ANTIGONOS II GONATAS 277BC Pan Athena Gallic Victory Macedonia Greek Coin i55671

Item: i55671

 Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Greek coin of the Kingdom of
Macedonia

Bronze 16mm (3.49 grams) Struck 277-239 B.C.

Reference: Sear 6786; Price, pl. XII, 71; SNGCop 1209

Head of Athena right, in crested Corinthian helmet.

Pan advancing right, erecting trophy; B-A in upper field; ANTI monogram beneath
Pan.

The English word panic is derived from the Greek deity Pan. It
is said that Pan helped the Macedonian army in the battle that Antigonos had
with the Gauls in 277 B.C.

Son of Demetrios Poliorketes,
Antigonos Gonatas claimed his father’s throne after achieving a notable victory
over the Gallic invaders in Thrace. The Macedonian kingdom prospered again under
his long and enlightened rule.

A trophy is a reward for a specific achievement, and serves as
recognition or evidence of merit.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

Athena
or Athene (Latin:

Minerva
),
also referred to as Pallas Athena, is the goddess of war, civilization,
wisdom, strength, strategy, crafts, justice and skill in
Greek mythology
.
Minerva
,
Athena’s Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is also a shrewd
companion of heroes

and the goddess

of heroic

endeavour. She is the
virgin

patron of Athens
.
The Athenians built the
Parthenon

on the Acropolis of her namesake city, Athens, in her honour (Athena Parthenos).
Athena’s cult as the patron of Athens seems to have existed from the earliest
times and was so persistent that archaic myths about her were recast to adapt to
cultural changes. In her role as a protector of the city (polis),
many people throughout the Greek world worshiped Athena as Athena Polias
(“Athena of the city”).
Athens

and Athena bear etymologically connected names.

In
Greek religion
and
mythology
,
Pan is the god of the
wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, hunting, and
rustic music
, and companion of the
nymphs
. His name originates within the
Ancient Greek
language, from the word paein
(πάειν), meaning “to pasture.” He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a
goat, in the same manner as a

faun or satyr
. With his homeland in rustic
Arcadia
, he is also recognized as the god of
fields, groves, and wooded glens; because of this, Pan is connected to fertility
and the season of spring. The ancient Greeks also considered Pan to be the god
of theatrical criticism.

In
Roman religion and myth
, Pan’s counterpart was
Faunus
, a nature god who was the father of
Bona Dea
, sometimes identified as
Fauna
; he was also closely associated with
Sylvanus
, due to their similar relationships
with woodlands. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Pan became a significant figure
in the Romantic movement
of western Europe and
also in the 20th-century
Neopagan movement
.

An area in the
Golan Heights
known as the Panion or Panium is
associated with Pan. The city of
Caesarea Philippi
, the site of the
Battle of Panium
and the
Banias
natural spring, grotto or cave, and
related shrines dedicated to Pan, may be found there.

Antigonus II Gonatas (Greek:

Αντίγονος B΄ Γονατᾶς “knock-knees” 319 BC—239 BC) was a powerful ruler

who firmly established the

Antigonid dynasty

in

Macedonia

and acquired fame for his victory over the

Gauls who had

invaded the Balkans

.

//

 Birth

and family

Antigonus Gonatas was born around 319 BC, probably in

Gonnoi
in

Thessaly
or

his name is derived from an iron plate protecting the knee (Ancient

Greek: gonu-gonatos, English: knee;

Modern

Greek
: epigonatida, English: kneecap). He was related to the

most powerful of the

Diadochi

(the generals of

Alexander

who divided the empire after his death in 323 BC). Antigonus’s

father was

Demetrius Poliorcetes

, who was the son of

Antigonus

, who then controlled much of Asia. His mother was

Phila

, the daughter of

Antipater
.

The latter controlled Macedonia and Greece and was recognized as regent of the

empire, which in theory remained united. In this year, however, Antipater died,

leading to further struggles for territory and dominance.

The careers of Antigonus’s grandfather and father showed

great swings in fortune. After coming closer than anyone to reuniting the empire

of Alexander, Antigonus Monophthalmus was defeated and killed in the great

battle of Ipsus

in 301 BC and the territory he formerly controlled was

divided among his enemies,

Cassander
,

Ptolemy

,

Lysimachus
,

and

Seleucus

.

 Demetrius’s

general

The fate of Antigonus Gonatas, now 18, was closely tied with

that of his father Demetrius who escaped from the battle with 9,000 troops.

Jealousy among the victors eventually allowed Demetrius to regain part of the

power his father had lost. He conquered

Athens
and much

of Greece and in 294 BC he seized the throne of Macedonia from

Alexander

, the son of Cassander.

Because Antigonus Gonatas was the grandson of Antipater and

the nephew of Cassander, through his mother, his presence helped to reconcile

the supporters of these former kings to the rule of his father.

In 292 BC, while Demetrius was campaigning in

Boeotia
, he

received news that Lysimachus, the ruler of

Thrace
and the

enemy of his father had been taken prisoner by

Dromichaetes

, a barbarian. Hoping to seize Lysimachus’s territories in

Thrace and Asia, Demetrius, delegated command of his forces in Boeotia to

Antigonus and immediately marched North. While he was away, the Boeotians rose

in rebellion, but were defeated by Antigonus, who bottled them up in

Thebes

.

After the failure of his expedition to Thrace, Demetrius

rejoined his son at the siege of Thebes. As the Thebans defended their city

stubbornly, Demetrius often forced his men to attack the city at great cost,

even though there was little hope of capturing it. It is said that, distressed

by the heavy losses, Antigonus asked his father: “Why, father, do we allow these

lives to be thrown away so unnecessarily?” Demetrius appears to have showed his

contempt for the lives of his soldiers by replying: “We don’t have to find

rations for the dead.” But he also showed a similar disregard for his own life

and was badly wounded at the siege by a bolt through the neck.

In 291 BC, Demetrius finally took the city after using siege

engines to demolish its walls. But control of Macedonia and most of Greece was

merely a stepping stone to his plans for further conquest. He aimed at nothing

less than the revival of Alexander’s empire and started making preparations on a

grand scale, ordering the construction of a fleet of 500 ships, many of them of

unprecedented size.

Such preparations and the obvious intent behind them,

naturally alarmed the other kings, Seleucus, Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and

Pyrrhus

, who immediately formed an alliance. In the Spring of 288 BC

Ptolemy’s fleet appeared off Greece, inciting the cities to revolt. At the same

time, Lysimachus attacked Macedonia from the East while Pyrrhus did so from the

West. Demetrius left Antigonus in control of Greece, while he hurried to

Macedonia.

By now the Macedonians had come to resent the extravagance

and arrogance of Demetrius, and were not prepared to fight a difficult campaign

for him. In 287 BC, Pyrrhus took the Macedonian city of

Verroia

and Demetrius’s army promptly deserted and went over to the enemy

who was much admired by the Macedonians for his bravery. At this change of

fortune, Phila, the mother of Antigonus, killed herself with poison. Meanwhile

in Greece, Athens revolted. Demetrius therefore returned and besieged the city,

but he soon grew impatient and decided on a more dramatic course. Leaving

Antigonus in charge of the war in Greece, he assembled all his ships and

embarked with 11,000 infantry and all his cavalry to attack

Caria
and

Lydia
, provinces

of Lysimachus.

By separating himself from his son and departing into Asia,

Demetrius seemed to take his bad luck with him, but in reality it was the fear

and the jealousy of the other kings. As Demetrius was chased across

Asia Minor

to the

Taurus Mountains

by the armies of Lysimachus and Seleucus, Antigonus

attained success in Greece. Ptolemy’s fleet was driven off and Athens

surrendered.

 In

the wilderness

In 285 BC, Demetrius, worn down by his fruitless campaign,

surrendered to Seleucus. At this point he wrote to son and his commanders in

Athens and Corinth

telling them to henceforth consider him a dead man and to ignore any

letters they might receive written under his seal. Macedonia, meanwhile had been

divided between Pyrrhus and Lysimachus, but like two wolves sharing a piece of

meat, they soon fought over it with the result that Lysimachus drove Pyrrhus out

and took over the whole kingdom.

Following the capture of his father, Antigonus proved himself

a dutiful son. He wrote to all the kings, especially Seleucus, offering to

surrender all the territory he controlled and proposing himself as a hostage for

his father’s release, but to no avail. In 283 BC, at the age of 55, Demetrius

died in captivity in Syria. When Antigonus heard that his father’s remains were

being brought to him, he put to sea with his entire fleet, met Seleucus’s ships

near the Cyclades

, and took the relics to Corinth with great ceremony. After this,

the remains were interred at the town of

Demetrias

that his father had founded in

Thessaly
.

In 282 BC, Seleucus declared war on Lysimachus and the next

year defeated and killed him at the

battle of Corupedium

in Lydia. He then crossed to Europe to claim Thrace and

Macedonia, but

Ptolemy Ceraunus

, the son of Ptolemy, murdered him and seized the Macedonian

throne. Antigonus decided the time was ripe to take back his father’s kingdom,

but when he marched North, Ptolemy Ceraunus defeated his army.

Ptolemy’s success, however, was short lived. In the Winter of

279 BC, a great horde of

Gauls descended on

Macedonia from the northern forests, crushed Ptolemy’s army, and killed him in

battle, starting two years of complete anarchy in the kingdom. After plundering

Macedonia, the Gauls invaded Greece. Antigonus cooperated in the defense of

Greece against the barbarians, but it was the

Aetolians

who took the lead in defeating the

Gauls

. In 278 BC, a Greek army with a large

Aetolian

contingent resisted the Gauls at

Thermopylae

and Delphi

, inflicting heavy casualties and forcing them to retreat.

The next year (277 BC), Antigonus, sailed to the

Hellespont
,

landing near

Lysimachia

at the neck of the

Thracian Chersonese

. When an army of Gauls under the command of

Cerethrius

appeared, Antigonus laid an ambush. He abandoned his camp and beached his ships,

then concealed his men. The Gauls looted the camp, but when they started to

attack the ships, Antigonus’s army appeared, trapping them with the sea to their

rear. In this way, Antigonus was able to inflict a crushing defeat on them and

claim the Macedonian throne. It was around this time, under these favorable

omens, that his son and successor,

Demetrius II Aetolicus

was born.

 King

of Macedonia

 Antigonus

against Pyrrhus

Pyrrhus

, king of

Epirus

, Macedonia’s Western neighbor, was a general of mercurial ability,

widely renowned for his bravery, but he did not apply his talents sensibly and

often snatched after vain hopes, so that Antigonus used to compare him to a dice

player, who had excellent throws, but did not know how to use them. When the

Gauls defeated Ptolemy Ceraunus and the Macedonian throne became vacant, Pyrrhus

was occupied in his campaigns overseas. Hoping to conquer first

Italy
and then

Africa, he got involved in wars against

Rome

and Carthage

, the two most powerful states in the Western

Mediterranean

. He then lost the support of the Greek cities in Italy and

Sicily
by his

haughty behavior. Needing reinforcements, he wrote to Antigonus as a fellow

Greek king, asking him for troops and money, but Antigonus politely refused. In

275 BC, the Romans fought Pyrrhus at the

Battle of Beneventum

which ended inconclusively, although many modern

sources wrongly state that Pyrrhus lost the battle. Pyrrhus had been drained by

his recent wars in Sicily, and by the earlier Pyrrhic victories over the Romans,

and thus decided to end his campaign in Italy and return to Epirus.

Pyrrhus’s retreat from Italy, however, proved very unlucky

for Antigonus. Returning to Epirus with an army of eight thousand foot and five

hundred horse, he was in need of money to pay them. This encouraged him to look

for another war, so the next year, after adding a force of Gallic mercenaries to

his army, he invaded Macedonia with the intention of filling his coffers with

plunder. The campaign however went better than expected. Making himself master

of several towns and being joined by two thousand deserters, his hopes started

to grow and he went in search of Antigonus, attacking his army in a narrow pass

and throwing it into disorder. Antigonus’s Macedonian troops retreated, but his

own body of Gallic mercenaries, who had charge of his elephants, stood firm

until Pyrrhus’s troops surrounded them, whereupon they surrendered both

themselves and the elephants. Pyrrhus now chased after the rest of Antigonus’s

army which, demoralized by its earlier defeat, declined to fight. As the two

armies faced each other, Pyrrhus called out to the various officers by name and

persuaded the whole body of infantry to desert. Antigonus escaped by concealing

his identity. Pyrrhus now took control of upper Macedonia and Thessaly while

Antigonus held onto the coastal towns.

But like the dice player who wasted his good fortune, Pyrrhus

now wasted his victory. Taking possession of

Aegae
, the

ancient capital of Macedonia, he installed a garrison of Gauls who greatly

offended the Macedonians by digging up the tombs of their kings and leaving the

bones scattered about as they searched for gold. He also neglected to finish off

his enemy. Leaving him in control of the coastal cities, he contented himself

with insults. He called Antigonus a shameless man for still wearing the purple,

but he did little to destroy the remnants of his power.

Before this campaign was finished, Pyrrhus had embarked upon

a new one. In 272 BC,

Cleonymus

, an important

Spartan
,

invited him to invade

Laconia
.

Gathering an army of twenty-five thousand foot, two thousand horse, and

twenty-four elephants, he crossed over to the

Peloponnese

and occupied

Megalopolis

in

Arcadia
.

Antigonus, after reoccupying part of Macedonia, gathered what forces he could

and sailed to Greece to oppose him. As a large part of the Spartan army led by

king Areus

was in Crete
at

the time, Pyrrhus had great hopes of taking the city easily, but the citizens

organized stout resistance, allowing one of Antigonus’s commanders, Aminias, the

Phocian
, to

reach the city with a force of mercenaries from Corinth. Soon after this, the

Spartan king, Areus, returned from Crete with 2.000 men. These reinforcements

stiffened resistance and Pyrrhus, finding that he was losing men to desertion

every day, broke off the attack and started to plunder the country.

The most important Peloponnesian city after Sparta was

Argos
. The two

chief men,

Aristippus

and

Aristeas

were keen rivals. As Aristippus was an ally of Antigonus, Aristeas

invited Pyrrhus to come to Argos to help him take over the city. Antigonus,

aware that Pyrrhus was advancing on Argos, marched his army there as well,

taking up a strong position on some high ground near the city. When Pyrrhus

learned this, he encamped about

Nauplia
and

the next day dispatched a herald to Antigonus, calling him a coward and

challenging him to come down and fight on the plain. Antigonus replied that he

would choose his own moment to fight and that if Pyrrhus was weary of life, he

could find many ways to die.

The Argives, fearing that their territory would become a war

zone, sent deputations to the two kings begging them to go elsewhere and allow

their city to remain neutral. Both kings agreed, but Antigonus won over the

trust of the Argives by surrendering his son as a hostage for his pledge.

Pyrrhus, who had recently lost a son in the retreat from Sparta, did not.

Indeed, with the help of Aristeas, he was plotting to seize the city. In the

middle of the night, he marched his army up to the city walls and entered

through a gate that Aristeas had opened. His Gallic troops seized the market

place, but he had difficulty getting his elephants into the city through the

small gates. This gave the Argives time to rally. They occupied strong points

and sent messengers asking Antigonus for help.

When Antigonus heard that Pyrrhus had treacherously attacked

the city, he advanced to the walls and sent a strong force inside to help the

Argives. At the same time Areus arrived with a force of 1.000 Cretans and

light-armed Spartans. These forces attacked the Gauls in the market place.

Pyrrhus, realizing that his Gallic troops were hard pressed, now advanced into

the city with more troops, but in the narrow streets this soon led to confusion

as men got lost and wandered around. The two forces now paused and waited for

daylight. When the sun rose, Pyrrhus saw how strong the opposition was and

decided the best thing was to retreat. Fearing that the gates would be too

narrow for his troops to easily exit the city, he sent a message to his son,

Helenus

, who was outside with the main body of the army, asking him to break

down a section of the walls. The messenger, however, failed to convey his

instructions clearly. Misunderstanding what was required, Helenus took the rest

of the elephants and some picked troops and advanced into the city to help his

father.

With some of his troops trying to get out of the city and

others trying to get in, Pyrrhus’s army was now thrown into confusion. This was

made worse by the elephants. The largest one had fallen across the gateway and

was blocking the way, while another elephant, called Nicon, was trying to find

its rider. This beast surged against the tide of fugitives, crushing friend and

foe alike, until it found its dead master, whereupon it picked him up, placed

him on its tusks, and went on the rampage. In this chaos Pyrrhus was struck down

by a tile thrown by an old woman and killed by Zopyrus, a soldier of Antigonus.

Thus ended the career of the most famous soldier of his time.

Alcyoneus, one of Antigonus’s sons, heard that Pyrrhus had

been killed. Taking the head, which had been cut off by Zopyrus, he rode to

where his father was and threw it at his feet. Far from being delighted,

Antigonus was angry with his son and struck him, calling him a barbarian and

drove him away. He then covered his face with his cloak and burst into tears.

The fate of Pyrrhus reminded him all too clearly of the tragic fates of his own

grandfather and his father who had suffered similar swings of fortune. He then

had Pyrrhus’s body cremated with great ceremony.

After the death of Pyrrhus, his whole army and camp

surrendered to Antigonus, greatly increasing his power. Later, Alcyoneus

discovered Hellenicus, Pyrrhus’s son, disguised in threadbare clothes. He

treated him kindly and brought him to his father who was more pleased with his

behaviour. “This is better than what you did before, my son,” he said, “but why

leave him in these clothes which are a disgrace to us now that we know ourselves

the victors?” Greeting him courteously, Antigonus treated Helenus as an honored

guest and sent him back to Epirus.

This was not the end of Antigonus’ problems with Epirus:

shortly after

Alexander II

, the son of Pyrrhus and his successor as king of Epirus,

repeated his father’s adventure by conquering Macedonia. But only a few years

after Alexander was not only expelled from Macedonia by Antigonus’ son

Demetrius, but he also lost Epirus and had to go into exile in

Acarnania
.

His exile didn’t last long, as the Macedonians had at the end to abandon Epirus

under pressure from Alexander’s allies, the Acarnanians and the

Aetolians

. Alexander seems to have died about 242 BC leaving his country

under the regency of his wife

Olympias

who proved anxious to have good relations with Epirus’ powerful

neighbor, as was sanctioned by the marriage between the regent’s daughter

Phthia

and Antigonus’ son and heir Demetrius.

 Chremonidean

War

With the restoration of the territories captured by Pyrrhus,

and with grateful allies in Sparta and Argos, and garrisons in Corinth and other

cities, Antigonus securely controlled Macedonia and Greece. The careful way he

guarded his power shows that he wished to avoid the vicissitudes of fortune that

had characterized the careers of his father and grandfather. Aware that the

Greeks loved freedom and autonomy, he was careful to grant a semblance of this

in as much as it did not clash with his own power. Also, he tried to avoid the

odium that direct rule brings by controlling the Greeks through intermediaries.

It is for this reason that

Polybius

says, “No man ever set up more absolute rulers in Greece than Antigonus.”

The next stage of Antigonus’s career is not documented and

what we know has been patched together from a few historical fragments:

Antigonus seems to have been on very good terms with

Antiochus

, the

Seleucid

ruler of Asia, whose love for

Stratonice

, the sister of Antigonus, is very famous. Such an alliance

naturally threatened the third

successor state

,

Ptolemaic Egypt

. In Greece, Athens and Sparta, once the dominant states,

naturally resented the domination of Antigonus. The pride, which in the past had

made these cities mortal enemies, now served to unite them. In 267 BC, probably

with encouragement from Egypt, an Athenian by the name of

Chremonides

persuaded the Athenians to join the Spartans in declaring war on

Antigonus (see

Chremonidean War

).

The Macedonian king responded by ravaging the territory of

Athens with an army while blockading them by sea. In this campaign he also

destroyed the grove and temple of Poseidon that stood at the entrance to

Attica
near the

border with Megara
.

To support the Athenians and prevent the power of Antigonus from growing too

much,

Ptolemy II Philadelphus

, the king of Egypt, sent a fleet to break the

blockade. The Egyptian admiral,

Patroclus

, landed on a small uninhabited island near

Laurium
and

fortified it as a base for naval operations.

The Seleucid Empire had signed a peace treaty with Egypt, but

Antiochus’s son-in-law,

Magas

, king of

Cyrene

, persuaded Antiochus to take advantage of the war in Greece to attack

Egypt. To counter this, Ptolemy dispatched a force of pirates and freebooters to

raid and attack the lands and provinces of Antiochus, while his army fought a

defensive campaign, holding back the stronger Seleucid army. Although

successfully defending Egypt, Ptolemy II was unable to save Athens from

Antigonus. In 263 BC, the Athenians and Spartans, worn down by several years of

war and the devastation of their lands, made peace with Antigonus, who thus

retained his hold on Greece.

Ptolemy II continued to interfere in the affairs of Greece

and this led to war in 261 BC. After two years in which little changed,

Antiochus II

, the new Seleucid king, made a military agreement with

Antigonus, and the

Second Syrian War

began. Under the combined attack, Egypt lost ground in

Anatolia

and Phoenicia
,

and the city of Miletus

, held by its ally,

Timarchus

, was seized by

Antiochus II Theos

. In 255 BC, Ptolemy made peace, ceding lands to the

Seleucids and confirming Antigonus in his mastery of Greece.

 Antigonus

against Aratus

Having successfully repelled the external threat to his

control of Greece, the main danger to the power of Antigonus lay in the Greek

love of liberty. In 251 BC,

Aratus

, a young nobleman in the city of

Sicyon
expelled

the tyrant

Nicocles
,

who had ruled with the acquiescence of Antigonus, freed the people, and recalled

the exiles. This led to confusion and division within the city. Fearing that

Antigonus would exploit these divisions to attack the city, Aratus applied for

the city to join the

Achaean League

, a league of a few small

Achaean
towns

in the Pelopennese.

Preferring to use guile rather than military power, Antigonus

sought to regain control over Sicyon through winning the young man over to his

side. Accordingly, he sent him a gift of 25

talents

, but, Aratus, instead of being corrupted by this wealth, immediately

gave it away to his fellow citizens. With this money and another sum he received

from

Ptolemy II Philadelphus

, he was able to reconcile the different parties in

Sicyon and unite the city.

Antigonus was troubled by the rising power and popularity of

Aratus. If he were to receive extensive military and financial support from

Ptolemy, Aratus would be able to threaten his position. He decided therefore to

either win him over to his side or at least discredit him with Ptolemy. In order

to do this, he showed him great marks of favour. When he was sacrificing to the

gods in Corinth, he sent portions of the meat to Aratus at Sicyon, and

complimented Aratus in front of his guests: “I thought this Sicyonian youth was

only a lover of liberty and of his fellow-citizens, but now I look upon him as a

good judge of the manners and actions of kings. For formerly he despised us,

and, placing his hopes further off, admired the Egyptians, hearing much of their

elephants, fleets, and palaces. But after seeing all these at a nearer distance,

and perceiving them to be but mere stage props and pageantry, he has now come

over to us. And for my part I willingly receive him, and, resolving to make

great use of him myself, command you to look upon him as a friend.” These words

were readily believed by many, and when they were reported to Ptolemy, he half

believed them.

But Aratus was far from becoming a friend of Antigonus, whom

he regarded as the oppressor of Greek freedom. In 243 BC, in an attack by night,

he seized the

Acrocorinth

, the strategically important fort by which Antigonus controlled

the

Isthmus

and thus the Pelopennese. When news of this success reached Corinth,

the Corinthians rose in rebellion, overthrew Antigonus’ party, and joined the

Achaean League. Next Aratus took the port of

Lechaeum
and

captured 25 of Antigonus’s ships.

This setback for Antigonus, sparked a general uprising

against Macedonian power. The

Megarians

revolted and together with the

Troezenians

and Epidaurians

enrolled in the Achaean League. With this increased strength,

Aratus invaded the territory of Athens and plundered

Salamis

. Every Athenian freemen whom he captured was sent back to the

Athenians without ransom to encourage them to join the rebellion. The

Macedonians, however, retained their hold on Athens and the rest of Greece.

 Relations

with India

Antigonus is mentioned in the

Edicts of Ashoka

, as one of the recipients of the Indian Emperor

Ashoka

‘s Buddhist

proselytism.

No Western historical record of this event remain.

Ashoka also claims that he encouraged the development of

herbal medicine

, for men and animals, in the territories of the Hellenistic

kings

 Death

and appraisal

In 239 BC, Antigonus died at the age of 80 and left his

kingdom to his son

Demetrius II

, who was to reign for the next 10 years. Except for a short

period when he defeated the Gauls, Antigonus was not an heroic or successful

military leader. His skills were mainly political. He preferred to rely on

cunning, patience, and persistence to achieve his goals. While more brilliant

leaders, like his father Demetrius, and Pyrrhus his neighbour, aimed higher and

fell lower, Antigonus achieved a measure of mediocre security. By dividing the

Greeks and ruling them indirectly through tyrants, however, he retarded their

political development so that they later fell an easy prey for the

Roman

conquest. It is also said of him that he gained the affection of his

subjects by his honesty and his cultivation of the arts, which he accomplished

by gathering round him distinguished literary men, in particular philosophers,

poets, and historians.