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Antipater was a senior Macedonian general
under both Philip II and Alexander the Great. He outlived Alexander, and played
an important role in holding his empire together until his death of natural
causes in 319. He was a conservative Macedonian, apparently unenthusiastic for
Alexander’s adventures in Asia, but loyal to the royal family. He was also
a close friend and correspondent of Aristotle.
Under Philip he performed military and diplomatic roles. In 347-6 he served as
the head of Philip’s embassy to Athens, helping to negotiate a peace
between Macedonia and Athens. In 346 he took part in Philip’s invasion of
Thrace, where he was involved in fighting against the mountain tribes of
Rhodope. In 338 he one again led an embassy to Athens, after another war
between Macedonia and a group of Greek cities. In 336 Philip II was murdered.
In the confused period immediately after the event, Antipater helped to
establish Alexander on the throne, presenting him to the Macedonian army, who
acclaimed Alexander as king. When Alexander embarked on his great expedition
into Asia, Antipater was appointed as governor of Macedonia and general of
Europe, holding these posts from 334 to the death of Alexander in 323, and
effectively retaining them until his own death four years later.
Antipater acted as a regent with full royal authority over the European part of
Alexander’s empire. He was president of the synedrion of the Corinthian
league, the mechanism by which Philip had exercised his power in Greece. His
job was to maintain the peace in Greece, and allow Alexander to carry out his
plans without having to worry about his base. He generally sided with tyrants
and oligarchies in Greece, correctly believing them to be better allies than
the democracies, whose mood could change dramatically in a short period of
time. Antipater was also a military commander. In 331 he was faced by a revolt
in Thrace that threatened the land link to Asia. While Antipater with his
entire army was in Thrace, a more serious threat emerged in the Peloponnese.
Sparta had retained her independence, but had lost land, weakening the basis of
her power. In the summer of 331 King Agis III of
Sparta launched an open revolt against the settlement of Greece, with the aim
of regaining Sparta’s lost possessions. Agis raised an army of 20,000
infantry and 2,000 cavalry, but he was unable to persuade Athens to join the
revolt. He was effectively confined to the Peloponnese.
In 330 Antipater was free to respond, moving south with an army 40,000 strong.
Agis was defeated and killed in battle at Megalopolis and the revolt crushed.
Towards the end of Alexander’s life his relationship with Antipater
appears to have been under some strain. Antipater had been reluctant to send
Macedonian reinforcements to Alexander, possibly because he needed them at
home. He had also alienated Alexander’s mother Olympias, who went into
voluntary exile at Epirus, from where she undermined Antipater whenever
possible.
In 324 Antipater was summoned to join Alexander. At the same time Craterus was
dispatched back to Macedonia with orders to replace him as regent of Macedonia.
Antipater did not obey the summons, sending his son Cassander in his place.
This was not an entirely successful move - Alexander was hostile to Cassander
and when Alexander died in 323 it was rumoured that Antipater had sent his son
to Babylon to poison the emperor.
In the aftermath of Alexander’s death, his marshals gathered at Babylon to
decide the immediate fate of the empire. Neither Antipater nor Craterus were
present at Babylon, but the successors needed Antipater’s prestige.
Accordingly he was confirmed as regent of Macedonia and Greece. Antipater,
Craterus and Perdiccas made up a triumvirate holding what would have been the
most important posts if Alexander’s empire had held together. The eventual
separation of the empire into distinct kingdoms began at Babylon with the
appointment of the satraps. Officially these men were ruling their provinces in
the name of the kings, whose authority was being exercised by the regents
Perdiccas and Antipater, but even in 323 Ptolemy at least already had his eye
on an independent kingdom in Egypt.
Antipater was perhaps the best placed of the regents, having a geographical
powerbase of his own in Macedonia. However, he was immediately faced by a
crisis in Greece. A coalition of Greek cities led by Athens responded to the
death of Alexander with another revolt against Macedonian rule (Lamian War). This time they
had the money to raise a large army and the end of Alexander’s war in
Persia had created a large pool of unemployed mercenaries. Antipater found
himself besieged in the town of Lamia, from where he issued a call for help.
Help came from two of his fellow marshals. First to respond was Leonnatus, but
he was killed in a cavalry battle. Craterus also responded,
initially at sea, where a fleet commandeered by Cleitus defeated
the Athenian fleet at Amorgos (and this) in 322. Craterus then shipped his army
from Asia Minor to Greece, joining Antipater in time to take part in the battle
of Crannon. The rebel army was defeated.
Faced with the prospect of a siege, Athens surrendered.
Antipater responded to the revolt by abolishing the democracy in Athens.
Antipater made an attempt to tie Alexander’s marshals together by
marriage. He had three daughters, each of whom married one or more of the
successors. Phila married Craterus, and then Demetrius. Her children with
Demetrius founded a Macedonian royal dynasty. Nicaea married Perdiccas and then
Lysimachus. Both his daughter Eurydice and his granddaughter Berenice would
marry Ptolemy, with Eurydice’s children ruling Egypt until the fall of
Cleopatra VII.
The following year saw the first open fighting between the successors (First Diadoch War). This was triggered by the
actions of Perdiccas, who was suspected of wanting the Macedonian throne
himself. He was seriously considered repudiating Antipater’s daughter
Nicaea in favour of Alexander’s sister Cleopatra. An alliance soon formed
between Antipater, Antigonus, Craterus and Ptolemy. In the resulting fighting
Perdiccas was murdered and Craterus killed in battle. The settlement agreed at
Babylon was dead.
A new agreement was made at Triparadisus (320). Antipater had already been
appointed as regent to the monarchy before even reaching Triparadisus, giving
him the powers originally held by Perdiccas and Craterus. He then rearranged
the satrapies, and returned to Macedonia with the two kings. The settlement of
Triparadisus lasted no longer than that of Babylon. It depended on Antipater to
hold it together, but he was already in his late seventies. In 319 he died of
natural causes (something he shared with only two of the more important
successors - Ptolemy and Cassander).
His last action was to recommend
Polyperchon, a fellow
old soldier, as his replacement as epimeletes of the kings. His son
Cassander was naturally
furious and formed an alliance with Ptolemy, Antigonus and Lysimachus to depose
Polyperchon, triggering the Second Diadoch
War.
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Antipater’s Dynasty:
– Alexander the Great’s Regent and his Successors, John D Grainger .
A useful study of the short-lived dynasty founded by Antipater, Alexander the
Great’s deputy in Macedonia during his great campaign, and continued by
his son Cassander, who overthrew Alexander’s dynasty and declared himself
to be king of Macedonia. A good choice of topic, filling a gap in the history
of the period, and demonstrating just how significant this pair of father and
son were in the creation and then the destruction of Alexander’s empire.
Kings and Kingship in the Hellenistic World 350-30 BC, John D Grainger. Looks
at the nature of kingship in the years between Alexander the Great and the
Roman conquest of the Hellenistic world, a period in which a surprising number
of dynasties established themselves, and in some cases even flourished for
centuries before disappearing. Organised thematically, so we see how the
various dynasties differed, and more often how much they had in common. Also
helps to explain how some of these apparently unstable dynasties managed to
survive for so long.
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