Pleistarchus (general)

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Pleistarchus ( Greek  Πλείσταρχος ; † after 295 BC) was a Macedonian general during the time of the Diadoch Wars . He was a younger son of Antipater and brother of Cassander , King of Macedonia .

Pleistarchus served his brother as a general and was led by him around 312 BC. Appointed governor in Chalkis , which he should defend against the Antigonid general Ptolemy . Pausanias reports that Pleistarchus lost a battle against an army of Athens , but he does not give an exact time background.

During the fourth Diadoch war, Pleistarchus was defeated in the winter of 302 BC. BC sent by his brother with an army of 12,000 infantrymen and 500 horsemen to Asia Minor to fight Antigonos Monophthalmos . However, since the Hellespont had been blocked by Demetrios Poliorketes , the son of Antigonus, Pleistarchus turned to Odessus , from there to set Pontike by means of a fleet across the Black Sea to Herakleia . Since the fleet was too small, however, he had to have his army translated into three divisions one after the other. Only the first division reached the coast of Asia Minor safely, the second was intercepted by a fleet of Demetrios and the third division, personally led by Pleistarchus, was shipwrecked in a storm, which meant that a large part of the army was lost.

With his remaining troops, Pleistarchus finally managed to get through to his allies Lysimachus and Seleucus . He fought with them in 301 BC. In the victorious battle of Ipsos , in which Antigonos Monophthalmos was defeated. In the subsequent division of his dominion among the victors, Pleistarchus was able to secure the landscape of Cilicia and part of Caria , possibly as a separate kingdom. His rule in Cilicia did not last long. As early as 299 BC BC Demetrios Poliorketes landed with his superior naval power on the Cilician coast and gradually seized the land. Pleistarchus could not expect any help from Seleucus, since he was now allied with Demetrios, and through the death of his brother Kassander in 297 BC. The support of Macedonia also failed. Only Lysimachus attempted a rescue. But when he reached Soloi , besieged by Demetrios , he is said to have decided to turn back in view of the gigantic war machines of the enemy.

After the loss of Cilicia, Pleistarchus' domain was limited to his Carian possessions, especially the coastal city of Herakleia , which he renamed "Pleistarcheia". Pleistarchus is there until 295 BC. Afterwards its trace is lost. Plutarch mentions for the year 287 BC BC Lysimachus in the entire possession of Caria, possibly he had previously put an end to the rule of Pleistarchus.

literature

  • Oliver Hülden: Pleistarchus [2]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 9, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01479-7 , column 1129 f.
  • Stanley M. Burstein: The Date of the Athenian Victory over Pleistarchus: A Note on Pausanias 1.15.1 , in: The Classical World Vol. 71, No. 2, pp. 128-129 (1977)
  • Andrew Pearce Gregory: A Macedonian δυνάστηϛ: Evidence for the Life and Career of Plaistarchos Antipatrou , in: Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte Vol. 44 (1995), pp. 11-28

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Diodorus 19.77.5-6
  2. ↑ Pausanias 1.15.1. On 304/303 BC Chr. Dated by Oliver Hülden: Pleistarchos [2]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 9, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01479-7 , Sp. 1129.
  3. ↑ Diodorus 20.112.1-3
  4. ↑ Diodorus 21.1.5 and Plutarch Demetrios 30.1
  5. ↑ Plutarch Demetrios 31.6-7
  6. ↑ Plutarch, Demetrios 46.4
personal data
SURNAME Pleistarchus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Macedonian general, ruler of Cilicia and Caria
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 295 BC Chr.