From the Ashes of Empire

"To the Strongest"

    With these last words, in response to the question, who will rule your kingdom, the empire of Alexander the Great began to crumble.  Despite all his hard work, he failed to plan for the earthly immortality of his actions and ensured that the fractious and internecine nature of Macedonian politics would continue.  His kingdom was quickly divided into four sections: the two most famous being the Seleucid Empire (Mesopotamia and Persia) and the Ptolemaic Dynasty (Egypt and Palestine).  

    

Modern day view of Hydaspes Battlefield, Pakistan (Author's collection, copyright 2019)

    Of these two, the Ptolemaic lasted until the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC whereupon it was absorbed into the Roman Empire.  Cleopatra committed suicide with a viper (as the story goes) and her palace was eventually overtaken by a rising sea and lost to time.

    In 1996 Archaeologist Franck Goddio discovered the palace five metres underwater in Alexandria's East Harbour and this set off a frenzy of activity in the region, the repercussions of which we are still feeling today.

Greek Coins (circa 330BC) on display Lahore Museam (Author's collection, copyright 2019)

    Perhaps the greatest lesson in all of this is the employment of proper preparation.  Egypt's Alexandria became an immortal city through Ptolemy's hard work after Alexander's death, yet he was only in charge of Alexandria because Alexander failed to plan.  The details of ancient Alexandria have been lost to time because of the destruction of its library.  This library where all the knowledge of the ancient world was centralised for the ease of access and distribution.  Yet a single, unplanned event wiped it out and the tumultuous subsequent historical events (including a sea that rose about eight metres) ensured that we today aren't sure about much of anything with regard to ancient Alexandria.

    Some might say, "That could never happen to us, we have the internet and all information is distributed and accessible worldwide." That sounds great as long as there is electrical power and the servers aren't compromised.   A recent nuclear explosion near Russia's White Sea was an unplanned event that is depriving inhabitants of electricity for the foreseeable future and I'm sure a nuclear explosion is harmful to servers.  

    To take a lesson from a long series of mistakes.  Let's not put all our eggs in one basket.