Polyperchon

Polyperchon, son of Symmius, was originally from Timphea, a mountainous region of Macedonia on the border with Thessaly . Elian cites a rumor ^[1] that Polyperchon was formerly a robber. In the army of Alexander, he belonged to veterans by age, was first mentioned in 333 BC. e. when at the age of 60 he was appointed to command the Tymphean regiment of the phalanx after the former commander Ptolemy died in the battle of Issus .

At the Battle of Gaugamela ( 331 BC ), Polyperchon commanded his regiment. Then his name is often mentioned in the description of hostilities, he usually served under the leadership of a younger commander Crater.

Quintius Curtius Roof leads the next episode. Before going to India, Alexander began to intensively introduce reverence for his person, part of the ritual was the bow of the earth in Persian. When Polyperchon began to taunt one Persian, Alexander became angry, taking the mockery at his own expense.

Therefore, the king asked: “And you do not want to greet me? Or do you seem to me worthy of ridicule alone? ”He replied that neither the king was worthy of ridicule, nor he himself - humiliation. Then, having pulled Polyperchon from the bed, the king threw him to the ground and, since he fell face down, said: “You see, now you are doing the same thing that you laughed at.” And, having ordered to take him into custody, he released the feasts.

- Qu. Curtius Roof ^[2]

However, soon the king forgave his commander.

In 324 BC e. when the Crater led from Babylon 11 thousand veterans to Macedonia, Polyperchon was appointed his deputy. Thus, the news of the death of Alexander ( 323 BC ) caught Polyperchon and Crater far from Babylon , where the empire of Alexander was divided. Crater, the second person in the army of Alexander after the death of Hephaestion , the dyadohs were given to the joint use of the property of Antipater, apparently believing that Macedonia and Greece are too tidbit for one person. Polyperchon had no choice but to continue to serve with Crater and Antipater. Crater veterans arrived in Hellas just in time to crush the Greek uprising against Macedonia ( 322 BC ).

In the 1st Diadoch War, Antipater and Crater went to Asia against Perdiccas , leaving Polyperchon troops in Macedonia. He proved himself to be a capable commander in battles with detachments of Aetolians who raided from central Greece, and kept Thessaly behind Macedonia. When Crater died in the battle with Diadochus Eumenes , Polyperchon became actually Deputy Antipater. The 1st war of the dyadohs ended with the assassination of Perdikka ( 321 BC ), Antipater became regent under the Macedonian kings.

In 319 BC e. Being at an advanced age, Antipater transferred the regency to Polyperchon, a man respected in Macedonia for his age and merits. The son of Antipater Cassander did not agree with the role of general under Polyperchon. Having entered into an alliance with Ptolemy and bowed to his side Eurydice (wife of the demented king Philip Arriday ), Cassander raised a rebellion in Greece. Thus began the 2nd war of the diadochi, in which Polyperchon, in alliance with Eumenes, confronted the other diadochos. The hostilities in Europe were fought around Athens and the Peloponnese, where most cities recognized the rule of Polyperchon, but then, after the unsuccessful siege of Megalopolis , they abandoned it.

Plutarch cites the statement of the emir of Tsar Pyrrhus , who, to the question which flutist seems better to him, Python or Kafisius, answered: " Commander Polyperchon, for the tsar is decent to know and reason only about martial art ." Polyperchon undoubtedly possessed military talents, but victory in a civil war required the charisma of a leader and the political ability to choose allies, in which this commander Alexander was not very strong.

In 318 BC e. Diadochus Antigonus One-eyed defeated Polyperchon’s fleet under the command of Klit in the Bosphorus . On land, success was accompanied by Kassandra, and in 317 BC. e. Polyperchon ended up in Epirus , where he gained support from the Olympics (mother of Alexander the Great) and her brother, the Epirus king Emacides . In the autumn of that year, Polyperchon invaded Macedonia and captured it without a fight, using authority in the eyes of the Macedonians of the Olympics and Alexander (son of Alexander the Great) to win. However, Cassander transferred his army from the Peloponnese and easily captured Macedonia ( 316 BC ). Polyperchon at that time was in western Greece, from where he could not get into Macedonia, locked in the mountain passages by the commander Kassandra Kallas. Kallas according to Diodorus ^[3] bribed a soldier Polyperchon, and he with the remnants of the army moved to the Peloponnese, controlled by his son Alexander.

Polyperchon ruled several cities in the Peloponnese when, in 314 BC. e. the 3rd war of diadoches flared up. Now Polyperchon in alliance with Antigonus fought against Ptolemy and Cassander. During this war, Polyperchon’s son died, and at the end of it ( 311 BC ), Polyperchon owned two cities - Corinth and Sikion .

In 309 BC e. Polyperchon decided to play a trump card. Having called Hercules (the son of Alexander the Great from the Persian mistress Barsina ) from Pergamon , Polyperkhon recruited an army of 20 thousand infantry and a thousand cavalry, with which he went to Macedonia. Hercules was the banner of this army, and even Cassander did not dare to give battle, doubting the loyalty of his troops in the face of the son of Alexander the Great. During secret negotiations in Timphea (on the border of Macedonia), Cassander persuaded Polyperchon to abandon Heracles, in return promising support in the Peloponnese.

Hercules, along with his mother Barsina, were strangled by order of Polyperchon, and he led an inconspicuous life until 303 BC. e. when the last mention of him occurs. This year, Demetrius Poliorket (son of Antigonus One-Eyed) conquered almost the entire Peloponnese. This year is considered the date of death of 90-year-old Polyperchon.

• Polyperchon (English) . - in Smith 's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
• Polyperchon from Livius on ancient history