Medios of Larissa

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Medios ( Greek Μηδιος), son of Oxythemis, was a Greek admiral under Alexander the Great . He was a native of Thessaly and came from the princely family of Larissa . Presumably he was a grandson of the Larissa dynast of the same name.

Life

Almost nothing is known about Medios' participation in Alexander's campaign in Asia, although he is likely to have participated in it from the beginning. It is only mentioned in 326 BC. Chr. Named as one of the Trierarchs of the Indus fleet. In addition, he was one of the noble advisors and followers ( Hetairoi ) of the Macedonian king.

Only in the last lifetime of Alexander is Medios brought more into focus by tradition. Plutarch describes him as a flatterer who gave the great conqueror bad advice. End of May 323 BC Medios organized a drinking bout in Babylon , in which Alexander also took part with some friends. The king fell ill immediately and died less than two weeks later. A rumor in the propaganda of the following Diadoch Wars alleged that the Antipaters family had committed an attempt to murder Alexander. Antipater's son Iolaos was the royal cupbearer and is said to have mixed poison into the wine for Alexander on this feast. This version was picked up and distributed by later authors. Medios' name has also been linked to the alleged murder. Arrian reports, for example, that some historians referred to Medios as a lover and accomplice of Jolaos, although the author of the Anabasis himself does not believe this or various other rumors circulating about Alexander's death.

After Alexander's death, the imperial administrator Perdiccas fought against a coalition of Diadochi and sought to conquer Egypt . Since its ruler, Ptolemy , was able to win four kings of Cyprus as allies, Perdiccas sent a squadron against this island. The commander of the fleet was the Rhodian Sosigenes, while Medios served as a mercenary commander. Nothing is known about the outcome of the company.

While trying to penetrate into the Nile land, Perdiccas was murdered (321 BC). Now Medios placed himself in the service of Antigonos Monophthalmos , for whom he in 314 BC. Defeated 36 enemy - probably Egyptian - ships in the function of a naval commander.

313 BC BC Antigonus fought the Asandros and tried to conquer his satrapy Caria . He promised freedom to the Greek cities of Caria and sent a land army under Dokimos and a fleet under Medios to take Miletus , which was in the Carian satrapy of Lydia . The two commanders of Antigonus won over the citizens of the city and conquered the garrisoned castle. Subsequently, Miletus received a free constitution. After the failure of peace talks between Antipater's son Kassander and Antigonos, the former sought to militarily strengthen his position in Greece and began to siege the city of Oreos on the island of Evia . With a fleet of 100 ships, Medios sailed from Asia Minor to Oreos, where Telesphoros , a nephew of Antigonus, arrived with 20 other ships. The two fleet leaders jointly attacked the Kassander squadron, which consisted of 30 vessels, and set it on fire. Some ships burned, but then Kassander received timely support from Athens .

312 BC In BC Medios transported the army of Ptolemy , another nephew of Antigonus, on 150 warships to Boeotia to fight Cassander in Greece. When the warring troops faced each other near Chalkis , Antigonus called the Medios back to Asia Minor with his fleet, advanced against the Hellespont and wanted to march into Macedonia . But since he could not win Byzantium on his side, he had to give up his plan and go to the winter quarters.

306 BC Medios was the naval commander of Antigonos' son Demetrios Poliorketes in the sea ​​battle of Salamis on Cyprus . He commanded seven Phoenician seven-oars and 30 Attic four-oars on Demetrios' left wing. In this battle Ptolemy I was defeated, who thus lost Cyprus. From a passage in Plutarch's biography of Demetrios it should emerge that Medios also took part in the unsuccessful campaign of Antigonus against Egypt in the same year. 303/302 BC He received an honor in Athens.

According to the geographer Strabo , Medios was also active as an Alexander historian . Felix Jacoby lists it in the Fragments of the Greek Historians (FGrH) under the number 129.

literature

Web link

Remarks

  1. ^ Arrian , Indike 18, 7.
  2. ^ Arrian, Indike 18, 7.
  3. ↑ Plutarch , Quomodo adulator from amico internoscatur 24.
  4. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 7, 24, 4-25, 1; Diodor 17, 117, 1f .; Plutarch, Alexander 75, 4-5; Justin 12, 13, 6-9 et al
  5. ↑ Arrian Anabasis 7, 27, 1-2; Justin 12, 14, 7f.
  6. ^ Arrian, Succ. Alex. 24, 6; on this W. Huss, 2001, p. 112f.
  7. ↑ Diodorus 19, 69, 3; on this F. Geyer (RE XV 1, Sp. 104), who rejects the reading in Diodorus that the defeated enemy fleet should come from Pydna and instead thinks of a fleet of Ptolemy I.
  8. ↑ Diodor 19, 75, 3f .; on this W. Huss, 2001, p. 156.
  9. ↑ Diodor 19, 75, 7f .; on this W. Huss, 2001, p. 157.
  10. ↑ Diodorus 19, 77; on this W. Huss, 2001, p. 157f.
  11. ↑ Diodorus 20, 50, 3.
  12. ↑ Plutarch, Demetrios 19; on this F. Geyer, RE XV 1, Sp. 104.
  13. ^ Wilhelm Dittenberger , Sylloge inscriptionum Graecarum , 2nd edition, 342.
  14. ^ Strabo, Geographika 11, p. 530
personal data
SURNAME Medios of Larissa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Μηδιος (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Admiral of Alexander the Great and Antigonus Monophthalmos
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 4th century BC BC or 3rd century BC Chr.