Diplomacy (Part I)

We learned that King Aram of Persian had gathered an army just
north of the Persian homelands we then occupied. Although the
army was large, all of our scouts and spies reported its quality very
low. If they chose to fight us, even without our reinforcements from
the west, the battle would be a simple victory for our side. The
generals of army advised Antigonos that we march the army north
immediately, defeat that army, and capture the Persian king before
he could gather a true army. Antigonos refused to march forward
and continued to push for talks with King Aram.

At the time, I thought it foolish to push for peace when victory was
in our sight. All of us who doubted General Antigonos soon learned
of what he already knew. An messenger from the east came to
meet with Antigonos. He came from the lands of the river called
Indus, but he was a Hellene. There, on the far side of the Persian
Empire, Hellenes were also at war against the Persians. We had
won the war on our side, but they were loosing on their side. The
messenger's main reason for visiting was to request aid in their war,
but he also brought news of the gathering of a huge army to our east.

This man's kingdom was already nearly defeated by the Persians
and they were moving armies away from that war and westward to
fight with us. The northern Persian king was ready to move his entire
force against us. With half of a Hellenic army remaining in the
conquered Persian capital, it would have been impossible to fight
these many armies from the north and east. With this information,
the generals and advisors of Antigonos quieted their requests for war
and accepted a plan to force the Perians into a subserviant peace.

Antigonos gave this kingdom to the far east a small amount of silver
but told them he would not help them as long as they sought the
destruction of the Hellenistic royal line which was called the Seleukid
Dynasty. This family had been long friends of Antigonos' family and
he sought to protect them. It did not come quickly, but several years
later the war between those two distant Hellenic factions came to an
end. As promised, Antigonos then sent silver to support both.



Before we received a formal message from King Aram, another
messenger from the lands of Arabia came to meet with Antigonos.
A small kingdom allied to the Hellenes had come under attack of a
larger enemy kingdom. Although they were outnumbered, the king
of the small kingdom had won a great victory. Once the enemy
began assaulting the wall of their capital, the Arab king moved his
cavalry out from the city and attacked the enemy reserves.



After defeating the enemy cavalry, the allied king charged the enemy
general and killed him with an attack from two sides. With broken
morale and no leadership, the enemies assaulting the walls broke
formation and were wiped out by the city defenders.



The messenger was from the allied kingdom and came requesting
assistance from Antigonos. Their kingdom had been saved, but
their army was destroyed. Last time a small kingdom to the south
had requested assistance, Antigonos had sent none. This time
Antigonos acted very differently. This allied kingdom was just
across the sea from my homelands and was very important to the
security of Antigonos' father's kingdom. Antigonos sent word to the
lands of Syria to gather a force to march south and to this kingdom.
Another message was sent to his father. Once Antigonos' father
had agreed with the plan, the army would march south and attack
the enemy kingdom in Arabia.

General Antigonos had already begun to shift his attention away
from the war in Persia by the time King Aram sent word agreeing to
discussions. For a month, messages were sent between the two
men. Finally conditions were good for a meeting between Atigonos,
prince of the Hellenes, and Aram, king of the Persians. The two
leaders would meet and it would be the task of the Royal Guard to
protect Antigonos.