Fourth War of the Diadocs

The third war of the dyadohs only led to the preservation of the status quo, and the parties prepared for a new battle. Despite the formal peace, the satrap of Egypt, Ptolemy I Soter, with the help of the fleet, raided the Cilician and Syrian coast, which was under the control of Antigonus .

Antigonus's nephew, also called Ptolemy, crossed over to Cassander , deciding that he would sooner make him the strategist of Hellas. However, Cassander preferred to conclude an agreement with Polyperchon , and Ptolemy and his detachment went to Egypt. There he was warmly received, but then he was suspected of attempting a coup and killed.

Antigonus entered into a secret agreement with the former ally of Ptolemy I - the Cypriot king Nicocles , but Ptolemy, learning about the treason of Nikocles, sent murderers to him. Meanwhile, Antigonus was preparing for a second invasion of Greece. Upon learning of his intentions, Lysimachus ordered the Thracian city ​​of Lysimachy to be built on the Chersonese peninsula, which would block the road from the Hellespont inland.

In the spring of 308 BC e. Ptolemy annexed the Cyclades and landed in the Peloponnese, where he occupied the cities of Corinth and Sikion . After that, he made peace with Kassander, fixing every territory he had, and departed for Egypt. Ptolemy was distracted by the events in Cyrene , which was deposited from him back in 312 BC. e.: the ruler of Cyrena Ofell made an alliance with the Syracusan Agathocles for the war against Carthage , but was killed. The nearby Cyrenaica was more important for Ptolemy than distant Greece, and he urgently equipped an expeditionary force to capture the headless province.

Antigonon stopped at the Hellespont by Lysimachus in the spring of 307 BC e. sent 250 ships from Asia Minor to Athens under the command of his son Demetrius . Demetrius landed unhindered in Piraeus , and after a two-day siege, captured Athenian Munichius . At a meeting of the Athenian demos, he announced that he had arrived to restore Athens their former freedom and former power. Demetrius spent the remainder of 307 BC in Athens. e., taking one single sortie, which culminated in the capture of Megara .

Having returned Cyrenaica, Ptolemy again turned his eyes to the Eastern Mediterranean, and began to concentrate troops and navy in Cyprus , preparing for the invasion of Asia Minor. To prevent this, Antigonus sacrificed Greece and recalled Demetrius. Taking 110 warships and 50 transports carried by 15,000 infantry and 400 horsemen, Demetrios landed on the northeast coast of the island, captured nearby cities, and then launched a siege of Salamis . When it became known that Ptolemy’s fleet was coming to the rescue of Salamis, Demetrius decided to give a naval battle . As a result of the battle, Ptolemy lost almost the entire fleet, and his transports went to Demetrius; after that, Salamis capitulated, and by the middle of 306 BC. e. under the rule of Demetrius came all of Cyprus.

Upon learning of the defeat of Ptolemy, Antigonus proclaimed himself king. After that, Ptolemy proclaimed himself king. The examples of Antigonus and Ptolemy were followed by Seleucus, Cassander and Lysimachus; they were followed by Mithridates of Pontus , Atropatus of Medes, Agathocles of Syracuse , Dionysius of Heracles and others.

At the end of the summer of 306 BC e. Antigonus came out of Antigonia on Oronta with an army of 80,000 foot soldiers, 8,000 horsemen and 83 elephants and moved to Egypt; along the coast, a fleet of Demetrius was moving behind it, consisting of 150 warships and 100 transports with propelling vehicles and shells for them. At the end of October 306 BC e. this army reached Pelusia . Ptolemy did not get involved in the battle, limiting himself to the defense of fortifications. But he promised the ordinary soldiers of the enemy 200 drams per switch to their side, and the commanders - 1,000 each, which caused a huge desertion from the army of Antigonus. Having stood for several months on the Nile , but having failed to cross the river, Antigonus was forced to return to Syria.

In the spring of 305 BC e. Demetrius led the fleet to the shores of Rhodes , and demanded that the Rhodes cease trade with Egypt, support Antigonus in the war with Ptolemy, open the harbor of the island and give him a hundred noble inhabitants of the island as hostages. The Rhodians accepted most of the conditions, but they did not give out the hostages and refused to open the harbor, and in the summer of 305 BC e. the siege of the city of Rhodes began. Demetrius was unable to block the city from the sea, and ships with reinforcements and provisions from Egypt constantly broke through there. In 304 BC e. on the orders of his father, Demetrius was forced to sign a peace with the Rhodians, according to which Rhodes maintained independence, navy and freedom of trade, and became an ally of Antigonus and Demetrius against everyone except Ptolemy.

Autumn 304 BC e. Demetrius, at the head of a fleet of 330 ships, arrived in Greece and, landing on the Boeotian coast, immediately took control of the city of Chalkis , forced Kassander to lift the siege of Athens and retreat to the Thermopilus passage , and several thousand people from the army of Kassander crossed over to Demetrius. Having wintered in Athens, Demetrius in the spring of 303 BC. e. He moved to the Peloponnese, expelled the garrisons of Kassandra and Ptolemy, and near the end of the year he convened the Sanhedrin of Greek policies in Corinth , at which the renewal of the Corinthian Treaty of 337 BC was announced. e. Under this agreement, Demetrius became the hegemon of Hellas, and he was entrusted with the war against the "usurpers" (Ptolemy, Seleucus, Kassandra, Lysimachus and Agathocles).

In the summer of 302 BC e., fulfilling the decision of the Sanhedrin , Demetrius went on a campaign against Macedonia with a 60-thousand army. The army of Kassandra was much smaller, and there was no place to take reinforcements, all the mercenaries were already hired by others. In his last hope, Cassander turned for help first to Lysimachus, and then to Ptolemy and Seleucus, offering to come forward with a united front against Demetrius and Antigonus. As a result, for the last time, a common coalition of diadochas formed. It was decided to push the enemy back to Asia Minor and give a general battle there.

While Cassander tried to detain Demetrius at Thermopylae, Lysimachus crossed the Hellespont and conquered many cities of Phrygia, Aeolides and Lydia. Ptolemy invaded Celesiria and besieged Sidon , but then, having received false news about the victory of Antigonus over other kings, he again retreated to Egypt. Seleucus crossed the Euphrates and began to advance to the Taurus .

Antigonus, having deceived Ptolemy and ousting Lysimachus from Phrygia to the Hellespont, ordered Demetrius to immediately return to Asia Minor. Demetrius pushed the enemy troops off the coast, saddled the Hellespont and camped on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus , where he was joined by the emir king Pierre, who had fled from the oppression of Kassandra. Here it became known that Seleucus entered Cappadocia. Seleucus had 20,000 foot soldiers, 12,000 horsemen (with mounted arrows), 100 seronos chariots and 480 elephants. During the winter and spring of 301 BC. e. Ptolemy completed the conquest of Celesiria, but was in no hurry to cross the Taurus; Cassander returned Boeotia, but he was waiting for the denouement in Asia Minor; Demetrius moved from the coast towards his father; Seleucus connected with Lysimachus and with the strategist Kassandra Prepel, who brought reinforcements from Ionia to the allies.

In the summer of 301 BC e. the armies of Antigonus and his opponents converged in Phrygia on the plain near the city of Ips . In the ensuing battle, the army of Antigonus was defeated, and Antigonus himself was killed. Demetrius gathered around him 5,000 surviving infantrymen and 4,000 horsemen, and fled to Ephesus, and from there sailed to Greece.

Seleucus, Kassander and Lysimachus concluded an agreement between themselves, according to which Kassander received Macedonia, Thessaly, Hellas and, probably, Epirus; Lysimachus established himself in Thrace, the Black Sea and Phrygia, and also took possession of Bithynia, Paphlagonia and Heracles of Pontus. Seleucus gained dominance over Syria right up to the Mediterranean Sea and over half of Phrygia. Several cities in Phenicia, Asia Minor and Greece (Tire, Ephesus, Miletus, Megara) remained in the hands of Demetrius.

Under the pretext that he did not participate in the battle of Ips, Ptolemy was bypassed, and then he arbitrarily took possession of Syria and Palestine, who left Seleucus under the agreement. This capture subsequently led to new wars .

• K. Korolev “Wars of the Ancient World: The Macedonian Gambit” - Moscow, AST Publishing House LLC, 2003. ISBN 5-17-012401-5