Prelude



Ægypt needed time. Time to recover from the centuries of struggle and war. Time to integrate her new territories, rebuild her treasuries and her armies. Time to rest. Ægypt had no time.



Persia and Babylon were preparing for war. Their armies were massing and both were raiding across their mutual border. Ægypt knew that whoever won, she would be next. She had lived under Babylonian rule, and found it intolerable. Perhaps the Persians would be better masters.



So it was that Persia started receiving small amounts of Ægyptian aid, and Shamashite and Yarbayian tribesmen started raiding Babylonian territory. Anything to weaken the hated Babylonians and make the Persian victory that much more certain.



Maybe the gods would be kind and send a good man to rule Ægypt. Only time would tell.



Enter Macedonia, Stage Right



During the bulk of the Greek/Persian wars the kingdom of Macedonia had been a Persia satrapy. The decision to withdraw from Æropa entirely produced a power vacuum in the area, which the Macedonians proved willing and able to fill. During this time the Hellenes further south were busy fighting over many a disagreement, and essentially exhausting themselves. Often the wars were engineered and both sides funded by the Persians. Thus were the Greeks kept too busy and too weak to invade the Persian Empire.



It also laid Hellas open to invasion.



Phillip the II is how we know him today. A man of mature years with a teenaged son. He had just recently quelled a rebellion in western Macedonia when he had himself an idea. Conquer the Greeks, and divide Greek territory between his nobility. Subjugating the southerners and keeping them down would keep his fractious aristocracy too busy to foment any revolts.



The Greeks were quite unprepared for the invasion. The Persians, on the other hand, were. For they had been hinting at the subject for a few years now. The hope was that the Macedonians and the Greeks would get caught up in endless fighting and so leave Persia alone.



The war was a short one. Most of the Greek cities kept their armies home. Those that sent armies to the fight saw their forces shattered by the nigh unstoppable Macedonians. The only city that avoided conquest was Sparta, and they only because they never declared war on Macedonia in the first place, and because they agreed to pay tribute and keep out of Macedonian affairs. Persia had a problem.



Seeing that Phillip had a young and untried son, and a wife who hated her husband, Persia thought she had a solution. Phillip’s death was easy to arrange, as was the accession of young Alexander to the throne. Then things went wrong.



Olympias, Phillip’s widow, was supposed to run the country. Alexander took over. In short order he had suppressed another revolt by the Macedonian nobility, reconquered Greece, and -for good measure- conquered Thrace to keep them off his back. With his base secured the young king was ready for Persia and points beyond.



Persia learned how serious the matter was when a hastily assembled army made up of provincial forces was shattered by the Hellenes. Western Anatolia was now in Macedonian hands. Faced by sizable Babylonian forces, the Persians could only stand by as the Greeks moved south into Phoenecia. Surely there the redoubtable Phoenecians would deal with the upstarts as they had other invaders. No such luck.



One after another the Phoenecian cities fell. Even the great city of Tyre, which had never even paid tribute in all its long history. Shamash was an after thought. The capitol of Jerusalem had ceased to be a hilltop fortress long ago, and the Shamashite army either faded away or defected to the Macedonian side.



Seeing how things were going, and knowing she was in no shape to present more than a token resistance, Ægypt sued for terms as soon as the first Macedonian stepped over the Philistian border. Alexander’s conquest of the Triple Kingdom was more along the lines of a triumphal march. The Greeks, always suckers for antiguity and ancient traditions, fell in love with Ægypt, and Ægypt fell in love with Alexander.



He was Horus the Hawk come to life. The Pharoah who would lead the Triple Kingdom to conquer her enemies and lead Ægypt to greatness. He led foreigners to battle? Well, obviously they were men of Set, god of foreigners. It was a sign of a reconciliation between Horus and Set and a turn by the dour god from his dark ways.



(In a private interview Set revealed that he was looking to reconcile with Horus and hoped to use the Greek conquest of Ægypt to that end.)



Even the Nubians, though not at all happy to see their beloved Ægypt conquered again, agreed to accept Macedonian rule. When Alexander led his armies east towards Babylon, it was with Ægyptian troops in the van.



Babylon Falls, Again



All this time Babylon and Persia had watched the Macedonian’s progress. Both were dismayed to see Phoenecia fall so quickly, but not at all surprised to see Shamash succumb with such unseemly haste. Ægypt’s defection took them both by surprise. While the Triple Kingdom was not the power she had been before, she still nearly doubled the size of the Macedonian army, and gave Alexander an effective intelligence service. Something he had lacked before.



Babylon quickly worked out an armistice with Persia and moved her army west to meet the Greeks and their Ægyptian allies. The clash on the plains of Arbela is accounted the greatest tactical triumph achieved by a single man. In a day of fighting the might of the Babylonian Empire was shattered and Babylon lay open before the Greeks.



The speed of the victory -indeed, that the Greeks had won at all -shook Persia to the core. Still, the Iranians moved with commendable speed, and almost reached Babylon before the invaders could. But, finding the Macedonians in possession of the city, the Persians retreated to their highlands.



Alexander followed, harrassing the Persians as they withdraw. Harried by Syrian, Thracian, and Yarbayan horsemen and weakened by steady desertions, the Persian emperor decided to stand and fight.



By all accounts the Persians fought hard and well, but with no real fire. More as if they were fighting for honor’s sake rather then out of any hope of victory. When the day was done the Persian army was still intact, but everyone knew that tomorrow would see the end of the Persian Empire.



That night Alexander sent emissaries to the Persian camp. Agreement was soon reached. Persia would keep her Emperor, who would rule his empire in the name of his Macedonian lord. The Babylonians were also allowed to keep their emperor, the young son of the man who’d died so bravely at Arbela. From this day forward Alexander would be known as Pharoah of the Three Kingdoms and Emperor of the Three Empires.



The attempt to conquer the Hindic kingdoms to the east did not go well. While the Greeks and their new allies were able to conquer the wild tribes north and east of Persia, marching on into the strange and alien land of the Indus Valley was too much for them. Alexander was forced to retreat.



Everybody was tired of war. Not only that, but his new empire needed his attention. Showing as great a genius for administration as he had for war, Alexander soon had his realm running efficiently. For the first, and last, time ever the Azirian Near East was under the rule of one man, and doing splendidly, thank you very much.



The old veterans were mustered out, Many to return home to Macedonia and Greece. Others to settle in the new lands. All to raise families. Alexander started the job of raising a new army, one he would take with him in his conquest of the west. First Syracuse, then Carthage, then the new city of Rome. Beyond that? Maybe the Phoenecians’ fabled Tin Isles.



At a party to celebrate a good friend’s marriage Alexander fell ill. Trembling with fever and babbling in his delirium he lasted for four days. On that day he appeared to be making a recovery, only to die at night fall. He had no heir.



His empire died with him.



Coming Up



When next we rejoin our short and incomplete history of the Babylonian Empire: Alexander’s successors start fighting over the spoils and Ægypt, Persia and Babylon become independent again.



After that, Atlantis.



See you soon.



Alan