Alexander the Great Refusing to Name an Heir
Alexander the Great was a great leader who built a substantial empire, however his last decision likely ended up being one of his worst. His empire brought together numerous powerful cultures and it was hard enough for a leader like Alexander to control. Therefore, it needed a powerful leader to keep it together but as Alexander laid upon his deathbed and he was asked for the name of his successor, he refused to name one.
Some accounts say that Alexander requested that his empire go “to the strongest” and others suggest that Alexander gave his signet ring to Perdiccas who was his bodyguard and leader of the companion cavalry. This is suggested as a way for Alexander to choose his successor even though he was too ill at the time to speak. At the time Alexander had no living sons but Roxanne was pregnant and Perdiccas hoped that the child would be male so that Alexander would have an heir. So he held off taking power over Alexander’s empire until the child was born.
This arrangement did not suit Alexander’s generals who were left out of any discussion of succession and rivalries formed. Alexander’s child did end up being male (Alexander IV) and he was declared heir to the empire with Perdiccas and Phillip (Alexander’s half-brother) ruling as regents until the child came of age. But this did not suit the generals and so began a 40-year war between the generals who believed that they should have been chosen as successors. During the course of the war of the successors, Perdiccas, Phillip and Alexander IV were murdered. While not absolute, it is possible that, in the two weeks that Alexander the great languished before his death, a public announcement of his successor may have spared his empire decades of war.