# Wars of the Diadochi
The Wars of the Diadochi were a series of conflicts fought from 323 to roughly 281 BCE between the generals of [Alexander the Great](https://www.edgepedia.org/alexander-the-great), the *Diadochi* (Greek for "successors"), over control of the empire he had left without a clear heir when he died in Babylon on June 10, 323 BCE.[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/) • [2](https://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_diadochi.html) Over three decades of shifting alliances, the commanders carved the empire into separate kingdoms, and the wars ended with three dynasties, the Antigonids in Macedon, the Ptolemies in Egypt, and the Seleucids in Asia, that lasted until the Roman conquests.[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/) • [3](https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/diadochi/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Trigger | Death of Alexander the Great in Babylon, June 10, 323 BCE, with no named successor or heir[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/) |
| First settlement | Partition of Babylon (323 BCE): Antipater and Craterus took Macedon and Greece, Ptolemy Egypt, Lysimachus Thrace, Eumenes Cappadocia, Antigonus Greater Phrygia[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/) |
| The four wars | First (322–320), Second (319–315), Third (314–311), and Fourth (308–301) Successor Wars[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/) |
| Decisive battle | Battle of Ipsus, 301 BCE: Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Cassander defeated and killed Antigonus the One-Eyed[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/) • [4](https://www.getgreece.com/greek-history/wars-of-the-diadochi) |
| Final contest | Battle of Corupedium, 281 BCE: Seleucus I defeated Lysimachus, then was killed by Ptolemy Ceraunus the same year[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/) |
| Outcome | Three successor states after 280: Antigonid Macedonia, Ptolemaic Egypt, and the Seleucid kingdom in Asia[3](https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/diadochi/) |
## Alexander's death and the succession crisis
Alexander left Macedonia and Greece in the hands of Antipater when he crossed the Hellespont in 334 BCE to conquer the Persian Empire. A decade later, after a night of heavy partying, he fell ill in Babylon and died on June 10, 323 BCE; historians have debated the exact cause, and some contemporaries, his mother Olympias among them, claimed poison in a plot attributed to [Aristotle](https://www.edgepedia.org/aristotle) and Antipater.[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/)
Because [Alexander](https://www.edgepedia.org/alexander) had not named a successor, no one held the authority to make decisions. Two candidates existed: his half-brother Arrhidaeus, already in Babylon, and the child his Bactrian wife Roxanne would bear in August, the future Alexander IV. Perdiccas, the commander who received the king's signet ring, favored Roxanne and the unborn child so that he could rule as regent. The infantry commander Meleager staged a revolt in favor of Arrhidaeus, who was proclaimed Philip III; Perdiccas had Meleager executed in the sanctuary where he had taken refuge. Roxanne, meanwhile, had Alexander's Persian wife Stateria and her sister Drypetis killed and their bodies thrown down a well, eliminating rival heirs.[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/)
The compromise was the Partition of Babylon, which divided the kingdom among the prominent commanders: Antipater and Craterus received Macedon and Greece, Ptolemy seized Egypt and deposed Cleomenes, Lysimachus was awarded Thrace, Eumenes gained [Cappadocia](https://www.edgepedia.org/cappadocia), and Antigonus the One-Eyed remained in Greater Phrygia. Seleucus, who had commanded an elite corps of hypaspists under Alexander, received no territory at Babylon and was instead named commander of the Companion Cavalry.[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/)
## The First Successor War (322–320 BCE)
The first war centered on Perdiccas. He had quarreled with Ptolemy at Babylon over whether to wait for Alexander's unborn son or divide the empire at once, and the rupture became open war when Ptolemy stole Alexander's body as it traveled to Macedon and took it to Memphis in Egypt. Perdiccas had also alarmed Antipater, Craterus, and Antigonus by invading Asia Minor, and Antigonus and his son Demetrius fled to Macedon to join the coalition of Antipater, Craterus, Ptolemy, and Lysimachus against Perdiccas and his commander in Asia Minor, Eumenes. Craterus died in battle when his horse fell on him. Perdiccas's own army killed him in Egypt after three failed attempts to cross the Nile cost the lives of 2,000 men.[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/)
The Treaty of Triparadeisus in 321 BCE, arranged under Antipater's guidance, secured most commanders in their allotted territories and condemned Eumenes to death. When Antipater died in 319 BCE he passed over his son [Cassander](https://www.edgepedia.org/cassander), naming [Polyperchon](https://www.edgepedia.org/polyperchon) regent instead; Cassander received only a cavalry command. This slight opened the next round of conflict, with Cassander allying with Lysimachus and Antigonus while Polyperchon aligned with Eumenes and later Olympias.[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/)
## The Second and Third Successor Wars (319–311 BCE)
Cassander drove Polyperchon out of Macedon and Greece, established bases at Piraeus and on the [Peloponnese](https://www.edgepedia.org/peloponnese) with Antigonus's help, and married Thessalonica, a daughter of Philip II, to strengthen his claim to the throne. In Asia, Antigonus finally defeated Eumenes at the Battle of Gabiene in 316 BCE, gaining control of much of Asia; Eumenes was executed in 316 after his own men betrayed him to Antigonus. Antigonus's invasion of [Babylonia](https://www.edgepedia.org/babylonia) then drove Seleucus from his satrapy, and Seleucus took refuge with Ptolemy.[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/)
Seleucus regained his territory in 311 BCE and founded a new capital at Seleucia. Ptolemy defeated Demetrius at the Battle of Gaza in the autumn of 312 BCE, after which he sent Seleucus east to recover Babylonia, and this preceded the Peace of the Dynasts concluded in 311 BCE, which quickly collapsed into the Babylonian War (311–309 BCE), in which Seleucus fought against Antigonus and Demetrius.[10](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/diodorus/the-beginning-of-the-babylonian-war/) In Macedon, Cassander eliminated the last of Alexander's house: Olympias had ordered the assassination of her stepson Philip III in 316, and in 310 BCE Cassander ordered the deaths of Alexander IV and Roxanne; Olympias herself died at the hands of his soldiers.[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/)
## The Fourth Successor War and Ipsus (308–301 BCE)
In the Fourth Successor War, Demetrius I of Macedon, called "the Besieger of Cities," invaded Greece and "liberated" Athens from Cassander's governor in 307 BCE, and in 302 BCE he reinstituted the old [League of Corinth](https://www.edgepedia.org/league-of-corinth). Ptolemy, expanding northward, secured Cyprus only to lose to Demetrius at Salamis in 306. Demetrius then attacked Rhodes, but the siege ended in negotiations thanks to Ptolemy and his allies Seleucus, Lysimachus, and Cassander. That same year, 305 BCE, the various commanders declared themselves kings.[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/)
By 303/302 BCE Cassander was fighting to keep Antigonus and Demetrius out of Macedon and called his allies for help; Lysimachus moved into Asia Minor, forcing Demetrius to abandon Greece and join his father. At the [Battle of Ipsus](https://www.edgepedia.org/battle-of-ipsus) in central Phrygia in 301 BCE, the coalition of Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Cassander defeated Antigonus and Demetrius. Antigonus died in the battle, and with him ended any hope of restoring Alexander's empire. Lysimachus and Seleucus divided Antigonus's territory, Lysimachus taking lands in Asia Minor and Seleucus taking Syria, where he would build the city of Antioch.[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/) • [4](https://www.getgreece.com/greek-history/wars-of-the-diadochi)
## The endgame, 301–281 BCE
Cassander's security in Macedon ended with his death in 297 BCE, after which Demetrius declared himself king of Macedon and Greece. Lysimachus, with the assistance of King Pyrrhus of Epirus, crossed the border and forced Demetrius out. Demetrius escaped across the Hellespont into Asia Minor, where Seleucus captured him; he died in captivity in 283 BCE, though his descendants later regained Macedon and Greece.[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/)
In 282 BCE Seleucus turned on his one-time ally Lysimachus, and in 281 BCE the two armies met at Corupedium, where Lysimachus was killed. Seleucus, the commander who had received no land at the original partition, proved the final winner of the wars, but he was murdered by Ptolemy's son [Ptolemy Ceraunus](https://www.edgepedia.org/ptolemy-ceraunus) later in 281 BCE, leaving the victory to his descendants.[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/) After 280, the period of state formation closed with three great states: Antigonid Macedonia, Ptolemaic Egypt, and the Seleucid kingdom in Asia.[3](https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/diadochi/)
## Sources and historiography
The period rests on a limited source base. [Diodorus Siculus](https://www.edgepedia.org/diodorus-siculus)'s books 18 through 20 form the only narrative survey of the Diadochi that survives entire, and no contemporary narrative source survives at all; the chief accounts date from the late [Roman Republic](https://www.edgepedia.org/roman-republic) or the Empire.[5](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1kw29dx) • [6](https://catalogimages.wiley.com/images/db/pdf/9781444339628.excerpt.pdf) Diodorus's narrative breaks off shortly before the battle of Ipsus, and no good continuous account of the period exists until Polybius begins in the 260s BCE, so later events must be reconstructed from inscriptions and fragments.[7](https://cristoraul.org/ENGLISH/readinghall/THIRDMILLENNIUMLIBRARY/HELLENISTIC-MONARCHIES-AND-RISE-OF-ROME/CAH_VOLUME7-CHAPTER3_THE-NEW-HELLENISTIC-KINGDOMS.html) [Cuneiform](https://www.edgepedia.org/cuneiform) documentation from Babylonia supplements the narrative tradition by filling gaps in its chronology.[5](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1kw29dx) Even the chronology of the early years is unsettled: some scholars place Perdiccas's death and the settlement of Triparadeisos in 321 BCE on a "high chronology," while others prefer 320 BCE on a "low chronology."[8](https://dalspaceb.library.dal.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/12432927-a6a1-4a6c-a3ba-63baebbfa29f/content)
The wars also mark the start of the Hellenistic Period, the age in which [Greek language](https://www.edgepedia.org/greek-language) and culture spread across the successor kingdoms, a phenomenon defined as the essence of Hellenistic civilization since Johann Gustav Droysen's *Geschichte der Diadochen* of 1836.[1](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/) • [9](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt130jt89)
## References
1. [Wasson, Donald L. "Wars of the Diadochi." World History Encyclopedia, July 14, 2016.](https://www.worldhistory.org/Wars_of_the_Diadochi/)
2. ["Diadochi Wars, 323-280 BC." History of War.](https://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_diadochi.html)
3. ["Alexander's successors: the Diadochi." Livius.org.](https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/diadochi/)
4. ["Wars of the Diadochi (322–281 BC)." GetGreece.](https://www.getgreece.com/greek-history/wars-of-the-diadochi)
5. ["After Alexander: The Time of the Diadochi (323-281 BC)." JSTOR.](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1kw29dx)
6. [Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian. *A Companion to Ancient Macedonia* excerpt, Wiley-Blackwell.](https://catalogimages.wiley.com/images/db/pdf/9781444339628.excerpt.pdf)
7. ["The New Hellenistic Kingdoms," Cambridge Ancient History Volume 7, Chapter 3.](https://cristoraul.org/ENGLISH/readinghall/THIRDMILLENNIUMLIBRARY/HELLENISTIC-MONARCHIES-AND-RISE-OF-ROME/CAH_VOLUME7-CHAPTER3_THE-NEW-HELLENISTIC-KINGDOMS.html)
8. ["Intrigues among the Diadochi from 323-316 B.C." Dalhousie University thesis.](https://dalspaceb.library.dal.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/12432927-a6a1-4a6c-a3ba-63baebbfa29f/content)
9. [Green, Peter. *Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age.* University of California Press, via JSTOR.](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt130jt89)
10. [Diodorus on the outbreak of the Babylonian War - Livius](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/diodorus/the-beginning-of-the-babylonian-war/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Conflict and security › Wars, campaigns, and incidents › Wars and campaigns (whole-conflict histories) › Ancient and classical wars › Macedonian, Hellenistic, and Successor wars*
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