Polyperchon was a Macedonian general who served under Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great. He served in both the conquests of Alexander and the Wars of the Diadochi.
Biography[]
Polyperchon was born in Tymphaias, Epirus, Ancient Greece, and he served under King Philip II of Macedon before partaking in the conquests of Alexander, his son. After the Macedonian army's return to Babylon in 323 BC, Polyperchon and Craterus were ordered to bring their forces back to Greece, and they reached Cilicia by the time of Alexander's death. Polyperchon became Craterus' second-in-command during the Wars of the Diadochi, and, on Antipater's death in 319 BC, he became regent of the empire and fell into civil war with Antipater's jealous son Cassander. Polyperchon allied with Eumenes against Cassander, Antigonus I Monophthalmus, and Ptolemy I Soter, and, while he secured the Greek Cities by proclaiming their freedom, he was defeated at Megalopolis and Byzantium in 317 BC and at Athens in 316 BC. Shortly after, Cassander drove Polyperchon from Macedon, and he fled to Epirus and joined Olympias, Roxana, and Alexander IV of Macedon there. He and Olympias recruited an army from Epirus and defeated and killed King Philip III of Macedon, Alexander's half-brother and a rival of Alexander's young son Alexander IV. In 316 BC, however, Cassander returned from the Peloponnese and had Olympias captured and murdered, while Roxana and Alexander were murdered years later. Polyperchon now fled to the Peloponnese and allied with Antigonus, to whom he surrendered the regency. He came to control much of the Peloponnese, with Corinth serving as his capital. He lived into the 3rd century BC, presumably dying peacefully.