Cassander

King of Macedonia (r. 305-297 b. c.e.)

Born: c. 358 b. c.e.; place unknown

Died: 297 b. c.e.; place unknown, probably Macedonia

Category: Government and politics

Life Cassander (kuh-SAN-duhr), who represented his father, Antipater, Alexander the Great’s regent, joined Alexander in fighting at Babylon in 324 b. c.e. After Alexander’s death in 323 b. c.e., the succession fell to Philip Arridaeus (Alexander’s mentally impaired half brother, known as Philip III) as regent and Alexander IV (Alexander’s infant son). When Antipater died in 319 b. c.e., Polyperchon became regent while Cassander remained in a subordinate role. Cassander formed an alliance with Antig-onus I Monophthalmos against Polyperchon; they invaded Macedonia but were unsuccessful. In 318 b. c.e., Olympias, Alexander the Great’s mother, in an attempt to gain power for herself and her grandson Alexander IV, murdered Philip III and forced his wife, Eurydice, to commit suicide. Olympias claimed to rule for her grandson, but Cassander besieged her in Pydna in 316 b. c.e. , forced her to surrender, and put her on trial for the murders she had ordered. She was condemned to death and killed by the relatives of her victims. Cassander, now regent, married Alexander the Great’s half sister Thessalonice.

In 316 b. c.e., Cassander refounded Thebes, which Alexander had destroyed earlier. Around 310 b. c.e., he had Alexander IV and his mother murdered but did not assume the throne himself. Around 305 b. c.e., Cassander assumed the title of king. With Antigonus’s death in 301 b. c.e., Cassander’s title became secure. In 297 b. c.e., he died, leaving the throne to his son Philip IV, who ruled for only four months before dying. Cassander’s younger sons Antipater and Alexander V quarreled and lost the kingdom to Demetrius Poliorcetes, the son of Antigonus I Monophthalmos.

Influence Cassander ended Argead rule in Macedonia and made possible the rise of new and independent Hellenistic kingdoms.

Cassander Further Reading

Green, Peter. Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age. Reprint. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Hammond, N. G. L., and F. W. Walbank. A History of Macedonia. Vol. 3.

Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1988.

Will, Edouard. Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 7. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Martin C. J. Miller

See also: Alexander the Great; Alexander the Great’s Empire; Antigonid Dynasty; Antipater; Hellenistic Greece; Olympias.