The wars of the Diadochi witnessed the fall of the Argead dynasty in Macedon resulting in a power vacuum, which the Antigonid and Antipatrid dynasties sought to occupy. The Antigonid family first rose to power when Demetrius I Poliorcetes, son of Antigonus I, ousted Cassander's governor of Athens in 306 BC giving his father control over a land spanning from the Aegean Sea to the Middle East. Despite the subsequent instability and loss of the Asian territory, the family managed to maintain its power in mainland Greece and the islands, with Antigonus II Gonatas ultimately solidifying Antigonid rule over Hellenistic Macedon –a territory also known as the Antigonid Empire. Antigonus III Doson further expanded Macedonian influence in southern Greece reestablishing the Hellenic Alliance with himself as the president. Under Philip V, Antigonid Macedon first came into conflict with Rome, which had become a decisive power in the eastern Mediterranean. In the second century BC, the last Antigonid king, Perseus, became known as the champion of Greek resistance against Rome, albeit Rome's control over Antigonid Greece began to steadily expand, culminating in the fall of the dynasty in 168.[3][4]
The beginning of Hellenistic Greece was defined by the struggle between the Antipatrid dynasty, led first by Cassander (r. 305 – 297 BC), son of Antipater, and the Antigonid dynasty, led by Antigonus I Monophthalmus (r. 306 – 301 BC) and his son, the future king Demetrius I Poliorcetes (r. 294 – 288 BC). After the power crisis in Macedon, which culminated in Philip III's and Euridice's death, Cassander managed to seize control from Olympias and began to establish his authority in the kingdom; in 316 BC he buried Philip III and Euridice at Aegae and married Philip II's daughter, Thessalonica, thus becoming a member of the Argead dynasty.[5] In 310/309 BC, Cassander commanded Glaucias to secretly assassinate the 14-year-old Alexander IV, son of Alexander the Great, and his mother Roxane and the Macedonian Argead dynasty became extinct.
In 307 BC, Demetrius I successfully ousted Cassander's governor of Athens, Demerius of Phalerum, and after defeating Ptolemy I at the Battle of Salamis in 306 BC he conquered the island Cyprus. Following that victory, Demetrius' father, Antigonus I, assumed the title of Basileus ("King" of Alexander's Empire) by the assembled armies and gained control over the Aegean, the eastern Mediterranean, and most of the Middle East.[4] While Antigonus and Demetrius attempted to recreate Philip II's Hellenic league with themselves as dual hegemons, a revived coalition of Cassander, Ptolemy I Soter, Seleucus I Nicator, and Lysimachus decisively defeated the Antigonids at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, during which Antigonus I was killed.[6] Demetrius I survived the battle and in 294 BC –during the struggles between Casander's sons Alexander V and Antipater I– he managed to seize control of Athens and establish himself as king of Macedon. In 288 BC, he was driven out by Phyrrus and Lysimachus and eventually died as a prisoner of Seleucus I Nicator.[7][8] After a long period of instability, Demetrius' son Antigonus II Gonatas was able to establish the family's control over the old Kingdom of Macedon, as well as over most of the Greek city-states by 276 BC.[9]
The Antigonid was one of four dynasties established by Alexander's successors, the others being the Seleucid dynasty, Ptolemaic dynasty and Antipatrid dynasty. The last scion of the dynasty, Perseus of Macedon, who reigned between 179 and 168 BC, proved unable to stop the advancing Roman legions and Macedon's defeat at the Battle of Pydna signaled the end of the dynasty.[10]
Son of Antigonus I Monophthalmus. Demetrius' wife Phila was a daughter of Antipater, and ancestor of all subsequent Antigonid kings of Macedon, except Antigonus III Doson, through her son Antigonus II Gonatas. Antigonus III Doson was descended from the marriage of Demetrius and Ptolemais, who was a daughter of Ptolemy I Soter and mother of Doson's father, Demetrius the Fair, the ephemeral King of Cyrene. Deïdameia was a daughter of Aeacides of Epirus and sister of Pyrrhus, she had one son, Alexander, by Demetrius. Demetrius had a further two sons, Demetrius the Thin and Corrhagus, the former by an unnamed Illyrian woman, the latter by a woman named Eurydice. Demetrius I Poliorcetes was the first Antigonid king of Macedon.
^Grant, Michael (1988). The Rise of the Greeks. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN978-0-684-18536-1. It was the descendants of these Dorians [...] who formed the upper class among the Macedonians of subsequent epochs.
^Adams, Winthrop Lindsay (2010). "Alexander's Successors to 221 BC". In Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (eds.). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Oxford, Chichester, & Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 214–215. ISBN978-1-4051-7936-2.
^Adams, Winthrop Lindsay (2010). "Alexander's Successors to 221 BC". In Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (eds.). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Oxford, Chichester, & Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 217. ISBN978-1-4051-7936-2.
^Adams, Winthrop Lindsay (2010). "Alexander's Successors to 221 BC". In Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (eds.). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Oxford, Chichester, & Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 218–219. ISBN978-1-4051-7936-2.
^Encyclopædia Britannica, Antigonid dynasty, 2008, O.Ed. "But Perseus' failure to deploy his full resources brought about his defeat (168) at Pydna in Macedonia and signaled the end of the dynasty."
Adams, Winthrop Lindsay. 2010. "Alexander's Successors to 221 BC." In A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Edited by Joseph Roisman and Ian Worthington, 208–224. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Anson, Edward M. 2014. Alexander's Heirs: The Age of the Successors. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Edson, Charles F. 1934. "The Antigonids, Heracles, and Beroia." Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 45:213–246.
O'Neil, James L. 2003. "The Ethnic Origins of the Friends of the Antigonid Kings of Macedon." The Classical Quarterly 53, no. 2: 510–22. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3556219.
![Tetradrachm with the Eagle of Zeus and the inscription ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΠΕΡΣΕΩΣ, "[coin] of King Perseus" of Antigonid Macedonia](/en/File:Perseus_of_Macedonia_Tetradrachm_90060057.jpg)
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