Lysimachus of Thrace

Lysimachus (Greek: Λυσίμαχος Lysímachos; 360-281 B.C.) was a Macedonian officer (and) diádoco, that is, "successor& #3. 4; of Alexander the Great, who became a Basileo ('king') in 306 B.C. C., ruling Asia Minor and Thrace (the region of Antiquity that stretched between the Black Sea to the east and Macedonia to the west) for 20 years. Like all of them, he spent the years fighting and allying with one or the other. In the year 301 B.C. C. he allied with Cassander of Macedonia and Seleuco I Nicator (of Babylon) against the general Antigono I Monoftalmos whom they defeated in the battle of Ipso. In 288 B.C. C. he invaded Macedonia and allying himself with Pyrrhus of Epirus he took Demetrius prisoner whom he later expelled. Demetrius then took refuge with Seleucus I Nikator, who was already king of Babylon and Syria.

Lysemac effigy in a coin.

He allied himself with the former general Ptolemy, then king of Egypt, and married a second time to his daughter, named Arsinoe II Philadelphus. Lysimachus already had a son named Agathocles. Arsinoe turned against him, assuring that he was plotting to assassinate his father to access the throne. She was so persuasive that Lysimachus finally had his son Agathocles killed. This act provoked a great uprising that did not favor him at all. After these events, Lysandra, the widow of Agathocles fled to the court of Seleucus I, whom she persuaded to confront Lysimachus.

The city of Pergamon (in the region of Mysia, northwest of present-day Turkey) grew in importance when the general Lysimachus destined the acropolis to become a fortress where his treasures would be kept. He also enlarged and fortified the city of Smyrna in the west of present-day Turkey.

He died in 281 B.C. C., defeated by Seleucus in the battle of Corupedius. Alexander, son of Lysimachus and an Odrysian woman and therefore Agathocles' half-brother, managed to convince Lysandra, Agathocles' widow, to recover her corpse. She buried him between the cities of Cardia and Pactia, located in the Thracian Chersonese.

On the death of Lysimachus, part of Thrace became part of the kingdom of Macedonia and the other part of Asia Minor, of the Seleucid dynasty.