It remains one of the most successful and significant thefts in history. In late 321 BC, a carefully-constructed plot was put into operation that would spark years of bloody conflict between rival warlords.

The target of the operation was Alexander the Great’s elaborate funeral carriage, designed as a miniature and gold-adorned mobile temple, and the conqueror’s talismanic corpse housed within.

Ptolemy and Perdiccas were at loggerheads. The former was the new governor of Egypt. The latter was the all-powerful regent of Alexander’s empire, whose authority theoretically stretched from Afghanistan to the Aegean.Both knew that war between them was all-but-inevitable. Rather than wait, Ptolemy aimed to provoke it on his terms – a pre-emptive strike. It was a huge risk, but one the governor believed he had to take if he would have any chance of victory.

At the end of 321 BC, Alexander the Great’s funeral carriage was heading west from Babylon to the Mediterranean. Perdiccas, who was then stationed in Pisidi, central Anatolia, with the royal army, wanted to take the body back to Macedonia. Returning with the dead king’s body to his homeland, and with the royal army in tow, was a key part of his grand plan to seize the throne.

But Ptolemy had other ideas. He wanted the body to come to Egypt, and he had prepared for this in advance. Colluding with Arrhidaeus, the general in command of the cortege’s escort, and Archon, the governor of Babylonia, they arranged to hijack the body and fatally damage Perdiccas’ grand imperial plans.

In late 321 BC they put the plan in motion. Upon arriving in Syria, Arrhidaeus and the funeral cart turned south towards Egypt. The theft was on. The thieves had a head start, but speed was not a luxury afforded to them. Even with the best suspension the ancients could create, the progress of the great carriage was painfully slow.

It was not long before Perdiccas received word of the cart’s new course and sent a special light-armed task force in pursuit. Its purpose: to retrieve the carriage and its precious cargo – by force if necessary. The chase was on.

In this documentary, Dr Chris Naunton and Tristan Hughes discuss the events of this great heist in antiquity.

Film directed by Mark Bowsher.

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