Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/638

Rh 620 CASSAXDER. gence reached him that Eurydice and her husband Arrhidaeus had fallen victims to the vengeance of Olympias, who had also murdered Cassander's brother Nicanor, together with 100 of his princi- pal friends, and had even torn from its tomb the corpse of loUas, another brother of his, by whom bje asserted (the story being now probably propa- gated for the first time), that Alexander had been poisoned. Cassander immediatelj' raised the siege of Tegea, in which he was engaged, and hastened with all speed into Macedonia, though he thereby left the Peloponnesus open to Polysperchon's son [Alexander], and cutting otf from Olympias all hope of aid from Polysperchon and Aeacides [Galas, Atarrhias], besieged her in Pydna throughout the winter of B. c, 317. In the spring of the ensuing year she was obliged to sun-ender, and Cassander shortly after caused her to be put to death in defiance of his positive agreement. The way now seemed open to him to the throne of Macedon, and in furtherance of the attainment of this object of his ambition, he placed Roxana and her young son, Alexander Aegus, in custody at Amphipolis, not thinking it safe as yet to mur- der them, and ordered that they should no longer be treated as royal persons. He also connected himself with the regal family by a marriage with Thessalonica, half-sister to Alexander the Great, in whose honour he founded, probably in 316, the town which bore her name ; and to the same time, perhaps, we may refer the foundation of Cassandreia in Pallene, so called after himself. (Strab. Eic. e JAb. vii. p. 330.) Returning now to the south, he stopped in Boeotia and began the restoration of Thebes in the 20th year after its destruction by Alexander (b. c. 315), a measure highly popular with the Greeks, and not least so at Athens, besides being a mode of venting his hatred against Alexander's memory. (Comp. Paus. ix. 7 ; Pint. Polit. Praec. c. 17; for the date see also Polem. ap. Athcn. i. p. 19, c; Ca- bjiub. cui. loc.; Clinton, /Wi, ii. p. 174.) Thence advancing into the Peloponnesus, he retook most of the towns which the son of Polysperchon had gained in his absence ; and soon after he succeed- ed also in attaching Polysperchon himself and Alexander to his cause, and withdrawing them from that of Antigonus, against whom a strong coalition had been formed. [See pp. 126, a, 187, h.] But in B.C. 313, Antigonus contrived, by holding out to them the prospect of independence, to detach from Cassander all the Greek cities where he had g-arrisons, except Corinth and Sicyon, in which Polysperchon and Cratesipolis (Alexander's widow) still maintained their ground ; and in the further operations of the war Cassander's cause continued to decline till the hollow peace of 311, by one of the terms of which he was to retain his authority in Europe till Alex- ander Aegus should be grown to manhood, while it was likewise provided that all Greek states should be independent. In the same year Cassan- der made one more step towards the throne, by the unirder of the young king and his mother Roxana. In B. c. 310, the war was renewed, and Polysperchon, who once more appears in opposition to Cassander, advanced against him with Hercules, the son of Alexander the Great and Barsine, whom, acting probably under instructions from Antigonus, he had put forward as a claimant to the crown ; but, being a man apparently with all the CASSANDER. unscrupulous cruelty of Cassander without his talent and decision, he was bribed by the latter, who promised him among other things the govern- ment of the Peloponnesus, to murder the young prince and his mother, B. c. 309. [Barsine, No. 1.] At this time the only places held by Cassander in Greece were Athens, Corinth, and Sicyon, the two latter of which were betrayed to Ptolemy by Cratesipolis, in B. c. 308 ; and in 307, Athens was recovered by Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, from Demetrius the Phalerean, who had held it for Cassander from B. c. 318, with the specious title of " Guardian" (fTrj/ieATjTrfs). In B. c. 306, when Antigonus, Lysimachus, and Ptolemy took the name of king, Cassander was saluted with the same title by his subjects, though according to Plutarch {Demctr. 18) he did not assume it himself in his letters. During the siege of Rhodes by Demetrius in 305, Cassander sent supplies to the besieged, and took advantage of Demetrius being thus employed to assail again the Grecian cities, occupying Corinth with a garrison under Prepelaus, and laying siege to Athens. But, in B. c. 304, Demetrius having concluded a peace with the Rhodians, obliged him to raise the siege and to retreat to the north, whither, having made himself master of southern Greece, he ad- vanced against him. Cassander first endeavoured to obtain peace by an application to Antigonus, and then failing in this, he induced Lysimachus to effect a diversion by carrying the war into Asia against Antigonus, and sent also to Seleucus and Ptolemy for assistance. Meanwhile Demetrius, with far superior forces remained unaccountably inactive in Thessaly, till, being summoned to his father's aid, he concluded a hasty treaty with Cas- sander, providing nominally for the independence of all Greek cities, and passed into Asia, B c. 302. In the next year, 301, the decisive battle of Ipsus, in which Antigonus and Demetrius were defeated and the former slain, relieved Cassander from his chief cause of apprehension. After the battle, the four kings (Seleucus, Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus) divided among them the dominions of Antigonus as well as what they already pos- sessed ; and in this division Macedonia and Greece were assigned to Cassander. (Comp. Daniel, viii. ; Polyb. v. 67 ; App. Bdl. Syr. p. 122, ad fin,) To B. c. 299 or 298, we must refer Cassander's invasion of Corcyra, which had re- mained free since its deliverance by Demetrius, B. c. 303, from the Spaitan adventurer Cleonymus (comp. Liv. X. 2 ; Diod. xx. 105), and which may perhaps have been ceded to Cassander as a set-off against Demetrius' occupation of Cilicia, from which he had driven Cassander's brother Pleistar- chus. The island, however, was delivered by Aga- thocles of Syracuse, who compelled Cassander to withdraw from it. In b. c. 298, we find him car- rying on his intrigues in southern Greece, and assailing Athens and Elatea in Phocis, which were successfully defended by Olympiodorus, the Athe- nian, with assistance from the Aetolians. Not being able therefore to succeed by force of arms, Cassander encouraged Lachares to seize the tyranny of Athens, whence however Demetrius expelled him ; and Cassander's plans were cut short by his death, which was caused by dropsy in the autumn of b. c. 297, as Droysen places it ; Clinton refers it to 296. (Diod. xviii. — xx. xxL Exc. 2 ; Plut. Phocion^ Pi/rr/ms, Demetrius;