Just read your “What if… Alexander” post! Along those lines, what do you think might have happened had Alexander not chosen to assassinate Paremenion, and Parmenion had lived? Do you think he might have actually revolted to avenge the death of Philotas, as Alexander feared? I recall reading that even Parmenion had to tell his son to put a lid on his big mouth sometimes, but I imagine just like any other father, he would have loved his kid. Though obviously I’m not at all sure.
What if…Parmenion hadn’t been assassinated by Alexander?
He would have had to retaliate against Alexander.
Why? Family piety.
Family (blood) ties in the ancient world included religiously sanctioned obligation. Yes, even if you didn’t like the person. Didn’t matter. NOT to fulfill certain obligations would offend the gods. Children owed certain duties to parents. Parents owed certain duties to children. Brothers for brothers, etc. These included a proper burial, and to avenge their murder/death.
But these ties were tightest on one’s immediate blood relations. Marriage ties may or may not hold. Ergo, among the three who volunteered to torture the truth out of Philotas (so Curtius) is none other than Koenos…Philotas’s erstwhile brother-in-law. He didn’t want to go down with the ship…and didn’t need to. Philotas was not his blood relation. Also, cousins and other more distant relatives might be able to slip such obligations.
The fact Philotas was Parmenion’s last living son only intensified it, especially as it’s unclear if any of Parmenion’s sons had legitimate (not bastard) offspring. It doesn’t seem they did. (There may be some question with Philotas. Problem: multiple people in the army were named ‘Philotas,’ so which Philotas was the father of ___ isn’t always clear.)
By executing Philotas, Alexander (may have) cut off Parmenion’s family line. Of course Parmenion would have had to retaliate.
As I’ve argued elsewhere (“Crisis and Opportunity”), the mess with Philotas was a serious case of FUBAH. It got out of hand real fast—in part because there hadn’t been a serious attempt on Alexander’s life (outside battle) since waaaaay back in Cilicia at the campaign’s start, and that had been a continuation of the succession conflict.
So Alexander’s advisory council was a kicked anthill. Some were panicked, some saw opportunity. Alexander’s subsequent pardoning of the sons of Andromenes (all of whom, but especially the eldest, had been good friends of Philotas) speaks to his need to appear just and clement. Philotas really was a victim of his own stupidity and arrogance, but once committed, Alexander couldn’t leave Parmenion alive on his supply lines.
Unlike some, I don’t believe Alexander was especially gunning for Philotas, much less Parmenion. But others at court very well may have been, particularly Krateros, who was Parmenion’s understudy since, arguably, Granikos, certainly since Issos, where he’d commanded the infantry brigades under Parmenion’s overall command, e.g., officer #2 on the left. Contra Heckel, I don’t think Hephaistion had any expectation of being appointed as commander of the Companions, while Krateros very well might…which is why Alexander didn’t give it to him.
Anyway, I do think this a case where Alexander let matters get away from him, and he’d probably have really liked a reset the morning after. But done was done. To walk it back would have undermined his authority in a different way. Again, the so-called “Philotas Affair” (really the Dimnos Plot) was the first serious political challenge to his authority in years. They were scrambling, and the tail wagged the dog.
But if we’re playing “what if,” let’s play “what if.” The one potential mitigating factor would have been if Nikanor were still alive.
A quick reminder, Parmenion had three sons: Philotas (eldest, bit of an arrogant jerk, commander of the Companion cavalry, probable syntrophos and friend of Amyntas Perdikka, Alexander’s older cousin); Nikanor (middle child, commander of the Hypaspists, seems to have been more easy-going, older than ATG but not by as much); Hektor (baby, younger than ATG, a friend and favorite of the king).
Hektor drown in the Nile. We’re not told when or how exactly, but apparently accidental. ATG was heartbroken and gave him a big-ass funeral.
Nikanor died of unstated illness sometime around the army’s sojourn in Hyrkania, after they’d left Parmenion in Ekbatana (this is also post-Gaugamela, post-Persepolis, post-Darius’s murder). No hint of foul play, Alexander gave him a big-ass funeral.
Around 6 months after Nikanor’s death, the Dimnos Conspiracy occurred, implicating Philotas.
As I’ve said elsewhere (see my article linked above), I do not think Philotas involved. Heckel suggests Philotas may not have minded if the plot had succeeded, but wasn’t involved otherwise. I don’t think even that. I think Philotas was an arrogant idiot who didn’t take it seriously. E.g., he was guilty of hubris and stupidity. But he went down for it.
SO…let’s imagine Nikanor did not die 6 months earlier.
Matters would have fallen out very differently. First, I doubt Krateros would have thought he could push the way he did. One (unpopular) son of Parmenion was one thing, but going up against two, one of them not as disliked? Yeah…no. Even if he’d tried, he’d have been voted down.
Nikanor may even have upbraided his brother. (By all appearances, he was more like their father in temperament than Philotas.)
Yes, it’s possible that ATG would have still used the oversight to “get rid” of the family of Parmenion…but that requires subscribing to Ernst Badian’s view that Alexander had it in for Parmenion all along—which I don’t.
Put Nikanor back in the picture, and change the outcome. First, I think Nikanor would have got his brother off. But even if Philotas had been executed, had Alexander not executed Nikanor, then he almost certainly wouldn’t have sent an order for Parmenion’s assassination. Nor would Parmenion have retaliated. (After all, his last son would have been in Alexander’s clutches.)
And history might actually have recorded why Dimnos instigated a plot against the life of the king in the first place. (As it is, we have no f-ing idea because the fall of Philotas and Parmenion ate the real conspiracy.)