Stratonike (wife of Antigonus)

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Stratonike ( Greek  Στρατονίκη ; † after 297 BC) was the wife of the Macedonian general and diadoch ruler Antigonos Monophthalmos and the mother of Demetrios Poliorketes and Philippos . This makes her the ancestor of the last Macedonian royal family, the Antigonids .

Among the ancient authors, only the Roman biographer Plutarch , Korrhagos, assigned her a father's name ( patronymic ). He also reported the rumor that Stratonice was first married to a brother of Antigonos Monophthalmos named Demetrios and thus the paternity of Demetrios Poliorketes was particularly controversial. However, both statements are considered implausible in historical research, especially since they were not mentioned by any of the other ancient historians. A Macedonian general named Korrhagos is said to be in 331 BC. Chr. Called, which with an advance command in the Peloponnese against the Spartans of Agis III. was subject.

Stratonike lived after the beginning of the Asia campaign of Alexander the Great in 334 BC. At the side of her husband in Asia Minor, who administered several provinces there in Kelainai as a satrap. After the death of Alexander and the beginning of the first Diadoch war, she fled in 321 BC. BC with her husband and their children to Macedonia in order to escape the access of the imperial regent Perdiccas . But after this was defeated in the following year, she was able to return to Asia Minor, where her husband took up the fight to succeed Alexander the Great. In the protracted battles that followed, Stratonike appeared only once. In 316 BC Several military leaders imprisoned by Antigonus revolted in their dungeon, a rock castle in Phrygia , and brought it under their control. Since her husband was otherwise bound during this time, Stratonike placed himself at the head of an army and took up the siege of the castle. In doing so, she also negotiated with some of the ringleaders, of whom she gave freedom to Dokimos and Philotas in particular , after they had declared their submission to Antigonus Monophthalmos. After several months of siege, Stratonike stormed the castle and put down the remaining resistance under the leadership of Attalus , Perdiccas' brother-in-law.

While her husband was in the decisive battle of Ipsos in 301 BC. BC fell, Stratonike stayed in Cilicia . There she was picked up by her son Demetrios Poliorketes' fleet and taken to the still safe Salamis in Cyprus . In 297 BC But after an invasion , the ruler of Egypt , Ptolemy , conquered the island and took Stratonice as well as her daughter-in-law Phila and their children into captivity. Ptolemy, however, was noble and released the family immediately by sending them to Demetrios Poliorketes, who was in Greece. After that, Stratonike is no longer reported.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Plutarch, Demetrios 2, 1.
  2. ↑ Aeschines against Ctesiphon 3, 165; Curtius Rufus 6, 1, 20.
  3. ↑ Diodorus 19, 16, 4.
  4. ↑ Diodorus 21, 1, 4.
  5. ↑ Plutarch, Demetrios 35, 5; 38, 1.
personal data
SURNAME Stratonike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Στρατονίκη (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of Antigonos Monophthalmos and mother of Demetrios Poliorketes
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 297 BC Chr.