Macedonian Kingdom
Demetrios I, Poliorketes – King: 306-283 B.C.
Bronze 15mm (3.11 grams) Amphipolis mint, struck circa 294-288 B.C.
Reference: Sear 6774; HGC 3, 1028; Newell 132; SNG Alpha Bank 969
Macedonian shield , with monogram of Demetrios at center.
BA ΣΙ either side of crested Macedonian helmet.

Son of Antigonos I Monophthalmus (the ‘One-eyed’), Demetrios Poliorketes (the ‘Besieger’) was a romantic character who pursued a most colorful career spanning more than three decades. In his earlier years he assisted his father, whose power was centered in Asia Minor, and in 306 he achieved a great naval victory over Ptolemy I of Egypt, in the battle of Salamis, off the coast of Cyprus. It was his year-long siege of the island of Rhodes, which he was trying to punish betrayal, which earned him the title of Poliorketes (‘the Besieger’), and ultimately gave the city the proceeds to build the Colossus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. After many vicissitudes he seized the Macedonian throne in 294, even though he was declared king by his father in 306/305 against Kassander. Although he reigned for only six years the dynasty which he founded lasted until the end of the Macedonian Kingdom. He died as a captive in Syria in 283 B.C.

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The reforms that Philip II made to the ancient Macedonian military made it the most formidable fighting force in the ancient world. Alexander III, the Great used this army and the tactics he learned from his father (Philip II) to go on and spread, without a single defeat, Greek culture as far as northern India through his conquests. The symbolism of the Macedonian shields and their helmets came to symbolize ancient Macedonia. The Macedonian shield  and helmet was a motif used on many coins of ancient Macedonia, starting with Alexander the Great using them on his coins, going on to later Macedonian kings, and even a Greek city such as Philadelphia in Lydia using the Macedonian shield as a motif. Coins of the province of Macedonia under the Roman emperors would use the Macedonian shield too. The Macedonian shield therefore would be widely recognized to symbolize the Macedonian Kingdom and then go on to also symbolize the Romans province of Macedonia.

Demetrios I (337-283 BC), called Poliorketes (Greek for “The Besieger”), son of Antigonus I Monophthalmus and Stratonice, was a king of Macedon (294-288 BC). He belonged to the Antigonid dynasty.

At the age of twenty-two he was left by his father to defend Syria against Ptolemy the son of Lagus; he was totally defeated in Battle of Gaza, but soon partially repaired his loss by a victory in the neighborhood of Myus. In the spring of 310, he was soundly defeated when he tried to expel Seleukos I Nikator from Babylon; his father was defeated in the autumn. As a result of this Babylonian War, Antigonos lost almost two thirds of his empire: all eastern satrapies became Seleukos’.

After several campaigns against Ptolemy on the coasts of Cilicia and Cyprus, Demetrius sailed with a fleet of 250 ships to Athens. He freed the city from the power of Kassander and Ptolemy, expelled the garrison which had been stationed there under Demetrius of Phalerum, and besieged and took Munychia (307 BC). After these victories he was worshipped by the Athenians as a tutelary deity under the title of Soter (“Preserver”).

In the campaign of 306 BC against Ptolemy he defeated Menelaus, Ptolemy’s brother, in the naval Battle of Salamis, completely destroying the naval power of Egypt. In 305 BC, now bearing the title of king bestowed upon him by his father, he endeavored to punish the Rhodians (people of the island of Rhodes) for having deserted his cause; his ingenuity in devising new siege engines in his unsuccessful attempt to reduce the capital gained him the title of Poliorketes. Among his creations were a battering ram 180 feet (55 m) long, requiring 1000 men to operate it; and a wheeled siege tower named “Helepolis” (or “Taker of Cities”) which stood 125 feet (38 m) tall and 60 feet (18 m) wide, weighing 360,000 pounds. However this was a colossal failure, as the Rhodians held out with Egyptian assistance for a year. He was forced to give up the attack and abandoned the siege equipment which Rhodians sold for 300 talents of silver and with that money built the colossal statue of Helios, later known as the Colossus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

In 302 BC he returned a second time to Greece as liberator, and reinstated the Corinthian League. But his licentiousness and extravagance made the Athenians long for the government of Kassander. Among his outrages was his courtship of a young boy named Democles the Handsome. The youth kept on refusing his attention but one day found himself cornered at the baths. Having no way out and being unable to physically resist his suitor, he took the lid off the hot water cauldron and jumped in. His death is seen as a mark of honor for himself and his country. In another instance, he waived a fine of 50 talents imposed on a citizen in exchange for the favors of Cleaenetus, that man’s son. He also sought the attention of Lamia, a Greek courtesan. She demanded a price of 250 talents. He put a tax on soap to raise the money.

He also roused the jealousy of Alexander’s Diadochi; Seleukos, Kassander and Lysimachos united to destroy him and his father. The hostile armies met at the Ipsus in Phrygia (301 BC). Antigonos I was killed, and Demetrius, after sustaining severe losses, retired to Ephesus. This reversal of fortune stirred up many enemies against him-the Athenians refused even to admit him into their city. But he soon afterwards ravaged the territory of Lysimachos and effected a reconciliation with Seleukos, to whom he gave his daughter Stratonice in marriage. Athens was at this time oppressed by the tyranny of Lachares – a popular leader who made himself supreme in Athens in 296 BC – but Demetrius, after a protracted blockade, gained possession of the city (294 BC) and pardoned the inhabitants for their misconduct in 301.

In the same year he established himself on the throne of Macedonia by murdering Alexander V, the son of Kassander. In 291 BC he married Lanassa, the former wife of Pyrrhos. But his new position as ruler of Macedonia was continually threatened by Pyrrhos, who took advantage of his occasional absence to ravage the defenseless part of his kingdom (Plutarch, Pyrrhus, 7 if.); at length, the combined forces of Pyrrhos, Ptolemy and Lysimachus, assisted by the disaffected among his own subjects, obliged him to leave Macedonia in 288 B.C.

He passed into Asia and attacked some of the provinces of Lysimachos with varying success. Famine and pestilence destroyed the greater part of his army, and he solicited Seleukos’ support and assistance. But before he reached Syria hostilities broke out, and after he had gained some advantages over his son-in-law, Demetrius was totally forsaken by his troops on the field of battle and surrendered to Seleukos.

His son Antigonos II Gonatas offered all his possessions, and even his own person, in order to procure his father’s liberty. But all proved unavailing, and Demetrius died after a confinement of three years (283 BC). His remains were given to Antigonos II and honored with a splendid funeral at Corinth.

His descendants remained in possession of the Macedonian throne till the time of Perseus, when Macedon was conquered by the Romans in 168 BC.

Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom on the northern periphery of Classical Greece and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. It was ruled during most of its existence initially by the legendary founding dynasty of the Argeads, the intermittent Antipatrids and finally the Antigonids. Home to the Macedonians, the earliest kingdom was centered on the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south.

The rise of Macedon, from a small kingdom at the fringe of typical Greek city states affairs, to one which came to control the fate of the entire Hellenic world, occurred under the reign of Philip II. With the innovative Macedonian army, he defeated the old powers of Athens and Thebes in the decisive Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC and subdued them, while keeping Sparta in check. His son Alexander the Great pursued his father’s effort to command the whole of Greece through the federation of Greek states, a feat he finally accomplished after destroying a revolting Thebes. Young Alexander was then ready to lead this force, as he aspired, in a large campaign against the Achaemenid Empire, in retaliation for the invasion of Greece in the 5th century BC.

In the ensuing wars of Alexander the Great, he was ultimately successful in conquering a territory that came to stretch as far as the Indus River. For a brief period his Macedonian Empire was the most powerful in the world, the definitive Hellenistic state, inaugurating the transition to this new period of Ancient Greek civilization. Greek arts and literature flourished in the new conquered lands and advancements in philosophy and science were spread to the ancient world. Of most importance were the contributions of Aristotle, a teacher to Alexander, whose teachings carried on many centuries past his death.

After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, the following wars of the Diadochi and the partitioning of his short-lived empire, Macedonia proper carried on as a Greek cultural and political center in the Mediterranean region along with Ptolemaic Egypt, the Seleucid Empire, and the Attalid kingdom. Important cities like Pella, Pydna, and Amphipolis were involved in power struggles for control of the territory, and new cities were founded, like Thessalonica by the usurper Cassander, which is now the second largest city of modern day Greece. Macedonia’s decline of influence began with the rise of Rome until its ultimate subjection during the second Macedonian Wars.

The Roman province of Macedonia (Latin: Provincia Macedoniae, Greek: Ἐπαρχία Μακεδονίας) was officially established in 146 BC, after the Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus defeated Andriscus of Macedon, the last self-styled King of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia in 148 BC, and after the four client republics (the “tetrarchy”) established by Rome in the region were dissolved. The province incorporated ancient Macedonia, with the addition of Epirus, Thessaly, and parts of Illyria, Paeonia and Thrace. This created a much larger administrative area, to which the name of ‘Macedonia’ was still applied. The Dardanians, to the north of the Paeonians, were not included, because they had supported the Romans in their conquest of Macedonia.