Battle of Ips

After the death of Alexander of Macedonia, the satrap of Great Phrygia Antigonus the One-Eyed tried to restore his power under his rule. He concentrated the bulk of Alexander’s possessions - power over Asia Minor, Syria, and partially Greece, and assumed the title of king. The remaining dyadohs, who also adopted the royal titles, tried to oppose the policy of Antigonus.

In 302 BC e. a coalition of diadoch against the Antigonus was created (or rather renewed). The initiator was the king of Macedonia, Cassander, who waged a difficult struggle in Greece with the son of Antigonos Demetrius. At the same time, at first Cassander tried to negotiate with Antigonus, but when the latter rejected his proposals, he sent an embassy with a proposal for an alliance against Antigonus to King Thrace Lysimachus. The union was concluded, after which both kings offered to join him the king of Egypt Ptolemy and Seleucus, who then owned Babylonia, and so on. Upper Satrapies (Iran and Central Asia). An agreement was reached, and Kassander and Lysimachus opened hostilities: the first attacked Demetrius and the troops of the Hellenic League , the second made a successful invasion of Asia Minor and even threatened Phrygia, although he avoided a decisive battle, waiting for the allies to approach. Meanwhile, Cassander met with Demetrios at Thebes of Fthioti , but the battle didn’t come to the battle either, since Antigonus, having learned of Seleucus’s approach, recalled his son to Asia. At the same time, Ptolemy came out of Egypt and captured South Syria; however, hearing during the siege of Sidon about the alleged defeat allegedly inflicted by Antigonus to Lysimachus and Seleucus, and about the movement of Antigonus to Syria, he hastened to retreat to Egypt. According to modern scholars, Ptolemy found it profitable to believe (or pretend to believe) a clearly incredible rumor, since, having almost impregnable Egypt behind him, he did not want to risk his army in the decisive battle.

With the onset of summer 301 BC. e. hostilities resumed. Antigonus chose a plain convenient for the phalanx and cavalry for battle near the city of Ips , in Phrygia, and settled there, awaiting the approach of the enemies. Ips was soon approached by the combined armies of the opponents of Antigonus. The kings themselves commanded them, except for the Macedonian army, led by the brother of Kassandra Plistarch . The number of armies was approximately equal - about 70 thousand people. The army of Antigonus consisted mainly of Macedonian veterans organized in the phalanx . The troops of Lysimachus and Seleucus were largely staffed by local contingents. A significant part of them was light infantry and horse archers . In addition, Seleucus had 480 elephants received from the Indian king Chandragupta under a treaty that completed the unsuccessful campaign of Seleucus to India. Both sides were armed with Persian sickle- chariots , however, which did not play a significant role in the battle, since the chariots jumped from them even before approaching the enemy army, the phalanx parted without damage and easily missed the chariots.

Judging by the course of the battle, Antigonus tried to reproduce the plan that brought Alexander victory at the Gavgamela : concentrating the cavalry on one flank, unleashing its blow on the most powerful enemy group and defeating it, combining this blow with the transition to the attack of the phalanx. According to modern scholars, Antigonus hoped that, having in front of himself a mostly “barbaric” army, he would be able to defeat Alexander’s tactics. However, Antigonus mistake was that he dealt with an army that was much better trained and controlled than the opponents of Alexander, and with generals (unlike Darius III ) who stood at the height of their modern tactical requirements. As a result, the opponents of Antigonus (primarily Seleucus) were able to make full use of the advantages of the mobile "barbarian" contingents and the weaknesses of the floppy phalanx.

The battle began with attacks by chariots and lightly armed infantry. The cavalry of Antigonus, commanded by Demetrius Polyorket, attacked the heavy cavalry of Seleucus under the command of the son of King Antiochus , after a fierce battle, defeated her and rushed to pursue. However, carried away by the persecution, he broke away from the phalanx of Antigonus. Seleucus, who introduced elephants into the business, was not slow to take advantage of this ^[1] . By themselves, elephants did not pose a great danger to the phalanx - the Macedonians were able to fight them with the help of boards, studded with nails, and combustible means. However, they cut off the phalanx from Demetrius's cavalry, and Seleucus took advantage of this by introducing mounted archers and light mobile infantry, who began to actively fire on the heavy phalanx of Antigonus. Antigonus was locked up by enemy elephants and heavy infantry, and after several hours of standing under fire, a significant part of his phalanx surrendered and switched to the side of Seleucus, or fled. Antigone's army suffered a complete defeat. The 80-year-old commander himself continued to fight fiercely, until the last hoping for the help of Demetrius, until he collapsed to the ground pierced by darts. Demetrius with 8 thousand of his soldiers went to Greece.

The power of Antigone was divided among the winners. Most of it fell into the hands of Seleucus and Lysimachus, the first receiving Syria and Northern Mesopotamia , the second - a significant part of Asia Minor. Ptolemy preserved the lands conquered during the campaign of 302, that is, Palestine , Damascus and southern Phenicia . As a result, the three main powers of the Hellenistic world finally took shape: the Egyptian kingdom of the Ptolemies, the Macedonian kingdom and the so-called Syrian kingdom of the Seleucids, to which the main possessions of the kingdom of Lysimachus defeated by Seleucus (except for Pergamum ) soon left. ^[2]

Thus, the battle completed the collapse of the great empire of Alexander the Great and predetermined the configuration of the Mediterranean throughout the entire III century BC. e.

Primary sources

• Plutarch . Comparative Biographies : The Biography of Demetrius

Research

• Hellenistic period // World History in 24 t. - Mn. : Literature, 1996. - T. 4. - 608 p.
• History of Ancient Greece. / ch. ed. Kuzishchin V.I. - M .: Higher School, 2001 .-- S. 399.
• Schoffman A.S. The collapse of the empire of Alexander the Great. - Publishing house of Kazan University, 1984. - S. 113-114.

• Battle of Ips 301 BC e.