#kynanne

[jeannereames]

I read somewhere recently that when Alexander died, his half-sister Thessalonike was already 21 and that was considered a really late age to get married for greek women. Did Alexander have any groom for her in mind before he died? Did he ever try to play at marriage politics using any of his other siblings? I know he married Hephaestion to his own wife's sister so that their children could be cousins so why didn't he marry Hephaestion with Thessalonike?

Thessalonike’s age is tough to pinpoint as we have a “lower end” and “higher end” chronology for her, but in any case, even on the low end, she was still well past the normal age of marriage.

I’ve written elsewhere, as has Beth Carney, on the sisters and their political status. Go here:

“Alexander and His Sisters”

Post with Beth Carney’s article in reply to a similar question:

The Sisters of Alexander the Great: Royal Relicts

Hi Dr. Reames :) I was wondering, is there any reason Alexander didn't arrange marriages for his sisters? I know of his attempt to marry Cyn

Legend of Mermaid Thessaloniki

Mathetria: a woman scholar

hello! i’m a fan of your blog and have tried checking if this has been asked, if it has im so sorry. but years ago i saw on tumblr a ‘prover

I will quickly address the question of Thessaloniki and Hephaistion, as that’s not a part of any of the above, except tangentially.

Remember that marriage for royals is ALWAYS a political matter. Even if Alexander gave his new wife’s sister to Hephaistion so their children would be cousins, that was still part of a larger political move: to marry Greco-Macedonian men to Persian women to form new bonds in Alexander’s emerging Maceo-Persian empire. So Hephaistion’s marriage was part of that, not just a cute marriage tie with Alexander.

There was no reason for Alexander to give Hephaistion one of his own sisters. Hephaistion actually makes that same point in Dancing with the Lion when Alexander quasi-suggests the idea of him marrying Kleopatra: that Philip (still alive then) has no (political) reason to give him a royal princess.

Philip’s (historical) decision to marry Kleopatra to Alexander of Epiros was to offset any perceived insult to that same Alexander’s sister, Olympias. When Philip married his eldest daughter Kynnane to Amyntas, his nephew, it was presumably to keep Amyntas loyal as a back-up Argead when Philip went to Asia, because Alexander was (possibly) in self-imposed exile. In the novels, that’s when their marriage is announced, but in history, we’re not 100% sure. Yet the timing makes it highly possible Alexander wasn’t at court when Amyntas and Kynnane married.

There’s no political reason for Alexander to marry Hephaistion to one of his sisters, especially the one who’s not a widow and is, therefore, prime marriage material. Had Alexander lived, Thessaloniki would likely have remained unmarried for several more years (as, in fact, she did, albeit for other reasons). Alexander already had his marriage tie between himself and Hephaistion with Statiera the younger and Drypetis.

Btw, this issue is going to arise/come back in Dancing with the Lion, if I get to continue writing the series. I won’t say how (that’s a spoiler), I simply note that it will.

[jeannereames]

Hi Dr. Reames :) I was wondering, is there any reason Alexander didn't arrange marriages for his sisters?

I know of his attempt to marry Cynane off, which never came to fruition because the groom died before the wedding, but he never tried again, which I find odd.

Do you think he simply didn't see the need for a marriage for them? I understand that in Cleopatra's case, Alexander found her position in Epirus more useful than arranging a marriage for her, but what about Cynane and Thessaloniki?

Okay, rather than answer this one, I'm just going to point you to the work of my mentor, colleague, and friend, Beth Carney. She answers this more completely than I could here. And I'd just be summarizing this very article anyway. :-)

The Sisters of Alexander the Great: Royal Relicts

This paper examines the careers of Alexander the Great's sisters: Cleopatra, Cynnane and Thessalonice

[jeannereames]

Who is your favorite diadochos? Or at least the one you find more interesting. Both for History and when writing or reading fiction

Kleopatra and Kynanne. Hands-down. The maneuvering of both, either trying to stay alive or trying to marry off a daughter to the new king, was EPIC. And yes, I consider them as much Diadochi as any of the men. Out of that, I think Kynanne won, even if Hadea Eurydike was eventually killed by Olympias. Poor Kleopatra wound up a prisoner of Antigonos.

Women aside, it'd be Seleukos and Lysimachos. Ptolemy was full of himself and sucks up all the air in the room because Arrian used him as a source for Alexander. But apparently, his history/memoir wasn't that well-known in the ancient world. Kassandros is just ...ick. Perdikkas apparently wasn't that good as a regent, although how much is later smearing by Ptolemaic and Seleucid sources is unclear.

I'd say Krateros too, but he died so quickly, along with Leonnatos. Both outlived Alexander by only a year or two.

(And this is probably my last "ask" answer for the night. I have a real back-up in my inbox, so trying to clear out some.)

[jeannereames]

What do we know, and what do you think, about Alexander's cousin Amyntas?

Amyntas Perdikka

We know very little. He was about a year old when his father died. Despite some contention that he was (briefly) Amyntas IV with Philip as regent, that assumes a constitutional monarchy that most current Macedoniasts reject. Macedonian kings weren’t “elected,” but acclaimed. As a warrior people, the Macedonians wanted a warrior king, where that was an option.

Any Argead male was a viable king, although nomos (custom) seems (I stress the seems) to have offered a little guidance. The son of the prior king was preferred, and the son of the prior king whose mother had the highest social status. But this did not stop Argeads from cheerfully killing each other for the kingship, especially half-siblings from different mothers if they were considered a threat.

Part of the problem is that most of our history of Argead Macedonia is being related by Greeks, who didn’t understand their royal polygamy…or much else. So we’re trying to piece it together from confused texts.

Anyway, with the choice between an infant barely old enough to toddle and a young man who already had archonship of his own canton (and a mini-army to boot), who would you choose?

Yeah. Philip became king. He let Amyntas live because 1) he had no son of his own yet, and 2) Amyntas was literally no threat at all. As soon as Philip had Alexander, Amyntas was sidelined.

We can look at treaties for a hint. Macedonian kings made treaties in their own names, not “the Macedonian people,” unlike the southern city-states. And all the male Argeads were lined up behind in order of (apparent) inheritance. We don’t have a lot of these for Philip, but the Corinthian League treaty has Alexander before Amyntas. Also, notice that Amyntas is never mentioned in Diodoros (el al.) as head of any major military action. We hear more about some of Philip’s generals than his nephew.

So Amyntas got to live, but it was clearly circumscribed. Waldemar Heckel, however, has suggested that he may have been given his own set of syntrophoi (companions of a prince), and that Philotas was among them. Age-wise, they’d have been more contemporary than Philotas and Alexander. I found that so intriguing I stole it for the novels, but do note it’s speculation purely.

We don’t really hear about Amyntas until right before Philip’s death, when the king married him to Kynanne while Alexander was in exile. I said in an earlier ask that seems to have been Philip’s stop-gap until Alexander came home…or in case he didn’t. Arrhidaios was also promised in marriage…but out of the country. Even if that proposal fell through, it suggests Philip intended Amyntas to be the “runner up” heir, not Arrhidaios. This is backed up by the Corinthian inscription. Amyntas, btw, was the father of Hadea Eurydike, who eventually married Arrhidaios.

AND by Alexander’s actions after Philip’s death. If Philip could afford to leave an infant alive, Alexander couldn’t. Amyntas was killed within 6 months of Philip, probably sooner rather than later, accused of having been in on the murder, but Alexander didn’t really need an excuse. Filicide, or cousin-cide in this case, was pretty normal succession procedure in Macedon. Arrhidaios got to live because, again, as with Philip and Amyntas, Arrhidaios was no threat to Alexander…but Alexander still took him to Asia so nobody else could use him to usurp the throne in Alexander’s absence. They were the last surviving male Argeads.

Given the blood one waded through to get to the throne, it’s a wonder that line didn’t die out sooner….

[jeannereames]

How do you think Phillip felt about Kynanne?

Hard to say. He took her to combat in Illyria, so he was certainly willing to use her where it was advantageous. He also married her to his nephew, although that nephew wasn’t going anywhere, so it was more of an honor for him than her. I think Macedonian men mostly didn’t know how to recognize women in a society like the Illyrians (or Epirote) where they had greater power.