Era IV · Hellenistic Kingdoms

The Heirs of Alexander

Alexander left no heir who could hold his conquests. Within a generation his generals had cut the empire into three Greek-speaking monarchies that would rule the eastern Mediterranean until Rome swallowed them one by one.

323–30 B.C.  ·  From Babylon to Actium
After Diodorus, Plutarch, Polybius, and Appian. A genealogy & map study — the family tree and the map below carry the story for now; the fuller narrative essay is in preparation.
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†323 B.C. · The Successors (Diadochi)

One empire, three dynasties

Restored portrait of Alexander III of Macedon
Alexander IIIKing of Macedon, died at Babylon 323 B.C.Alexander Mosaic, Naples 🔍
Restored portrait of Ptolemy I Soter
Ptolemy I SoterCompanion of Alexander, founder of Ptolemaic Egypt, 367–282 B.C.Musée du Louvre 🔍

When Alexander died at Babylon in 323 B.C. his only sons were an unborn child and a

Table · Antipater and the Antigonids Cambridge Ancient History map plate: The Family of Antipater · The Antigonids Click to enlarge
Two houses out of the marshals. Antipater’s children married into every other successor family — the top table is the quickest way to see how the wars of the Diadochi were also a single quarrelling family. Below it the Antigonid line runs from one-eyed Antigonus to Perseus, the last king of Macedon, deposed by Rome in 168 B.C. The Cambridge Ancient History (1st ed., Cambridge University Press), map plate “The Family of Antipater · The Antigonids” — photographed from the fold-out sheet and cleaned.
half-brother judged unfit to rule. His marshals first governed as regents in the name of these phantom kings — then murdered them, and fought each other for forty years. By the time the dust settled, three houses had made themselves into royal dynasties: the Antigonids in Macedon, the Seleucids across Asia, and the Ptolemies in Egypt.

The tree below follows all three from Alexander's own family down to the last of the line — the Antigonids broken by Rome at Pydna, the Seleucid realm whittled away until Pompey annexed Syria, and the Ptolemies enduring longest of all, to Cleopatra VII, who staked Egypt on Caesar and Antony and lost. Dashed links mark the marriages that repeatedly bound the rival houses back together.

Genealogy The House of Alexander and the dynasties of his heirs A family and dynasty tree from Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great, through the Diadochi who divided the empire, down the three lasting Hellenistic houses — Antigonid Macedon, Seleucid Asia, and Ptolemaic Egypt — to Cleopatra VII, with the marriages that linked the dynasties. ANTIGONID Macedon & Greece SELEUCID Asia · Syria to the Indus PTOLEMAIC Egypt AT ALEXANDER’S DEATH, 323 BC — NO HEIR CAN HOLD THE EMPIRE His generals — the DIADOCHI, “the Successors” — fight forty years of wars and make themselves kings ⋮ four generations ⋮ five generations ⋮ decline & civil war ⋮ eight generations ⚭ ⚭ ① ② Philip IIKing of Macedon · 382–336 BC Olympiasof Epirus · d. 316 BC Alexander III “the Great”King of Asia · 356–323 BC Philip III Arrhidaeushalf-brother · murd. 317 BC Roxanaof Bactria Alexander IVchild-king · murdered 309 BC Antigonus I“the One-Eyed” · d. 301 BC CassanderMacedon · line ends 294 BC Seleucus I Nicatord. 281 BC LysimachusThrace · d. 281 BC Ptolemy I Soterd. 282 BC Demetrius I Poliorcetes“the Besieger” · 336–283 BC Antigonus II Gonatassecures Macedon · r. 277–239 BC Philip V238–179 BC · fought Rome Perseuslast king · Pydna, 168 BC Antiochus I Soter324–261 BC Antiochus II Theos286–246 BC Antiochus III “the Great”241–187 BC · def. by Rome Antiochus IV Epiphanesd. 164 BC · Maccabean revolt Syria annexed by RomePompey, 63 BC · line ends Ptolemy II Philadelphus308–246 BC · m. Arsinoë II Ptolemy III Euergetesd. 222 BC Ptolemy XII Auletesd. 51 BC CLEOPATRA VIIlast pharaoh · 69–30 BC Julius Caesard. 44 BC Mark Antonyd. 30 BC ⚭ Marriages that bound the rival houses: ① Stratonicê of Macedon married Seleucus I, then his son Antiochus I. ② Berenicê of Egypt married Antiochus II of Syria. 30 BC — THE LAST HELLENISTIC KINGDOM BECOMES A ROMAN PROVINCE The name “Cleopatra” entered the Egyptian house through Cleopatra I of Syria (Seleucid), married to Ptolemy V, c. 193 BC — one more thread binding the three houses that had begun as Alexander’s generals. Tap to enlarge · zoom
The house of Alexander and the dynasties of his heirs. Gold is the Argead royal line; green the Antigonids of Macedon; red the Seleucids of Asia; blue the Ptolemies of Egypt. Solid lines are descent, ⚭ a marriage; the dashed links ① and ② are the marriages that tied the houses together. Genealogy after Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, and the standard king-lists; dates are conventional.
Table · The house of Seleucus Cambridge Ancient History map plate: The House of Seleucus Click to enlarge
Asia, king by king. Thirteen Antiochi and six Seleuci over two and a half centuries, with the Laodices and Cleopatras who married between the houses. The table’s lower half is the collapse: after Antiochus IV the line splits into rival claimants who fight each other until Pompey ends the dynasty in 63 B.C. The Cambridge Ancient History (1st ed., Cambridge University Press), map plate “The House of Seleucus” — photographed from the fold-out sheet and cleaned.
✦c. 275 B.C. · After the wars of the Diadochi

The world Alexander's generals divided

Once the wars of succession burned out, the map of the East had three great colours on it. Antigonid Macedon held the old homeland and a grip on Greece; the Seleucids ruled the largest realm of all, from the Aegean coast to the edge of India, governed from new Greek capitals at Antioch and Seleucia; and Ptolemaic Egypt, richest and most defensible, ran from Cyrene to Cyprus and the Levantine coast. Frontiers shifted with every campaign — these are spheres of control, not surveyed borders.

Shepherd plate · Empire & Successors Shepherd atlas map of Alexander's empire with inset maps of the successor kingdoms Tap to enlarge · zoom
Empire above, successor kingdoms below. Shepherd's main plate follows Alexander's conquests; the lower insets show the division after Ipsus and the kingdoms as Rome first entered the eastern balance about 200 B.C. William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas (1911), public domain; restored from the University of Texas scan.
Map · c. 275 B.C. The Successor Kingdoms of Alexander, c. 275 B.C. The Hellenistic world after the wars of the Diadochi: Antigonid Macedon, Attalid Pergamon, the vast Seleucid empire from Anatolia to the Hindu Kush, and Ptolemaic Egypt with Cyrenaica, Cyprus and the southern Levant. MARE INTERNVM PONTVS EVXINVS MARE ERYTHRAEVM MACEDONIA GRAECIA REGNVM SELEVCIDARVM the upper satrapies REGNVM PTOLEMAEORVM Greco-Bactrian Pontus · Bithynia · Cappadocia Pella Athens Pergamon Rhodes Byzantium Sardis Antioch Seleucia Babylon Susa Ecbatana Bactra Alexandria Memphis Cyrene Jerusalem Tap to enlarge · zoom
The successor kingdoms, c. 275 B.C. Green: Antigonid Macedon & Greece. Red: the Seleucid empire, Anatolia to the Hindu Kush. Blue: Ptolemaic Egypt with Cyrenaica, Cyprus and Coele-Syria. Stars mark the royal capitals. Land, rivers & lakes: Natural Earth (public domain). Kingdoms are cartographic regions, not data borders.
Table · The house of Ptolemy Cambridge Ancient History map plate: The House of Ptolemy Click to enlarge
Egypt, king by king. Fifteen Ptolemies, brother-sister marriage as dynastic policy, and at the foot of the table Cleopatra VII with her children by Caesar and by Antony. The line that began with one of Alexander’s bodyguards ends with a Roman province. The Cambridge Ancient History (1st ed., Cambridge University Press), map plate “The House of Ptolemy” — photographed from the fold-out sheet and cleaned.
‡30 B.C. · What it changed

Rome inherits the pieces

The Hellenistic centuries spread the Greek language, coinage, and city from the Nile to the Oxus, and

Table · Three lesser houses Cambridge Ancient History map plate: The Family of Lysimachus · The Attalids · The Kings of Epirus Click to enlarge
The dynasties that did not last. Lysimachus of Thrace, whose line died with him at Corupedium; the Attalids of Pergamum, who ended by willing their kingdom to Rome in 133 B.C.; and the Aeacid kings of Epirus, the house of Pyrrhus. Between them they show the other way a successor kingdom could end — not conquered, but inherited or extinguished. The Cambridge Ancient History (1st ed., Cambridge University Press), map plate “The Family of Lysimachus · The Attalids · The Kings of Epirus” — photographed from the fold-out sheet and cleaned.
Plate · The contested coasts Cambridge Ancient History map plate: The Struggle of Egypt against Macedonia and Syria Click to enlarge
What the kings actually fought over. Not territory in bulk but coastline: the Aegean islands, the harbours of Ionia and Caria, Cyprus, and Coele-Syria between Egypt and Antioch, which changed hands in six Syrian Wars. The plate carries its own warning that the boundaries fluctuated too much to draw. The Cambridge Ancient History (1st ed., Cambridge University Press), map plate “The Struggle of Egypt against Macedonia and Syria” — photographed from the fold-out sheet and cleaned.
turned Alexandria and Pergamon into the intellectual capitals of the age. But no single heir ever reassembled the empire — and their endless quarrels invited a new power in the west. Macedon fell to Rome in 168 B.C., the Seleucid remnant in 63, and when Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31 and took Egypt the next year, the last of Alexander's successor kingdoms became a Roman province. The age of his heirs was over; the age of Rome had begun.

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Alexander's generals had turned themselves into kings and his conquests into a Greek-speaking world — one that Rome would spend the next three centuries absorbing.