Dan Snow's History Hit - Alexander the Great’s Corpse and the Greatest Heist in History

Episode Date: June 11, 2021

Alexander the Great is one of the most famous generals and empire builders in history, but the story of his death is almost as remarkable as his life. Tristan Hughes host of the History Hit podcast The Ancients, and Alexander the Great superfan, joins Dan to tell the almost unbelievable tale of what happened after Alexander died. It is a titanic struggle for power and control over his empire that involves war, body snatching, extremely slow carriage chases and a thousand soldiers being eaten alive by crocodiles in the Nile.

Hello everyone, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hits. I'm talking about Alexander the Great today. You may have heard of him, Alexander of Macedon. And I'm very relaxed about this, I've got to say, but by the age of 30, he had created one of the largest empires in history to that point. It reached from Greece, reached from the Balkans, to northwest India. He's certainly one of the most remarkable military commanders in history. His victories at Issus and

Gargamel particularly are fascinating, so much so that I will be re-enacting the Battle of Gargamel with the crowd at the Chalk Valley History Festival in Wiltshire in a couple weeks' time. If you want to come along, you can take part in that. You can have the exciting job of a Macedonian outmaneuvered and cut down where you stand, or you might be lucky enough to be in the companion cavalry with me, the Macedonian companion cavalry, and take part in the reconstruction of one of history's most infamous cavalry charges. Anyway, yeah, so come on to the Chalk Valley History Festival. It's great fun. But in terms of this podcast, we're talking about Alexander's death, the events of his death, and what followed followed and it got pretty weird pretty quick. While I'm on the subject Alexander the Great has a great saying

he had which is only sex and sleep remind me that I'm mortal. Every time I have a crushing hangover or I'm physically exhausted from a hard day's podding or filming or whatever I always think do you know what there's a lot that reminds me I'm mortal. And maybe Alexander the Great should have had a bit more awareness of his mortality because he went out on a massive drinking session, had a big old hangover and died. So there you go. Not even Alexander the Great can cheat nature. And when he died, as you're going to hear in this podcast in June 323 BC, all hell broke loose. And to talk us through it, I've got Tristan Hughes. Now Tristan arrived at History Hit a few years ago, straight out of university. He was a young

kid. He had a burning passion in his life, and that was to make programs, make media, make podcasts, build websites, all about the wars that occurred in the ancient Near East following Alexander the Great's death. And I thought to myself, that's pretty niche. Even by the standards of history, even by the people we get through the door, that is pretty niche. But you know what? He's only going to have done it. He's going to have made a success of it. He's got his own podcast now. You'll have heard it on this feed. It's called The Ancients. It gets hundreds of thousands of downloads. It's gone completely banal. It is, I should say, for people that love ancient history. If you don't, if you're ancient history curious, don't listen to it because it is for serious ancient history fans. And by ancient

history, I do mean not just Eurasian, European, Mediterranean basin history, but also you've got ancient Chinese history, Indian, Polynesian, and American as well. So it's got it all in there. He's a total star. He's been making some TV shows on History Hit TV. He's got a new documentary out on the death of Alexander the Great and what happened afterwards. So here he is coming on the pod for the first time, all groaned up. It's History Hit's very own Tristan Hughes, and it's wonderful to have him on. You can watch his documentary on historyhit.tv, the world's best history channel. He's got his documentary. He has a Boudicca documentary. He's got his Eagle of the Night documentary. Now he's got his Alexander the Great documentary. It's all happening for Tristan. Head over to historyhit.tv

to check it out. But in the meantime, here's Tristan and I talking about Alexander. Here's Tristan and I talking about Alexander. Tristan, long overdue. Great to have you on the podcast. Dan, it's so wonderful to be here. The tables have turned. It's so nice. Thank you.

Tables have turned, man. You're all grown and slept. Got your own pub with hundreds of thousands of downloads a month. I mean, it's crazy. But this is going to be your biggest coup yet because I love this story the greatest heist in history yeah i mean sometimes in overused ancient cliches but i'll say it right at the start just to get the interest going it's the ancient game of thrones meets the greatest heist in history which ends up in at least a thousand soldiers perishing in the banks or in the river nile itself and some of them being eaten alive by crocodiles. So it is an incredible story. The death of Alexander, it just feels like one of

those gigantic turning points in ancient history. What did the world look like before he fell sick with the illness that would ultimately lead to his death? Right. So when Alexander dies in June 323 BC, he's only 32 years old, but of course his empire by that time stretches from the Pindus mountain ranges, modern day northwest Greece, modern day Albania in the west, all the way through to the Indus river valley in the east. It's a huge empire, one of the largest empires that the world had ever seen up to that point. But then of course Alexander dies just aged 32 in June.

He'd been planning to go west and conquer the Mediterranean basin, hadn't he? There are thoughts. I'm very much of the opinion that actually one of the main places he wanted to go first was well, it's set in the sources of Arabia. He was planning a conquest into Arabia but I think also one of the places he was really looking at was Athens, the city-state of Athens, which at that time had

been rebuilding its military strength and had already been showing that it wasn't too friendly towards Alexander. So there's also talk that he was constructing this huge fleet in the eastern Mediterranean, which does come to fruition following his death. So yes, there's very much plans at around the time of his death in 323 BC that Alexander was planning to head west. Still a young man, he could have had decades and could he have cemented that heterodox empire and created something that endured that's one of the big if questions and i don't think we'd ever really know the answer to that if you look at the aftermath of alexander the great's death and

ultimately you see the creation of these incredible hellenistic kingdoms such as the selucid empire in the east possibly but i think the real answer to that is that we'll never know because alexander didn't really have the time to, shall we say, consolidate the empire because of his early death. And ultimately, that will spring into the wars of the successors and this incredible period right in the aftermath of Alexander's death, in particular, the immediate aftermath of his death. Had he made plans for his death and succession? made plans for his death and succession this is the interesting question because we do have in some of the sources there are these incredible tales that alexander says just before his death his bodyguards are all around his bed and then these fabulous stories that alexander goes to who do you leave your empire to and alexander responds very pithily very laconically to the

strongest or i see great funeral games in my honour following my death. All of these done in hindsight by later historians as because they know what will follow is the tumultuous period that is the wars of the successors. In truth, Alexander, when he does die, he's mute. So it seems like these stories are very much fabulous and actually not historical. In regards to plans for his death, it's very difficult to say because Alexander does die without a clear heir. But important in this, and I find really interesting, is that he had left at least some plans, as it were. Because the key story here is that in a few of our sources, it mentions how Alexander, just before he dies, he takes off his signet ring and he gives it to the leading adjutant, his most senior

subordinate at that time in Babylon. And this is the key figure that is Perdiccas. Now, the handing of his signet ring to Perdiccas, it wasn't to say, right, Perdiccas, you are going to be my successor. You're going to be the next in line. It was more to say, right, Perdiccas, you are the figure who is going to oversee my succession. You are going to oversee what's going to happen next. But unfortunately, as we're going to see, it doesn't run that smoothly. So he dies fairly suddenly, right? So yes, once again, there are various stories surrounding this too, but in two key sources, which is Plutarch's Life of Alexander and in Arian, we have surviving almost completely similar accounts, which are the

royal journals, the Ephemerides, which really talk about the last week, week and a half of Alexander's life. And it really goes as follows, the main events, and I'll summarise quickly. Alexander, he goes to a drinking party of one of his companions, Medius of Larissa. He drinks there well into the night, then he heads home, home has a bath wakes up the next day but very soon he develops a fever and his condition worsens over the next few days initially he's able to still do his routines he does his sacrifices he talks to his generals about future campaigns where they're going to be doing their future campaigns but soon his condition worsens to such an extent that he's bedridden and he has to stay in the royal palace and the bodyguards come to him and

that point alexander does become mute he's unable speak. So that is the main story and over the days following that his condition worsens, it deteriorates even more so that on the length of June he does ultimately die. How he dies, there's debate, some say malaria, some say typhoid, some say it was a mixture of his excessive grief for the death of his fehaestion the year before, also his many wounds he suffered on campaign. And of course, there's also the poison theory, which is always an interesting one, but it's almost certainly a later fictional story. And burying the previous king is a symbol of kingship in itself, isn't it? So his body has power even in death. Yeah. And I know you've used this statement before when you're looking at Napoleon,

Napoleon's death and the importance of his tomb and his body. Some men are worth just as much dead as they were alive, and this is very much the case with Alexander and his body. Because Alexander, when he dies, many believe that he becomes this divine figure. He's gone to take his seat among the gods, and this is reflected in the design of his funeral carriage. But it also means, because of the suddenness of Alexander's death and the whole turmoil that surrounds his death and the immediate aftermath, that his body becomes the heritage of the empire, shall we say. Whoever controls possession of Alexander's body holds great sway in this new post-Alexander world. So his body and control of his body, it becomes this talismanic

symbol of authority for those seeking power and legitimacy in the immediate aftermath of Alexander's death. Well, tell me what happens. They bury him in a golden sarcophagus, don't they? We have an incredible description. I'll tell you through these some interesting stories that happen with Alexander's body in the immediate aftermath of his death because for two years Alexander's body stays in Babylon where he dies but Babylon is always going to be a temporary measure that's not going to be where Alexander's going to be buried long term and we don't know that much about what happens to Alexander's body in those two years but there are some great stories and the first one occurs roughly 48 hours after Alexander's death on the 11th of June. Now, right after Alexander's death, there is this crisis in Babylon following this meeting of the

soldiers and the generals deciding what's going to do. There are various proposals put forward as to what's going to happen to Alexander's empire. But ultimately, it ends with the soldiers of Alexander, these veterans, getting really angry and annoyed at the generals for the generals not accepting their choice of new king, which was Alexander the Great's half-brother, Aridaeus, now called Philip Aridaeus III. Why they hadn't chosen Philip Aridaeus III, well, we don't know what condition he had, but he had something which meant he wasn't able to rule on his own. And although the soldiers wanted him as king, the generals didn't want that as king. They wanted other figures, including Perdiccas himself and others, to be the most powerful figures in this new regime.

But this erupts into open conflict in Babylon within 48 hours. The soldiers, the Red Mister, descended. They go to the royal palace and their intent on at least bludgeoning, perhaps even killing many of these generals, including Perdiccas, including another key figure, that is Ptolemy. It sounds a little bit like the modern Republican party with its members and its elected representatives. Let's keep going. It may very well indeed. But these soldiers, they stormed the royal palace. Perdiccas, Ptolemy and 600 others, they locked themselves in the room where Alexander the Great had died and Alexander's body still lay. The soldiers burst into the room and there's a fight. There's a fight in the room where Alexander had died barely two days or so before, so much so that blood stains the walls of this

room where Alexander had died only so recently and his body still lay. So that's the first incredible story we have of the body. But the next one happens roughly five or six days later when this crisis has subsided. Perdiccas has really emerged the victor. And then many of the figures decide, well, let's now go back to Alexander's body. Let's make sure that his body is treated. And this is an incredible tale, so it may well be fictional, but I do love the story nonetheless. treated and this is an incredible tale so it may well be fictional but I do love the story nonetheless they go to the body and this is June 323 BC in Mesopotamia in the sweltering Babylonian summer heat we're in a heat wave right now but this would have been even more so and they go to the body and you'd expect the body to be completely rotten having been on its own for so long but they

go to the body and apparently it's still in pristine condition. Looks like it hasn't been touched at all. Now, could this very much be fictional? Yes, very much so. But there's another theory, and I love this theory. I'm not a scientist, so I don't know if it could possibly be true or not. There's a theory that Alexander didn't die on the 11th of June, but because maybe he had malaria, he entered a coma or went into a catatonic state. So that actually Alexander was still alive. And hence, this may be an explanation for why his body was still in pristine condition all these days later. As I say, I'm not a scientist, so I don't know if that is actually what can happen or what actually does happen. But it's a theory to think if Alexander actually didn't die on the 11th of June and that he was still in a coma seven days later.

still in a coma seven days later. But if he wasn't dead then, he was certainly dead within the next few hours because they then decide, they see Alexander's body and they decide it's time for the embalmment. It's time to embalm Alexander's body in the ancient Egyptian method. So obviously his organs are pulled out, his body is aromatised and it's put on display somewhere in Babylon. And there it remains for the next two years until, as you mentioned, the whole idea of burying the body is super important. Now, two years later, it's time for Alexander's body to go to where it's ultimately going to be buried, somewhere, a destination further west. People think Macedon, do they? They do. In the sources, there's an interesting divide because there are some sources which say that, first of all, Alexander wished not to be buried in Macedonia, the traditional

resting place of the royal Macedonian family, which is the royal tombs at Agai, Monde, Vagina. But that Alexander wanted to be buried at the Oracle of Zeus, Amon, at Siwa, where he'd been declared the son of Zeus earlier in his campaigns. And that's in Egypt, isn't it? That's in Egypt, ancient Libya. So further west than the Nile, but yes, in Egypt. Other sources say that actually the destination was actually, yes, it was going to be Macedonia. I think to sort the fact from the fiction on this, you have to consider the figures who are involved in 321 BC when this happens. And this is Perdiccas and Ptolemy, both former adjutants of Alexander the Great, both highly confident, incredible individuals in their own right, but they have a big animosity towards each other. There's a lot of hostility between the two. Now, Perdiccas at that

time, he is arguably the most powerful figure in what was Alexander's empire. He is the regent, he is in control of, there are now two kings, Alexander's infant son and King Philip Aridaeus III. And Ptolemy is the governor of Egypt or the satrap. He was in charge of the province of the governorship of Egypt and they don't get on. Now we've already talked about the importance of Alexander's body as a symbol of authority and legitimacy for these figures seeking power following Alexander's death. So Perdiccas, he wants control of Alexander's body. He wants to dictate the funeral, the burying of Alexander's body, shall we say. So the one place he definitely does not want the body to go is Siwa, because who's the closest figure to Siwa? It's his arch

rival Ptolemy. He doesn't want Ptolemy getting control of the body and using it for his own ends, largely to cement, to affirm his independence from Perdiccas in this new post-Alexander era, to create Egypt as this bastion of strength for Ptolemy. So it seems more than likely that Perdiccas, sometime between 323 and 321, he sends orders back to Babylon because Perdiccas isn't in Babylon at that time, he's in Central Asia Minor. And he orders the head of the escort that's going to take the funeral carriage west, he orders him to take it to him in Central Asia Minor so that when he receives the body and the funeral carriage, he will then take it with the royal army, with the token kings, with Alexander the Great's widow, he will take it back to Macedon and bury it in the royal tombs to further affirm,

to further show that he is Alexander's true successor. So in answer to your question, there is this debate in the sources, but it seems likely that because of the nature of Perticus and Ptolemy, the destination is intended to be Macedonia. If you listen to Dan Snow's history, I'm talking to Tristan Hughes about Alexander the Great. More after this. Imagine a millennium that laid the foundations

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that inspire assassin's creed we're stepping into feudal japan in our special series chasing shadows where samurai warlords and shinobi spies teach us the tactics and skills needed not only to survive, but to conquer. Whether you're preparing for Assassin's Creed Shadows or fascinated by history and great stories, listen to Echoes of History, a Ubisoft podcast brought to you by History Hits. There are new episodes every week. He doesn't get there, does he, Tristan? He doesn't indeed, because Ptolemy knows that this is part of Perdiccas' big plan, his big imperial plan.

Because Perdiccas got control of the body, he's already talking with Alexander the Great's only full sister, Cleopatra, about marriage. And if he gets the body, he can really enact his imperial plan to go back to Macedon, to bury Alexander the Great, to come back as the husband of Alexander the Great's full sister, to be greeted by his mother Olympias, to have the royal army, to have the body of Alexander, to have the son of Alexander, to have the son of Alexander, the wife, all of that, he would be unstoppable. He would be the clear heir of Alexander. But for that, he needs the body to come to him in central Anatolia, in central Asia Minor, in central Turkey. And Ptolemy knows this. He knows very well that he's got to stop the body

getting to Perdiccas, in my opinion. So he devises this heist, this great plot, and it seems that he's been planning this for some time. Although he was in Egypt he was in communications with the head of the funeral carriage escort in Babylon, a man confusingly also called Aridaeus, but we're going to call this Aridaeus. This is a general Aridaeus, not Philip Aridaeus. One of the most confusing things about this period, Dan, which sometimes pushes people off is that there are so many names which are similar, but we're going to try and keep it as clear to follow as possible. So Ptolemy is talking with Aridaeus about whatever Perdiccas says, you're not going to take it to him in Turkey. You're going to take it to Egypt. You're going to take it to me. Maybe he says we're going

to abide by Alexander's wishes and we're going to bury it at Siwa. Whatever convinces Aradeus, he is convinced. And possibly there is also aid by two other key figures, which are Laomedon, who controls the neighbouring region of ancient Syria, modern day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and modern day Syria, and also the governor of Babylon, Archon and all these figures combined to make sure that this heist it's agreed and it begins as it were because the funeral carriage is incredible covered in gold it's almost a temple on wheels with an incredible description of its surviving really slow pulled by 64 mules but it reaches eastern ancient Syria, probably near the Euphrates,

probably near modern-day Aleppo. And rather than continuing west to Perdiccas and Asia Minor, Aridaeus then alters the escort to turn south, towards Damascus, towards Jerusalem. And that is the start. The heist is afoot. It's unbelievably audacious, isn't it? It's unbelievably audacious when you also think it's one of the most bizarre heists in history. When you think of heist, you think of speed. You might think of the Italian job or something like this. This funeral carriage was a temple on wheels.

It's not going fast. It's not going quick. And it's got to get from northern Syria through whole Syria, basically the coast of the eastern Mediterranean, and then down across the Nile to Memphis, to Egypt. But what Aridaeus does have is the head start when he does turn south, because first of all, you've got to get these riders to go to Perdiccas in central Asia Minor to let him know that, hang on, the body's changed direction, you better act about this. But even with that head start, by the time Perdiccas hears word and imagine his reaction

when he hears that possibly his worst nightmare is going to come true and the body is going to end up in Ptolemy's grasp, he reacts very quickly. He assembles probably a lightly armed force under the command of his close adjutant Attalus and his brother Polymon, and they start heading out as quickly as possible. They head east, they head across the Taurus Mountains, down into ancient Cilicia, down into modern-day Syria, in order to try and catch up with the funeral carriage as it's making its way south. It's incredibly audacious and they do catch up with the funeral carriage south of the ancient important city, still modern day city, of Damascus. But they're in for a shock because Ptolemy has also predicted this. He knows that Perdiccas is going to try and send a force,

a retrieval force, to reroute the funeral carriage. And so in the meantime, he has marched up from Egypt with his own army to greet the funeral carriage when it reached Damascus, which is also where Laomedon comes into play, the satrapcus, which is also where Laomedon comes into play, the satrapal capital of Syria. So Laomedon was probably very much on Ptolemy's side. With all that combined, Ptolemy, we're told in the sources, he goes up with an army, supposedly just to give the funeral carriage the welcome it was worthy of for a conqueror. He was coming up to give the welcome it deserved for the dead Alexander. I mean, it seems more likely that he just really marched

up to make sure that he could reinforce the escort so that he could defend his winnings, which is exactly what it does. Because the retrieval force comes down, it then is greeted, shall we say, by this hugely reinforced escort of Ptolemy's soldiers, so much so that Attalus and his force, they're ill-prepared, they're unable to dislodge the escort, they're unable to force the carriage to go back north. And ultimately, after trying to harass the carriage, it fails and they have to return to Perlicus empty-handed. And so Ptolemy, It fails and they have to return to Perdiccas empty-handed. And so Ptolemy, Aridaeus and the escort with a funeral carriage, they keep marching down past Gaza, past the Sinai desert, into Egypt, to Memphis, where the body is interred. And that's the end of the heist. It's one of the most bizarre

heists in history, but it's just an incredible story, which then sparks a war over the corpse. But it's just an incredible story, which then sparks a war over the corpse. Before we get to the war, tragically, we don't know where that corpse is today. It's one of the great lost tombs of Egypt. It is one of the great lost tombs of Egypt. Absolutely. Now, I don't know exactly all the theories about where Alexander's body is now, where it could have been.

What is interesting with when Alexander's body does come to Egypt is that we do normally associate Alexander's body with Alexandria because that is where it will ultimately be buried. But at the time that Alexander's body comes to Egypt, Alexandria is sometimes described, and I think it's in the Alexander Romance, it's described as Rakotis, which means the building site. So it suggests that at around the time of 321 BC, Alexandria was still being constructed. It wasn't the new capital of what would then become Ptolemaic Egypt. Memphis, the traditional capital, was still the centre of Ptolemy's province, of Ptolemy's regime. And so the body was initially taken there. And at the time, I love this story, there was at Memphis a sarcophagus which was empty because it was initially intended for the last

native ruler of Egypt, a man called Nectanebo II. But Nectanebo had died in exile in the decades earlier because when he'd been evicted by the Persians. And so this sarcophagus lay empty. And it may well be Ptolemy trying to align the last native Egyptian ruler with the dead Alexander, that he placed Alexander's body in this sarcophagus. Because interestingly, we never hear of this incredible elaborate funeral carriage anymore. We hear about it in Babylon, we hear about the journeys of Egypt, but then it just disappears. And then, as you say, over the years, over the centuries, when Alexander's body and its tomb in Alexandria does eventually disappear in the late 4th century AD, it becomes one of the great mysteries. Where is this tomb now? Is it still under Alexandria somewhere? Could it be in the church of St. Mark

in Venice? There's one theory about that. Or could it be somewhere else? You are completely right. It is one of these great mysteries of history. By the way, just to finish up, what's going on with the crocodiles eating people? Right, so this is the war that follows between Perdiccas and Ptolemy because Perdiccas, when he hears that the body is with Ptolemy in Egypt, he can't let this stand. It's a key symbol of authority. He needs the body and Ptolemy has almost taken the keystone out of his own imperial plan to become the key successor of Alexander. At this time, it's a time of difficulty for Perdiccas because he's already got troubles further west with the famous figure of Craterus and also the old wily viceroy that is Antipater. They're preparing to march over to Asia Minor too

to face Perdiccas in Asia Minor at that time. So Perdiccas has a decision to make. Does he stay in Asia Minor to fight against Antipater or Craterus or does he march south to avenge this affront that he's now had by Ptolemy to retrieve the body? And he decides, yes, I need to go to Egypt first. His commanders say, you've got to go to Egypt, you've got to get the body back. Perticus, he marches with most of his army down to Egypt. He gets to the mouth of the River Nile near the ancient city of Pelusium. He has a war of words with Ptolemy, according to one of our sources, Arian, where Ptolemy comes over. Maybe they'd exchanged hostages. And he had a war of words in front of the soldiers saying, like, who's got the better cause?

Perdiccas almost certainly blames Ptolemy, saying, you've got your own imperial ambitions. You've seized the body of Alexander the Great as it was going back to Macedon. But Ptolemy, it seems, refutes by saying, hey, I was just completing Alexander's wishes that he wanted to be buried in Egypt at Siwa. And we're told remarkably, apparently, that actually Ptolemy comes off the better in this rhetorical contest. And then he goes back to his side of the River Nile and the war resumes. Weirdly, this seems that you think this rhetorical contest might have some importance. It doesn't. The war just keeps going as normal. There are a couple of clashes as Perdiccas and his army, they try to get past this branch of the River Nile, particularly at a place called the Camel Fort. But Ptolemy has

strengthened his defences and after a long battle which lasts from dawn until dusk, Perdiccas is forced to retreat from that attack and Ptolemy survives that assault. Perticus is unable to cross the river and so Perticus devises a solution. He knows that the body of Alexander is in Memphis at that time. So for the next two weeks or so, he hasn't got many supplies but he knows that he just needs to get across the river, he needs to get the body of Alexander the Great back. So he heads down the eastern side of the Nile River towards Memphis, past the Nile Delta, and roughly two weeks later he reaches the eastern side of the Nile River opposite Memphis. And here the Nile River is deeper, it's faster flowing current, but there

is a big island in the middle. And so Perdiccas decides that he's going to get his forces to cross the Nile here. And to do that, he puts his elephants in the water upriver to slow the current, and he puts horses further downriver to collect any soldiers that lose their footing during the crossing. It seems ingenious and a really clever plan. It's important. Hundreds, thousands of the veteran Macedonian soldiers in Perdiccas's army managed to do the crossing to the large island. But what they don't know is what's happening under the water in the meantime because the feet of the elephants is displacing the soil underneath the water. So as the time goes on, the current is getting stronger again, the water level is getting

deeper and so much so within a matter of time, the ford has no longer become a ford. The crossing is no longer crossable. So Perdiccas has to call his elephants back, his horses back. And now his army's divided. He's got his veterans on the island and he's got the rest of his army on the eastern bank of the Nile. It's chaos. His army is divided and he needs to think of a solution to rejoin his army up. And it's right then that we hear that apparently Ptolemy comes onto the scene. Perticus sees a huge dust cloud in the distance on the opposite bank. And he thinks Ptolemy is approaching

with a huge army. And he panics. He thinks his army on the island is going to get absolutely annihilated. It's going to get destroyed by Ptolemy. And he panics because, I'm going to say panic because actually it's a ruse, it's a total ruse. Ptolemy is just using pieces of baggage from his baggage train, he's got horses and mules pulling these pieces of baggage along the ground behind him to evoke that he has this huge army when actually it's much smaller. It's a very clever ploy. But Perdiccas falls for it hook, line and sinker and he calls his veteran soldiers back. They have to come back across this fast flowing deep water at this time. And you can imagine what the consequences are. Many of these Macedonian soldiers, they can't swim. They plunge into the river, they throw away all their arms and armour and they're fighting for

their life really in the river to try and get across back to Perdiccas and his army. Some of the better swimmers do manage to get back but many others drown. Some are washed up half dead on the side of the river where Ptolemy's army are and are captured but the worst fate falls to those who are carried too far downstream because those figures are eaten alive according to Diodorus by the the river-dwelling creatures. Crocodiles, yes. Hippos, I don't know. I don't know if hippos would eat people in that circumstance, but yes, certainly with crocodiles. It's horrifying because these are soldiers who had campaigned with Alexander. They'd gone to the far reaches of the known world and further, and they meet an infamous end, being eaten alive by crocodiles in the River Nile.

It's horrible. Tristan, you've inspired me with your passion for the wars of the successors. When I met you a long time ago, and you wanted to come and work at History Hit, and you said to me, well, my burning passion is the wars of the successors. I went, sign this kid up immediately. It's been the best thing we ever did. Thank you very much for coming on and talking about this. How can people listen to your podcast? Well, just type in The Ancients on History Hit. And of course, we've got many, many awesome podcasts on that network.

Not least yours and not just the Tudors and many others. So just search for The Ancients wherever you get your podcasts from. And you've got a new documentary out as well. Yes, we've got a documentary out on the greatest heist in history that we're going to call it, on the seizing of Alexander the Great's funeral carriage and its aftermath, the fight between Perdiccas and Ptolemy

and Perdiccas' ultimate death on the banks of the River Nile. Spoilers, he does get murdered after many of his soldiers are eaten alive by the crocodile. So yes, that is going to history hit two. What a joyful sentence. Thank you very much, Tristan. See you soon, man. Thanks so much, Dan.

This was great fun. I feel we have the history on our shoulders. All this tradition of ours, our school history, our songs, this part of the history of our country, all were gone and finished. Hope you enjoyed the podcast.

Just before you go, bit of a favour to ask. I totally understand if you don't want to become a subscriber or pay me any cash money, makes sense. But if you could just do me a favour, it's for free. Go to iTunes or wherever you get your podcast. If you give it a five-star rating and give it an absolutely glowing review, purge yourself, give it a glowing review. I'd really appreciate that. It's tough weather,

the law of the jungle out there, and I need all the fire support I can get. So that will boost it up the charts. It's so tiresome, but if you could do it, I'd be very, very grateful. Thank you.