Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/882

Rh 868 LYSIMACHUS. crossed the Haemus with an army, defeated the forces of the Scythian and Tiiraciau tribes, which the Greeks had called in to their assistance, as well as a fleet and army sent by Antigonus to their support, and successively reduced all the three cities. (Diod. xix. 56, 57, 63 ; App. Si/r. 53 ; Paus. i. 6. $ 4.) By the general peace of 311, Lysimachus was confirmed in the possession of Thrace (including, apparently, his recent acquisi- tions on the north), but without any farther acces- sion of territory. (Id. xix. 105.) In 309 he founded the city of Lysimachia, on the Hellespont, not far from the site of Cardia, great part of the inhabitants of which he compelled to remove to the new settlement. (Id. xx. 29 ; Paus. i. 9. § 8 ; App. Si/r. 1.) Three years afterwards (b. c. 306) he followed the example first set by Antigonus, and immediately imitated by Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Cassander, and assumed the title and insignia of royalty. (Diod. xx. S3; Plat. Demetr. 18; Justin. XV. 2.) We hear no more of Lj'^simachns for some time : but he appears, though taking no prominent part in the hostilities between the other rival monarchs, to have been constantly on friendly terms, if not in direct alliance with Cassander, to whose sister, Nicaea, he was married, and who was accustomed, we are told, to apply to him for counsel on all occa- sions of difficulty. (Diod. xx. 1 06.) Thus in 304 we find them both sending supplies of corn to the relief of the Rhodians, at that time besieged by Demetrius (Id. xx. 9ii) ; and two years later (b. c. 302) Lysimachus readily joined in the plan origi- nated by Cassander, for forming a general coalition to oppose the alarming progress of Antigonus and Demetrius, They accordingly sent ambassadors to Ptolemy and Seleucus, who were easily persuaded to join the proposed league ; and in the meantime they both took the field in person ; Cassander to oppose Demetrius in Greece, while Lysimachus, with a large army, invaded Asia Minor. His suc- cesses were at first rapid: several cities on the Hellespont either voluntarily submitted, or were reduced by force ; and while his lieutenant, Pre- pelaus, subdued the greater part of Aeolia and Ionia, he himself overran Phrygia, and made him- self master of the important town of Synnada. On the advance of Antigonus, however, he determined to confine himself to the defensive, and not risk a general engagement until he should have been joined by Seleucus : he, in consequence, withdrew first to Dorylaeum, where he fortified himself in a strong position, but was ultimately forced from thence; and retiring into Bithynia, took up his winter-quarters in the fertile plains of Salomia, where the neighbourhood of the friendly city and port of Heradeia secured hira abundant supplies. Before the close of the winter Seleucus arrived in Cappadocia, while Demetrius, on the other side, with the army which he brought from Greece, re- covered possession of the chief towns on the Helles- pont. All particulars of the campaign of the fol- lowing year are lost to «is ; we know only that in the course of the spring Lysimachus effected his junction with Seleucus ; and Demetrius, on the otlier hand, united his forces with those of Anti- gonus ; and that early in the summer of B. c. 301 the combined armies met at Ipsus, in the plains of Upper Phrygia. The battle that ensued was de- cisive : Antigonus himself fell on the field, and Demetrius, with the shattered remnant of his LYSIMACHUS. forces, fled direct to Ephesus, and from thence em- barked for Greece. The conquerors immediately proceeded to divide between them the dominions of the vanquished ; and Lysimachus obtained for his share all that part of Asia Minor extending from the Hellespont and the Aegaean to the heart of Phrygia ; but the boundary between his dominions and those of Seleucus in the latter quarter is no- where clearly indicated. (Diod. xx. 106 — 109, 113; Plut. Demetr. 28—30; Justin, xv. 2, 4; Appian. Syr. 55; Paus. i. 6. § 7 ; Euseb. Arm. p. 163. Concerning the extent of Lysimachus' dominions, see Droysen, Hellenism, vol. i. p. 545, foil.) The power of Lysimachus was thus firmly es- tablished, and he remained from this time in undis- puted possession of the dominions thus acquired, until shortly before his death. During the whole of this period his attention seems to have been steadily directed to the strengthening and consoli- dation of his power, rather than to the extension of his dominions. His naturally avaricious disposition led him to accumulate vast treasures, for which the possession of the rich gold and silver mines of Thrace gave him peculiar advantages, and he was termed in derision, by the flatterers of his rival, " the treasurer (7afo(/)jJAa^)." The great mass of these accumulations was deposited in the two strong citadels of Tirizis on the coast of Thrace, and of Pergamus in Mysia. (Strab. vii. p. 319, xiii. p. 623 ; Athen. vi. p. 246, e. 261, b. ; Plut. Demetr. 25.) At the same time he sought, after the fashion of the other contemporary monarchs, to strengthen his footing in his newly-acquired dominions in Asia by the foundation of new cities, or at least by the enlargement and re- establishment of those previously existing. Thus, he rebuilt Antigonia, a colony founded by his rival Antigonus, on the Ascanian lake, and gave to it the name of Nicaea, in honour of his first wife : he restored Smyrna, which had long remained almost unin- habited, but which quickly rose again to a high point of prosperity; and when Ephesus, which had been one of the last places in Asia that remained faithful to Demetrius, at length fell into his hands, he removed the city to a situation nearer the sea, and repeopled it with the inhabitants of Lebedus and Colophon, in addition to its former population. New Ilium and Alexandria Troas are also men- tioned as indebted to him for improvements which almost entitled him to rank as their founder. (Strab. xii. p. 565, xiii. p. 593, xiv. p. 640, 646 ; Paus. i. 9. § 7, vii. 3. §§4, 5; Steph. Byz. •v.''E^€<tos.) In Europe we hear less of his internal improvements, but he appears to have effectually reduced to sub- mission the barbarian tribes of the Odrysians, Paeonians, &c., and to have established his dominion without dispute over all the countries south of the Danube. (Paus. i. 9. § 6 ; Polyaen. iv. 12. § 3 ; Diod. ap. Tzdz. Chil. vi. 53.) Meanwhile, Lysimachus was not indifferent to the events that were passing around him. The alliance concluded by Seleucus with Demetrius led him in his turn to draw closer the bonds of union between himself and Ptolemy ; and it was probably about the same period that he married Arsinoe, the daughter of the Egyptian king. (Plut. Deinetr. 31 ; Paus. i. 1 0. § 3 ; comp. Droysen, Hellenism, vol. i. p. 555.) With Macedonia his friendly relations continued unbroken until the death of Cassander (b. c. 297), and after that event he sought still to