Antigonus I Monophthalmos

Antigone I the One-Eyed (Greek: Ἀντίγονος ὁ Μονόφθαλμος, Antígonos Monophthalmos) (382 BC–301 BC.) was a Macedonian nobleman, general, and satrap in the service of Philip II and Alexander III. Later he was one of the most prominent diádocos .

After the death of Alexander the Great, his generals divided up the empire, and fought great wars for twenty years to gain power. They were called diádocos, (διἀδοχος) successors or heirs. After these ancient generals, the so-called epigones (ἐπίγονος), those born after or successors, ruled. The struggle between them to obtain power and hegemony lasted almost fifty years, until the year 281 BC. C. in which the last of the diádocos, Seleuco, died.

Along with Ptolemy (later Ptolemy I Soter) and Seleucus (later Seleucus I Nicator), Antigonus accompanied Alexander when he went to war against Persia in the spring of 334 B.C. C. Together they crossed the Hellespont with an army of about thirty-five thousand men from Macedonia and all of Greece. Judging him too old to accompany him in his conquests, Alexander left him in charge of Phrygia, (333 BC), which he administered for ten years.

On the death of Alexander the Great, he took over almost his entire empire (in addition to having seized the royal treasury), with the intention of bringing together all the lands conquered by him under his rule. He had been lieutenant and governor of Bithynia (on the shores of Lake Ascanio) and later, in 316 a. C., he founded the city of Antigonia that would later be known as Nicaea (present-day Iznik in Turkey). He defeated one by one his rivals, Eumenes of Cardia and Alcetas in Cretopolis (318 BC).In the year 306 BC. C. he had an army of eighty thousand infantry, eight thousand horsemen and eighty-three elephants.

But all the other generals rallied against him and battled him at Ipso in 301 B.C. C., in Phrygia, in the center of Asia Minor. He died in the fight. His son was Demetrius Poliorcetes, who became king of Macedonia. Historians point out that father and son were the biggest instigators and partly responsible for all the intrigues and fights that took place between the generals (Diadochi) after Alexander's death.

Origin uncertain

There is no agreement among historians about his origin. He was the son of one Philip and perhaps belonged to a noble family, perhaps even to the Elymean princely one as a grandson of Derdas III (and consequently, cousin of Harpalus). But Claudio Aeliano, who follows Duris of Samos, affirms that he was of humble origin; he points out that he was an autourgos , that is, a peasant or someone made by himself. However, Duris makes fun of the Diadochi in his Macedonians and Aelian is not very reliable as a historical source. On his part, Diodorus also says that Antigonus had plebeian origins, or at least that the one whom he considered the greatest king in his time was not the son of a king. On the contrary, his marriage to Stratonice seems to indicate that he came from noble lineage. This, whom he married around 340 a. C., was the daughter of "king" Korragos, of Lincestide or Orestide and was related to the first Argéadas.

It is believed that he grew up with his mother in Pella and that he must have had at least two brothers, one named Demetrius, and another half-brother, the historian Marsyas of Pella. Ptolemy was called one of his nephews, another Telesforo and a third Dioscurides; all three served under him. He also had two sons: Demetrius the "repossessor of cities" and future king of Macedonia and Philip, about whom little is known, but who seems to have accompanied his father on his military campaigns.

The ancients nicknamed him «Monoftalmos» («the One-eyed»), because it seems that he did indeed lose an eye in a fight of unknown date but in any case prior to the campaigns of Alexander the Great. A sophist named Theocritus—not the bucolic poet of the same name—was sentenced to death for comparing him to a Cyclops, according to Plutarch.

General and satrap

Beginnings

He first served as an officer and companion of Philip II, so he was from the first generation of officers to which Antipater, Parmenion, and Polyperchon also belonged. He was about forty-six years old when Philip passed away. He appears to have been part of Alexander the Great's entourage, even the royal council.He was strategos of the allied Greek contingent of the League of Corinth at the beginning of the 334 BC expedition. C. and had seven thousand soldiers under his command. The grade did not imply an effective troop command since this heterogeneous contingent participated little in field battles, which is why Antigonus is found more often with Alexander than with him. in front of his soldiers.

Alexander entrusted him with an embassy to the city of Priene, in Ionia in August 334, a trust assignment that went beyond his prerogatives as a mere general. He is known by a city decree in which honors are granted to him (citizenship, property rights, office of proxene, etc.); although the details of the undertaking are unknown, it is believed that the general took possession of the city in the name of the king by granting rights, as in the similar case of Parmenion with Magnesia of the Meander.

He was entrusted with the satrapy of Great Phrygia in 333 BC. C. to submit it after the victory of Granicus; he also had to ensure communications with Greece. The main road passed precisely through the capital of the region, Celenaas. This appointment is proof of the great confidence that the king had in his military capacity, since the commission entailed the conquest of Celenas.

Satrap of the Greater Phrygia (333-323 BC)

Asia Minor at the time of the diadocs.

The long rule of Greater Phrygia allowed him to use his military, diplomatic and political skills. The region lacked any Greek cities and was located in a strategic location of the empire: the routes that connected the East with the Aegean sea; In addition, it was well connected to the north and south of the Anatolian peninsula. Three different roads from Susa to western Asia Minor passed through Celena, an important stage of the caravan routes.

Alexander the Great arrived in the city at the beginning of 333 BC. C. A great acropolis dominated it, in which the satrap Atticies had posted a garrison of a thousand Carians and a hundred Greek mercenaries. As he wanted to reach Gordius as soon as possible, Alexander did not entertain himself in encircling the citadel. Antigono the government of the satrapy and the command of a body of fifteen hundred mercenaries. The besieged ended up surrendering due to hunger at the end of April and beginning of May and Antigono added them to his ranks. The subjugation of the square gave him control of the satrapy which, however, was then surrounded by hostile regions: Bithynia remained independent, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia and Lycaonia were in the hands of Persian satraps, and Isauria and Pisidia did not recognize Macedonian authority. To this it was necessary to add that Memnon of Rhodes and Farnabazo II had undertaken a reconquest of the sea and tried to block Alexander, who besieged Tire in the winter of 333-332 BC. C.

The Persian troops that had survived the defeat at Issos, at least twenty thousand horsemen under the command of Nabarzanes, then tried to recover Lydia and the rest of Asia Minor. Alexander gave Antígono a temporary general command to face the threat that gave him authority over the satraps of the provinces threatened by Nabarzanes: Calas de la Phrygia Minor, Balacro de Cilicia and Nearco de Licia-Pamphylia. Antigonus defeated the enemy in three battles in Cappadocia and Paphlagonia during the spring of 332 BC. C. Only Cappadocia, ruled by Ariarates I, resisted him, a region that Alexander had not conquered either. The defeated Persian troops were not, however, mere bands of survivors of Issos, but well-trained and framed units. The triple victory meant the definitive expulsion of the Persians from Anatolia; At the same time, the Macedonian fleet pushed back the Autophradates fleet, preventing it from disrupting Alexander's land and sea communications.

Antígono resided in the capital of his province, Celenas, from 332 a. C. The classical sources barely provide data on the management that he made of the province. After seizing Lycaonia, he took over Lycia-Pamphylia in 300 BC. C. It is believed that the latter was included from then on in Greater Phrygia. military reinforcements were arriving from Europe.

Although his administration of the satrapy is poorly understood, it is assumed that the peaceful temperament of the inhabitants allowed him to show off his organizational skills in a region that was rich in agriculture and personalities. Some modern historians claim that Phrygia retained feudal structures during the Alexandrian period, as lordships of Persian landowners, with economic and military autonomy. Others, on the contrary, believe that both Alexander and Antigonus made the region a Crown land (chôra basilikè), subject to onerous taxes. The Achaemenid socioeconomic structures lasted, in any case, until the later stage of the Hellenistic kingdoms, as the Asian method of production in which the peoples lacked private property. This feature, shocking to Greco-Macedonians, worked well in the region, which lacked any Greek cities.

Phrygia Greater enjoyed ten years of peace during the period that Antigonus ruled it. This made it possible to keep open the routes that connected the west with the east and meant neutralizing the populations that were habitually engaged in looting, as was the case with the pisidia. It seems that Antigonus also maintained the tax burden on the Phrygian peasantry (laoi) and perhaps even increased it. Thus, by 323 BC. C., he had fulfilled the task entrusted to him. No source clarifies what his relations with the king were at that time. Plutarch does not cite him among those satraps with whom Alexander corresponded. Antigonus also did not send reinforcements to the royal army, unlike other of his colleagues such as Menander or Nearchus, nor did he participate in the celebrations of the eastern expedition such as the wedding of Susa. Claudius Aelianus suspects that Alexander mistrusted Antigonus' ambitions, but their texts, which in this follow Duris of Samos, lack reliability and are, fundamentally, moral judgments of the Diadochi.

First War of the Diadochi

Antígono did not participate in the pact of Babylon that distributed the empire when Alexander the Great died in June of 323 a. C. he maintained the satrapy of Phrygia Mayor to which he had added Licia and Pamphylia. Dissatisfied with the cast, he joined in 321 BC. C. to the league of Antipater, Ptolemy and Crátero against the imperial chiliarch, Pérdicas, who tried to impose his authority and eliminate the centrifugal forces that threatened the unity of the empire.

He fell out with Perdiccas in 323 BC. By refusing, together with Leonato, to help Eumenes of Cardia to seize Cappadocia as agreed in Babylon, he also criticized Perdiccas's marriage plan with the late Alexander's sister, Cleopatra. The chiliarch summoned him to appear before a court (perhaps the Macedonian assembly), but he preferred to flee with his family and seek the protection of Antipater in 322 BC. C. In the first of the wars of the Diadocos he had a secondary role, as a mere follower of the regent of Macedonia. He was head of the squadron in the eastern Mediterranean, in charge of controlling the Hellespontic straits between the Aegean and Black Seas.

He landed at Ephesus in the spring of 321 B.C. C. with the aim of collaborating with Antipater and Crátero in the campaign they carried out against Eumenes, strategos of Pérdicas in Asia Minor; this, for his part, tried to invade Egypt, in the hands of Ptolemy. Antigonus marched towards Sardes where Eumenes was then, who fled to Cappadocia with the help of Cleopatra, eager to help this determined supporters of the Argeada dynasty and to promote the cause of her fiancé. That same year, while Antipater managed to avoid Eumenes, who had defeated Craterus, and reach Egypt to join the fight against Perdiccas, Antigonus defeated his fleet in Cyprus.

Asian Strategists

The death of Perdiccas in 321 BC. C. during the Egyptian campaign the situation changed suddenly and precipitated a new division of the empire through the Pact of Triparadiso, agreed in Syria. Then an uprising broke out, encouraged by the ambitious Eurydice II, wife of Philip III. Taking advantage of the death of Craterus, she tried to impose his guardianship on the king, mentally defective, and fueled an uprising against Antipater. The rebellion surprised Antigonus and Seleucus at first, but the former managed to put it down. This episode was one more sign that in Macedonia the army ultimately chose the sovereign. The main decision of the Triparadisos meeting was to confirm the regency of Antipater and to make him tutor to Philip III and Alexander IV. There was also a new distribution of the satrapies. Ptolemy kept Egypt, but Seleucus got the province of Babylon.

Antígono's luck improved remarkably thanks to the political vacuum created: to his satrapy of Phrygia, Lycia and Pamphylia he added Lycaonia. He too was tasked with ending the war with Eumenes of Cardia, whose Cappadocian lands adjoined his. Antipater gave him command of the army under the title strategos of Asia and entrusted him with custody of the kings. Antigonus a viceroy in fact, with greater power than any other of the Diadochi, save perhaps Ptolemy, then engaged in consolidating his control of Egypt. Antipater sent him as second to his own son Cassander, the new chiliarch of the cavalry of the “companions.” The bad relationship between Antigonus and Cassander turned out to be fatal: neither was willing to give up the other. The conflict between the two was triggered when Casandro convinced his mother to take the kings with her. By then, however, Antipater could not afford to antagonize Antigonus, so he carried out the maneuver, in practice provocative towards Antigonus, with finesse. To avoid openly challenging Antigonus, he offered his daughter Phila in marriage.; she is she in fact married the son of Antigonus Demetrius and had Antigonus II Gonatas with him.

Antígono was in charge of eliminating the last supporters of the deceased Pérdicas, like his brother Alcetas and, above all, Eumenes de Cardia. He gathered his troops and headed for Cappadocia, where Eumenes had taken refuge after sacking Phrygia, Antigonus' satrapy, and wintering in Celena, its capital. This campaign of Antígono began in 320 a. c.; He had ten thousand pawns, five thousand of them Macedonians, two thousand horsemen and thirty elephants. The main battle was fought in the country of the Orcinians, in Cappadocia, and resulted in the victory of Antigonus in the spring of 319 BC.. C. Eumenes suffered numerous desertions: the Macedonian phalanx went over to the enemy ranks. The vanquished took refuge in the fortress of Nora, in the confines of Cappadocia bordering on Lycaonia; Antigonus, for his part, marched against Alcetas, who, defeated in Pisidia, committed suicide.

Fight Eumenes of Cardia

The death of Antipater in the summer of 319 B.C. C. changed the situation and stoked the ambition of Antigono. At that time, he dominated most of Asia Minor and considered himself the only one capable of inheriting the empire. In fact, he was the pivotal figure in the Hellenistic East for the next fifteen years. The other diádocos, in spite of their ambitions, did not really compete with the imperial projects of Antígono: basically they limited themselves to trying to guarantee a personal fiefdom, although this favored the disintegration of the empire. Antigonus, by contrast, was eager to seize the whole of the Alexandrian empire. By then he was nearly sixty-five years old, but he demonstrated great military skill, supported by his capable son Demetrius, one of the most brilliant military leaders of the time.

Polyperchon succeeded Antipater as regent of Macedonia, to the detriment of Cassander, and sided with Eumenes of Cardia against Antigonus. He was busy seizing the satrapies of Lydia and Phrygia, so Antigonus agreed to an armistice with Eumenes mediated by Jerome of Cardia. He tried to woo him, but the late Alexander's former chancellor remained loyal to the Argéads and was appointed by Polyperchon, head of the "royal army" with the title of strategos of Asia, with the task of defeating Antigonus who, allied with Cassander and Ptolemy, refused to recognize the authority of the new regent.

Antígono appears at that time as a personal enemy of Philip III. Polyperchon ordered his fleet, commanded by Cleitus, to prevent Antigonus from crossing the Hellespont from Hellespontic Phrygia and seizing Philip, who was then taking refuge in Cío. However, Cassander ordered his admiral Nicanor to sail from Chalcedon; This was joined by the little Antigonus and the two assembled a squadron of about a hundred ships. With the help of Byzantine allies, Antigonus, but without strategos, overcame a predicament by attacking the enemy's camp at night and destroying his fleet. Diodorus estimates that Antigonus "achieved great fame among his own." for such a victory. From that moment, he planned to make himself lord of the seas and uncontested master of the Asiatic empire." Thus he marched towards Cilicia at the head of twenty thousand foot soldiers and four thousand cavalry, to attack Eumenes before he could assemble a large army.; he took with him Macedonian officers who were supporters of Alcetas, brother of Perdiccas, as hostages, so that Perdiccas would not come to the aid of Eumenes.

Eumenes managed despite everything to form a league with the satraps of the eastern provinces with the aim of driving Antigonus away from his bases and taking out the royal treasures, such as that of Susa. He seized the citadel of Babylon from Seleucus, an ally of Antigonus. These facts, which Diodorus Siculus narrates, also appear in the Babylonian chronicles called Chronicles of the Diadochi . Eumenes arrived in Susiana during the winter of 318-317 BC. C., where he planned to gather the troops of the eastern provinces, with the elephants of Eudamus and the soldiers of the ambitious Peucestas, the somatophylakes of the late Alexander. Eumenes arranged his defenses along the Tigris, but This did not prevent Antígono from reaching Susiana and joining forces with Python, the satrap of Media, and those of Seleucus, who he commissioned to besiege the citadel of Susa. Eumenes crossed the Tigris and defeated Antigonus on the banks of the Coprates. The vanquished retreated to Media, thus threatening the possessions of the satraps who had allied themselves with Eumenes.

Antigone then advanced into Persia, while the royal army advanced to meet him and met him at Paraitacene. Eumenes tried to give battle, but the roughness of the ground prevented the clash; Antigono was able to undertake the withdrawal towards Gabiene to ensure the supply of his troops. Eumenes managed, however, to catch up with him and prepare to force him to fight. The battle of Paraitacene (late 317 BC) ended without a clear victor and Antigonus returned to Media. Eumenes decided not to pursue him and wintered in Gabiene, in the confines of Persia and Media. A few weeks later, Antigonus decided to resume operations and swiftly marched against the still scattered enemy forces across the Iranian desert plateau. But the enemy discovered Antigonus' exhausted soldiers; Eumenes pretended to have assembled his troops and had them ready for battle in order to buy time to really rally them, which he succeeded in. Antigonus attacked an elephant convoy that was far from the main enemy forces, but Eumenes was able to send aid to him.

The two generals prepared to do battle at Gabiene (January 316). Eumenes was seized for the treachery of Peucestas, Argyraspidas, Antigenes, and Teutamo, and the baggage train captured; Eumenes was put under arms at once, as stipulated in the Pact of Triparadiso. The satrap of India, Eudamus, as well as Antigenes and Teutamo, suffered the same fate. Jerome of Cardia, the future historian of the time of the Diadochi, then submitted to Antigonus.

From then on Antigonus did as he pleased. His ally of his time, Cassander, wrested Macedonia from Olympiad; Antigonus, for his part, dedicated himself to reorganizing Asia, acting as sovereign of the region. He unceremoniously dismissed various satraps and replaced them with others more faithful to his person. Thus, for example, Peucestas, to whom he owed the victory over Eumenes, nevertheless lost the government of Persia, where he had sympathies. Python, who wanted to take control of the satrapies of Upper Asia, was executed. Antigonus then went to Babylon to settle scores with Seleucus, who had acted for his own benefit; he fled the city. Antigonus, imitating Alexander's pragmatism in this, had no qualms about handing over key posts to Persians. He seized the royal treasury of Cyinda (Cilicia), which is estimated at ten thousand talents, to which he adds an annual income of another eleven thousand. This made him the most powerful and richest of the Diadochi.

First coalition against him

Proclamation of Tire

After defeating Eumenes, he claimed most of the Asiatic satrapies, seized the treasures of Susa, entered Babylon in 315 BC. C. and took control of almost all the Asian territories of the Alexandrian empire. Seleucus took refuge in Egypt and formed a league against him that included Lysimachus and Cassander, the new regent of Macedonia. The allies presented him with an ultimatum in which they demanded that he return the provinces to the satraps that he had dismissed and that he share the treasure that he had taken from Eumenes, which he had received from Polyperchon. The confrontation between Antigono and Ptolemy, although he was preparing a campaign to seize Greece. Antigonus invaded the Levant, which Ptolemy had evacuated after having earlier seized it from Laomedon of Mytilene, but spent more than a year besieging Tire in Phoenicia, fiercely defended by a garrison of his opponent.

He proclaimed his desire to restore freedom to the Greek cities in the proclamation of Tire in 315 BC. C. in order to weaken Cassandro and, to a lesser extent, Lysimachus (who dominated Thrace and the Hellespont at the time).He supported supporters of democracy since Cassandro did the same with those of the oligarchy. With this he hoped that the cities would rise up against Cassander. Ptolemy imitated him and announced his support for the autonomy of the cities. Antigonus, for his part, favored the formation of the League of Islanders in the Cyclades islands and sent soldiers to Greece.

In the proclamation of Tyre, which Antigonus made on behalf of his army, he punished Cassander for the murder of Olympia, perpetrated in 316 BC. C., accused him of duplicity and cruelty, for having promised the queen that he would save her life if she surrendered, to make her kill later. She also accused him of keeping Roxana and the young Alexander IV captive and of having forced the Alexander's half-sister, Thessaloniki to marry. In the same proclamation, he arrogated the title of protector of the young king, which he added to that of strategos of Asia. Cassander was not the most formidable adversary in the military, but he was the lord of Macedonia, with his significant war potential, which he could mobilize in his favor through recruitment. In addition, he had in his power the legitimate king and ties to the Argéad dynasty by virtue of his marriage to Thessalonica. Thus began a war between the two that lasted thirteen years.

Antigone's Offensive

Luck smiled on Antigonus between 314 and 313 BC. C. However, the fall of Tire did not allow him to continue and invade Egypt and also had to submit to Asandro, satrap of Caria who had rebelled against him. He therefore abandoned the initial plan and decided to take the war to Asia Minor, while his nephews Telesforo, Ptolemy and Medio de Larisa landed in Greece. Antigono was allied with the king of Bithynia and with the cities of Chalcedon and Heraclea Pontica. While Cassander was losing Greece, Antigonus defeated Asandro in 313 BC. C. and seized the cities of Ionia, including Miletus, thus recovering the lands of Asia Minor that had escaped his authority.

Fighting broke out in Greece in 315 BC. C., while Antigono was still surrounding Tire, stronghold of his opponent Ptolemy. Aristodemus of Miletus was commissioned to carry the proclamation of Tire to Greece, where many quickly joined his cause, such as the Aetolian League. So did Polyperchon and his son, Alexander; he appointed the first strategos of the Peloponnese, where he had taken refuge. He was also joined by Aeacids I of Epirus, king of Epirus and nephew of Olympias, who was hostile to Cassander. But he reacted vigorously and entered the Peloponnese. Polyperchon, harassed, chose to terminate the alliance that bound him to Antigonus and submit to Cassander. This then went against Aristodemus, the Aetolians and the Illyrians, although without inflicting a final defeat on them. In 314 B.C. C. however, he recovered the cities of Leucas, Apollonia and Epidamnos from the Illyrians. Then one of Antigono's nephews, Telesforo, landed in Greece thanks to the collaboration of the Aegean islands, mainly Lemnos, Imbros and Delos, who abandoned Cassander and restored the League of Islanders, formed mainly by islands of the archipelago of the cyclades The different cities helped Antígono to form a fleet around 315 a. C., when he was still besieging Tyre; this allowed him to face Cassandro. In 314, Middle of Larisa, one of his main admirals, destroyed Pydna's fleet, which had sided with Cassander. Telesforo won several victories in the Peloponnese and Boeotia the following year. Antigonus refused requests for peace made to him at the Hellespont conference. Another of his nephew, Ptolemy, successfully intervened in Greece that same year, putting down the revolt of Telesforo, who had rebelled. Half also won in 312 a. C. Cassander's fleet off the island of Euboea. In addition, Antigonus weakened Lysimachus by stirring up the cities of the Euxinus Pontus against him, which rebelled.

Antigone was preparing to cross over to Greece when Ptolemy, following the advice of Seleucus, seized Cyprus and the Levant. Demetrius stood up to him, seconded by Python, but Ptolemy beat him in the battle of Gaza. Thanks to this victory, the lágis was able to recover Phoenicia and Coelesyria and avoid the campaign that Antigonus planned against Greece, but Cassander and Lysimachus were very weakened, reason why they accepted the proposal of peace of 312 a. C. After the setback suffered by Demetrius in Gaza, Ptolemy soon fell out with his uncle and created a principality in the Aegean centered on Chalcis, thanks to the control he obtained from Antigono's fleet. He was also attracted to Phoenix, who ruled Hellespontic Phrygia for him. He tried to build ties with Cassander, who upset him by assassinating Alexander IV in 309 BC. c.

Seleucus crossed the lands of Antigonus at the same time at the head of a reduced army and occupied Babylon, thus opening a third front against Antigonus, which added to those he already had in Greece and the Levant. The events of 312 forced then Antigonus to postpone the planned campaign in Greece and Macedonia. A new army, led first by Demetrius and then by Antigonus himself, won some victories that forced Ptolemy to once again abandon Syria and Phoenicia. However, Antigonus could not seize Egypt because of the harassment to which Seleucus subjected him. He sent Demetrius against it, but the Babylonian campaign was a failure.

The peace of 311 BC. C

Four years of war had passed without any of the Diadoci prevailing over their rivals, but a truce became increasingly necessary. Lysimachus and Cassander consequently sent an embassy to Antigonus in 311 BC. C., to which Ptolemy was later added. The peace they agreed to is known from an incomplete epigraphic text that was discovered in Skepsis, in Troad. It is a letter from Antigonus to the inhabitants of the city, probably a copy of an announcement to all those he was lord of, in the one that proclaims the freedom of the Greeks. It seems that intense negotiations preceded the signing of the pact. The first attempt to agree a truce had failed in 314 BC. C. because Ptolemy refused the excessive claims of Antigonus. The same thing happened with the so-called "Helespont conference" of 313 BC. C. in which Casandro's emissaries participated. Antigono's situation had worsened, however, in 311 BC. C.: Demetrius's expedition against Seleucus in Babylon had ended in defeat. This forced Antigonus to sign a truce with his other opponents to deal with Seleucus, who did not participate in the talks. It seems, therefore, that on this occasion the initiative to parley came from Antigonus, who was represented by Aristodemus of Miletus.

The two main provisions agreed upon by the Diadochi were that each one would keep the territories they dominated at that time and the proclamation of the freedom of the Greek cities. Antigonus was left as "strategos of Asia", so that the situation of Seleucus was theoretically that of a mere rebellious satrap. Antigonus seemed to have won the conflict. He kept his empire, the core of which was Anatolia, intact, save for the loss of Babylon. He also kept the royal treasury, the possession of which was not questioned in the negotiations. The proclamation of the freedom of the Greeks was the conclusion of the process that he himself had triggered with the proclamation of Tire in 315 BC. C. and an instrument that could be used against their opponents: if any of these tried to subdue the Greek cities, they automatically created a casus belli for Antigonus to attack him. However, it was a double-edged sword. and a somewhat paradoxical situation for the cities: they were invited to accept a treaty from whose drafting they had been excluded. This situation was repeated on numerous occasions during the Hellenistic era: the cities remained in practice subject to the lord of the territory in which they were located. In the epigraphic text of Scepsis, Antigonus exhorts the Greeks to subscribe to the freedom that is granted to them: «Therefore it seems to me convenient that you take the oath that is requested of you. We will strive in the future to provide you and the other Greeks with all the advantages that are in our power."

Antígono did not achieve all his objectives: he had not defeated any of his enemies and had to recognize Cassander as «strategos of Europe» (with which he regained control of the European Greek cities) and tutor to King Alexander IV. The peace brought the end of the Argéad dynasty.

King of Asia

The kingdoms of Antigone and their rivals around 303 a. C.

Renewal of the conflict

Peace did not last long: Seleucus, who had not participated in the negotiations, defeated Antigonus in the Babylonian war and seized part of his satrapies between 310 and 308 BC. C. Ptolemy coveted the Aegean, still indirectly in the hands of Antigonus since the league of the insulars controlled it and to seize it he took advantage of the conflict between his enemy and his nephew Ptolemy, who had created a principality for himself in Euboea, around Chalcis. By then Antigonus had no fleet, the remnants of his squadron being held by his nephew, and Demetrius was engaged in war with Seleucus.

Thus, Ptolemy undertook a victorious campaign against the coastal cities of Asia Minor, especially those of Cilicia and some of the Aegean. Antigonus, however, reacted immediately and Demetrius headed straight for Asia Minor. This did not prevent Ptolemy from conquering the cities of Caria and Lydia in 309 BC. C. The following year Antigone executed Cleopatra, Alexander's sister who was engaged to Ptolemy to deprive him of the rights to the imperial throne. On his part, Cassander had ordered Alexander IV and his mother Roxana in 310 BC. C. Polyperchon had an assassination in 309 BC. C. to the son of Alejandro and Barsine, Heracles, to ingratiate himself with Cassandro. This series of murders extinguished the Argéad dynasty and with it the last impediment to the Diadochi's claim to kingship disappeared.

Ptolemy eliminated his namesake Antigonus's nephew in 308 BC. C. He also agreed to divide Greece with Antigono, in a maneuver clearly directed against Cassandro and Polyperconte. As agreed, he would keep the mainland, while the islands would correspond to Antigonus. The lágida landed in the Peloponnese in 308 a. C. and snatched the cities of the area from Cassander, without failing to proclaim at all times, as Antigonus did, that he defended the freedom of the Greek polis. However, the events in Cyrenaica, conquered by Agathocles of Syracuse, worried him, since he had been away from the center of his kingdom for some time. Despite the various victories obtained, the final balance of the Greek campaign was ambiguous. Finally Ptolemy agreed with Cassander and returned to Egypt around 308 BC. c.

Last victories of Antigonus and Demetrius

Antígono took advantage of the fact that Seleucus was occupied on the eastern border of his empire, fighting with Chandragupta Maurya around 308 BC. C., to seize the essential object of his ambitions: Greece and Macedonia. He prepared a new fleet, since Ptolemy had seized the old one when he seized the lands of his namesake Antigonus's nephew. Demetrius expelled the oligarch Demetrius of Falero from Athens in 307 BC. C., who had governed the city in the name of Cassander, Demetrius announced that he intended to restore freedom to the Greeks, following the policy set by Antigonus in the proclamation of Tire in 315 BC. C. Next, he took over Muniquia. Antigonus and his son were the object of heroic worship by the Athenians from 307; Two new tribes were created in his honor (those of Antigonis and Demetrias ), a sign that the city intended to make them its protectors.

This situation was unacceptable for Ptolemy: the new power of Antigonus threatened him, so he assembled a fleet to attack Syria. This caused Antigonus to summon Demetrius before he could snatch Ptolemy Corinth and Sicyon. Demetrius sailed accompanied by Medio de Larisa towards Cyprus and destroyed Ptolemy's squadron off Salamis in 306 BC. C; the triumph made the domain of the island and the sea around it pass into the hands of Antigonus.

Assumption of royal title

The great naval victory encouraged Antigonus to proclaim himself king (basileans or Βασιλεύς) along with Demetrius: he had not given up his dream of restoring the Alexandrian empire. Aristodemus of Miletus, in charge of announcing the victory of Salamis, seems to have realized this the importance of the moment; according to Plutarch he exclaimed: "Hail, King Antigonus! We are the victors of Ptolemy." Antigonus seemed to confirm himself indeed as the successor of Alexander the Great, especially after the disappearance of the last Argéadas that was not mainly due to Antigonus, except in the case of the murder of Alexander's sister, Cleopatra in 308 B.C. C. The king also boasted links with the first Argéadas thanks to his marriage to Stratonice. Associating Demetrios with the throne indicates an intention to create a new dynasty.

The other Diádocos (Ptolemy, Seleucus, Cassander and Lysimachus) reacted by adopting the royal title from 305 BC. C. They thus opposed the imperial claims of Antigonus and tried to legitimize their own power. The title also affected not only Greeks and Macedonians, but also the other peoples of the Alexandrian empire, subject to the Diadocos. The main consequence was the legal and final disintegration of the empire and the official rise of the Hellenistic kingdoms.

Following in the footsteps of Alexander, Antigonus founded around 316 BC. C. a city in Bithynia taking advantage of a previous Greek settlement with Boeotian colonists, which he named Antigonia (the future Nicaea). He founded another Antigonia along the Orontes, in Syria in 307 BC. C., with Greco-Macedonian settlers. In order to have a commercial base at the entrance to the Hellespont, he founded a third city in Tróas by synecism, again with the name of Antigonia: the future Alexandria of Tróas; its inhabitants were peasants from the region, settled in the city by force.

Second coalition against him

Siege of Rhodes

Encouraged by the proclamation as king, Antigonus assembled a sizable army and fleet, entrusting the command of Demetrius, and prepared to attack Ptolemy's lands in 305 BC. C. The invasion of Egypt ended, however, with a defeat: Demetrius failed to disrupt the enemy defenses and had to withdraw. Ptolemy took advantage of the victory to also proclaim himself king (basileos).

Antígono then decided to seize Rhodes, linked to Ptolemaic Egypt by commercial interests. The city's role as guardian of the seas at a time of conflict and a rise in piracy gave it great prestige. However, the main reason why Antigonus wanted to take possession of it was because of its strategic situation. He had dominated Cyprus since the battle of Salamis, so occupying Rhodes (which Demetrius had tried unsuccessfully to win against Ptolemy after winning in Cyprus) allowed him it would make it possible to gain communications in the eastern Mediterranean and in the Gegeo. The setback suffered in Egypt also required the conquest of the island to prevent Ptolemy from creating a maritime power that he had already been about to reach in 308 BC. C. The proclamations in favor of the freedom of the Greeks, which he had not stopped repeating since that of Tire in 315, did not prevent him from pursuing his personal interests when they collided with her. In this case he claimed that the city had not helped him in the campaign against Egypt in order to attack it.

Antigone dispatched Demetrius to conquer the island city. The ensuing siege lasted more than a year and is one of the most famous in antiquity. Demetrius earned the nickname "Poliorcetes" ("expugnator of cities"), although he did not fully conquer it. He used numerous siege engines (among them from helepolis), but the rhodians fought back valiantly. Ptolemy, Cassander and Lisímaco sent them supplies, which did not prevent them from being about to capitulate in 304 BC. C. Ptolemy himself ended up advising them to parley with Demetrius. The Aetolians served as mediators and the two sides reached an agreement that forced the Rhodians to ally with Antigonus and give him hostages, but they were exempt from fighting against Egypt.

The war in Greece and the revival of the League of Corinth

Demetrius had to abandon the long siege of Rhodes because Cassander had resumed hostilities in Greece. He had been besieging Athens since 307 BC. C., an action that marked the beginning of the so-called "Four Years' War". The city was about to fall, despite the help of the Aetolians, whom Cassander made to withdraw. Antigonus then sent Demetrius, who landed in Boeotia and pushed the enemy north of Thermopylae in 304 BC. C. Antígono Cassandro demanded that he submit unconditionally. Boeotia and Phocis did it; the antigónidas yielded to Athens Philé, Salamis and Panacto to maintain the alliance with the Attic city. The Greek war ended with the victory of Antigonus and Demetrius. This also seized between 304 and 302 a. C. of Sición, which he refounded by the synecism method, Corinth and the rest of the Peloponnese with the exception of Mantinea, which remained in Cassander's power.

Demetrius, represented by Adeimantus of Lampsacus, reconstituted the Corinthian league in 302 BC. C. as indicated by various epigraphic inscriptions such as that of Epidaurus. This grouped together most of the Greek States except Sparta, Mesenia and Thessaly. It was the main act of Demetrius's Greek policy. The purpose of the league had changed with respect to the times of Philip II, as Plutarch and some modern historians mistakenly believed. In 337 BC the Macedonian king had sought a peace that would put an end to several years of conflict, while the league resurrected by Antigonus and Demetrius had as its goal the conquest of Macedonia, which had to be wrested from Cassander. Therefore, one more instrument to favor the Antigonid domination; Antígono commanded the troops of the league in 336 and in 334 a. C, and a Macedonian garrison remained in Corinth for more than sixty years, as a sign of who the league served. It was still in existence when Polyperchon pardoned the cities that had rebelled in the Lamiac War of 318 BC by means of an amnesty. c.

Towards the Battle of Ipsos

The kingdoms of the diadocs in 301 BC, after the defeat of Antigone in Ipsos:

Seleuco Ptolomeo Lisimaco Casandro Epiro

The other Diadochi could not allow Antigonus to seize their territories from Cassander. The negotiations between them from 304 a. C. led to the signing of a new league against the old king (he was almost eighty years old at the time). less equal to the seventy or eighty thousand soldiers his enemies brought to Ipsos. This power forced Antigonus' opponents to join forces in order to face him. This required time and this was the reason for the audacious plan they launched: a fierce defense in Europe against Demetrius while in Asia Lysimachus tried to surprise the common enemy and followed by some parliaments that allowed them to group his dispersed armies.

The first to set it in motion was Lysimachus, in the spring of 302 BC. C. he landed in Hellespontic Phrygia with the collaboration of Cassander's troops; Numerous cities in Lycia and Caria submitted to him, including Colophon, Ephesus, and Sardis. Filetero, founder of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamum, abandoned Antigonus and joined the ranks of Lysimachus. Antigonus marched to face him and called Demetrius to his aid. This had invaded Thessaly in the spring of 302 a. C., surrounding Thermopylae with the fleet. He hastened to sign a truce with Cassander and landed at Ephesus in the autumn. Taking advantage of his absence, Cassander re-imposed his authority in Thessaly and Focide and overthrew Pirro.

The arrival of Demetrius in Asia Minor put Lysimachus in trouble. Demetrius also defeated the reinforcements that Cassander had sent him under the command of his brother Pleistarchus. This caused that Lisímaco chose to retire to Heraclea Pontica in the winter of 302 to 301 a. C., to wait there for the arrival of Seleucus, who was wintering in Cappadocia. For his part, Ptolemy had invaded Phoenicia and was preparing to meet with Seleucus when the hoax reached him that Antigonus had already won and he beat a hasty retreat. The appearance in the area of Seleucus with about five hundred elephants, ended the balance of forces between the two sides, despite the presence of Demetrius' troops arriving from Greece. Antigonus finally marched against the coalition in 301 BC. C. that he had gathered his armies in the Phrygian town of Ipsos.Despite being eighty years old, he personally commanded the phalanx. He was defeated and killed by a javelin during the ensuing battle, one of the most momentous in all of Hellenistic times.