AntigonidsELIZABETH KOSMETATOU

The Antigonid Dynasty descended from

Alexander the Great’s general ANTIGONOS I

MONOPHTHALMOS (“the One-Eyed”), who cre-

ated the first Hellenistic kingdom after

Alexander’s empire was dissolved during the

succession conflict of 323–301 BCE (see

SUCCESSORS, WARS OF).

In the illusory settlement of Babylon in

323 BCE, Antigonos, like the rest of the “care-

takers” of Alexander’s empire, received his

satrapy of Greater Phrygia, to hold until the

infant Alexander IV, son of Alexander the

Great and Roxane, came of age. Unhappy with

his role as keeper of a small portion of the

empire and military commander in charge of

restoring peace for the benefit of others,

Antigonos fled to Antipater and Krateros in

Greece. Following the settlement of Tripara-

deisos (see TRIPARADEISOS, TREATY OF) in 320 BCE,

Antigonos was given control of Asia in

exchange for dealing with the mutual enemy

du jour, EUMENES OF KARDIA, whom he would

finally execute in 315 BCE. To cement a personal

alliance with Antipater, who controlled MACE-

DONIA, Antigonos accepted Antipater’s son

CASSANDER as his second-in-command and his

daughter Phila, Krateros’ widow, as the new

bride of his own son, DEMETRIOS I POLIORKETES.

The struggle for power in Macedonia turned

more intense, as Antipater, Cassander, Poly-

perchon, and Olympias sought to establish

their control, and Cassander emerged victori-

ous with backing from Antigonos, Ptolemy the

satrap of Egypt, and Lysimachos. The configu-

ration of intricate alliances among the

Diadochoi changed many times in the follow-

ing decade. During that time, Alexander’s legit-

imate successors, Alexander IV and Philip III

Arrhidaios, as well as Herakles, his illegitimate

son by Barsine, were eliminated. In 306 BCE, as

the war against Ptolemy, Seleukos, Lysimachos,

and Cassander continued, Antigonos pro-

claimed himself king and bestowed the same

title on his son Demetrios I Poliorketes, who

was his most trusted aide. His reign and life

ended abruptly with his defeat at Ipsos in

301 BCE, and Alexander’s empire was officially

divided into five kingdoms.

Demetrios succeeded his father in Asia,

but his reign was far from peaceful. Following

his defeat at Ipsos, he fled to Ephesos and

planned a come-back by allying himself with

Seleukos I, now king of Syria, to whom he

offered his daughter Stratonike in marriage.

As the greatest part of Asia was now under

the control of Lysimachos, now an ally of Ptol-

emy, Demetrios took advantage of Cassander’s

death in 298/7 BCE and the ensuing civil war

among his sons. He already held the strategi-

cally important Aegean islands, seized Athens,

campaigned in the Peloponnese, and con-

quered Macedonia in 294 BCE. After killing

Alexander V and forcing his brother into

exile, Demetrios ruled Macedonia, citing his

marriage alliance with Cassander as the

decisive factor that determined his legitimacy.

For the remainder of his reign, he constantly

fought wars with king Pyrrhos of Epiros,

himself a contender for the Macedonian

throne, Ptolemy, and Lysimachos. Demetrios

was eventually captured by Seleukos I in the

Tauros in 286 and died in captivity in 283.

ANTIGONOS II GONATAS, son of Demetrios

Poliorketes, spent the decade of 286–276 BCE

in search of a kingdom in a perennially

unstable Macedonia and Asia Minor, which

became even more so following the death of

Lysimachos at Koroupedion in 281. Gonatas

fought against both Pyrrhos and Ptolemy

Keraunos, a son of Ptolemy I, who made a bid

for Macedonia but was killed in battle against

the Gauls in 279. However, the Celtic invasion

of the 270s that wreaked havoc in Greece

proved to be a blessing in disguise for Gonatas,

who had allied himself with Antiochos I of

Syria and had made a failed bid for a kingdom

in Asia Minor. Like other Hellenistic kings after

him, most notably the Attalids of Pergamon, he

capitalized on a much-needed victory against

the Gauls at Lysimacheia, and in 276 he finally

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,

and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 456–459.

© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah09023

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became the undisputed king of Macedonia.

Finally rid of Pyrrhos in 272, and on excellent

termswith Seleucid Syria, Gonatas reigned until

239 and established a firm and stable rule over

Macedonia and Greece. His control over the

Greek city-states, which cherished their auton-

omy, was challenged by the ChremonideanWar

of 267 and the rise of the Achaian League, which

triggered revolts among the Greeks.

Demetrios II Aetolikos (see DEMETRIOS II (MAC-

EDONIAN KING)), Gonatas’ son, was the first

Antigonid king to succeed his predecessor

without incident. His ten-year reign (239–

229) was turbulent as he fought wars on

multiple fronts. Immediately after his succes-

sion, he defeated a coalition of the Aitolian and

Achaian Leagues. Next, he sought to deal with

challenges, first in Boiotia in 236 then due to

the threat of a rising Epiros, and eventually

battling Illyrians in the north, through a

combination of war, diplomacy, and cunning

political maneuvers that mainly aimed at keep-

ing divisions among the Greeks. His premature

death left his already weak kingdom to his

underage son, Philip V.

ANTIGONOS III DOSON (229–221), a cousin of

Demetrios II, assumed the Macedonian

throne, first as regent and military com-

mander, and eventually as king and guardian

of Philip V (see PHILIP V OF MACEDON). Through-

out his reign he remained occupied with the

affairs in Greece, especially the conflict between

Kleomenes III’s Sparta and the Achaian League.

Through a combination of war and effective

diplomacy, Doson formed an alliance with

various Greek regions, defeated Kleomenes at

Sellasia in 222, and reformed the Spartan con-

stitution. Doson died in 221, after having

successfully settled most Greek conflicts and

strengthened his kingdom.

Early in his reign, Philip V (221–179) showed

strong leadership as head of the Greek coalition

against Sparta, the Aitolian League, and Elis,

especially during the Social War (220–217).

However, his plans to expand his influence to

the Adriatic, as well as an ill-advised and ulti-

mately pointless alliance with Hannibal during

the Second Punic War, won him eternal Roman

hostility. Thereafter the Romans were increas-

ingly drawn into the affairs of Greece, allying

themselves with Philip’s enemies, including the

Aitolian League, Sparta, and Attalos I of

Pergamon. After the end of the First Macedo-

nian War of 217–206 (see MACEDONIAN WARS),

Philip concluded the Peace of Phoinike

with the Romans and their Greek allies, but

soon made an alliance with Antiochos III of

Syria that aimed at taking over Ptolemaic ter-

ritories in the Aegean and Asia Minor. This

rapproachement rattled nerves in the Eastern

Mediterranean, especially in Pergamon and

Rhodes, and the conflict culminated in the

Second Macedonian War (200–197). Rome

and her allies defeated Philip at Kynoskephalai

in 197, and the Macedonian king was obliged

to pay an indemnity, surrender his fleet and a

number of important hostages, among them

his son Demetrios, and to confine himself in

Macedonia. Even though Philip showed coop-

eration, even fought alongside Rome against

Sparta and Antiochos III, and relations between

the two states vastly improved, the Romans

remained suspicious of Macedonia, constantly

being urged on by Pergamon and Rhodes.

Philip’s eagerness to strengthen his position in

his own kingdom eventually led to a conflict

with his pro-Roman son Demetrios, whom he

had executed for treason, possibly under the

influence of his eldest son Perseus (see PERSEUS,

MACEDONIAN KING). He died in 179 BCE, leaving

his kingdom to Perseus, the last king of the

Antigonid Dynasty.

Perseus (179–168) affirmed his allegiance to

Rome as soon as he assumed the throne. How-

ever, his presumed attempts at restoring his

power within his kingdom and over Greece,

including actions that were perceived as anti-

Roman, invoked Roman and Greek hostility

and suspicion and triggered the Third Mace-

donian War. Perseus was defeated at Pydna in

168 by a coalition of Rome, led by Aemilius

Paullus, and her allies. He surrendered and was

imprisoned in Rome until his death in 166,

while the Romans carved up his kingdom,

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creating four Macedonian republics that are

attested down to the period of the Early

Roman Empire.

The Macedonian state remained an ethnos

under the Antigonids, that is, an “ethnic” state,

which became a member of the Hellenic

League along with other ethnic states, includ-

ing the Thessalians, the Epirotes, the Achaians,

the Boiotians, and the Akarnanians. The orga-

nization of the kingdom was complex and

the natural culmination of a long-standing

tradition and developments that had

begun centuries before under the Temenid

and Argead dynasties (see ARGEADS). Scholars

have only recently begun to understand its

nuances, following the discovery of new epi-

graphic evidence that expanded the debate

and allowed us to recast old questions and

consider new possibilities. Both the Macedo-

nian king and the Macedonians were therefore

constituent parts of the state, and their politi-

cal organization strongly resembles that of

neighboring Thessaly and Epiros. The Mace-

donian territory was divided between poleis

and ethne, that is, regional groupings of rural

and civic communities, and contrary to previ-

ous theories, these were governed according

to laws, elected their annual magistrates, and

generally enjoyed a very extensive local

self-government. The relations between the

Macedonian king and his subordinate author-

ities is well attested through the substantial

surviving epigraphic record, which includes

royal and vice-royal letters and royal

diagrammata (cf. Hatzopoulos 1996, especially

Epigraphic Appendix 4–11, 14–17, 19).

Functionaries, known as epistatai, oversaw

the cities, while the strategoi were in charge of

entire districts of newly acquired peripheral

territories, including Paionia and Thrace.

Contrary to previously held theories, it is

now thought that the epistatai and the elected

politarchs under the last Antigonid kings were

locally (annually?) elected civic magistrates,

rather than officials appointed by the royal

authority to exercise tight control over their

territory.

In the Hellenistic period, Macedonia

attempted to control Greece and the Aegean,

a strategically important stepping-stone to

Asia Minor, through both benefaction and

war. The Antigonid kings installed garrisons

on the territory of defeated enemies, while

efforts to coordinate their allies among

the Greeks led to the establishment of a Hel-

lenic League. In its early form, this alliance,

established by Antigonos I and Demetrios

Poliorketes, aimed at successfully fighting

Cassander, while Antigonos III opted for this

solution in the conflict against Sparta.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Adams, W. L. (2010) “Alexander’s successors to

221 BC.” In J. Roisman and I. Worthington, eds.,

A companion to ancient Macedonia: 208–24.

Oxford.

Ager, S. L. (2001) “An uneasy balance: from the

death of Seleukos to the battle of Raphia.” In

A. Erskine, ed., A companion to the Hellenistic

world: 35–50. Oxford.

Billows, R. (1990) Antigonos the One-Eyed

and the creation of the Hellenistic state. Berkeley.

Buraselis, K. (1982) Das hellenistische Makedonien

und die Agais. Munich.

Errington, R. M. (1990) A history of Macedonia.

Berkeley.

Gruen, E. (1986) The Hellenistic world and the

coming of Rome. Berkeley.

Habicht, C. (1997) Athens from Alexander to

Antony. Berkeley.

Hammond, N. G. L. and Walbank, F. W. (1988)

A history of Macedonia, vol. 3. Oxford.

Hatzopoulos, M. H. (1996) Macedonian

Institutions under the kings. Athens.

King, C. (2010) “Macedonian kingship and other

political institutions.” In J. Roisman and I.

Worthington, eds., A companion to ancient

Macedonia: 373–91. Oxford.

Scholten, J. B. (2003) “Macedon and the mainland,

280–221.” In A. Erskine, ed., A companion to

the Hellenistic world: 134–58. Oxford.

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