Diadochi

Macedonian generals who fought one another for the empire of Alexander the Great, in a series of conflicts known as the Wars of the Diadochi 321-280 BC. They were Antigonus and his son Demetrius I Poliorcetes, Cassander, Seleucus, Ptolemy I, Eumenes of Cardia, and Lysimachus.

The Macedonian general Perdiccas was murdered 321 BC by his own troops while invading Egypt, and Craterus was defeated and killed in Asia by Eumenes. In 316 BC Antigonus captured and executed Eumenes. He then made an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Cassander, but this ended in stalemate. Demetrius was beaten at Gaza 312, but won the Battle of Myus, occupied Athens and restored the democracy 307, and in 305 began the siege of Rhodes. In 301, Antigonus and Demetrius were defeated at Ipsus by the coalition of Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Lysimachus. Antigonus was killed and his kingdom was partitioned, mostly to the advantage of Seleucus. Cassander secured Macedonia, but died 297. Demetrius obtained the throne of Macedonia 294, but lost it to Lysimachus 288 and surrendered to Seleucus in 285. Ptolemy died 283, and Seleucus defeated and killed Lysimachus at the Battle of Corupedion 281. In the following year, on his way to claim the now vacant throne of Macedonia, Seleucus was assassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunos, a younger son of Ptolemy I.