Lysimachus

king of Macedonia

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History

Lysimachus (born c. 360 bc—died 281) was a Macedonian general, satrap (provincial governor), and king who, as one of the diadochoi (“successors”) to Alexander the Great, came to rule strategic parts of the divided Macedonian Empire.

Lysimachus was one of Alexander’s bodyguards during the conquest of Asia, and, in the distribution of satrapies that followed Alexander’s death (323), he was assigned to govern Thrace. Occupied there for many years in wars against the local peoples, Lysimachus took little part in the struggles among Alexander’s other successors in Greece and Asia. Not until 302, when he bore the brunt of the campaign that ended in the overthrow of the successor Antigonus Monophthalmus, king of Asia, at the Battle of Ipsus (301), did Lysimachus emerge as a power of the first rank. Through this victory he added the greater part of Asia Minor to his European possessions and began to consolidate his power in both areas against the threat posed by Antigonus’ son, Demetrius I Poliorcetes. In 285 Lysimachus drove Demetrius from Macedonia, which had been taken by Demetrius in 294.

The last period of Lysimachus’ life was darkened by the intrigues of his third wife, Arsinoe II, daughter of Ptolemy I Soter, king of Egypt. In order to gain the succession for her own sons, she had her husband execute his eldest son, Agathocles, on a charge of conspiring with Seleucus I, the Syrian king, to commit treason. During the disorders that followed Agathocles’ death, Seleucus seized the opportunity to invade Asia Minor, where he killed Lysimachus in the decisive battle of Corupedium in Lydia, in 281.