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Comment by chrismaeda | Hacker News Reader

When I read Arrian, I remember thinking that if I was one of Alexander's generals I probably would have killed him. After 10 years of war you might want to kick back and enjoy being an Emperor. But apparently all Alexander thought about was what to conquer next.

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And kept them SO FAR away from their families with no apparent intention of ever returning. I wonder if some of his generals were able to get 'leave' and go back to Macedonia, though I imagine the trip back must have been quite hazardous as Hellenization was just getting started.

Also he apparently forced a lot of his officers to marry Persians in an effort to join the two cultures. I think that caused a lot of hard feelings.

Arrian mentions that veterans were regularly allowed to return home to Macedonia, presumably for good. But no mention of the generals being allowed to leave. His generals were arguably the main beneficiaries of his death. Eg Ptolemy founded an Egyptian dynasty that lasted until the Romans; Cleopatra was his descendant.

This eventually became a common pattern in the early Roman empire, when the military would effectively help select the leader who would best line their pockets and eventually dispose of him when it was time to cash in again.

with the end that actual defense/fighting was ultimately outsourced to foederati who naturally disposed of the last emperor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foederati#5th_century

"By the 5th century, lacking the wealth needed to pay and train a professional army, Western Roman military strength was almost entirely reliant on foederati units. [...] and the foederati would deliver the fatal blow to the dying nominal Western Roman Empire in 476, when their commander Odoacer deposed the usurper Western Emperor, Romulus Augustulus"

what it must be like to be in the c-suite at facebook.

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