Polyperchon

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Polyperchon ( Greek  Πολυπέρχων , * 394 BC in Tymphaia ; † around 303 BC), son of Simmias, was a Macedonian general and follower of Alexander the great . Then he was one of the reigning regents (Reichsverweser) of the Alexander Empire .

Life

Polyperchon belonged to the generation of King Philip II of Macedonia , to whom he already served as a general. He took part in Alexander's campaign in Asia and was after the battle of Issus in 333 BC. Appointed commander ( taxiarchos ) of the Tymphainic phalanx of the pezheteiroi , which he took over from the fallen Ptolemy . On his return from India he was sent back with the other veterans under the command of the Krateros to the Macedonian homeland, where they supported the regent Antipater in the Lami war .

After the death of Alexander in 323 BC The time of the Diadoch Wars was initiated. In the first diadoch war, Polyperchon joined the opponents of the imperial regent Perdiccas and took over the government in Macedonia during the absence of Antipater and Krateros in Asia. In doing so, he suppressed a revolt by the Thessalians , who had been encouraged to revolt by Perdiccas. After the end of the Perdiccas, Antipater was at the conference of Triparadeisos in 320 BC. Chr. Appointed as the new Reich Regent. But as early as 319 BC He died shortly after his return from Asia.

Imperial Regent and Second Diadoch War

The succession regulation issued by Antipater provided that Polyperchon should follow him as regent and his son Kassander should be placed at his side as Chiliarch (vizier). Kassander, however, felt left out and claimed the reign of the Reich for his part. Kassander fled to Asia, where he allied himself with Antigonus Monophthalmos and thus triggered the second war of the Diadochs.

In order to be able to stand against this powerful alliance, Polyperchon allied himself with Eumenes of Kardia , whom he appointed strategist of Asia and entrusted with the fight against Antigonus Monophthalmos.

Cassander's power base was mainly the Greek poleis , in which Antipater had installed oligarchic regimes and Macedonian garrisons after the Lamic war , which now professed Kassander. Against this, Polyperchon proclaimed the freedom of the Greeks and supported democratic movements in the poleis . In order to win Athens , Polyperchon, and with him the Queen Mother Olympias , requested the commandant Nikanor to hand over the port of Piraeus to the city. After Nikanor hesitated, however, Polyperchon supported the Attic democrats in the overthrow of the oligarch Phocion , whom he had arrested and extradited to the Athenians. In the spring of 317 BC BC Nikanor allowed Cassander, who was returning from Asia, to enter Piraeus, whereupon Polyperchon took up the siege of the port.

After the siege was unsuccessful, Polyperchon broke it off and left an army under his son Alexandros to guard. He himself marched on the Peloponnese , where he called a synhedrion on which he renewed his call for freedom. Several poles of the Peloponnese then joined him, only Megalopolis confessed to Kassander. Polyperchon took up the siege of the city with the imperial army subordinate to him . But despite the deployment of 65 war elephants , the construction of complex siege engines and the digging of mines, he did not succeed in storming the walls of the city. After reports of the approach of Antigonus Monophthalmos spread from Asia, Polyperchon gave up the siege in order to retreat to Thessaly. When his fleet was sunk at Byzantion under Kleitus the white , Polyperchon's rule in Macedonia collapsed.

Queen Eurydice appointed on behalf of her husband, King Philip III. Arrhidaios , Kassander as the new Imperial Regent. Shortly afterwards in the fall of 317 BC The democratic government in Athens was ended by the oligarchs under Demetrios of Phaleron , who was joined by Kassander. The arrival of the Olympias in Pella and their bloody revenge on the royal couple and Kassander's family could not stop the collapse. Kassander hurriedly bypassed the Thermophyls sealed off by Polyperchon, locked Olympias in Pydna and forced them to give up a little later. After the majority of the Macedonians had gone over to Kassander, Polyperchon had no choice but to retreat defeated to the Peloponnese, where he still had a small following.

Third Diadoch War

In the third diadoch war, Polyperchon was allied with Antigonus Monophthalmos against Kassander, from whom he was able to take several poleis in Greece. 315 BC But his son, Alexandros, went over to Kassander's side and took the cities of Sikyon and Corinth with him. With the help of the Antigonid generals Telesphorus and Ptolemaios , however, Polyperchon was able to hold on. From the general peace of the Diadochi in 311 BC. He was initially excluded, which is why he had to continue the war against Kassander alone. He attempted to build up the son of Alexander, Heracles, as king. But in the absence of sufficient strength, he went in 309 BC. A formal peace with Kassander. As a condition of the contract, he had Heracles and his mother Barsine murdered.

Polyperchon's trail is then lost. When in 307 BC Chr. Demetrios Poliorketes landed in Greece, is no longer reported about him.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arrian , Anabasis 2,12,2.
  2. ↑ Diodorus 18,38,5-6; Justin 13.6.9.
  3. ↑ Diodorus 18.55.2-18.57.1.
  4. ↑ Diodorus 18,71,2-6.
  5. ↑ Diodorus 18,75,1.
  6. ↑ Diodorus 20:28; Justin 15,2,3; Pausanias 9,7,2.

literature

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predecessor Office successor
Antipater Regent of Macedonia
319–317 BC Chr. 		Cassander
Antipater Regent of the Alexander
Empire 319-317 BC Chr. 		Cassander
personal data
SURNAME Polyperchon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek general of Alexander the Great
DATE OF BIRTH 394 BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Tymphaia
DATE OF DEATH around 303 BC Chr.