Alexander the Great Failure by John D Grainger

Author:John D Grainger [Grainger, John D]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780826443946
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

9

The new king, 311–306 bc

The peace of 311 did not last. It is likely none of them expected it to, and Seleukos was excluded from the start, so fi ghting never stopped. The war in the east

continued for several years, ending in a formal peace in 308. Had Antigonos won, he could have turned with all the more power on his western enemies, and they

certainly understood this, so that the truce in the west broke down fairly soon.

Antigonos was unable to concentrate for long on his eastern war, and his central position became converted into over-extension, where his enemies were able to

attack unexpectedly wherever he was weak.

His nephew Polemaios had been promoted by Antigonos in the past, and was

successful in Karia and in Greece during the last war, but now he saw Antigonos’

own sons, especially Demetrios, overtaking him, and aimed to create an

independent realm of his own in Greece. He contacted Kassander, who naturally

encouraged and helped him, and subverted Antigonos’ governor in Hellespontine

Phrygia. 1 For Antigonos, this took precedence over the war with Seleukos, and he took the opportunity to move against Ptolemy’s outposts in Kilikia. The war in the west was on again, after only a year, but little effort went into the fi ghting at fi rst.

Antigonos’ son Philippos speedily dealt with Hellespontine Phrygia. 2 Antigonos contacted Polyperchon, who was still in Greece with an army and had control

of Corinth and Sikyon, in an attempt to distract and possibly remove Kassander.

Herakles, Alexander’s son by Barsine, now about 17, was delivered to Polyperchon, along with money, some troops and an alliance with the Aitolians. He used the

boy as a fi gurehead in an attempt to take Macedon away from Kassander. After a tense armed confrontation, Kassander persuaded Polyperchon to kill his protégé and set himself up as a local tyrant as Kassander’s man in the Peloponnese. This marked the end of Polyperchon’s importance. 3

Ptolemy meanwhile reacted to the attacks on his Kilikian posts by a wide-

ranging naval expedition. First he fastened his control on Cyprus by eliminating the last of the local city kings, and placed his brother Menelaos there as viceroy.4

He cruised along the coast of southern Asia Minor seizing control of a string

of towns and forts and cities – Korakesion, Phaselis, Xanthos, Patara, Kaunos, Myndos – which established his full control over the eastern Mediterranean

from Cyrenaica round to the Aegean, apart from Phoenicia. Large numbers of

A L E X A N D E R T H E G R E AT F A I L U R E

116

soldiers were to come from Pamphylia and Pisidia in Ptolemaic service, funnelled through these towns. 5 Korakesion was strongly fortifi ed and became the seat of his power in the area.

In the Aegean, Ptolemy based himself on Kos, and contacted Polemaios who

rather trustingly visited him; Ptolemy decided he would not be a useful tool, and killed him. 6 He seized a strategic post at Itanos at the eastern end of Crete, which he fortifi ed, and then moved across to the Peloponnese.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.