Antigonus II Gonatas

This article deals with the Macedonian king. For the Greek general and politician, see Stylianos Gonatas .

Antigonus II Gonatas ( Greek Αντίγονος Γονατᾶς; * around 319 BC; † 239 BC) was a king of Macedonia from the Antigonid dynasty . He was a son of Demetrios Poliorketes and Phila . His grandfathers were the diadochi Antigonos Monophthalmos and Antipatros .

His nickname Gonatas , the meaning of which is unknown, was originally derived from his presumed birthplace Gonnoi in Thessaly . Modern philologists suspect that it could mean rather " knock-kneed ".

Life

First years

Antigonus was appointed strategist of Greece by his father during the Fifth Diadoch War , where he has since represented the interests of the Antigonids after his father left for Asia in 287. Since his father's death in captivity in 283, he also carried his father's title of king. His rulership was negligible, however, Macedonia and most of Greece were controlled by Pyrrhus and Lysimachus . Antigonus only had its own positions in Demetrias , Megara and Corinth, as well as in some cities on the coast of Asia Minor, such as Ephesus . In 281 his situation changed decisively when one after the other Lysimachus fell in battle, Seleucus was murdered and Pyrrhus set out on a long campaign to Italy.

Antigonus tried now to win Macedonia, but was defeated by Ptolemy Keraunos both at sea and on land. Then he crossed over to Asia Minor, where he met with Nicomedes I of Bithynia against I. Antiochus allied. Favored by revolts in Syria, the allies were able to force the Seleucid ruler to a peace in 278, whereby Antigonus gave up all his cities in Asia Minor and in return was recognized by Antiochus as king of Macedonia. To seal the peace, Antigonus married Phila, the sister of Antiochus.

King of Macedonia

At the same time that Antigonos was active in Asia, the onslaught of the Celts (later called Galatians ) broke out over Macedonia and Greece , devastating the country and bringing it into anarchy. Antigonus took advantage of the situation, crossed the Hellespont to Europe with an army in 277 and defeated the Celts near Lysimacheia . This cleared the way for him to Macedonia, where the throne had been orphaned since the death of Sosthenes (so-called “Macedonian anarchy”). Due to his high prestige after his victory over the Celts, Antigonus was immediately recognized as the new king by the Macedonians. He pacified the country by taking the Celts in his wages or by sending them to his ally Nicomedes in Asia. He had to give up Thrace, however, as the Celtic kingdom of Tylis was established there. In 276 he also ended the tyranny of Apollodoris in Kassandreia .

However, his rule was seriously endangered in 274 when Pyrrhus returned from Italy and conquered Aigai in a coup d'état . In two battles Antigonus suffered a defeat. When Pyrrhus turned against the Peloponnese , Antigonus pursued him with his fleet. He allied himself with Sparta and cordoned off the isthmos . After Pyrrhos failed with an attack on Sparta, Antigonus put him in front of the walls of Argos in 272 , but avoided an open field battle. Pyrrhus therefore decided to attack the city, where he was killed fighting in the streets. Pyrrhus' death had freed Antigonus from his greatest opponent in Europe; he was able to quickly bring Macedonia back under his control. In the following years he consolidated his rule in Greece by promoting loyal tyrants in the cities and a merger with the Aitolian League .

Chremonic War

• see main article Chremonideic War

Due to the increase in power, Antigonos advanced to a dangerous rival for supremacy in the Aegean region for the Ptolemaic king of Egypt, Ptolemy II . Ptolemy therefore called on the Greek cities to wage war against him. The most important powers were Athens and Sparta, who allied with one another through the mediation of Chremonides . Antigonus occupied most of Attica and took up the siege of Athens. Ptolemy sent a fleet under the admiral Patroclus , which sealed off the Saronic Gulf , while Alexandros II of Epirus occupied Thessaly and thus cut off Antigonus from Greece. As a result, he had to accept the loss of Corinth through betrayal and at the same time fend off a new invasion of the Celts in northern Macedonia.

In 265 he went on the offensive, conquered a superior Ptolemaic fleet near Kos and landed with an army on the isthmus, where he defeated the approaching Spartians and killed their king Areus I. Only Corinth could oppose him, but in 263 his half-brother Demetrios the Fair triumphed over Alexandros II of Epirus at Derdia. These successes brought the decisive turning point in the war. In 262 Athens surrendered to him: the Piraeus , Munychia and Museion were given Macedonian garrisons and the long walls were destroyed. After eight years, Antigonus had agreed to withdraw the crew from the Museion, but Athens finally ceased to exist as an independent political power.

Macedonia, on the other hand, was brought back to its greatest extent by Antigonus at the end of the war, which it had in the time of Philip II . In memory of the decisive sea victory at Kos, Antigonos had a ship hall (Neorion) built on Delos , in which he had his admiral ship, Isthmia , which he had dedicated to Apollo , housed.

Defensive in Greece

During the so-called Syrian Wars of the Ptolemies against the Seleucids , Antigonus was a natural ally of the latter. Ever since Pergamon, an independent power sympathizing with Egypt, had established itself on the coast of Asia Minor in 261 , Macedonia threatened to be cut off by the Seleucids. Both powers felt threatened by the growing Ptolemaic-Egyptian dominance. Antigonos and Antiochus II formed a coalition with the independent sea power Rhodes , with the aim of breaking Egypt's supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean. Another incursion by the Ptolemaic ally, Alexandros II of Epirus, was repelled in 255. In 253 he supported his half-brother, Demetrios the Beautiful, in taking power in Cyrene , which he now directly threatened Ptolemy II. In return, however, Ptolemy raised the Aitolians against Antigonus, who occupied Thermopylae . The defection of the governor of Corinth, Alexander , weighed even more heavily , whereby the Macedonian rule in the Peloponnese collapsed. So the Arcadians were able to free themselves from Macedonian suzerainty and found their own league. In 249 Cyrene was lost again through the murder of Demetrios the Fair.

In the third Syrian war (also called Laodikekrieg) Ptolemy III destroyed . almost the entire Seleucid Empire . The supremacy of Antigonus in the Aegean Sea gained at Kos was seriously jeopardized after Ephesus fell away and the coastal cities of Thrace were occupied by Ptolemy. However, with the victory of his fleet in the sea battle of Andros 245, Antigonos was able to strengthen his position in the Aegean again. The success favored the recovery of Chalcis and Corinth after the rebel Alexander had died there that same year, allegedly from Macedonian poison. His widow Nikaia was lured by the offer of a marriage to the Macedonian heir to the throne , and in this way Antigonus soon came back into possession of the Acrocorinth Castle , which was immediately given a Macedonian garrison.

The king could not look forward to his success for long, however, because as early as 243 Corinth was conquered in a nocturnal commando by the strategist of the Achaean League Aratos of Sicyon , who a little later also won Megara. The two most important pillars of the Antigonids in Greece were lost. In order to maintain his influence on the Peloponnese, Antigonus allied himself with the Aitolians, who in 241 pushed back to the border of Achaia , but were defeated there in the battle of Pellene by Aratos.

These setbacks favored the young Achaean League, which now spread under the leadership of Aratos in the Peloponnese and oppressed the tyrants appointed by Antigonus. At the same time, however, with the overthrow of King Agis IV in Sparta, a Macedonian-minded government came to power, which ended the alliance between Sparta and the Achaeans. At the end of the year 241 a general peace was negotiated, which recognized all conquests of the Achaeans and preserved Macedonia's influence in the Peloponnese, especially in Argos.

death

Two years later, Antigonus died in his 80th year, the 44th year of his reign. After a period of decay, Antigonus reasserted Macedonia's supremacy in the ancient Hellenic region. He won the affection of his subjects through his honesty and the cultivation of the arts. He gathered outstanding philosophers, poets and historians around him. Antigonus had a lively correspondence with the founder of the Stoic philosophy , Zeno von Kition , but could not persuade him to visit his court in Demetrias. For this he won his pupil, Persaios , who raised his sons from 276, as well as the philosophers Aratos von Soloi and Philonides von Thebes for his court. Antigonus' endeavors to realize stoicism in the life of the state had helped him to gain lasting recognition in the world of scholars. What is known is the saying attributed to him by Claudius Aelianus of kingship as "honorable servitude" ( ἔνδοξος δουλεία , endoxos douleia ), which, according to different interpretations, means the ruler's servitude of slavery to the laws, or his obligations and personal sacrifices to his subjects is. This saying was received by Seneca , among others , and found its echo in enlightened absolutism in the “premier serviteur de l'État” of Frederick II of Prussia .

In his poem of praise to Ptolemy ( Idyll XVII ), the poet Theokritus compared Antigonus with Diomedes while at the same time contrasting him with Ptolemy II as Achilles . The poet Alexandros Aitolus was lured away in 276 from the Ptolemaic court in Alexandria in the Macedonian Pella .

According to the 13th Great Edict of Ashoka , the Indian king sent around 250 "religious commissioners" ( dharmamahāmātra ) to the kingdom of Antigonus (Aṃtekina). How far this “religion” corresponded to Buddhism of its time is questionable.

From his marriage to Phila Antigonus had a son, Demetrios II , who succeeded him as king. From the connection with the Athenian woman Demo he had the illegitimate son Halkyoneus .

swell

• Plutarch : Demetrius , Pyrrhus , Aratus
• Junianus Justinus 24, 1; 25, 1
• Polybios 2, 43-45; 9, 29; 9, 34

literature

• EL Brown, Antigonos Königin Gonatas , in: Walter Burkert et al. (Ed.), Artouros: Hellenic studies presented to Bernard MW Knox on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday . De Gruyter, Berlin 1979, ISBN 3-11-007798-1 , pp. 299-307.
• Kostas Buraselis: Hellenistic Macedonia and the Aegean Sea. Research on the politics of Kassander and the first three Antigonids (Antigonos Monophthalmos, Demetrios Poliorketes and Antigonos Gonatas) in the Aegean Sea and in western Asia Minor, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-406-07673-4 .
• Janice J. Gabbert: Antigonus II Gonatas: A Political Biography , Routledge, London / New York 1997, ISBN 0-415-01899-4 .
• Hermann Bengtson : rulers of the Hellenism. Beck, Munich 1975. ISBN 3-406-00733-3 . Pp. 139-164.
• Hans Volkmann : ΕΝΔΟΞΟΣ ΔΟΥΛΕΙΑ as honorable servant service to the law , In: Philologus , Vol. 100 (1956), pp. 52-61.
• Hans Volkmann: The Basileia as ἔνδοξον δουλενα. A contribution to the word history of Duleia , In: Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte , Vol. 16 (1967), pp. 155–161.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Badian, Ernst (Cambridge, MA), Bringmann, Klaus (Frankfurt / Main), Neudecker, Richard (Rome), Gärtner, Hans Armin (Heidelberg), Montanari, Franco (Pisa) and Degani, Enzo (Bologna), “Antigonos ”, In: Der Neue Pauly, edited by: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider (antiquity), Manfred Landfester (history of reception and science). doi : 10.1163 / 1574-9347_dnp_e124050
2. ↑ Hans-Joachim Gehrke: History of Hellenism. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1990, p. 42.
3. ↑ Hans-Joachim Gehrke : History of Hellenism. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1990, p. 44.
4. ↑ The exact time of the sea battle of Kos is unknown. It took place between 263 and 256. Droysen and Bengtson count them as part of the Chremonic War that they decided.
5. ↑ Pausanias 1.29.1, the ship had more than nine rows of oars. Presumably the Neorion of Delos was already commissioned by Demetrios Poliorketes after his victory at Salamis in 306, but was only completed by Antigonos Gonatas. (Philippe Bruneau: Recherches sur les cultes de Délos à l'époque hellénitique et à l'époque impériale ; Paris, 1970)
6. ^ Claudius Aelianus , Varia Historia 2, 20.
7. ↑ Seneca , De Clementia 1, 8, 1.

predecessor	Office	successor
Demetrios I. Poliorketes	King in Greece and Asia 283–277 BC Chr.	---
Sosthenes	King of Macedonia 277–239 BC Chr.	Demetrios II. Aitolikos