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THESSALONIKE of MACEDON
Alexander’s half-sister, THESSALONIKE is one of the more ‘tragic’ women figures of ancient Macedon. She was born about 345 BC, the daughter of king Philip II by his Thessalian wife or concubine, Nikesipolis, from Pherae, a Thessalian of noble origins. Her birth fell on the same day that the armies of Macedon and the Thessalian league won a significant battle over the Phocians. Philip is said to have proclaimed “Let her be called victory in Thessaly”. Thus, her name is made up of two words Thessaly and nike” translated to mean “Thessalian Victory.”rpk-tramplin
Her mother died shortly after her birth so she was left in the care of OLYMPIAS, mother of Alexander. At the time she was born, Alexander was under the tutelage of Aristotle and she was only six or seven when he left on his Persian expedition. When Alexander died, Thessalonike would have been just twenty-one years old.
She had spent her childhood in the queen’s quarters and endured a lonely life with the formidable queen. Philip had been assassinated before he could chose a husband for her so she seemed destined to be a spinster.
Eventually she fell under the seduction of KASSANDROS who sought to entice her into marriage so that he would gain more power. He promised to name a city after her if she agreed to the marriage. This is the source for the elegant city of Thessaloniki, which in modern times was known as “the Paris of the North.” And this is Thessaloniki’s only claim to fame.
During her undoubtedly tumultuous marriage to Kassandros, THESSALONIKE gave birth to three sons, Philip, Antipater and Alexander. After their father’s death, she had a great deal of influence over them. One of the sons, Antipater, became jealous of Thessalonike’s favour shown to the youngest brother and as a result he murdered her. Thus ended a tragic life and to this day she is remembered only by the city named after her.
INTRODUCING PHILIP ARRIDAIOS
ARRIDAIOS was the offspring of King Philip II’s Thessalian war-bride, Philinna, from Larissa, who he had married in order to consolidate the Thessalian nation. Arridaios was two years younger than Alexander, born a normal healthy child, but at some point he was poisoned. Not enough to kill him, but enough to make him mentally deficient. It was always believed that Olympias was responsible for this as she would not let another male heir survive to take the place of her son, Alexander.reteks
Arridaios (named Philip after his father) was normal in looks and resembled his father enough so that when he was an adult, anyone who did not know about his mental capacity might think he was just like Philip who was highly esteemed by the soldiers.
At one point, Philip tried to marry Arridaios off to a Carian princess. This caused Alexander to be jealous and he and his Companions tried to way-lay the plans. Little did they realize that the princess was still a mere child. When Philip found out he was furious and banished some of the Companions.
After Philip’s assassination Alexander engaged Arridaios by proxy to his niece Adeia, whose father had been executed for treason in Philip’s death. Later, when Alexander left on campaign to Asia Minor he took Arridaios along to protect him from Olympias and from others who might use the dullard prince to their own advantage.
When Alexander died in Babylon, some of the generals wanted to name Arridaios as king. This was plainly a ploy to use him to their own advantage. Alexander’s Soghdian wife, Roxana, had given birth to a male child, Alexander IV (Iskander) who was the legal heir. But he was not pure Macedonian and many of the generals resented a foreign child claiming the throne. One of the generals, Meleager, and his phalanx troops, insisted that Arridaios should be king. They formed a faction against Perdikkas who had taken control of the army. The coup was ended with the instigators being put to death including Meleager. To keep peace in the army, Perdikkas named Philip Arridaios and Alexander IV (Islander) as joint-kings.
Meanwhile, Alexander’s neice Adeia and her mother Kynna (one of Philip’s daughters) disguised as men, made their way to Asia Minor to make good on the proxy engagement (even though it had been annulled by the Regent). Supposing they were brigands, Perdikkas men attacked them and killed Kynna. When Adeia revealed her identity they rallied around her and insisted that Perdikkas allow the marriage to take place.
Adeia adopted the royal name Eurydike. Her main intention was to marry Arridaios so she could get a hold on the throne to avenge her father Amyntas and her mother’s deaths. She treated Arridaios kindly, and played the role of the dutiful wife. Meanwhile she had formed her own faction against Perdikkas.
Poor Arridaios was cared for and led about by a kindly Keeper. He was prone to seizures and had only the intelligence of a three-year old in spite of his manly size and ‘normal’ appearance. In studying about Arridaios I did research on epilepsy and observations of the mentally disabled in order get a clear picture of him and what his abilities might be. He is a loveable but tragic character in the novel. He was manipulated and used by both the generals and his wife, Adeia, and in the end it could only mean tragedy for him.
In Part Two of SHADOW OF THE LION: THE FIELDS OF HADES the story tells of Arridaios’ pathetic life and his unfortunate ending.
CITIES OF ALEXANDER’S WORLD: BABYLON
BABYLONmensclub24.ru
The Chaldean King Nebuchadnezzar II (604-561 BC) was responsible for making Babylon into one of the wonders of the ancient world. He is the Biblical king who sacked Jerusalem and carried off 10,000 captives to help him build his monumental capital. He is credited with constructing the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. (There have been recent reports that archaeologists may have located the actual site of the gardens). They are described as “built with roofs from trunks of cedar wood”. Nebuchadnezzar also built the city gates which were decorated with huge bronze bulls. 
In 539 BC the Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Great, King of Persia who sacked and burned the city. Under Cyrus and later the Persian King Darius the Great, Babylon became the administrative capital of the Persian Empire. It was a centre of learning and scientific advancement. Astronomy and mathematics flourished.
The city remained under Persian Rule for two centuries until Alexander the Great rode into Babylon in 331 BC after Darius III, the last Achaemenid king was defeated and killed by his own men.
After Alexander returned from his campaigns in the East in 331 BC, he was warned by the seers not to go into the city. It was summer and the heat was oppressive. His advisors encouraged him to go instead to the summer palace at Susa. There had been adverse omens the Magi advised him against entering Babylon. Alexander scoffed at the omens and made his way into the city. Not long afterwards, after a few nights of excessive drinking, Alexander died. He was 33 years old.
The Noble Persians
The Persian Empire from about 500 BC
Persia was one of the highest civilized regions from the earliest antiquity. The world of ancient Persia extended far beyond the current border of Iran. The region over which Persian influence was spread was contained within the four rivers of ancient mythology: The Tigris and the Euphrates in the west, and the Oxus and the Indus in the east. The south is bordered by the Persian Gulf and the north by a line from the Caspian Sea as far as the Aral Sea. It encompassed the mountains of Azerbaijan, the Zagros Mountains and the Elburgy range and in the southeast adjoins the folds of Baluchistan and the awesome heights of the Hindu Kush.
Cyrus II
During the reign of Cyrus II (Kurash) the Persians came into world prominence when, in 550 BC, they rebelled against the Median King Astyages. From 546 Cyrus II attacked the powerful kingdom of Lydia, capturing Sardis before going on to subdue the rich Greek cities of Ionia. This made Cyrus master of all Asia Minor. Then he turned his attention on the eastern frontier, crossing the Oxus and the Jaxartes rivers, building fortresses to keep out the nomads of Central Asia.
In 539 BC he attacked the capital city of Mesopotamia and was welcomed as a liberator by the Jewish exiles. The respect he showed for the religions of others earned him respect and homage. He was called the “Father of all Persians”. The Greeks thought of him as a worthy leader. The Jews regarded him as “God’s anointed”. Cyrus was a genius, diplomat, leader of men, strategist. He conquered Babylonia and convinced the Babylonians that Marduk, their supreme deity, had led him to Babylon.
In the space of 20 years he held sway over all the kingdoms of the Near and Middle East, assembling the greatest empire the world had ever seen. He had his sights set on Egypt when he was killed in battle in 530 BC. He was buried at Pasargadae and when Alexander the Great came to Persia, he paid homage at Cyrus’s grave.
After Cyrus II’s death the Achaemenian Empire was established. When Darius I (Daryavush, The Great King) was defeated by Greece in the first Persian War at the Battle of Marathon, 490 BC, it was only a minor upset for the master of this gigantic empire, but this incited the hostility of the Greek city states and the Ionians who mounted a revolt against Persia.
In 481 Xerxes, son of Darius, set out to expunge the Persian defeat at Marathon. He built a pontoon bridge in order to get his troops across the Hellespont, seized Macedonia and marched toward Attika. The Greeks and Spartans put up a heroic resistance at Thermopylae but were defeated. Athens was taken and pillaged, the Parthenon burned. The Persian victory was short lived however when their fleet was defeated at Salamis and their army routed.
These defeats marked the end of the Persian expansion and rebellions grew more frequent. Under Artaxexes, the satrap of Bactria seceded, then Syria, and Egypt. By 370 the satraps revolted. Finally the great grandson of Darius II mounted the throne under the name Darius Codomannus. Years later, defeated by Alexander’s army and betrayed by his troops, Darius would be murdered by his own men.
Meanwhile, Philip II of Macedon succeeded uniting the various city states after the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. He founded the League of Corinth and proposed they should go to war against Persin. However, in 33t BC he was assassinated and his son, Alexander was declared king.
Philip II
Philip had already sent troops to Asia Minor, so Alexander, at the age of 20, took over his father’s mission of revenge and set out to conquer the Persian Empire. He followed a policy of integration between the Greeks and Persians encouraging marriages and applying the same magnanimity and generosity which had formerly brought success to Cyrus II. In 13 years of fighting, the Greek forces subjugated the largest empire that had ever been known to the world of antiquity.
The Persians were mystics and concerned with the meaning and objectives of life. Rooted in tolerance, flexibility, devotion to truth and other lofty principles on which their empire was based. Their system of education was comparable with Greece. Boys underwent a rigorous course of training which was chivalrous with great stress on valour, physical accomplishment. Based on the tenets of Zoroasterism, it was geared to a concept of pride, an essential element of Persian character. The Persians regarded themselves as “by far the best of men” (according to Herodotes) emphasising virtue, and love of truth.
The traditional religion was Zoroasterism. He was a native of Media. His message: the existence of two principles: The Truth (good, light) and the Lie (evil, darkness). The first Persian texts going back to the 7th century BC refer to the god Ahuramazda, the Wise Lord, creator of all things. This ancient divinity, preached by Zoraster, was a monotheistic religion worshipped in a way that was completely spiritual. It was prohibited to raise statues to Ahura Mazda was depicted as a bearded man crowned ith a tiara encircled in a winged solar disc. Religious prayers were offered in front of a lit fire altar in the open air, symbolizing the uino with the solar godhead, represented wy a winged disc. When he set up his capital at Pasargadaea, Cyrus II had creaeted a high terrace so fire ceremonies could be held on top of it. The Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroaster was said to have been destroyed by Alexander when his army occupied Persepolis and burned the temple there.
The Magi (priests) were a hereditary caste who was not only holy men but star seers. Without a Magus, the Persians could not sacrifice.
In SHADOW OF THE LION, two of the fictional characters who play important roles in the story are the old Chaldean Magus and the Persian court advisor, Nabarzanes, who become like a surrogate father to the young son of Alexander the Great. While researching for the novel I did extensive research on the ancient Persians and found it one of the most fascinating aspects of writing this story. I wanted the Persians to have a strong voice in the story and leave a lasting impression on the reader. These two fiction characters soon became ‘real’ to me and I based their characters on two real people I know: one was my father, a spiritual man and preacher; the other an artist from Baghdad who became my friend.
There are several historical Persians included in the cast of SHADOW. The tragic princesses, Stateira and Drypetis, daughters of Darius III; Barsine, widow of Memnon of Rhodes, daughter of a Persian satrap who becomes Alexander’s mistress and gives birth to his eldest (illegitimate ) son, Herakles; and Roxana, who was from Soghdiana, part of the Persian Empire, and Alexander’s wife, mother of his only legal heir who she calls by his Persian name, Iskander.
Persian woman