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The Second Diadoch War was triggered by the
death of Antipater, the
regent of Alexander the Great’s empire. His death was probably always
going to trigger a new round of conflict, but his choice of successor virtually
guaranteed it. Rather than appoint his son
Cassander, who he felt to
be too young, Antipater selected another of Alexander’s former generals,
Polyperchon. Cassander
was suitably offended by this choice, and travelled to join Antigonus,
commander of the Macedonian armies of Asia and satrap of large parts of Asia
Minor.
In the aftermath of the First Diadoch War, Antigonus had been given the task of
defeating Eumenes of
Cardia. Antigonus had pushed Eumenes back to Nora, in Cappadocia, and was
conducting a siege of that fortress. Cassander’s arrival triggered
Antigonus’s own ambitions. He abandoned the siege of Nora after apparently
converting Eumenes to his side, and formed an alliance with Cassander,
Lysimachus (satrap of
Thrace) and Ptolemy, already the virtually independent ruler of Egypt.
Polyperchon’s only senior ally in the upcoming conflict would be Eumenes,
who soon reverted to his normal loyalty to the Macedonian royal family.
There is some disagreement as to dating of the events of the Asian part of this
war. Thus the battle of Paraitakena is
dated to either 317 or 316 BC, the death of Eumenes to 316 or 315.
For simplicity I will be adopting the dating scheme used by the Cambridge
Ancient History (2nd Edition), which tends to favour the earlier dates.
Fortunately this disagreement on dates has little impact on the narrative of
the war. The Second Diadoch War was essentially two wars, one in Greece between
Polyperchon and Cassander, and one in Asia between Eumenes and Antigonus. This
separation was made more complete in 318 BC, when Antigonus defeated a loyalist
fleet at the battle of the Bosporus. The war in Asia is the easier to follow.
Eumenes was forced out of Asia Minor into Phoenicia, where he planned to build
a fleet. Antigonus pushed him out of Phoenicia towards Persia, where the two
men fought at least two major battles, at Paraetacene in 317 and Gabiene in
316. Eumenes could claim a slight victory at Paraetacene, and a draw at
Gabiene, but despite that he was betrayed by his own soldiers after Gabiene,
handed over the Antigonus and executed. Further south Ptolemy invaded Syria,
intending to secure his borders. He was unable to hold on to his conquests at
this time, but his actions are widely seen to indicate that he was already
acting as an independent ruler of Egypt rather than as one of the rivals for
the rule of Alexander’s empire. The war in Greece and Macedonia was more
complex. Polyperchon made an attempt to win support in Greece by promising to
restore the liberties of the Greek cities. This briefly won him the support of
Athens, but Cassander soon expelled him from that city, imposing his own form
of government on that city in 317. Polyperchon was soon restricted to the
Peloponnese. While he was struggling in the south, back in Macedonia a dynastic
bloodbath unfolded. In an act that must have been inspired by desperation,
Polyperchon had invited Alexander’s ruthless mother Olympias back from
virtual exile. She appeared on the border of Macedonia later in 317, at the
head of an army. She then captured and murdered Alexander’s half brother
Philip III Arrhidaeus and his wife Eurydice. Her purpose in this was to secure
the succession for her grandson Alexander IV. Her actions had the opposite
result. Cassander invaded Macedonia, where Olympias had alienated all possible
supporters. She was condemned by the Macedonia army, and then besieged in Pydna
(217-216 or 215 BC). Olympias was finally starved out, and executed by the
families of her victims.
The Second Diadoch War ended with Antigonus in command of most of
Alexander’s Asian conquests, Ptolemy ruling in Egypt and Cassander in
Macedonia. The only remaining member of the Macedonian royal family was
Alexander the Great’s infant son Alexander IV, who was unlikely to let him
reach adulthood. The Second Diadoch War was followed almost immediately by the
Third. This time it was Antigonus who triggered the fighting in an attempt to
unit Alexander’s empire under his own rule.
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