Death of Alexander and the Partition of Babylon
- Date
- 323 BCE
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Mesopotamia (Babylon)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
Alexander the Great died at Babylon on roughly 10–11 June 323 BCE, aged 32, with no competent heir.
His leading generals convened the Partition of Babylon, recognising his half-brother Philip III Arrhidaeus and his posthumous son Alexander IV as nominal joint kings while distributing the satrapies among themselves, with Perdiccas as regent. Ptolemy took Egypt and Seleucus later secured Babylonia. The settlement immediately broke down into the Wars of the Diadochi (successors), a generation of conflict that destroyed the royal family and fractured the empire. From these struggles emerged the three great Hellenistic kingdoms — Ptolemaic Egypt, the Seleucid Empire across the Near East and Iran, and Antigonid Macedonia. The death of Alexander thus marks the conventional beginning of the Hellenistic age, an era defined by Greek-Macedonian dynasties ruling vast non-Greek populations.
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Empires active in 323 BCE
- Macedonian Empire (Alexander)336 BCE – 323 BCE
- Roman Republic509 BCE – 27 BCE
- Nanda Empire345 BCE – 322 BCE
- Kingdom of Kush1070 BCE – 350 CE
- Carthaginian Empire650 BCE – 146 BCE
- Odrysian Kingdom480 BCE – 46 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Chandragupta Maurya founds the Maurya Empirec. 321 BCE
- Qin unification of China and the First Emperor221 BCE
- Seleucid–Mauryan treaty links the Greek and Indian worldsc. 305–303 BCE
- Royal Cemetery Shifts to Meroe, Launching the Meroitic Period of Kushc. 300 BCE
- Cleisthenes' reforms establish Athenian democracy508/507 BCE
- Foundation of the Roman Republicc. 509 BCE (traditional)
Further reading
The wider story
The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction
Concise, expert intro to Mesopotamia, Persia and the Near East before Alexander.
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