After the disappointment of the Egyptian campaign, Antigonus and Demetrius decided to make a strong display in 305. The Rhodians had been long-time allies of Antigonus, but in recent years had been edging closer and closer to Ptolemy, refusing to send assistance to Demetrius’ fleet for the campaigns of 306. It was time to teach them a lesson. At the beginning of the year, the Rhodians received an ultimatum: submit to Antigonus or else. They refused, and Demetrius was sent with a huge fleet and army to punish them. The siege of Rhodes was one of the great sieges of antiquity, and it established both Demetrius’ reputation as a besieger, and the Rhodians’ reputation for fierce resistance and independence. The scale of Demetrius’ siege engineering was a sensation, particularly in the building of huge and innovative siege towers, and yet after attacking Rhodes both from the sea and by land for the better part of a year, the siege still dragged on. In the end Demetrius once again failed: Antigonus did not want this operation to extend into 304 and ordered Demetrius to conclude the siege on the best terms he could. The Rhodians agreed to renew their alliance with Antigonus and furnished a hundred hostages, but they were otherwise left free and self-governing and were explicitly freed from ever providing assistance against Ptolemy. While that was a drawn result, the draw was a triumph for the Rhodians and an undeniable setback for Antigonus and Demetrius.
18. Coin with portrait of Ptolemy I Soter from British Museum
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image from PHGCOM)
It had been crucial to end the siege of Rhodes, because Demetrius was needed back in southern Greece. In his absence during the years 306 and 305, Cassander had mounted a strong counter-attack there, in particular pressing hard to recapture Athens and putting the Athenians under severe pressure. The return of Demetrius and his forces at the beginning of spring 304 saved the day. Demetrius, reinvigorated it seems to be back to mobile operations, engaged in a classic whirlwind campaign in which he rapidly and inexorably drove Cassander’s forces out of southern and central Greece all the way to the border of Thessaly during the years 304 and 303. As he did so, he also organized the cities of southern Greece into what was intended to be a form of permanent federation, a kind of United States of Greece. With Antigonus and Demetrius and their successors as patrons and guarantors, the city-states of Greece would co-operate in collective self-governance, primarily for security purposes, via a federal synedrion (council) which would meet regularly at the sites of the pan-Hellenic festivals, and whose personnel would be drawn proportionately from all member states. Copies of the foundation document of this ambitious project in federal representative governance were set up throughout Greece: a large portion of the copy inscribed at Epidaurus in the Argolid peninsula survives to give a remarkable insight into the project. Unfortunately it came to nothing, as outside events prevented its long-term implementation.
Concerned about the growing power and success of Antigonus and Demetrius, in fact, the other kings had been engaged in diplomatic contact and in 302 arrived at an agreement for common action. While Cassander did his best to hold off Demetrius in Greece, the armies of Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy were to invade Antigonus’ Asian realm from three directions with the aim of bringing the old king down. In spring of 302 Demetrius marched into Thessaly and was confronted there by Cassander with a large army. The two maneuvered around each other a fair bit, but Cassander was reluctant to offer battle, looking to events in western Asia, and Demetrius failed to force a battle. So the campaign ground to a stalemate with the two armies watching each other. Meanwhile Lysimachus crossed over with his army from Thrace into Asia Minor and began to take territory and detach local leaders and governors from their loyalty to Antigonus. The latter was at Antigoneia in Syria, busy with arrangements for a great international festival of sport and music to inaugurate his grand new capital, when he heard of Lysimachus’ actions. Antigonus was not the man he had been: over eighty years old, he had only recently recovered from a near fatal illness, and had put on a lot of weight. He no longer had the energy and activity that had characterized him in his sixties. Nevertheless, he at once put the festival plans on hold and gathered his army to cross the Taurus mountains from Syria into Asia Minor to confront Lysimachus.
While Cassander and Demetrius were at a stalemate in Thessaly, and Antigonus was marching to confront Lysimachus, Seleucus was also making his move. He had recently been campaigning in what is now Pakistan, at the very eastern edge of the Macedonian Empire. There a new power was arising: an Indian prince from the Ganges valley named Chandragupta (known to the Greeks as Sandrokottos) was busy building an empire—the Maurya Empire—that eventually unified virtually all of India. Having brought all the principalities of the Ganges region under his control, he had crossed into the Indus valley to conquer there too, and so came up against the Macedonians. After many months of inconclusive fighting, Seleucus decided that holding on to part of north India was not really worth the trouble. He came to an agreement with Chandragupta whereby he ceded control of the entire Indus valley to the Indian conqueror in exchange for the gift of five hundred trained war elephants. With these elephants added to an army composed primarily of light infantry and highly mobile cavalry, Seleucus was marching westwards to join up with Lysimachus against Antigonus. Lysimachus had successfully refused to fight a battle against the far superior army of Antigonus, waging a campaign of maneuver and distraction against the slower moving old general. Finally, in early autumn of 302, Lysimachus succeeded in slipping away from Antigonus and marching to the Black Sea port city of Heraklea, where he put his army into winter quarters. Giving up the pursuit, Antigonus established winter quarters for his army near Dorylaeum (see map x) in northern Phrygia. Learning that Seleucus had crossed the Taurus Mountains and was wintering with his army in Cappadocia, ready to join up with Lysimachus in the spring, Antigonus sent urgent messages to Demetrius to break off his operations in Greece and sail back to Asia Minor to join his father for the great confrontation that was now bound to happen in the new year. As soon as Demetrius had left, Cassander sent a portion of his army, under his brother Pleistarchus, to join his good friend and ally Lysimachus for the coming showdown.
In early summer 301, the four armies came together near the small town of Ipsus, a little north-east of Synnada (near modern Afyonkarahisar). Antigonus and Demetrius had joined their armies, with Demetrius as the effective commander given Antigonus’ age and weakness. Lysimachus, with his allied forces from Cassander added to his army, had likewise joined up with Seleucus marching down the Royal Road from Cappadocia: the two kings apparently shared command, though the ensuing battle plan seems to have owed more to Seleucus. Ptolemy, who was supposed to have brought forces to join his allies, merely invaded Palestine once again and focused on winning control over the Palestinian and Phoenician cities.
The great battle of Ipsus changed the balance of power in the Macedonian Empire. The two armies faced each other quite conventionally, with the phalanx composed mostly of Lysimachus’ and Cassander’s troops confronting Antigonus’ phalanx, where the old and immobile king himself was stationed in command. On their right, Seleucus and Lysimachus stationed a vast mass of Seleucus’ light infantry; on the left was their heavy cavalry commanded by Seleucus’ son Antiochus. Confronting Antiochus was Demetrius in command of Antigonus’ heavy cavalry. As the battle commenced, Demetrius and his cavalry charged Antiochus and drove the enemy cavalry off in real or pretended flight. Demetrius proceeded to commit the worst blunder a cavalry leader can commit: he over-pursued, leaving the main battle well behind, instead of turning to attack the enemy infantry from behind. That the flight of Antiochus’ cavalry may have been deliberate is suggested by the aftermath. As soon as Demetrius had disappeared in the distance, Seleucus brought forward four hundred war elephants and placed them as a screen between Demetrius and his path back to the battle: when Demetrius finally did try to return, he found the elephants blocking his way and his terrified horses would not approach the huge gray beasts. Meanwhile L
ysimachus’ phalanx came to grips with that of Antigonus, and Seleucus led his light cavalry in an outflanking maneuver to attack Antigonus’ infantry from behind. Attacked from both sides, Antigonus’ phalanx collapsed and turned to flight, and the battle was lost.
Antigonus’ attendants urged him to flee while he could, but the old king refused. Clinging to the hope that Demetrius would find a way to get back and save the day, he stood his ground until a great force of enemy cavalry came directly at him. His attendants all fled but for one loyal friend named Thorax, and Antigonus died under a hail of javelins. When he realized that he could not get back to the battle and that all was lost, Demetrius rode off with his cavalry to the coast at Ephesus and took ship on his fleet, becoming for the time being a sea-king only. Meanwhile Seleucus and Lysimachus cleaned up the battle site and divided the spoils. Seleucus arranged for his old friend Antigonus’ body to be found and cremated with royal honors, the ashes being forwarded to Demetrius. Antigonus’ empire was divided at the Taurus mountain range in southern Asia Minor: the lands of Asia Minor north and west of the range went to Lysimachus, except for an enclave in Caria carved out for Cassander’s brother Pleistarchus in thanks for Cassander’s aid; the lands south and east—Cilicia, Syria and Palestine, northern Mesopotamia—now belonged to Seleucus, except for an enclave in Cilicia set apart for Pleistarchus. When Seleucus arrived in southern Syria to take possession of Palestine, however, he found Ptolemy already in occupation there. In light of Ptolemy’s assistance to him in the past, Seleucus let Ptolemy’s control of Palestine and Phoenicia stand for now, while insisting that he did not formally accept it: the matter was left open to be the seed of many future conflicts between Seleucid and Ptolemaic kings.
5. THE FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE SUCCESSION
The seeming decisiveness of the outcome and settlement of Ipsus was only apparent. In 297 Cassander died of an illness in his mid-fifties. Since taking over Macedonia in 316 he had worked hard and well to secure the legacy of Philip and of his own father Antipater. He was succeeded by his oldest son Philip, grandson through his mother of the great Philip, and all seemed well. But the new king Philip IV died within a year of his father’s death, apparently of the same illness. Cassander had two other sons, Antipater and Alexander, and they promptly fell out over who was to succeed. Antipater claimed the kingship as the older of the two, but their mother Thessalonice favored her youngest son Alexander and encouraged him to claim the throne. A civil war broke out, during which Alexander incautiously invited the still powerful Demetrius to come to his aid. Demetrius was glad to oblige, and no sooner had he joined Alexander than he had the young man assassinated and seized the rule of Macedonia for himself. The line of Antipater and Cassander came to an end, and the line of Antigonus once again had a kingdom to rule … for a time.
19. Façade of royal tomb II at Vergina, Greece; possibly built by Cassander as tomb of Philip III Arrhidaeus
(Wikimedia Commons photo by Sarah Murray, CC BY-SA 2.0?)
Demetrius was not a popular ruler of Macedonia. He had left his homeland as a child and grown up in Asia. To the Macedonians he seemed foreign and uninterested in learning true Macedonian customs and traditions. The Macedonians found him distant, arrogant, far more concerned with his own pleasures than with the needs of his people. As a long-time ruler of Asian subjects, Demetrius was not accustomed to the forthright frankness of his Macedonian subjects and their expectations, and could not adapt. His main aim and policy as ruler of Macedonia was to build up a large enough army to attack Lysimachus and Seleucus and win back his father’s Asian empire. The Macedonians had no interest in this policy. When Lysimachus, fearful of Demetrius’ growing military power, invaded Macedonia in 287, the Macedonians deserted Demetrius and sided with Lysimachus. Demetrius was forced to flee in disguise back to his fleet, and Lysimachus added Macedonia to his kingdom of Thrace and Asia Minor. But inevitably, it seems, the rise in Lysimachus’ power led to a final showdown fight between Lysimachus and Seleucus, culminating in a great battle fought between them at Cyroupedium near Sardis in 282. Lysimachus had fallen out with and executed his popular son Agathocles, leading various generals and governors in his Asian lands to invite Seleucus in.
By the time of this battle these two kings were the last survivors of Alexander’s Successors. Demetrius, after being ousted from Macedonia, had decided in 286 to launch a last desperate attempt to recover at least part of his father’s empire. Invading Asia Minor with whatever forces he could gather, he had been driven off by Lysimachus’ son Agathocles and forced south into Cilicia, where Seleucus confronted him and succeeded in capturing him. Seleucus treated him with honor: his own son Antiochus was married to Demetrius’ daughter Stratonice. Demetrius was placed under luxurious house arrest in a palatial hunting lodge on an island in the River Orontes. There, over the next two years, he drank himself to death, leaving to his son Antigonus Gonatas the title of king, but only a remnant of the great Antigonid fleet and a few garrisoned islands and coastal cities to support that title. Meanwhile Ptolemy had been distracted by internal family disputes: he had two sons, both confusingly named Ptolemy after their father. The oldest, surnamed Ceraunus (the Thunderbolt), was Ptolemy’s son by his first wife Eurydice; the younger, surnamed Philadelphus (the sister lover) was the son of Ptolemy’s second and favored wife Berenice. Ptolemy drove his eldest son Ceraunus out of Egypt into exile, where he found refuge with Seleucus. The younger son Philadelphus was established as Ptolemy’s heir, and succeeded to the position of king when Ptolemy died peacefully of old age in 283, almost the only man of Alexander’s great generals to die in his bed.
The final showdown battle between the last two Diadochi standing was evidently an epic affair, but we are very poorly informed about it. Both generals were in their late seventies, but still hale and vigorous. Seleucus as was his custom won: he was not called Nicator (the Victor) for nothing. Lysimachus died in the battle of Cyroupedium, abandoned (we are told) by everyone except for a faithful dog. Seleucus took about a year to establish his control over Asia Minor, and then early in 280 crossed the Hellespont to Europe, to take over the European possessions of Lysimachus. It was apparently Seleucus’ intention to return, after a fifty-four-year absence, to his homeland of Macedonia, there to rule as king for his final years and be buried, perhaps, in his home town of Europus. It was not to be. Seleucus’ first stop in Europe was at the capital city of Lysimacheia that Lysimachus had been busy building up in his final years. In his entourage as he inspected the half completed city at the neck of the Thracian Chersonnese (Gallipoli peninsula) was the rogue son of Ptolemy, Ptolemy Ceraunus. This young man evidently felt no gratitude to Seleucus for his refuge, and harbored ambitions far beyond being a mere pensioner at Seleucus’ court. He stabbed Seleucus to death and persuaded his army to acknowledge him, Ceraunus, as its commander. Leading the army to Macedonia, he obliged the Macedonians to acknowledge him as their king.
Ptolemy Ceraunus, however, did not last long as king of Macedonia. In 279 a band of Celtic tribesmen, who had been moving around central Europe and the Balkan region for many years, abruptly invaded Macedonia from the north. The Greeks referred to these Celts as Galatians and feared them greatly. Ceraunus, instead of taking his time to get together a large and well organized army to combat the invasion, rushed impetuously north with whatever troops were to hand and engaged the Galatians in battle, with disastrous results. Ceraunus himself was killed; his army, such as it was, was annihilated; and Macedonia lay wide open to the marauding Celts. For three long years—279 to 277—Macedonia was occupied by the Galatians who looted, pillaged, and killed to their hearts’ content. No Macedonian leader or general seemed capable of stopping them. Finally, late in 277, a Macedonian savior appeared from an unexpected quarter.
Ever since his father Demetrius’ death, Antigonus Gonatas had been left in a very precarious position. Nominally, he was king in succession to his brilliant grandfather and his mercurial father, but he had no kingdom worth speaki
ng of. He had only a remnant of the great Antigonid fleet, perhaps a few dozen ships, and some islands and coastal cities under his control, as mentioned above. He looked around for lands to seize and base his power on, but had little success. He was not the general his grandfather had been, nor even his inconsistent but at times brilliant father. An attempt to profit from the instability in Asia Minor after Seleucus’ assassination proved unsuccessful, as he was easily driven out by forces loyal to Antiochus. He seemed destined to be a king without a kingdom until a lucky chance occurred. In 277 it occurred to him that Lysimachus’ kingdom of Thrace was leaderless, and might present an opportunity. He sailed to Lysimacheia, finding the half-finished city largely abandoned, and based himself there. While leading forays out into the Thracian territories to the north, he came across a band of Galatians who, tired of the picked-over and impoverished lands of Macedonia, were heading eastwards in search of fresher lands to plunder. Gonatas succeeded in leading them into an ambush and annihilating them, a rare stroke of military brilliance from an otherwise rather pedestrian general. As news of his success spread, messages began to arrive from Macedonia, pleading with Gonatas to come and save his homeland: if he could just free them from the Galatians, the Macedonians would take him as their king and serve him loyally.
Before and After Alexander Page 28