ANCIENT APR/MAY 2009 WARFARE VOL III, ISSUE 2 Alexander’s funeral games: the wars of the Successors With: • Demetrius’ outrageous fortune • Gabiene - the fight for Asia Also: • Entertaining the troops • A soldier from Herculaneum € 7,10 £ 6,25 Ancient Warfare 1 www.ancient-warfare.com Copyright Karwansaray BV AW nr2-2009.indd 1 11-02-2010 16:31:31 AW nr2-2009.indd 2 11-02-2010 16:31:36 ANCIENT WARFARE CONTENTS Apr/May 2009 4 NEWS 29 THE FIGHT Publisher: Rolof van Hövell tot Westerflier, MA, MCL Publisher’s assistant: Gabrielle Terlaak FOR ASIA Editor in chief: Jasper L. Oorthuys, MA THEME The battle Sales and marketing: Tharin Clarijs Alexander’s funeral games of Gabiene Website design: Christianne C. Beall Art and layout consultant: Matthew C. Lanteigne INTRODUCTION Contributors: Bob Bennett, Duncan B.Campbell, 6 Murray Dahm, Raffaele D’Amato, Svenja Grosser, Ed Haines, Christian Koepfer, Konstantin Nossov, 37 THE FIND Michael Park, Joseph Pietrykowski, Mike Roberts, The sarissa Michael Thomas Illustrations: Andrew Brozyna, Igor Dzis, Brendan Keeley, Carlos de la Rocha, Johnny Shumate, Graham Sumner 38 SPECIAL Design & layout: © MeSa Design, 10 THE SOURCE For training and entertainment e-mail: [email protected] Philon of Byzantium Print: PublisherPartners. www.publisherpartners.com Editorial office PO Box 1574, 6501 BN Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Phone: +44-20-88168281 (Europe) +1-740-994-0091 (US). E-mail: [email protected] Skype: ancient_warfare 42 THE Website: www.ancient-warfare.com WARRIOR Contributions in the form of articles, letters and que- From ries from readers are welcomed. Please send to the Herculaneum’s above address or use the contact form on our website. 15 OUTRAGEOUS ashes Subscription FORTUNE Subscription price is 33.50 euros plus postage The rise and fall of Demetrius surcharge where applicable. Poliorcetes Subscriptions: www.ancient-warfare.com or Ancient Warfare PO Box 1574, 6501 BN, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Distribution 48 BE A GENERAL Ancient Warfare is sold through selected retailers, Vegetius’ teachings museums, the internet and by subscription. If you wish to become a sales outlet, please contact the editorial office or e-mail us: [email protected] Copyright Karwansaray BV, all rights reserved. Nothing in this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior written consent of the REVIEWS publishers. Any individual providing material for 52 publication must ensure they have obtained the 21 IN THE SCHOOL OF Books, games and models correct permissions before submission to us. Every ALEXANDER effort has been made to trace copyright holders, but in a few cases this proves impossible. The editor Armies and tactics in and publishers apologize for any unwitting cases of the age of the Successors copyright transgression and would like to hear from any copyright holders not acknowledged. Articles and the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the editor and or publishers. Advertising in Ancient Warfare does not 58 ON THE COVER necessarily imply endorsement. Ancient Warfare is published every two months by Karwansaray BV, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. PO Box 1110, 3000 BC Rotterdam, The Netherlands. ISSN: 1874-7019 Printed in the Netherlands Ancient Warfare 3 AW nr2-2009.indd 3 11-02-2010 16:31:53 NEWS Ancient Warfare special This May Ancient Warfare magazine will publish its first onaries and Germanic warriors, and contributions from ‘special’ issue, outside the normal schedule. This 76 page both regular contributors and special guests such as Tony volume will be fully dedicated to the ‘Varian disaster’, the Clunn, author of The Quest for the Lost Legions and Adrian battle of the Teutoburg forest which took place in nor- Murdoch, who published Rome’s Greatest Defeat. thern Germany 2000 years ago this year. It will not include regular features, be perfect bound The special will contain among others articles on the (ie: no staples) and is not included in subscriptions. sources, the search for the battlefield, Augustan campaigns Ancient Warfare special 1 can be pre-ordered until May 1st in Germania, the campaign of 9AD and the aftermath. It for €16,00, worldwide shipping included. After that date, it will feature artwork and reconstructions of Roman legi- will go on sale for €17,95 plus shipping. Limes Congress 2009 News items Future themes Bookings for the Limes Congress of 2009 Additions for this section are very These are the planned themes for the (Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, 17-21 August welcome through the following coming issues of Ancient Warfare: 2009) are still accepted through the address: - Gods, kings and heroes website of the conference. Interested Ancient Warfare magazine - The Barcid family at War parties can find a partial program there PO Box 1574 - Rome vs. Parthia as well, with a final timetable for sessi- 6501 BN Nijmegen - Tactics, standards and military music ons to be published in May. The Netherlands If you have any suggestions for future More information at: http://www. Or even easier, send them in by email themes, or if you’d like to contribute, twmuseums.org.uk/archaeology/con- to: [email protected] don’t hesitate to contact us. ferencesandevents.html Review section The response to our request for new reviewers has been very good. Perhaps too good in fact, as we now have many more reviewers than we have books to review. To keep up to speed with books available for review, check the ‘Books for review’ posting on the editor’s blog at www.ancient-warfare. com. As soon as we have a good number of longer reviews, a separate sec- tion on the website will be opened where these will be posted. We do try to keep up to speed with all new books, games, models and mini- atures that are produced, but we may miss some- thing. So if you know of new releases that should be reviewed in Ancient Warfare magazine, please let us know at editor@ ancient-warfare.com. © Brendan Keeley 4 Ancient Warfare AW nr2-2009.indd 4 11-02-2010 16:31:56 © Brendan Keeley AW nr2-2009.indd 5 11-02-2010 16:32:00 THEME INTRODUCTION Carlos de la Rocha Carlos © Alexander’s funeral games Historical introduction WHEN ALEXANDER THE GREAT DIED IN BABYLON IN JUNE 323 BC, THE EMPIRE this focus of power with the main Ma- HE HAD CONQUERED STRETCHED FROM WHAT IS MODERN DAY ALBANIA TO cedonian army in Babylon there were also Alexander’s greatest general Crate- THE PUNJAB AND FROM BULGARIA TO EGYPT. IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN AN EM- rus, with a veteran force in Cilicia, and PIRE OF PLAINS, CITIES, RIVER VALLEYS AND ROADS WITH PLENTY OF DOUGH- in power back home in Macedonia was Antipater, who had for decades been TY AND INDEPENDENT PEOPLES IN THE MOUNTAINS AND FORESTS WHOSE the greatest man in Greece and the SUBSERVIENCE WAS QUESTIONABLE, BUT IT WAS STILL BY FAR THE LARGEST Macedonian homeland. Beyond these AND MOST POWERFUL EMPIRE THAT THE WORLD HAD EVER KNOWN. THE potential rivals were the satrapies that were confirmed or handed out anew GREAT CONQUEROR LEFT NO OBVIOUS HEIR – INDEED HIS ALLEGED DEATH- at the Babylonian settlement. The reci- BED SUGGESTION THAT THE EMPIRE SHOULD GO TO THE STRONGEST SEEMED pients of these were competitive war- riors who had followed Alexander and, ALMOST AN INVITATION TO ANARCHY. once established in their own provinces, centrifugal tension was almost bound By Bob Bennett and Mike Roberts to become inevitable. The history of these Successors of Alexander (the Diadochi) is something of a tortoise and the hare affair. Many The upshot of the initial jockeying for born child of Alexander’s Iranian wife of the great men of 323 who seem to power was that Perdiccas, Alexander’s Roxanne and the other Alexander’s half hold all the cards and exhibit all the chiliarch (vizier), emerged at Babylon brother, Philip Arrhidaeus, the cerebrally talents fall away soon enough and it is as the regent for two kings, one an un- impaired son of Philip II. But apart from those lower down the original pecking 6 Ancient Warfare AW nr2-2009.indd 6 11-02-2010 16:32:01 THEME INTRODUCTION sophisticated strategies over great dis- Paraetacene and Gabiene (see the arti- tances, resulted in a real cull of great cle by Michael Park) over the winter of names. Most particularly Craterus and 316/7 were to finally see the end of Eu- Perdiccas, the former falling in battle menes betrayed by Alexander’s duplici- against Eumenes, Perdiccas’ lieutenant tous veteran troops, the Silver Shields. and old secretary of Alexander, and the Antigonus now found himself at latter succumbing to a camp coup after the heart of the Macedonian Empire his failure in the invasion of Egypt fol- in a position of almost unassailable lowing Ptolemy’s hi-jacking of Alexan- strength. The only downside for him der’s body. was that during the years that he had A brief settlement brokered at a Per- taken to eliminate his rivals at the cen- sian hunting park in Syria redrew the tre, others on the periphery had en- arrangements between the squabbling trenched themselves in power to such Macedonian warlords but the death an extent that would make them very shortly afterwards of Antipater meant difficult to overcome. Cassander, son the top echelon of power brokers on of Antipater, had established himself Alexander’s death were all gone. This in Macedonia and had effective hege- gave space for others to carve out great mony over much of Greece; Lysimachus futures for themselves. The figure who had established a powerful fiefdom in arose to dominate much of the next Thrace and around the Black Sea whilst two decades was the long standing Ptolemy had an Egyptian empire that satrap of Phrygia, Antigonus Monopt- included the southern Levant, Cyrenai- halmus (“the one-eyed”).