Ptolemy (general)

Ptolemy or Polemaios (Greek Πτολεμαῖος; † 309 BC Kos ), son of Ptolemy, was a Macedonian commander during the Diadochenkriege of the 4th century BC (?). He was a nephew of Antigonus Diadochenherrschers Monophthalmos. His brother was probably Dioskourides.

Ptolemy defended during the third Diadochenkrieges 313 BC for his uncle the coast of Caria. He destroyed an invading army of Cassander and captured its strategists. Then he operated successfully on the Hellespont against Lysimachus. In order to strengthen the position of Antigonid in Asia Minor, Ptolemy married the daughter of the powerful tyrant Dionysius of Heraclea.

In the year 313 BC Ptolemy was sent by his uncle with 150 ships and a strong land army to Europe, where he landed on the coast of Boeotia. Thus he forced Cassander to the abandonment of the siege of Oreios. After taking Oropus he crossed to Euboea, where he achieved the conquest of Chalcis, Eretria and Carystus. Then he turned against the alliance with Cassander Thebes, which submitted to him with taking the Kadmeia. In the midst of this success was 312 BC Telesphoros, another nephew of Antigonus by his uncle from. Before Telesphoros could ally themselves with Cassander and thereby the Peloponnese was lost on them, Ptolemy marched against him. He received the support of the people of Elis, whose treasure was stolen from the Temple of Olympian Telesphoros. Ptolemy was able to take the city quickly and capture Telesphoros, then he gave the treasure back to the temple. By the end of the third Diadochenkrieges 311 BC Ptolemy had conquered almost the entire Greece for his uncle, but Athens still held to Cassander.

But in the year 309 BC, Ptolemy coincided with the satraps Phoinix from his uncle. He had probably hoped the Peloponnese as an independent principality from his uncle, but the concurrent closing of the Polyperchon peace with Cassander should have made this impossible. Ptolemy stood with the army and navy in the lake, which Greece fell again to Cassander. He headed for the island of Kos, which had recently been the Ptolemies, the ruler of Egypt was conquered by Ptolemy, in order to ally themselves with this. Instead, Ptolemy was forced by this to drink the cup of poison. His entire force was classified in the Ptolemies.

To make up for the losses in Greece again, Antigonus sent two years later his son Demetrios Poliorketes to Europe.