Cassander was king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia from 305 BC until 297 BC, and de facto ruler of southern Greece from 317 BC until his death.
13 Facts About Cassander
2.
Cassander later seized the crown by having Alexander's son and heir Alexander IV murdered.
3.
In governing Macedonia from 317 BC until 297 BC, Cassander restored peace and prosperity to the kingdom, while founding or restoring numerous cities ; however, his ruthlessness in dealing with political enemies complicates assessments of his rule.
4.
Cassander was educated alongside Alexander the Great in a group that included Hephaestion, Ptolemy and Lysimachus.
5.
Cassander's family were distant collateral relatives to the Argead dynasty.
6.
Cassander is first recorded as arriving at Alexander the Great's court in Babylon in 323 BC, where he had been sent by his father, Antipater, most likely to help uphold Antipater's regency in Macedon, although a later contemporary who was hostile to the Antipatrids suggested that Cassander had journeyed to the court to poison the King.
7.
Cassander rejected his father's decision, and immediately went to seek the support of Antigonus, Ptolemy and Lysimachus as his allies.
8.
Cassander associated himself with the Argead dynasty by marrying Alexander's half-sister, Thessalonike, and he had Alexander IV and Roxana poisoned in either 310 BC or the following year.
9.
In early 302 BC, Cassander sent one of his generals, Prepelaus, with an army from Macedon to join Lysimachus in an invasion of Antigonus's territory in Asia-Minor.
10.
Demetrius invaded Thessaly with a numerically superior force, Cassander stopped his advance by refusing to give battle and fortifying his positions.
11.
Cassander's dynasty did not live much beyond his death, with his son Philip dying of natural causes, and his other sons Alexander and Antipater becoming involved in a destructive dynastic struggle along with their mother.
12.
Cassander stood out amongst the Diadochi in his hostility to Alexander's memory.
13.
Cassander has been perceived to be ambitious and unscrupulous, and even members of his own family were estranged from him.