|
Lysimachus[lIsim´ukus] Pronunciation Key, c.355–281 B.C., Thessalian general of Alexander the Great. He was a commander in Alexander's fleet on the Hydaspes as well as his bodyguard. On Alexander's death (323 B.C.) Lysimachus took control of Thrace. He joined (314 B.C.) the other Diadochi : Cassander, Ptolemy I, and Seleucus I : in the league against Antigonus I, and after the defeat of Antigonus at Ipsus, Lysimachus took W Asia Minor as his share (301 B.C.). In 286 B.C. he added Macedonia to his kingdom by defeating Pyrrhus. Five years later Lysimachus was defeated in a war with Seleucus and was killed in battle at Corupedium near Magnesia ad Sipylum. A legend says that Lysimachus' wife, ArsinoE (daughter of Ptolemy I), persuaded him to kill his son by a former marriage and that the son's widow took refuge with Seleucus and provoked the final war.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2003, Columbia
University Press.
Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
|
