When Alexander the Great suddenly died in 323 BCE without a legitimate heir, the future of his massive empire was uncertain, to say the least. He had left two unborn children, an illegitimate son and a half-wit half-brother, but the real power lay with none of them. The true power was with the generals and officers who have come down to us in history as the diadochi: the successors.

Lysimachus depicted in the manner of Alexander

Lysimachus

Lysimachus was born in Greece, but raised in Macedon and granted citizenship and rose to great standing. He was a bodyguard to Philip II and also to Alexander. After Alexander’s death, when the empire was carved up into new governorships, Lysimachus received greater Thrace.

Lysimachus’s career started slowly. He allowed himself to be an ally of others, in their attempts to rid themselves of their latest foe. He no doubt had his own reasons for these alliances, however. He slowly developed into a major power and eventually took both much of Asia Minor and Macedon itself.

In his later years, he became known as a ruthless ruler; his cities revolted and his friends deserted him. He died in battle at the age of 80, succeeded by his son Alexander.

Craterus

As history has it, Craterus was certainly one of the lesser successors even though he was a general under Alexander and given power in the most important province of them all: Macedonia itself.

When Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BCE, Craterus and Polyperchon were leading a large veteran force back to Macedon. They had just reached modern Turkey when they had to abort their mission and sail to Greece to help Antipater quell an uprising.

He then allied himself with other successors going against Perdiccas, but never got to see Perdiccas fall as he was killed in battle against Pediccas’s foremost successor ally: Eumenes.

Mosaic depicting Alexander the Great and Craterus hunting a lion.

Eumenes

Eumenes was the only successor without Macedonian citizenship. He was a Greek, though he had been employed by Alexander’s father since youth.

When Alexander’s empire was split up Eumenes became the governor of Cappadocia, a land at the time not even part of the empire. Perdiccas charged the generals Leonnatus and Antigonus with securing it for him, but Antigonus had no interest in doing so and Leonnatus simply tried to persuade Eumenes to join him in marching on Macedon and securing a wedding between Leonnatus and Alexander’s widowed sister to make Leonnatus part of the royal family.

Eumenes would have none of it, and ran off to Perdiccas to tell all. And because he was a true royalist and saw Perdiccas as the protector of the throne, to Perdiccas he remained loyal. When everyone turned on Perdiccas, Eumenes was sent to secure the northern borders. While he was there, however, Perdiccas was murdered and a warrant was put on Eumenes’s head. He had to flee. Within three years he had been found and executed.

About the author: E P Wohlfart is a twenty-something freelance writer with a Classical Archaeology degree, a laptop and a maxed-out library card. Aside from administrating PastPresenters.com, which she started in 2008, she works with several historical publications and is a regular contributor at Suite101.