Agathocles (son of Lysimachus)

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Agathocles ( Greek Ἀγαθοκλής ; † 283/282 BC) was the eldest son and designated heir of the Diadoch ruler Lysimachus . His mother was probably Nikaia , daughter of Antipater .

Agathocles served his father, who ruled in Thrace and western Asia Minor , as a general from an early age. In a campaign against the Geten under their king Dromichaetes around 292 BC. BC he got into their captivity, but was sent back to his father with gifts because they hoped to come to a peaceful understanding with Lysimachus. But he personally led another campaign against them and was captured by them himself. Only then was Lysimachus ready to make peace with the Geten.

After his father in 287 BC After having also become king of Macedon in the 3rd century BC , Agathocles became the probable heir of most of what is now Greece and Turkey . In the same year he fended off the attack of Demetrios Poliorketes on Asia Minor (Fifth Diadoch War) and pushed him over the Taurus into Cilicia , which was ruled by Seleucus . Because he then blocked the mountain passes of the Taurus, he cut Demetrios off the way to the sea, whereupon he had to surrender to Seleukos.

Agathocles was the longed-for successor to the throne of the increasingly tyrannical ruling Lysimachus, especially among the younger generation. He had meanwhile married Arsinoë II , daughter of King Ptolemy I of Egypt and half-sister of his own wife Lysandra . Because Arsinoë II wanted to secure the succession to the throne for her own children, she slandered her stepson Agathocles at his father's. Allegedly he intended to poison him, whereupon Lysimachus approved the murder of his son.

Agathocles' widow, his half-brother Alexander and his followers then fled to Seleucus. He declared himself the avenger of Agathocles and killed Lysimachus in 281 BC. At the battle of Kurupedion (sixth diadoch war).

literature

swell

  1. ↑ Pausanias Helládos Periēgēsis 1, 9, 6. and Diodor 21, 11; The Geten were wrongly called "Thracians" by Diodorus.
  2. ↑ Diodorus 21, 12, 1-6
  3. ↑ Plutarch Demetrios 46, 4-5
  4. ↑ Plutarch Demetrios 47, 1-2
  5. ↑ Memnon of Herakleia , Perì ʰērakleias , FrGrHist 434, fragment 5, 6-7. and Pausanias Helládos Periēgēsis 1, 10, 3; According to Pausanias, Agathocles had rejected the love of Arsinoe II and therefore fell victim to her vengeance.
  6. ↑ Pausanias Helládos Periēgēsis 1, 10, 4.
personal data
SURNAME Agathocles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Crown Prince and Officer of Lysimachus
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 283 BC BC or 282 BC Chr.