Lysimachus

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Lysimachus

Lysimachus (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: ??s?µa???, Lysimachos; 360 BCE - 281 BCE) was a Macedon

Macedon

Diadochi

The Diadochi were the rival successors of Alexander the Great, and their Wars of the Diadochi followed Alexander's death. This was the beginning of the Hellenistic period of Greek history, the time when many people who were not Greek themselves adopted Greek philosophy and styles, Greek urban life, and aspects of the Greek religion....
(i.e. "successor") of Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great , also known as Alexander III of Macedon was an ancient Greeks King of Macedon . He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle....
, who became a basileus

Basileus

Basileus , signifies "Monarch" or "king". It is perhaps best known in English language as a title used by Byzantine Empire emperors, but also has a longer history of use for persons of authority in ancient Greece, as well as for the kings of modern Greece....
("king") in 306 BCE, ruling Thrace

Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. Today the name Thrace designates a region spread over southern Bulgaria , northeastern Greece , and European Turkey ....
, Asia Minor

Anatolia

Anatolia or Asia Minor is a region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is a geographic region bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Iranian plateau to the east and southeast....
and Macedon

Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
ia.

machus was born in 362/361 BC, the son of the Thessalian Agathocles from Crannon. He was granted citizenship in Macedon

Macedon

Pella

Pella was the Capital of the Ancient Greece Monarchy of Macedon. A common folk etymology is traditionally given for the name Pella, ascribing it to a form akin to the Doric Greek Apella, originally meaning a ceremonial location where decisions were made....
. He was probably appointed Somatophylax
Somatophylakes

Somatophylakes , in its literal English language translation from Greek language, means "bodyguards". These bodyguards were high-ranking military units within the Ancient Macedonian army....
during the reign of Philip II.

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Encyclopedia

Lysimachus (Greek

Greek language

Macedon

Diadochi

Alexander the Great

Basileus

Thrace

Anatolia

Macedon

Early career

Lysimachus was born in 362/361 BC, the son of the Thessalian Agathocles from Crannon. He was granted citizenship in Macedon

Macedon

Pella

Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
n campaigns, he was one of his immediate bodyguards and distinguished himself in Susa

Susa

Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian Empire and Parthian empires of Iran, located about 250 km east of the Tigris River.The modern town of Shush, Iran is located at the site of ancient Susa....
, India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
(324 BC). After Alexander’s death in 323 BCE, he was appointed to the government of Thrace as strategos
Strategos

The term strategos is used in Greek language to mean "general". In the Hellenistic and Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor....
.

Diadochi

In 315 BCE, he joined Cassander

Cassander

Cassander , King of Macedon , was a son of Antipater, and founder of the short-lived Antipatrid dynasty....
, Ptolemy and Seleucus

Seleucus I Nicator

Seleucus I , was a Ancient Macedonians officer of Alexander the Great. In the Wars of the Diadochi that took place after Alexander's death, Seleucus established the Seleucid dynasty and the Seleucid Empire....
against Antigonus

Antigonus I Monophthalmus

Antigonus I Monophthalmus son of Philip from Elimiotis, was a Macedonian nobleman, general, and satrap under Alexander the Great. He was a major figure in the Wars of the Diadochi after Alexander's death, declaring himself king in 306 BC and establishing the Antigonid dynasty....
, who, however, diverted his attention by stirring up Thracian and Scythia

Scythia

The Scythians or Scyths were an Eastern Iranian languages of Equestrianism nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity....
n tribes against him. In 309 BCE, he founded Lysimachia

Lysimachia (Thrace)

Lysimachia was an important Hellenistic Greece town on the north-western extremity of the Thracian Chersonese in what is now the Turkish Thrace Turkey, not far from the bay of Melas ....
in a commanding situation on the neck connecting the Chersonese with the mainland. He followed the example of Antigonus in taking the title of king.

In 306 or 305, he assumed the title of "King", which he held until his death at Corupedium in 282/1.

In 302, when the second affiance between Cassander, Ptolemy and Seleucus was made, Lysimachus, reinforced by troops from Cassander, entered Asia Minor, where he met with little resistance. On the approach of Antigonus he retired into winter quarters near Heraclea

Heraclea Pontica

Heraclea Pontica , an ancient city on the coast of Bithynia in Asia Minor, at the mouth of the river Lycus . It was founded by the Greek city-state of Megara c.560-558 and was named after Heracles who the Greeks believed entered the underworld at a cave on the adjoining Archerusian promontory ....
, marrying its widowed queen Amastris

Amastris

Amastris , also called Amastrine, was the daughter of Oxyathres of Persia, the brother of the Persian Empire king Darius III of Persia, was given by Alexander the Great in marriage to Craterus....
, a Persian princess. Seleucus joined him in 301 BCE, and at the battle of Ipsus

Battle of Ipsus

The Battle of Ipsus was fought between some of the Diadochi in 301 BC near the village of that name in Phrygia. Antigonus I Monophthalmus and his son Demetrius I of Macedon were pitted against the coalition of three other companions of Alexander: Cassander, ruler of Macedon; Lysimachus, ruler of Thrace; and Seleucus I Nicator, ruler of Babyl...
Antigonus was defeated and slain. His dominions were divided among the victors. Lysimachus share was Lydia

Lydia

Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkey provinces of Manisa Province and inland Izmir Province....
, Ionia

Ionia

Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest Izmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Hellenes settlements....
, Phrygia

Phrygia

In antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. The Phrygians initially lived in the Southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges, changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the Hellespont....
and the north coast of Asia Minor.

Feeling that Seleucus was becoming dangerously great, Lysimachus now allied himself with Ptolemy, marrying his daughter Arsinoe II of Egypt

Arsinoe II of Egypt

Arsinoe II , was queen of Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedonia as wife of King Lysimachus , and later co-ruler of Egypt with her brother and husband Ptolemy II Philadelphus ....
. Amastris, who had divorced herself from him, returned to Heraclea. When Antigonus’s son Demetrius I of Macedon

Demetrius I of Macedon

Demetrius I , called Poliorcetes , son of Antigonus I Monophthalmus and Stratonice , was a king of Macedon . He belonged to the Antigonid dynasty....
renewed hostilities (297 BCE), during his absence in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
, Lysimachus seized his towns in Asia Minor, but in 294 BCE concluded a peace whereby Demetrius was recognized as ruler of Macedon

Macedon

Danube

The Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg River rivers which join at the eponymously named German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows eastwards for a distance...
, but was defeated and taken prisoner by the Getae

Getae

The Getae was the name given by the Greeks to several Thracian tribes that occupied the regions south of the Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria, and north of the Lower Danube, in Romania....
king Dromichaetes

Dromichaetes

Dromichaetes was ruler of the Getae on both sides of the lower Danube around 300 BC. His capital was named Helis and Romanian historians traditionally located it somewhere in the Romanian Plain ....
(Dromihete), who, however, set him free on amicable terms. Demetrius subsequently threatened Thrace, but had to retire due to a sudden uprising in Boeotia

Boeotia

Boeotia, Beotia, or B?otia , formerly Cadmeis, was a region of ancient Greece, north of the eastern part of the Gulf of Corinth. It was bounded on the south by Megaris and the Kithairon mountain range that forms a natural barrier with Attica, on the north by Opuntian Locris and the Euripus Strait at the Gulf of Euboea, and on the...
, and an attack from the king Pyrrhus

Pyrrhus of Epirus

Pyrrhus or Pyrrhos was a Greeks general of the Hellenistic civilization. He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house , and later he became King of Epirus and Macedon ....
of Epirus

Epirus (region)

Epirus is a region in south-eastern Europe, currently divided between the Peripheries of Greece Epirus in Greece and the prefectures of Gjirokast?r, Vlor?, Kor??, and Berat in southern Albania....
.

In 288 BCE, Lysimachus and Pyrrhus

Pyrrhus of Epirus

Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
ia, and drove Demetrius out of the country. Lysimachus left Pyrrhus

Pyrrhus of Epirus

Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
ia with the title of king for around seven months before Lysimachus invaded. For a short while the two ruled jointly but in 285 BCE Lysimachus expelled Pyrrhus.

Later years

Domestic troubles embittered the last years of Lysimachus’s life. Amastris had been murdered by her two sons; Lysimachus treacherously put them to death. On his return Arsinoe asked the gift of Heraclea, and he granted her request, though he had promised to free the city. In 284 BCE Arsinoe, desirous of gaining the succession for her sons in preference to Agathocles

Agathocles (son of Lysimachus)

Agathocles was the son of Lysimachus by an Odrysian woman who Polyaenus calls Macris. Agathocles was sent by his father against the Getae, about 292 BC, but was defeated and taken prisoner....
(the eldest son of Lysimachus), intrigued against him with the help of her brother Ptolemy Keraunos

Ptolemy Keraunos

Ptolemy Keraunos was the King of Macedon from 281 BC to 279 BC.He was the eldest son of Ptolemy I Soter and his first wife Eurydice . His younger half-brother, also called Ptolemy, became heir apparent and, in 282 BC, ascended to the throne as Ptolemy II Philadelphus....
; they accused him of conspiring with Seleucus to seize the throne, and he was put to death.

This atrocious deed of Lysimachus aroused great indignation. Many of the cities of Asia revolted, and his most trusted friends deserted him. The widow of Agathocles fled to Seleucus, who at once invaded the territory of Lysimachus in Asia. In 281 BCE, Lysimachus crossed the Hellespont

Hellespont

Hellespont was the ancient name of the narrow strait, now known by the modern European term 'Dardanelles'. It was so called from Helle , the daughter of Athamas, who was drowned here in the mythology of the Golden Fleece....
into Lydia

Lydia

Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkey provinces of Manisa Province and inland Izmir Province....
, and at the decisive Battle of Corupedium

Battle of Corupedium

The Battle of Corupedium is the name of the last battle of the Diadochi, the rival successors to Alexander the Great. It was fought, in 281 BC between the armies of Lysimachus and Seleucus I Nicator....
was killed. After some days his body was found on the field, protected from birds of prey by his faithful dog. Lysimachus's body was given over to his son Alexander

Alexander, son of Lysimachus

Alexander , the son of Lysimachus by an Odrysian woman whom Polyaenus calls Macris. On the murder of his brother Agathocles by the command of his father in 284 BC, he fled into Asia with his brother's widow Lysandra, and solicited the aid of Seleucus I Nicator....
, by whom it was interred at Lysymachia

Lysimachia (Thrace)

Lysimachia was an important Hellenistic Greece town on the north-western extremity of the Thracian Chersonese in what is now the Turkish Thrace Turkey, not far from the bay of Melas ....
.

Sources

*Arrian

Arrian

File:Flavius_Arrianus.jpgLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Ancient Rome historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman and Byzantine Greece period....
, Anabasis v. 13, vi. 28.

Justin
Junianus Justinus

'Justin' was a Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire. His name is mentioned only in the title of his own history, and there it is in the genitive, which would be M....
xv. 3, 4, xvii. I.
Quintus Curtius V. 3, x. 30.
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus , was a Roman Greece historian who flourished in the 1st century BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agira in Sicily ....
xviii. 3.
Polybius
Polybius

Polybius was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his book called The Histories covering in detail the period of 220–146 BC....
v. 67.
Plutarch
Plutarch

Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 ? 120 ? commonly known in English as Plutarch ? was a Ancient Rome historian , biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonism....
, Demetrius, 31. 52, Pyrrhus, 12.
Appian
Appian

Appianus , of Alexandria was a Ancient Rome historian who flourished during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. He is commonly referred to by the anglicised form of his name, Appian....
, Syriaca, 62.
Connop Thirlwall
Connop Thirlwall

Connop Thirlwall was an England bishop and historian.Thirlwall was born at Stepney, London, of a Northumbrian family. He was a prodigy, learning Latin at three, Greek language at four, and writing sermons at seven....
, History of Greece, vol. viii. (1847).
J. P. Mahaffy, Story of Alexander’s Empire
Droysen, Hellenismus (2nd ed., 1877).
Adolf Holm, Griechische Geschichte, vol. iv. (1894).
Benediktus Niese, Geschichte der griechischen und makedonischen Staaten, vols. i. and ii. (1893, 1899).
Karl Julius Beloch
Karl Julius Beloch

Karl Julius Beloch was a German classical antiquity and economic historian who was a native of Pieszk?w.In 1870 he moved to Italy for health reasons, where he subsequently studied in Palermo and Rome....
, Griechische Geschichte vol. iii. (1904).
Hunerwadel, Forschungen zur Gesch. des Könige Lysimachus (1900).
Possenti, Il Re Lisimaco di Tracia (1901).
Ghione, "Note sul regno di Lisimaco" (Atti d. real. Accad. di Torino, xxxix.).

External links

- Informative but non-scholarly essay on Lysimachus (Annotated with Sources).