16 Facts About Cassander

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.

Cassander later seized power by having Alexander's son and heir Alexander IV murdered.

Cassander was educated alongside Alexander the Great in a group that included Hephaestion, Ptolemy and Lysimachus.

Cassander's family were distant collateral relatives to the Argead dynasty.

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.

Cassander returned to Macedonia and assisted his father's governance, he was later assigned by Antipater to Antigonus as his chiliarch from 321 to 320, probably to monitor the latter's activities.

Cassander rejected his father's decision, and immediately went to seek the support of Antigonus, Ptolemy and Lysimachus as his allies.

That year, Cassander associated himself with the Argead dynasty by marrying Alexander's half-sister, Thessalonike, and overseeing the burial of Phillip III and Eurydice in the royal cemetery at Aegae; he further cemented his authority by founding Thessalonica, Cassandreia, and rebuilding Thebes.

From 314 to 310, Cassander campaigned to the west and north, for a time extending Macedonian power as far as Apollonia and Epidamus, but was driven out by local rulers like Glaucius; his rule in Macedonia remained firm as he resettled defeated enemies in the tradition of Phillip II and fostered trade in the regions around his new cities.

Cassander had Alexander IV and Roxana secretly poisoned in either 310 BC or the following year.

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.

Demetrius invaded Thessaly with a numerically superior force, Cassander stopped his advance by refusing to give battle and fortifying his positions.

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.

Cassander stood out amongst the Diadochi in his hostility to Alexander's memory.

Cassander has been perceived to be ambitious and unscrupulous, and even members of his own family were estranged from him.

Cassander founded Cassandreia upon the ruins of Potidaea, as well as the city of Antipatreia in the Aspros Valley.