Le satrapie superiori dopo Alessandro (323-315 a.C.)

Referring to the years following Alexander’s death, Diodorus, who is our main source, often uses the expression αἱ ἄνω σατραπεῖαι to talk about the most eastern territories of Alexander’s empire. This paper analyzes the history of this expression, its translation into modern languages, its use in the ancient historiography. At the end of this analysis, it seems possible that the historian Hieronymus of Cardia first inserted the expression αἱ ἄνω σατραπεῖαι in the geopolitical lexicon of Greek historiography, in direct connection with the ambitions of Antigonus Monophthalmus in the last twenty years of the 4th century BC.