Hellenistic Wars of Succession, 323-279 BC

{Most successful text: M. Cary, A History of the Greek World from 323 to 146 BC, London 1972}

The Macedonian Wars of Succession (the Wars of the Diodochi or Successors) are generally divided into four stages: 1^st War of Succession (322-319), 2^nd War of Succession (318-315), 3^rd War of Succession (314-311) and the 4^th War of Succession (308-301). Given the bewildering nature of the narrative it is better to conceptualize the conflict in two stages: that of the wars to succeed Alexander as emperor (322-306 BC) and that to partition the empire into separate realms (306-279 BC).

Stage I. 323-311/306, Wars to succeed Alexander as Emperor.

At Alexander's death, the phalanx chose Philip Arrhidaeus, the cavalry agreed to a joint succession, Philip and Alexander IV, son of Roxane and Alexander, who was born in August 323 following Alexander’s demise. Antipater remained in command of Macedonia; Craterus became the guardian of King Philip III Arrhidaeus and treasury director; Perdiccas bearing Alexander’s signet ring, became regent to the two kings and supreme commander of the imperial armies. No further campaigns were planned; each of Alexander’s generals focused on organizing the various provinces of the empire that they obtained by mutual agreement. The first crisis was the rebellion in 325 of 23000 Greek/Macedonian colonists settled by Alexander in Bactria and beyond (The Bactrian Mutiny).

Leonnatus died in Lamian War, 322, instigated by Alexander’s various decrees insisting that he be referred to as a god and that the Greek states accept back some 20,000 exiles he supported. Antipater successfully suppressed this Greek rebellion (led by Athens), dispanded the League of Corinth, and began the precedent of imposing Macedonian garrisons in Greece, particularly in the three “fetters of Greece”: Demetrias, Thermopylae, and Corinth. Perdiccas meanwhile attempted to exert supreme authority over all other satraps, summoning those he distrusted to appear at his court for investigations. Perdiccas in Cappadocia killed Meleager and ordered the arrest of Antigonus, satrap of Lycia, who resisted and fled to Antipater. Olympias, meanwhile, widened the gap between Antipater and Perdiccas by offering her daughter Cleopatra’s hand to Perdiccas. Antipater and the other generals believed that Perdiccas intended on assuming Alexander’s throne, and invaded Asia Minor in 322. Ptolemy, governor of Egypt, meanwhile persuaded Philip III to let him “kidnap” the body of Alexander, at Damascus, on route to the Macedonian royal tombs in Aegae, and convey it to Egypt (disseminating a report that Alexander had wished to be buried at Siwah. The body remained at Memphis, however until Ptolemy completed its mausoleum in Alexandria). This prompted Perdiccas to declare war on him as well. To some degree the Macedonian hierarchy was divided between those who supported the realm (the two kings Alexander and Philip), including Perdiccas, Olympias, and Eumenes of Cardia, and those who opposed Perdiccas, Antipater, Craterus, Antigonus, and Ptolemy.

Perdiccas, bearing Alexander's ring, was killed in Egypt by his own officers, Peithon, Antigenes, and Seleucus, after a failed invasion of Ptolemy’s province in 321. Members of the victorious party assembled the army at Triparadisos in Syria to reorganize the empire. Antipater replaced Perdiccas as regent to the 2 kings and for the first time since 334, brought Macedonian royalty back to Pella. Ptolemy and Lysimachus retained their satrapies (Egypt and Thrace), and Seleucus received Babylon. Eumenes was condemned to death and Antigonus the One-Eyed, appointed strategos in Asia, was ordered to hunt him down. Antipater soon died of old age in 319. His son Cassander could not accept his choice to replace himself as regent, Polyperchon (a veteran of India), so he fled to Antigonus in Asia Minor and incited a new alliance of Antigonus, Cassander, Ptolemy and Lysimachus, vs. Polyperchon. Polyperchon withdrew to the Peloponnesus where he rapidly became irrelevant. In 317, Eumenes of Cardia, formerly Alexander's secretary, killed Craterus and was himself pursued eastward by Antigonus. Despite demonstrated ability, Eumenes’ ability to command respect was limited by the fact that he was not Macedonian. In a two year campaign, Antigonus pursued Eumenes across the Middle East and had him killed in Iran, after defeating his army (including the surly veterans of the Silver Shields) at the Battle of Parataecene in 316, For the moment Antigonus assumed command of the eastern provinces. He also killed Peithon and had Antigenes burned alive. Meanwhile, in Macedonai Cassander, son of Antipater, captured and executed Olympias (316 BC), who had previously eliminated Philip Arrhidaeus and his wife. Cassander likewise captured Alexander IV and Roxane, whom he executed in 310 BC. At which point there was no longer a royal family to feign loyalty to. Antigonus, meanwhile, decided he could not hold the eastern satrapies and withdrew to the Mediterranean coast carrying with him the entire stored treasury of the Persian Empire. When the other satraps demanded shares of the bullion, he spurned them and set in motion yet another round of conflicts. With the accumulated wealth of the empire (perhaps 50,000 talents) Antigonus proceeded to construct the largest naval fleet in the Mediterranean. His son, Demetrius, quickly rose to the command of Macedonia’s first amphibious military force, some 250 decked warships and transports capable of conveying 20,000 men and 8000 horse back and forth from Phoenicia to Greece. To facilitate these movements he successfully besieged dozens of harbor cities along the route and earned the name Demetrius Poliorketes, the City Besieger.

Stage II, 311/306-279 BC, Wars to partition empire into Separate principalities (310 BC, Cassander, son of Antipater, kills Roxane and Alexander IV).

In 306, after Demetrius defeated Ptolemy’s navy at the Battle of Salamis and conquered all of Cyprus, Antigonus declared himself king. At this point the vast empire of Antigonus extended from the Aegean coast of Anatolia all the way to Cilicia, Syria, and Mesopotamia. His son, Demetrius, successfully added Athens, Corinth, and other parts of Greece. All other contenders followed suit (Cassander, Seleucus, Ptolemy, Lysimachus). Lysimachus who was of Thessalian origin but an enfranchised Macedonian, had remained quiet for 20 years as satrap of Thrace; he broke out in 302 BC. With the support of the others, Lysimachus invaded Antigonid Anatolia and forced Antigonus and Demetrius to confront him on the battlefield one more time. Due to the timely arrival of Seleucus’ elephant corps, Lysimachus proved victorious. At Battle of Ipsus, in Phrygia, in 301 BC, Lysimachus and Seleucus defeated Antigonus and his son Demetrius Poliorketes. Antigonus died in battle at the age of 80.

Cassander died in 298 BC, leaving behind two warring sons. Demetrius Poliorketes, son of Antigonus, continued to maraud the Mediterranean coast as a “pirate king.” He seized control of Athens on three occasions, but overstayed his welcome there. At one point he outwitted the sons of Cassander and seized control of Macedonia proper. However, in his attempt to rebuild his naval forces he imposed inordinate taxes on his citizens and was driven out by a disgruntled populace. Chased by his adversaries, he was eventually cornered in the Amanus Mts. Of Syria and surrendered to Seleucus. In captivity, Demetrius would eventually drink himself to death in 284. His son, Antigonus Gonatas, who continued to rule Corinth, would eventually live to assume the throne of Macedonia. Pyrrhus of Epirus and Lysimachus also had designs on the Macedonian throne at this time.

In 282 at the Battle of Corupedium (in Lydia, near Magnesia ad Sipylum), Seleucus defeated and killed Lysimachus. However, in 280 Seleucus was killed at the Hellespont by Ptolemy Ceraunus (a disgruntled son of Ptolemy I who was displaced by his younger brother for the throne). Ceraunus momentarily seized Macedonia, but he in turn died during the Gallic invasions of 279 BC. Ptolemy I of Egypt, meanwhile, had passed away quietly in 282 BC, after successfully handing his realm down to his second son Ptolemy II Philadelphus. In other words, by 280 BC all the former marshalls of Alexander were gone. In Anatolia, meanwhile, Philetairos, the Greek secretary (and a eunuch) of Lysimachus, assumed control of Pergamum, defeated the Gauls, and drove them into the interior (Galatia), and founded Attalid dynasty of Pergamum. His brother Attalus I, had four sons; together, they would found the one non-Macedonian realm of the Hellenistic era. After 279 BC, a new generation of leaders assumed control of the tattered former empire of Alexander. From this point until the intervention of Rome, Macedonian suzerainty settled into a stable pattern of four sustained successor states: Antigonid Macedonia, Attalid Pergamum, Seleucid Syria, and Ptolemaic Egypt.

4. Hellenistic Successor states to Alexander's world empire.

Antigonid Macedonia (279-167 BC) - capital at Pella.

Following an era of considerable political confusion, Antigonus Gonatas, the grandson of one of Alexander's leading generals, was able to secure control of Philip II's bastion of Macedonia proper, with its capital at Pella. In comparison with the competing Hellenistic dynasties, Macedonia resembled somewhat a cultural backwater, but this appraisal belies the strengths furnished by its topography, its resources, and its manpower. In comparison with its rivals Macedonia presented itself as a compact state well defended by mountains allowing few means of access. Its timber resources and silver mines provided it with significant revenues with which to maintain the leading military establishment of the Greek world. Macedonia was, after all, the homeland of the armies used by Philip and Alexander to conquer the eastern Mediterranean world. It remained the chief recruiting ground for the armies of the Hellenistic dynasties, the most effective of which remained that of the Antigonids themselves. The Macedonian phalanx of the Antigonids posed a serious threat to all Greek states of the Aegean, and when commanded by aggressive kings such as Philip V (c. 220-180 BC) conducted razzias as far removed as the Peloponnesus, invading Laconia under Antigonus Gonatas, and Ionia, besieging Eumenes II at Pergamum under Philip V. The Roman Republic found the Antigonids exceedingly difficult adversaries, fighting them 3 times, during the Hannibalic War (when Philip V posed as an ally to Hannibal himself and invaded Greece, besieging Athens itself), again in 201-197 (when L. Quinctius Flamininus defeated Philip V at Cynoscephalae with strong backing from Greek allies), and a third time in 172-168 BC (when L. Aemilius Paullus defeated Philip's son Perseus at the Battle of Pydna). At this point the dynasty was deposed and the Romans attempted to reorganize Macedonia into a dismembered settlement of 4 small republics. When this failed in 148 BC, Roman forces again had to intervene to suppress Macedonian and wider Greek uprisings (including the destruction of Corinth in 146 BC) and reduced Macedonia tp provincial status, the first such Roman province in the Aegean world.

Attalid Pergamum (270-133 BC) - capital at Pergamum

Founded by Philetairos, the Greek secretary of Alexander's general Lysimachus. When the latter fell fighting Seleucus, Philetairos (a eunuch) withdrew with his commander's military war chest to a mountain fortress that ultimately became his palace acropolis of Pergamum. He gained royal recognition through his successful efforts at repulsing the Gallic invasion of western Anatolia in 270-269 BC. Philetairos drove the Gauls into the Phrygian highlands where they settled in the region thereafter known as Galatia. He became recognized by the Greek cities of the coastal region as a liberator and savior and established his hegemony over them. Since he had no children, his domain passed to the four sons of his brother, Attalus I. Normally, so many rival dynasts would have spelled disaster (as it eventually did in Syria and Egypt), but the Attalids became celebrated for their cooperation at state building. They handed the royal authority from one to another in succession and managed to elevate their realm into the top echelon of Mediterranean states.

Particularly skillful diplomacy with Rome enabled the Attalids to enjoy further success during the early second century BC. At their peak under Eumenes II, c. 190-168 BC, they controlled the entire western seaboard of Anatolia and much of Phrygian highland as well. In direct competition with the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, the Attalids succeeded at establishing Pergamum as a leading cultural center, its library second only to that of Alexandria, its sculpture, woven tapestries, and ceramics prized throughout the Mediterranean. An expressive, highly baroque style of sculpture known as the Asian school, set important trends in the Greek world and profoundly influenced artistic development at Rome. The Attalids likewise competed for control of the eastern luxury trade, relying on the overland route of the now ancient Persian Royal Road across Anatolia.

When a dynastic dispute threatened to undermine the stability of Pergamum at the end of the second century BC, King Attalus III (138-133) left his royal domain to the people of the Roman Republic in his will. His nobles were concerned about security after his passing, and to prevent a dynastic dispute (which ultimately did arise) he wrote this into his will as a form of "poison pill." At his demise in 133 BC, ambassadors brought the report of his bequest to Rome, where it was accepted and secured by military intervention. By 126 BC the royal territories of Pergamum became the Roman province of Asia, the richest of all Roman provinces. Abusive exploitation by Roman tax collectors (publicans) induced a province-wide revolt in Asia in 88 BC, culminating in the massacre reportedly of some 80,000 Romans, Italians, their families, and servants throughout the province. L. Cornelius Sulla restored order in 84 BC just prior to his assumption of the dictatorship at Rome. Indemnities imposed by Sulla remained burdensome throughout the following decade, but the resilience and economic vitality of the province ultimately enabled impressive recovery. In 63 BC the Roman orator and senator, M. Tullius Cicero, stated that approximately 40% of tribute raised by the Republican empire came from Asia alone. The merger of Greco-Roman culture was probably most successfully achieved here. In the imperial era, cities such as Pergamum, Ephesus, Sardis, and Miletus ranked among the leading cultural centers of the Roman world.

Seleucid Syria (305-66 BC) - capital at Antioch

Founded by Seleucus, like Ptolemy, one of a handful of generals to survive Alexander's campaigns in India, the empire had its capital at Antioch, but enjoyed numerous other Greek colonies in the Syrian territory, including Syrian Alexandria, Laodicea, Beroea, and Edessa. The heartland of the empire remained in coastal Syria, but its territories usually included Mesopotamia as well (Seleucia). As late as 205 BC, Antiochus III conducted military operations to restore Seleucid authority as far away as the Indus in the East and the Aegean in the West. However, his defeat by the army of the Roman Republic at the Battle of Magnesia in 188 BC compelled him to restrict his authority to the Seleucid heartland of the north Syrian coast. Generally, the Seleucid foreign policy looked to the Mediterranean theater. Afghanistan was taken by the Mauryans and the Kushans; Iran was reorganized by the Parthians.

Through methodical efforts at colonization, development of artisan production in Syria-Palestine and by challenging the Ptolemies for control of the eastern luxury trade, the Seleucids enjoyed significant wealth. Its cities were prominent for their craft work -- perfumes, incense, purple dyed clothing, tapestries, a highly polished red-slipped fineware known as Eastern Sigillata A. The artisans of the Seleucid empire established a number of material trends for Mediterranean civilization.

The Seleucids were energetic colonizers, founding numeorus cities throughout Anatolia, Syria, and Mesopotamia named Antioch and Seleucia. They were largely responsible for encouraging the out-migration of Aegean Greek populations to non-Greek areas of the Mediterranean, helping to develop Hellenistic "koine" Greek culture. It is commonly stated that the Roman Empire reaped the benefit of centuries of colonizing work by the Seleucids.

Their weakness was to some degree the problems posed by the high diversity of their subject peoples. Their empire arguably attempted to control the most diverse populations of any of the successor states. Syria-Palestine remained a very unstable region, for example, with Greek, Phoenician, Jewish, and Aramaean population elements frequently engaging in vehement ethnic hostility (culminating in the revolt of the Maccabees in 122 BC). Dynastic disputes caused the dynasty to implode c. 160-140 BC. A century of civil war and chaos ensued until ultimately the Roman general Pompey the Great absorbed the remaining vestiges of the empire into the Roman empire as provinces in 66 BC. Remarkably, the Romans viewed the Seleucid dynasty as a viable military threat until the end of the second century BC, and the creative genius of the dynasty's craftsmen remained unrivaled.

Ptolemaic Egypt (305-27 BC) - capital at Alexandria

Founded by Ptolemy, like Seleucus, one of the youngest generals to follow Alexander to India and back, Ptolemaic Egypt rose to become the most spectacular of successor states to Alexander. Its capital, Alexandria reportedly attained a population of 1 million at the height of the Roman era. Ptolemy and his successors successfully harnessed and maximized the grain production of the Nile, converting Egypt into the "bread basket to the Mediterranean." Together with Rhodes they combined to assume near monopolistic control of trade in grain and wine throughout the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. Ptolemaic explorers also learned the prevailing patterns of the monsoon winds of the Indian Ocean to establish a lucrative maritime trade with Arabia and India. Alexandria quickly supplanted Athens as the most cosmopolitan urban center of the world. Its spacious protected harbors, resort-lined canals, and broad avenues designed by Alexander the Great himself made the city an attractive destination for talented Greeks seeking better opportunities abroad. The Museum, the great library, the Mausoleum of Alexander and the Ptolemies, and the great lighthouse were all celebrated monuments. The Ptolemies established reputations as architectural innovators, as demonstrated by the fact that the Roman building form, the basilica, imitated an Alexandrian prototype known as the stoa basilica, or King's Stoa.

During the third century BC the Ptolemies commanded an extensive eastern Mediterranean naval empire (Cyprus, Crete, the Aegean, south Anatolia), drawing on Greek population areas for manpower. They earned the reputation of being the "paymasters of the Mediterranean" for their high-paying recruitment of mercenaries. Dynastic disputes and military losses to the neighboring and rival Seleucids led to gradual political and military decline during the second century BC, however. An astute diplomatic relationship with the Roman Republic prevented Seleucid incursions on more than one occasion; however, the Ptolemies gradually became recognized as the "sick man" of the Mediterranean. The last dynast, Cleopatra (52-30 BC), actually attempted to exploit personal relationships with Julius Caesar (by whom she had a son) and Mark Antony (more children) to revitalize Ptolemaic influence and perhaps even to establish herself as a Ptolemaic consort at Rome. However, Octavian's defeat of Antony and Cleopatra in 32 BC put an end to these ambitions. Octavian seized Egypt for his own, making the kingdom part of the Julio-Claudian patrimony, to be governed by private procurators. Egypt continued to serve as the "bread basket" during the Roman Empire, furnishing grain for the burgeoning population at Rome.

Confronted by the scale of these empires, traditional Greek city states had little choice but to organize themselves into loosely constructed federations, if only to resist pressure exerted by Hellenistic dynasts. The Aetolian League emerged in central mainland Greece; the Achaean League in the Peloponnesus (including Corinth, but not Sparta). Certain states, Rhodes, Athens, Sparta, remained independent, Rhodes because of its importance to Mediterranean trade and its naval power; Athens because of its status as an international cultural center and "university town"; Sparta because of its secure borders and generally xenophobic behavior. But trends definitely shifted in the direction of the new empires. Greek mercenaries, citizens down at their luck, and/or nobles seeking greater opportunities migrated eastward to join the Greek-speaking intelligentsia of the Hellenistic capitals, to serve in Hellenistic armies, or to participate in colonizing enterprises. The common denominator to membership in the Hellenistic hierarchy, regardless of ethnic origin, was Greek language and Greek culture, obtained exclusively through educational training in the Greek gymnasium. Many Hellenistic kings continued to employ the "meritocratic" policies of Philip and Alexander, recruiting the "best and the brightest" of the Greek world to command their armies and to serve as governors, courtiers, financiers, and ambassadors. Hierarchical status at the Hellenistic court was designated by recognition as "a friend of the king," and marriage alliances with the royal families cemented such relationships closer still. The emerging international community that ran the Hellenistic world assumed a confident new attitude that transcended traditional loyalties to the Greek polis. They perceived of themselves as "kosmopolitai" (cosmopolitans), or citizens of the world; people so adept with the customs and institutions of the new order that they were at home anywhere in the eastern Mediterranean. This new attitude had a profound effect on society, arts, and philosophy.