it didnât save Perdikkas. In 360, she still wasnât old enough to bring to Pella, nonetheless, the alliance existed. Philip already had Lynkestis via his mother Eurydike. Andâif Parmenion really was from Pelagoniaâhe also had that kingdom, if not via marriage/family. Thatâs a solid border against Illyria. (See map)
So, his first marriages/betrothal were driven by a need to deal with Illyria. His next marriages, a few years later, reflected a need to settle matters in Thessaly on his southern border. Marriage for him was all about securing the Macedonian borders. Those five marriages produced five surviving children from four wivesâtwo of them boys.
He doesnât marry again for almost a decade, and then itâs to settle matters in northern Thrace.
The last marriage, whatever our sources say, was also almost certainly political, but this time to address apparent internal conflict. Weâre not sure what that was; itâs been lost to layers of drama involving Alexander and Olympias, but it probably owed to tension between Upper and Lower Macedoniaâwhich hadnât been united all that long.
So, Philipâs marriages were politically driven. He got children out of them, but that wasnât the driving reason for him to marryâexcept possibly the last. Internal conflict or not, he may also have married again to father a âbackupâ heir, in case he lost Alexander and/or Amyntas in Persia (more below).
Thatâs the view of [royal] marriage Alexander grew up with: Macedonian kings marry for politicsâŠnot necessarily to secure heirs.
We must also review the crazy method of Argead inheritance.** ANY Argead male could hold the throne. There was a preference for the son of the prior king, or at least a prior king. There also seems to have been a preference for a son by the higher/highest status wife. Yet because any Argead could hold the throne, virtually no Argead king went unchallenged either at the beginning of, or sometimes later in his reign.
Supposedly, on his deathbed, when asked to whom he left his kingdom, Alexander replied, âTo the strongest.â That pretty much sums up Argead inheritance.
For this reason, underage Macedonian heirs/kings usually didnât live/rule long. The one âinfant kingâ tale comes from an era before we have a surviving historical record to know how long he reigned, or if it were all legendary. The list of Macedonian kings before Amyntas I, father of Alexander I, may be semi-mythical, like early Roman kings. See imageâŠhelpfully numbered (by me). Stemma itself from In the Shadow of Olympus, E. N. Borza.
Alexander I (Persian Wars) had five living sons. The line of inheritance went through the third, Perdikkas II (Peloponnesian War era), then down to ArchelaosâŠafter that, things get a bit crazy until Amyntas III (Philipâs father). He descended from Alex Iâs youngest son, which established a new line that lasted until Alexander IV. But in that time, because of the somewhat laissez-faire attitude towards who could inherit, we have a lot of internecine battles every time a king died, which thinned the herd.
The arithmetic of high infant mortality plus death in war meant Macedonian kings needed an âheir and a spare, and the spareâs spare.â Philip had that after his first spate of marriages: Alexander, Arrhidaios, and Amyntas (his nephew). That Arrhidaios was unfit became apparent only over time, but was still good to father sons.
When, post-Chaironeia, Philip prepared to invade Persia, he made a spate of royal marriages first. Arrhidaiosâs betrothal was meant to get an Asian bridgehead/ally, but fell through thanks to Alexanderâs meddling. Amyntas was given his cousin Kynnane, who wound up pregnant quickly. That turned out to be a girl, but it proved both were fertile: more children to come. This marriage may also have been a sop to keep Amyntas loyal. Kleopatra was married off to the king of Epiros to solidify one of Macedonâs closest allies and alleviate any insult to Olympias at Philipâs own final marriage.
As for that wedding, in addition to any internal politics, it gave him opportunity for another son. He had to consider the possibility that he could lose both Alexander and Amyntas in combat, and perhaps even himself, if it all were to go south. Arrhidaios was a stop-gap. An infant son back home could eventually take the throne.âžž
Yet the one person he does NOT prepare nuptials for? Alexander.
Why? He almost certainly planned to marry him to one of Dariusâs daughters. He admitted as much when he dressed down Alexander for having offered himself to marry Pixodarosâs daughter in Arrhidaiosâs place. That would have made an impression on Alexander, perhaps in shame: he was meant for royalty only.
When Alexander ascended the throne, he owed it to the support of the two most important men in Macedon: Antipatros and ParmenionâŠwho, if not open enemies, each had their own factions. Both had eligible daughters, but to avoid giving one side too much power, heâd have had to marry both, or none at all.
OR, as Tim Howe has suggested, he might have decided to marry his fatherâs young widow.
It wouldnât have been the first time in Macedonian history. And it explains, oh, so much better, why Olympias killed Kleopatra-Eurydike. Keep in mind, Kleopatra-Eurydikeâs new husband was dead and sheâd delivered only (another) girl mere days earlier. Olympias may have enjoyed her discomfiture at being sidelined more than her death.
Unless Alexander decided to marry her. She was almost certainly younger than him, and had proven fertile. Maybe he saw the marriage as a way to further solidify support. But it would have challenged Olympiasâs status. I donât know that this is what occurred, but Tim makes a good case, and her decision to kill the girl to remove the threat then becomes intelligible rather than just bloodthristy.
When Mommy Dearest eliminated the widow option, young Alex was back to square one. Marry a daughter of Antipatros and of Parmenion, or stay unmarried. He chose the latter.
Yes, it left no heir to the throne (other than Arrhidaios), but he had no good option that wasnât also a potential political grenade. And unlike his fatherâs situation in 359/8, marriage wasnât foisted on him. He could wait a few years, so he did.
After Issos, the Persian royal family came into his possession, and by this point, he was 24, the same age his father had been at his first marriage. Pressure began to mount. Here were all these pretty Persian ladiesâŠ. PICK ONE. It wouldnât have been just Parmenion saying so.
Thereâs been some recent speculation that he married Barsine, didnât just take her as a mistress. While possible, Iâm not sure itâs probable. She came with a lot of baggage for a first marriage. Making her his mistress, especially if a palakÄ, provided her with a respectable, recognized status, but still left the door open for a first marriage becauseâŠ.
As the asker alludes to, he almost certainly also bedded Statiera, Dariusâs wife. Why marry the pony horse when you can have the racehorse? Oh, oops. Sheâs still married because her husband is still alive. How inconvenient.
So why didnât he just declare her divorced and make it official?
Politics. However much he didnât fully understand Persian affairs of state, he understood optics, and general human reactions. Greeks and Macedonians would want him to bed the queen because thatâs the ultimate piss-in-the-eye of the Other Guy. But after Issos, Alexander was hoping to bring other satraps over to him. By not touching Statiera or her daughtersâat least at firstâhe presented himself as civilized and respectful. He even offered Darius his family back, on one condition. Surrender. Darius had to come as a suppliant to ask for them.
Of course, Darius refused. Nor did Alexander expect him to agree, but the required dance had been performed. When Darius began soliciting a new army, the tacit message was, âYou can have the women.â âžžâžž
While all these negotiations took place, Alexander had Barsine. Keep in mind, the letters would have taken weeks, probably months. The number of letters is unclear, but probably two each. The final exchange occurred sometime in the seven months of Alexanderâs siege of Tyre.
Why do I say he was bedding Statiera, and (probably) planned to marry her? After all, Plutarch is adamant he was too chivalrous even to look at her! Well, Plutarch also tells usâwithout apparent ironyâthat Statiera died in childbirth just a few weeks before GaugamelaâŠwhich was two years after Issos. That sure as hell wasnât Dariusâs kid. And no, nobody else would have been allowed to touch her. Plutarch lied. Why? Itâs all part of his honorable âSleep-and-sex-remind-me-Iâm-mortalâ Alexander. Itâs also Plutarch who turns the marriage of Roxane into a âlove-at-first-sightâ affair.
In any case, I think Statiera was another marriage that Alexander planned, but fate prevented.
If we count back 40-or-so weeks from her death in mid-September of 331, that puts us in December of 332. Alexander had entered Egypt in November. Itâs doubtful she accompanied him on the trek to Siwah, so his opportunities for impregnating her were at the beginning of his Egyptian stay, or towards the end. Keep in mind that while we know she died in childbirth, we donât know if it was full term; Justin in fact says it was death in a miscarriage (possibly from hemorrhaging?). Accounting for Siwah, she was probably either nine months or seven months along. As for when he started sleeping with her: any time after the final exchange of letters with Darius.
In the spring of 331, he left Egypt to return to Tyre before moving inland to find Darius. By the time Alexander left Tyre, Statiera probably knew she was pregnant and would almost certainly have told him.
I think he held off marrying her until he could meet Darius again in battle (and kill him), which he assumed immanent. Yet the Macedonians had no concept of how big the interior was. And Darius wanted to draw Alexander onto the plains of northern Iranâbut not too fast. He burned fields in front of the Macedonians partially, intending to leave them with enough food to continue, but not enough to fill bellies. He assumed a hungry army would be insubordinate, but underestimated both Macedonian discipline and Alexanderâs scouting and intelligence. By September, Alexander had finally caught him up east of ancient Nineveh across the Tigris.
Then Statiera went into labor and died. BOOM, Alexanderâs marry-the-wife plan fell apart for a second time, and he lost a potential heir in the process. Did a lack of food contribute to her death? Maybe. Sheâd had at least 2-3 healthy children, but was also in her mid 30s, possibly even early 40s. Lack of food or not, an army camp would hardly be easy on an older woman in late pregnancy. (Had my first at 33; I can speak to that.)
But!, you may be wondering, even if Statiera had lived and Darius had died (as was Alexanderâs ostensible plan), wouldnât a baby born before marriage have been a bastard? Wouldnât matter. First, given the cloistering of highborn Persian women, itâd be easy enough to lie about such things. Second, bastard or not, the child was still an Argead.
It would also explain why he didnât marry immediately after Issosânor after Gaugamela. Plan A died in the birthing bed, and Plan B, the daughters, were too young yet. Furthermore, it wasnât over at Gaugamela. Heâd have to chase Darius furtherâŠ.
He dropped off the girls in Susa for safe-keeping and went after Darius. Again, we must recall, he had no idea how long this would take. He probably assumed heâd be back in Susa in a year or so. Instead, he wouldnât see Susa again for six years.
In 327 (c. 3.5 years later). he finally decided to marryâfor political reasons: to achieve peace in Baktria. Now pushing 30, and given how long everything had taken, he chose not to put it off any longer; he could always marry the princess later. Ironically, this marriage was not well-received by the army, although it wasnât much different from his fatherâs marriages. Then again, we have no idea how Philipâs marriages were received at the time. I doubt the army was thrilled to have an armor-wearing, battle-trained Illyrian princess as Philâs first bride.
Whatever the case, Alexander had a wife and, if we can trust the Metz Epitome, he lost little time getting her pregnant. But she miscarried (again, perhaps a boy). He just wasnât having much luck fathering living childrenâŠperhaps because he kept dragging his women through tough conditions. One had a geriatric pregnancy and the other was probably 14-16: neither optimal ages.
As soon as he was back in Susa, he planned the mass weddings at which he finally married Dariusâs daughter, Statiera II, as well as Parysatis, Statiera's cousin. Within a year, he had both Roxane and Statiera pregnant, if not Parysatis.
So, we have to shed the moralizing of Plutarchâs narrative and evaluate what was really going on. Alexander may not have married till 29, but he probably angled for it at least once (Statiera) and possibly twice (Kleopatra-Eurydike) before that. Should he have stopped aiming for queens and just married a nice girl to pop out babies? Well, thatâs essentially what he did with Roxana. Maybe he should have started there, back in Macedonia before he left, but he didnât, and at 22, it wasnât a shocking choice.
Yes, Macedonian kings certainly worried about heirs, but to produce an heir was not the primary way Philip, or Alexander, used marriage. It served political goals first, inheritance second.
* To be fair, he didnât have seven at the same time. We know one (Nikesepolis, Thessalonikeâs mother) was dead before Philip married Meda (#6), and itâs quite possible the mysterious Phila of Elimeia (#2) also died young. At the time of his death, we can be sure only of Olympias and Kleopatra-Eurydike, although at least some of the others were likely still around. My guess is there were four-to-five wives in the womenâs quarters in 336. (In Dancing with the Lion, there are four: Philina, Olympias, Meda, and Kleopatra-Eurydike.)
** An almost prohibitive amount of scholarly debate, most in article/book-chapter form, concerns whether or not Macedonia had a âconstitutional monarchy,â and whatâif anyâsay the army had in choosing a king. While some constitutionalists remain (M. Hatzopoulos most notably), these days the bulk of scholars (not in Greece) favor a position of ânomosâ (custom) but no formal rules. For a bibliography of the debate, at least up through 2002, see Carol Kingâs chapter in Brillâs Companion to Alexander the Great (Roisman, 2003). A new Companion from Cambridge, edited by Daniel Ogden, is currently in the works, probably out in 2023, which will likely update the state of the scholarly conversation.
âžž This is more or less what the army demanded at Alexanderâs death: Arrhidaios for now, as Philip III, along with infant Alex IV, whoâd presumably go on to reign alone when of age. But by that point, ambitious generals were happy just to end the Argead Dynasty altogether and form their own. Like most underage Macedonian kings, Alex IVâs days were numbered, despite being the last Argead. Once, the gloss of divine descent from Herakles might have saved him, but the Diadochi had grown too jadedâand too successful. They all thought themselves equally worthy.
âžž âžž By ancient criteria, if a man surrendered his kingdom âjustâ to get his wife and children back, it would automatically tag him as unfit to be king. Yes, even in Persia, where women had higher status overall. In the ancient near east, nobodyâs life was more important that the kingâs. Statiera would have been well aware of that, so Dariusâs âbetrayalâ was to be expected. In fact, she might have despised him if heâd agreed.
