Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/883

Rh LYSIMACHUS. maintain them by giving liis daughter Eurydice in marriage to Antipater, one of the sons of tlie deceased king. The dissensions between the bro- thers, however, having eventually opened the way for Demetrius to seat himself on the throne of Ma- cedonia [Demetrius, vol. i. p. 964], Lysimachus found himself involved in a war with that monarch, but was content to purchase peace by abandoning the claims of his son-in-law, whom he soon after put to death, either to gratify Demetrius, or from displeasure at the indignant remonstrances of the young man himself. (Paus. i. 10. § 1 ; Justin, xvi. 1, 2 ; Plut. PyrrJi. 6 ; Diod. Exc. Hoeschel xxi. p. 490.) We are told that Lysimachus was compelled to conclude this disadvantageous peace, because he was at the time embarrassed by the hostilities in which he was engaged on his northern frontier with the Getae. (Justin, xvi. 1.) We know little of the circumstances which led to this war (b. c. 292 ), but it appears to have been one of pure aggression on the part of Lysimachus. If so, he was deservedly punished by the series of dis- asters that followed. His son Agathocles, who had led an army into the enemy's territory, was defeated and taken prisoner, but generously set at liberty and sent back to Lysimachus. Notwithstanding this the king soon assembled a more powerful arm}^ with which he crossed the Danube and penetrated into the heart of the country of the Getae ; but he was soon reduced to the greatest distress by want of provisions, and ultimately compelled to surrender with his whole army. Dromichaetes, king of the Getae, treated him with the utmost generosity, and after gently reproaching him with his unprovoked ag- gression, restored him at once to his liberty. (Diod. Exc. xxi. p. 559, ed. Wess., Eac Vat. xxi. p. 49, ed. Dind. ; Strab. vii. pp. 302, 305 ; Paus. i. 9.%Q', Plut. Demetr. 39, 52 ; Polyaen. vii. 25 ; Memnon, c. 5, ed. Orell.) On his return to his own dominions Lysimachus found that Demetrius had taken ad- vantage of his absence and captivity to invade the cities of Thrace, but that prince had been already recalled by the news of a fresh insurrection in Greece, and Lysimachus apparently found himself too weak to avenge the aggression at the moment. (Plat. Demetr. 39.) In B. c. 288, however, he once more united with Ptolemy and Seleucus in a common league against Demetrius, to which the accession of Pyrrhus was easily obtained, and early in the following spring Lysimachus invaded Macedonia on the one side, and Pyrrhus on the other. The success of their arms was owing not so much to their own exertions as to the disaffection of the Macedonian soldiers. Demetrius, abandoned by his own troops, was compelled to seek safety in flight, and the conquerors obtained undisputed pos- session of Macedonia, B. c. 287. Lysimachus was compelled for a time to permit Pyrrhus to seat himself on the vacant throne, and to rest contented •with the acquisition of the territories on the river Nestus, on the borders of Thrace and Macedonia. He soon after appears to have found an opportunity to annex Paeonia to his dominions ; and it was not long before he was able to accomplish the object at which he was evidently aiming, and effect the ex- pulsion of Pyrrhus from his newly acquired king- dom of Macedonia, B. c. 286. For this result Lysimachus appears to have been indebted mainly to the influence exercised upon the Macedonians by his name and reputation as one of the veteran generals and companions of Alexander, (Plut. LYSIMACHUS. 869 Demetr. 44, Pi/rrh. 11, 12; Paus. i. 10. § 2 ; Justin, xvi. 3 ; Dexippus, ap. Syncell. p. 267.) Lysimachus now found himself in possession of all the dominions in Europe that had formed part of the Macedonian monarchy, as Avell as of the greater part of Asia Minor. The captivity of Demetrius soon after delivered him from his most formidable enemy ; and, in order still farther to secure him- self from any danger in that quarter, he is said to have repeatedly urged upon Seleucus the ungenerous advice to put his prisoner at once to death. (Pint. Demetr. 51 ; Diod. xxi. Ejcc. Vales, p. 561.) But the course of events had now rendered Lysimachus and Seleucus themselves rivals, and, instead of joining against any common foe, all their suspicions and apprehensions were directed henceforth towards one another. This naturally led the former to draw yet closer the bonds of his alliance with Egypt. Lysimachus himself, as we have seen, had already married Arsinoe, daughter of Ptolemy Soter ; his son Agathocles had espoused Lysandra, another daughter of the same monarch, and, in b. c. 285, he gave his daughter Arsinoe in marriage to Ptolemy Philadelphus, who had already ascended the Egyptian throne. (Schol. ad Theocr. IdijIL xvii. 128 ; Paus. i. 7. § 3.) The few remaining events of the reign of Lysi- machus were for the most part connected with his private relations ; and the dark domestic tragedy that clouded his declining years led also to the downfal of his empire. In B. o. 302, after the death of his first wife Nicaea, he had married Amastris, the widow of Dionysius, tyrant of Heracleia, whose noble character appears to have made a great impression upon his mind, so that long after he had been induced, by motives of policy, to abandon her for Arsinoe, he still dwelt with fondness upon the memory of her virtues ; and in 286 proceeded to avenge her murder upon her two sons, Oxathres and Clearchus, both of whom he put to death. He at that time restored Heracleia to the possession of its freedom, but was soon after persuaded to bestow that city as a gift upon his wife, Arsinoe, whose influence seems to have been at this time on the increase. It was not long before she exerted it to much worse purpose. The young prince, Agathocles, had long been the object of her enmity, and she sought to poison the mind of the aged king against him, by representing him as forming designs against the life of Lysi- machus. She found a ready auxiliary in her step- brother, Ptolemy Ceraunus, who had just arrived as a fugitive at the court of Lysimachus ; and the king was at length induced to listen to their repre- sentations, and consent to the death of his unhappy son, who perished, according to one accoimt, by poison, while others state him to have fallen by the hand of Ptolemy himself. (Memnon, c. 6 — 8, ed. Orell. ; Justin, xvii. 1 ; Paus. i. 10. § 3 ; Strab. xiii. p. 623.) The consequences of this bloody deed proved fatal to Lysimachus: the minds of his subjects were alienated ; many cities of Asia broke out into open revolt ; his faithful eunuch, Philetaerus, to whom he had confided the charge of his treasury at Pergamus, renounced his allegiance ; and Ly-. Sandra, the widow of Agathocles, fled with her children to the court of Seleucus, who, notwith- standing his advanced age, hastened to raise an array, and invade the dominions of Lysimachus. The latter also was not slow to cross into Asia, 3k 3