The Men who surrounded Nikandros pt1
Medestratus was the youngest son of four brothers, his Father was a rather successful merchant running ships from the small port of Pars to the Greek Arabic
poleis. His elder sons were trained to take over the family business, daughters had been married to well connected families. His fathers only wonder was what to do with his youngest son.
He had settled for a rather expensive classical education; he liked to have the men of learning nearby to impress more naive business partners, and the recognition it gave his family. Medestratus had turned out all right, and was captivated by the epics concerning the past, Alexanders conquests, Antiochus and his wars with Rome. It energised him, and pushed him to seek a position in the military.
If Medestratus thought he was going to partake in glorious battles he was sadly mistaken, he was overall a disappointing leader being too cautious and unable to gain his men's love. He met these challenges and at the very least attempted to learn, but his small self improvements had led to him stagnating in the ranks, over-looked for promotion he withdrew and began attempting a deeper understanding of strategy and tactics, his first love.
He had the education and experience to write something meaningful. It was only with the general realisation in the Army assembly that serious reform was needed to halt the string of defeats at the hands of their enemies, that his ideas began to see circulation within the assembly, and whilst the assembly circulated its own ideas and brought in new blood in an attempt to mix things up, it was all rather half-hearted. The realisation of a new doctrine to build on the fundamentals of the Seleukid's army assemblies assumptions of war required a patron, someone with the authority and interest to force such a position on the assembly.
This came in the form of the God-King apparent Nikandros who's interest in pushing such change onto the assembly was unknown at the time; whether it was related to the rumours of the Princes apparent opposition to the power the clergy of the God-King had in the cities, or simply ensuring that when his father died he would still have a country to inherit was unknown.
OOC: I would dearly like to eventually post my thoughts on general military doctrine, but I'm awaiting feedback from people who come into contact with it as mods first
![Stick Out Tongue :p :p](/data/assets/smilies/tongue.gif)