Historical Questions about Antigonid Makedonia

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Hi,

recently came up a few more or less historical questions about Antigonid Makedonia. I would be glad if anybody enlightened could answer them.


1. What was the official dating system of the Antigonids? "The Year in History" states they counted their years from Alexandros IV. reign onwards, which was 317BC, later he was murdered.

Did they put this to use in official documents etc.? Did they write "blahblah, in the 46th year after Alexandros", or how? Or was that even common practice in Antigonid Makedonia? Or did they rather counted Olympiads?

I would be really glad if somebody could enlighten me on that.


2. Since I read Alexandros (the governor of Korinthos at the game's start) was Antigonos' nephew, I guess Krateros was his brother. In what relation is Antigonos to Kalos? They don't have to be necessarily brothers, since "Protogenes Argeades (sp)" is not really Antigonos' father, that was Demetrios Poliorketes.


3. Which city is the harbour city of Pella, Thermai or Thessalonike? I figured these two as possible candidates.


4. Which city is the harbour city of Demetrias? Demetrias itself?


5. Why is Ambrakia so far north? In all maps I've seen it is very close to the Ambrakian Gulf, where I currently see Ambrakia's harbour. Indeed, where in EB Ambrakia is situated, maps show at this location Dodona. Instead Dodona is in EB much more to the northwest, at the seaside. Are the maps wrong?


Thank you very much for your effort.

[Jolt]

I don't remember where the Pella's port place appear, but I think Pydna would be a good option. If it is in that is in that peninsula (don't know what it is called), I suppose Kassandreia would be a nice choice.

EDIT: Demetrias is a port city, so yes it is Demetrias.

[Timoleon]

3. Until 315 BC, when Thessalonike was founded, Pella used the harbours of Methone and Pydna. Then Thessalonike was the main merchant and military harbour.

4. Demetrias is a port city, founded by Antigonos Gonatas' father Demetrios Poliorketes. Here are two air photos of the archeoligical site.

5. I think the EB campaign map is intentionally wrong for a better gameplay. Here is a map of ancient Epeiros, unfortunately it is in Greek. I hope it helps.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Thank you so far.

What I'm wondering is that if there'll anyday be somebody who can answer my question no. 1.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

1- No idea.
2- Alexandros is indeed Antigonos's nephew. Kalos is kind-of added just to bulk up the family, I don't know if he really existed. The starting family cannot have more than one person with the same visible name, so the name Demetrios was given to the living Demetrios. Protogenes means something like 'he who comes before', so it is just a standin name.
3- I always think of it as Salonika, but it could represent any of the coastal cities, or it could be all of them at the same time since many cities fit into the tile it takes up.
4- I think it is supposed to be Demetrias itself, same for Ambrakia.
5- The location of Ambrakia is a known issue. Both the city and the port of the Epeiros province are Ambrakia, since Ambrakia was the capital and the main military port. The two can't be in the same tile, and when the city is placed one tile north of the port it will create a weird effect where on the battle map Ambrakia has a giant cliff down on two sides and cliffs up on the other two. The two was moved to an inaccurate possition so the battlemap wouldn't look messed up.

[keravnos]

Hi,

recently came up a few more or less historical questions about Antigonid Makedonia. I would be glad if anybody enlightened could answer them.


1. What was the official dating system of the Antigonids? "The Year in History" states they counted their years from Alexandros IV. reign onwards, which was 317BC, later he was murdered.

Did they put this to use in official documents etc.? Did they write "blahblah, in the 46th year after Alexandros", or how? Or was that even common practice in Antigonid Makedonia? Or did they rather counted Olympiads?

I would be really glad if somebody could enlighten me on that.

I think it was the 2nd year of the rule of Perseus and so forth. For any other "international" way to count time, Olympiads were used.
Yes I think it was in official documents and Stele, of the top of my head. I need to verify this, but this is what I think it was.

2. Since I read Alexandros (the governor of Korinthos at the game's start) was Antigonos' nephew, I guess Krateros was his brother. In what relation is Antigonos to Kalos? They don't have to be necessarily brothers, since "Protogenes Argeades (sp)" is not really Antigonos' father, that was Demetrios Poliorketes.

Not entirely familiar with the geneology of the Antigonids at that time, gotta read up on it, and until I do read up on Hammond, I must defer that question.

3. Which city is the harbour city of Pella, Thermai or Thessalonike? I figured these two as possible candidates.

It has been answered already.

4. Which city is the harbour city of Demetrias? Demetrias itself?

Indeed

5. Why is Ambrakia so far north? In all maps I've seen it is very close to the Ambrakian Gulf, where I currently see Ambrakia's harbour. Indeed, where in EB Ambrakia is situated, maps show at this location Dodona. Instead Dodona is in EB much more to the northwest, at the seaside. Are the maps wrong?

Only so many things you can do with pathfinding a short map and what have you. It is an RTW thing, not an EB thing, IIRC.

Thank you very much for your effort.

You are welcome. Also, I must take this opportunity to adress one minor thing that has been bugging me. In an earlier thread, when talking about the now locked AAR which portrayed Baktrians as a Nazi Reich, I tried to prove that they weren't Nazi because they just couldn't be. If by that effort I have offended the Germans of this forum, I must apologize. I tried to use Nazi terminology, but didn't and won't ever accuse the Germans as a whole for Hitler and his actions. It would be absolutely wrong to do so. Thanks.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Thank you everybody again for taking the time to answer.

You are welcome. Also, I must take this opportunity to adress one minor thing that has been bugging me. In an earlier thread, when talking about the now locked AAR which portrayed Baktrians as a Nazi Reich, I tried to prove that they weren't Nazi because they just couldn't be. If by that effort I have offended the Germans of this forum, I must apologize. I tried to use Nazi terminology, but didn't and won't ever accuse the Germans as a whole for Hitler and his actions. It would be absolutely wrong to do so. Thanks.

I didn't understand it that way, what turned me off in the OP's posting I made clear in the respective thread itself. No problem.