ANTIGONUS I MONOPHTHALMUS, AN ANCIENT MACEDONIAN COMMANDER AND KING

Antigonus I Monophthalmus, or One-eyed, was born in 382 BC, and died in 301 BC. He was the commander of Alexander the Great and Hellenistic satrap of Phrygia, in the struggle with other diadochi, he captured the entire peninsula of Asia Minor and Syria in 306 BC. He had taken the royal title of king together with his son, Demetrius I. In 301 BC, he lost his life in the battle of Ipsa against Cassander, Lysimachus, and Seleucus.

BIOGRAPHY

He participated in the campaigns of Philip II of Macedonia. He lost his eye during a siege when an arrow pierced his eye, and he did not allow a medic to take care of it until he overcame the enemy in the city. In 333 BC, Antigonus became viceroy of the conquered Great Phrygia. Antigonus did not participate in the further campaigns of Alexander the Great; but in the Battle of Sardis, he defeated the Persian army, and broke through into Asia Minor, into the areas conquered by the Macedonians, while Alexander conquered Egypt. The same region was given to him in 323 BC, after the death of Alexander. In 321 BC, the ruler of the Empire Perdiccas began to threaten him. Antigonus retired to Europe, where he entered into an alliance with Crater, Antipater, and Ptolemy, and in 321 BC, they jointly declared war on Perdiccas. After the death of Perdiccas, who was killed in Egypt in July of the same year by his own officers, Antipater was proclaimed the ruler of the state of Alexander the Great, and Antigonus, having obtained unlimited military power in Asia, continued the war with an ally of Perdiccas; Eumenes, the governor of Cappadocia. This persistent war was fought with varying success and ended in 316 BC with the capture and execution of Eumenes.

Then Antigonus removed the governor of Medes Python, displaced the satrap of Persia, Pequest, and took possession of Babylonia, whose ruler Seleucus fled to Ptolemy. Antigonus became the master of vitually the entire state of Alexander the Great, except for Macedonia and Egypt, he ruled as an unlimited ruler. He completely departed from the eastern policy of Alexander, relied only on the Macedonians support, and looked at the Asians as people of lower caste.

THE WAR

The unlimited power of Antigonus finally led to Ptolemy; instigated by Seleucus, the ruler of Macedonia, Cassander, and the governor of Thrace, Lysimachus; forming a coalition against him. Since Antigonus did not agree to the amicable division of the Empire, they declared war on him in 315 BC. In this war, Antigonus cleverly assumed the role of defender of the young Emperor Alexander IV (son of Alexander the Great, whose rights were violated by Cassander) and Roxanne. When Cassander attacked Asia Minor, Ptolemy and Seleucus invaded Syria, where, in 312 BC in Gaza, they defeated the son of Antigonus Demetrius, Poliorcetes. Seleucus again conquered Babylonia and entrenched his army in it.

Antigonus moved from Asia Minor to Syria and forced Ptolemy to retreat. Seeing that it would not be possible to win the war, Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus concluded peace with him in 311 BC, in which everyone remained under their control. Seleucus was not included in this peace, and Antigonus sent his son Demetrius against him, but Seleucus defeated him (between 310 and 308 BC). After this, Media, Persia, and other Asian provinces were under Seleucus’ control.

Antigonus remained in Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia. Antigonus, however, treasured these provinces, he began to build the new capital, Antigonia, on the river Orontes in Syria. His son Demetrius successfully led the war on the sea against the coalition of the Macedonian commanders, which resumed hostile actions against them in 307 BC.

In 309 BC, Cassander ordered the killing of young Alexander IV, along with his mother, Roxana. After the brilliant victory of the fleet of Antigonus at Salamis, and on the island of Cyprus over Ptolemy and his brother Menelaus, Antigonus proclaimed himself king in 306 BC. All the other Diadochi (Ptolemy, Lysimachus, Cassander, and Seleucus) soon followed suit.

Intending to conquer Egypt, Antigonus had to retreat, since part of his fleet was sunk by a storm, and any invasion of Ptolemy’s country became impossible. The attack on Rhodes in 305-304 BC was also unsuccessful. But in 303 BC, Demetrius drove Cassandra from Greece and was about to follow him to Thessaly, when in late 302 BC, his father, pressed by the new powerful coalition of Seleucus, Ptolemy, and Lysimachus, recalled him to Asia Minor.

THE END

Seleucus had brought battle elephants from distant India, where he invaded in 305 BC, which decided the outcome of the battle of Ipsa in 301 BC. The army of Antigonus consisted mainly of Macedonians, thus the Allied troops had many Asians trained in Macedonian techniques. Antigonus, who was already 81, fought to the end, but was defeated and fell, pierced by spears. His son Demetrius escaped with 9,000 soldiers, but almost all their possessions were lost. The death of Antigonus meant the end of his policy of extortion, arbitrariness and arrogant attitude toward conquered peoples. The Hellenic policy of Alexander, which was based on the rapprochement of Greek and Eastern cultures, once again became dominant.