Polyperchon (394 'til 380 BC - 303 BC)

ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ

Polyperchon or Polysperchon (360-303 BC) came from royal lineage and was the son of Simmias. He was born in Tymfaia, Epirus. He was a general of Philip and Alexander the Great. He took part in Alexander's campaign in Asia. He had been placed at the head of the tymphian order and distinguished himself. He returned to Greece in 324 BC. along with Crater. On the way, in Cilicia he was informed that Alexander had died.

Struggle for the succession of Alexander

He fought in the Lamian War, helping Antipater to defeat. Polyperchon defeated the previously considered invincible Thessalian cavalry of Menon. In 319 BC Antipater placed him commissioner of the state. Antipater's son, Cassander, was displeased by this fact, who allied himself with Antigonus and Ptolemy and tried to take away his power. Polyperchon, who had Eumenes as an ally, was initially defeated. But in 318 BC his fleet was defeated by Antigonus, while in 317 Cassander brought Athens under his control. Polyperchon was driven out of Macedonia by Cassander who had under his authority the disabled king Philip Arridaeus and his wife Anathea Eurydice.

In Epirus

Polyperchon was forced to take refuge in Epirus, where he made an alliance with M. Alexander's mother Olympias and his widow Roxani, who had her young son Alexander with her. The king of Epirus Aiakides also collaborated with them. Olympias invaded Macedonia with an army, defeated the army of King Philip III (whom she had murdered), but the return of Cassander from the Peloponnese changed the situation: he captured her, killed her and took under his guardianship Roxanes and Alexander.

In the Peloponnese

Polyperchon went to the Peloponnese where he had some footholds and allied himself with Antigonus, who had broken off his relations with his former allies. Polyperchon quickly brought significant parts of the Peloponnese under his control, including Corinth and Sicyon. When, in 311 BC, Antigonus concluded a peace treaty with his rivals, Polyperchon kept the territories he held. But again Antigonus broke with the rest of the generals. He then sent Alexander's illegitimate son Heracles to Polyperchondus, to use him as a bargaining chip against Cassander. But Polyperchon, when Cassander campaigned against him, decided to abandon the alliance with Antigonus and in 309 BC. killed Hercules.

He probably died in 304 or 303 BC.

He had a son, Alexander, who distinguished himself in the wars of Alexander the Great's successors.

Family

Children Alexander

Source

J. G. Droysen «Ιστορία των Διαδόχων του Μεγάλου Αλεξάνδρου»

Green, Peter (1990). Alexander to Actium. University of California Press. pp. 17–20. ISBN 0-520-05611-6.

Habicht, Christian (1998). Ελληνιστική Αθήνα [Hellenistic Athens] (in Greek). Athens: Odysseas. ISBN 960-210-310-8.

Simpson, R. H. (1957). "Antigonus, Polyperchon and the Macedonian Regency". Historia. 6 (3): 371–73. JSTOR 4434536.

Wheatley, P. (1998). "The Date of Polyperchon's Invasion of Macedonia and Murder of Herakles". Antichthon. 32: 12–23. doi:10.1017/S0066477400001064. S2CID 147883658.

Livius, Polyperchon Archived 2013-10-11 at the Wayback Machine by Jona Lendering

Polyperchon entry in historical source book by Mahlon H. Smith