Lysimachus (360 BC-281 BC) was King of Thrace from 306 to 281 BC, succeeding Alexander IV of Macedon and preceding Ptolemy Keraunos.
Biography[]
Lysimachus was born in 360 BC to a Thessalian Greek family, the second son of Agathocles the Great. He was educated at the Macedonian court at Pella, and he served as one of Alexander the Great's bodyguards during his campaigns in Persia. Following Alexander's death in 323 BC, he was appointed strategos of Thrace, and he allied with Cassander, Ptolemy, and Seleucus against Antigonus I Monophthalmus in 315 BC during the Wars of the Diadochi. Lysimachus suppressed a revolt of his Black Sea territories and fought against Antigonus' Thracian and Scythian allies, and, in 301 BC, he took part in the decisive victory over Antigonus at the Battle of Ipsus. Lysimachus entered into an alliance with Ptolemy by marrying his daughter Arsinoe II, intending to prevent Seleucus from becoming too powerful. In 292 BC, he was captured by the Getae and forced to cede the Danubian lands that he had captured from them. In 287 BC, he and Pyrrhus of Epirus invaded Macedonia and drove Demetrius I Poliorcetes from the country, and Lysimachus and Pyrrhus jointly ruled as kings of Macedonia until 285 BC, when Lysimachus expelled Pyrrhus. In 281 BC, he was killed in battle with Seleucus at Corupedium near Sardis.
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