Lysimachus

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Lysimachos (Greek: Λυσίμαχος) (* 361/360 BC, Pella ; † February 281 BC , Kurupedion ), son of Agathocles, was a general of Alexander the Great and one of his diadochi . Since 306/5 BC He was king of Thrace and from 285/4 BC. King of Macedonia .

Marble bust of Lysimachus, Ephesus Museum in Selçuk .

Life

Lysimachos was a native of Thessaly , but his father received Macedonian citizenship from King Philip II . His brothers were Philippos and Autodikos and probably Alkimachus . As a military man, the brothers accompanied Alexander the Great on his conquest through Asia , where Lysimachus belonged to the young king's bodyguard ( somatophylakes ). During the festivities in Susa , he received his Nysaean horse from the self-sacrifice Kalanos , before he burned himself.

After Alexander's death (323 BC) Lysimachus was given the administration of the small satrapy of Thrace on the Hellespont by the regent Perdiccas . Since it controlled the European transition to Asia, it had a strategic value, but it was also constantly threatened in the north by attacks by Geten and Scythians . Against them he extended his rule over the Danube in several campaigns . His attitude in the First Diadoch War (321 BC) is not known; but since Antipater confirmed his satrapy at the Triparadeisus conference , he was at least neutral. He married a daughter of Antipater. In the Second Diadoch War (319–316 BC) he was allied with Kassander and Antigonus Monophthalmos against Polyperchon , but had no part in the fighting. He had Kleitos the white man who had fled to him killed.

Lysimachos' rise to one of the leading diadochs began in the Third Diadoch War (316-311 BC) when he was allied with Cassander and Ptolemy against Antigonus Monophthalmos, who claimed sovereignty over the entire Alexander Empire. Due to the geographical location of his dominion, he cut off Antigonus from Europe, which meant that he was constantly forced to operate at sea. At first Lysimachus subjugated in 314 BC The revolting cities of Istros and Odessos . Then he subjugated the rebellious Thracian king Seuthes III. in Haimos and defeated an Antigonid invading army. Then he took Kallatis after a long siege . After the end of the war he founded in 309 BC His own capital, Lysimacheia , on the Gallipoli peninsula , which was also supposed to protect the Hellespont against threats from Asia.

In the fourth Diadoch War (307–301 BC) he was again allied with Cassander and Ptolemy against Antigonus, but initially hardly took part in the fighting. In 305 BC BC - Alexander's family had meanwhile been wiped out - Lysimachus took on the title of king ( basileus ) almost at the same time as the other diadochi, thereby proclaiming his full sovereignty as a Hellenistic ruler. When 302 BC BC Demetrios Poliorketes (Antigonus' son) was preparing to gain hegemony over the continually controversial Greek motherland , Lysimachus went on the offensive in Asia Minor against Antigonus. He briefly conquered Ephesus , which he lost again against the advancing Demetrios, but the commanders of Sardis and Pergamon ran over to him . After he had lost a battle against Demetrios at Lampsakos , he had to retreat to the Pontic Herakleia , constantly pursued by Antigonus, and have his army camped here for the winter. There he fell in love with the ruling Princess Amastris , whom he married and thus gained control of Pontos . In the spring of 301 BC He took up the offensive again and moved against Antigonus, while from the south Ptolemy came with reinforcements; however, this then returned to Egypt. Alone Lysimachus was outnumbered by the opponents, but then Seleucus came from the east with an army and war elephants and united with him. In the battle of Ipsos they were victorious over Antigonos Monophthalmos, who fell in battle.

Tetradrachm of Lysimachus. A helmeted Athena Nikephoros with a winged nike in hand that crowns Lysimachus' name.

From the thus disintegrated Antigonid Empire, Lysimachus took over western Asia Minor and its south coast as far as Cilicia . The alliance with Seleucus now turned into a rivalry, which is why Lysimachus allied with Ptolemy and married his daughter Arsinoë II . He separated from Amastris for this, but his love for her is said to have continued. After Kassander in 297 BC Chr. Had died, expand tried Lysimachos his power to Macedonia by his daughter with King I. Antipater married. While Demetrios Poliorketes was at war with Sparta , Lysimachus took 294 BC. Permanent Ephesus itself, which he replaces 296 BC. In honor of his second wife in the vicinity built town Arsinoeia relocated and the population was forcibly relocated. There he settled next to the Ephesins also the surviving population of the cities Colophon and Lebedos , which he had subjugated and destroyed and who, unlike Ephesus, had resisted him. However, he also lost areas in Asia during this time after the princes of Bithynia and Pontus had made their own business there.

In the following years Lysimachus was busy fighting the revolting Geten under their king Dromichaites . Therefore he was compelled to call Demetrios Poliorketes 294 BC. To be recognized as king in Macedonia, against the protest of his son-in-law Antipater. After a lost battle, Lysimachus was captured by the Geten, which Demetrios exploited to invade Thrace despite the existing peace. With the Geten, Lysimachus was able to achieve a lasting peace by recognizing their independence with the Danube as a common border. In an alliance with the aspiring soldier of fortune Pyrrhus , Lysimachus ousted 287 BC. BC the Demetrios again and shared with Pyrrhus the rule in Macedonia; when his son-in-law protested again, he had him killed and his own daughter locked in prison. 288 BC BC Lysimachus conquered the Pontic Herakleia after his former wife had been murdered there by his own sons. As Demetrios Poliorketes in 287 BC Translated to Asia (fifth war of the Diadochs), he sent his son Agathocles to meet him with an army that drove him as far as Cilicia. Lysimachus himself now turned against his former ally Pyrrhus; after he died in 285 BC BC had won a battle against him and Antigonus Gonatas , he could be raised to the sole king of Macedonia. He now ruled over an area that stretched from central Greece in the west and the Danube in the north to the Taurus Mountains , the gateway to Syria.

Lysimachus presumably administered his empire through a system of offices of strategists made up of relatives and confidants. These had military and increasingly also civil powers and carried out strict supervision, especially over the cities. Taxation was high. There were several treasure houses across the country in which enormous amounts of money were stored in order to be able to cover short-term military costs. However, Lysimachus was unable to give his territory a permanent internal cohesion.

In old age Lysimachus became more and more suspicious and sometimes acted quite arbitrarily. So he let 283 BC Chr., Influenced by his wife Arsinoe, the murder of his own son, Agathocles, happened, who would have been a capable successor. His other children fled to Seleucus, who took advantage of this rift and declared war on Lysimachus (sixth Diadoch war). While Seleucus was traveling through Asia Minor, important followers of Lysimachus went over to him there, such as Philetairus of Pergamon . In February 281 BC The last two surviving participants of the Alexander procession faced each other in the battle of Kurupedion . Lysimachus was completely defeated and killed, and Seleucus granted him a royal burial in Lysimacheia. Asia Minor fell to the Seleucids, Thrace and Macedonia took over Ptolemy Keraunos , who, however, in 279 BC. BC succumbed to the onslaught of the Celts who founded their own principalities in Thrace.

Family and offspring

In his first marriage he was from 321 BC. With Nikaia († before 302 BC), a daughter of Antipater, married. Your children were:

  1. Agathocles († 283/282 BC)
  2. Arsinoë I († after 249 BC), ∞ with Ptolemy II.
  3. Eurydice († around 287 BC), ∞ with Antipater I.

From his second marriage to Amastris he had a son, Alexander, who lived in 275 BC. Was murdered.

In his third marriage he was married to Arsinoë II , a daughter of Ptolemy I. He also had three children with her:

  1. Ptolemy († after 281 BC; probably identical with Ptolemy the son ), co-ruler in Egypt, dynast in Telmessos as a vassal of the Ptolemies.
    1. Lysimachus, dynast in Telmessos as a vassal of the Ptolemies, around 220 BC. Called BC.
      1. Ptolemy, dynast in Telmessos as a vassal of the Ptolemies, had the city in the peace of Apamea in 188 BC. Cede to Pergamon and went to Antiochus III. over.
        1. Berenike, priestess of the cult of Laodike, wife of Antiochus III.
    2. Epigonus
      1. Antipater, enters 188 BC. BC inscribed with his cousin Ptolemy in a donation in Delos .
  2. Lysimachus († 281 BC murdered)
  3. Philippos († 281 BC murdered)

With an Odrysian mistress he had another son named Alexander († probably 277 BC).

Lysimachus is said to have had a total of fifteen children who died before their father.

literature

Web links

Commons : Lysimachus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pausanias 1.9.5 and Justin 15.3.1
  2. ^ Christian Marek , Peter Frei : History of Asia Minor in antiquity. 2nd, revised edition, CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2010, p. 247.
  3. ↑ Prosopographia Ptolemaica , Vol. 6 (1968), No. 14532 = M. Segrè: Clara Rhodos. Studi e materiali pubblicati a cura dell 'Istituto storico-archeologico di Rodi , Vol. 9 (1938), No. 183-185.
  4. ↑ Titus Livius 37:56; Prosopographia Ptolemaica , Vol. 6 (1968), No. 14547 = Wilhelm Dittenberger : Orientis Graeci inscriptiones selectae , Vol. 1 (1903), No. 224, pp. 353-356.
  5. ↑ Prosopographia Ptolemaica , Vol. 6 (1968), No. 14502.
  6. ↑ Félix Durrbach: Inscripions de Délos: Comptes of Hiéropes (1929), No. 442B.. See Richard A. Billows: Kings and Colonists: Aspects of Macedonian Imperialism (1995), p. 103, note 65.
  7. ^ Justin 17: 2, 1.
predecessor Office successor
Province newly created Satrap then king of Thrace
323 / 305-281 BC. Chr. 		Ptolemy Keraunus
Pyrrhus I. King of Macedonia
285–281 BC Chr. 		Ptolemy Keraunus
personal data
SURNAME Lysimachus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Diadoche, governor of Thrace
DATE OF BIRTH around 360 BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Pella
DATE OF DEATH 281 BC Chr.