The Murder of Perdiccas and the Crossing of Rivers

[Sweetmemory41]

Here’s an article that examines the murder of Perdiccas within the context of the significance of crossing of rivers for ancient Macedonians - https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/karanos.6

[Alexias]

This was an interesting article, thanks, but I think more about anthropology than history. The author doesn't seem aware of the Europe-wide practice of depositing items of value, often deliberately damaged, into water, but his linking the making of offerings and the pacification of rivers with the validation of a candidate for kingship is very illuminating. All of this may have been an undercurrent in the Macedonians thinking in the murder of Perdiccas, but I think ambition, politics and rivalry probably played a much bigger part.