Listed 2 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "FLORINA Prefecture GREECE" .
LYGISTIS (Ancient area) GREECE
Alexander (Alexandros), son of Aerotus, a native of the Macedonian district called
Lyncestis, whence he is usually called Alexander Lyncestes. Justin (xi. 1) makes
the singular mistake of calling him a brother of Lyncestas, while in other passages
(xi. 7, xii. 14) he uses the correct expression. He was a contemporary of Philip
of Macedonia and Alexander the Great. He had two brothers, Heromenes and Arrhabaeus;
all three were known to have been accomplices in the murder of Philip, in B. C.
336. Alexander the Great on his accession put to death all those who had taken
part in the murder, and Alexander the Lyncestian was the only one that was pardoned,
because he was the first who did homage to Alexander the Great as his king (Arrian,
Anab. i. 25; Curtius, vii. 1; Justin, xi. 2). But king Alexander not only pardoned
him, but even made him his friend and raised him to high honours. He was first
entrusted with the command of an army in Thrace, and afterwards received the command
of the Thessalian horse. In this capacity he accompanied Alexander on his eastern
expedition. In B. C. 334, when Alexander was staying at Phaselis, he was informed,
that the Lyncestian was carrying on a secret correspondence with king Darius,
and that a large sum of money was promised, for which he was to murder his sovereign.
The bearer of the letters from Darius was taken by Parmenion and brought before
Alexander, and the treachery was manifest. Yet Alexander, dreading to create any
hostile feeling in Antipater, the regent of Macedonia, whose daughter was married
to the Lyncestian, thought it advisable not to put him to death, and had him merely
deposed from his office and kept in custody. In this manner he was dragged about
for three years with the army in Asia, until in B. C. 330, when, Philotas having
been put to death for a similar crime, the Macedonians demanded that Alexander
the Lyncestian should likewise be tried and punished according to his desert.
King Alexander gave way, and as the traitor was unable to exculpate himself, he
was put to death at Prophthasia, in the country of the Drangae (Curtius, l. c.,
and viii. 1; Justin. xii. 14; Diod. xvii. 32, 80). The object of this traitor
was probably, with the aid of Persia, to gain possession of the throne of Macedonia,
which previous to the reign of Amyntas II. had for a time belonged to his family.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Leonnatus. One of the officers of Alexander the Great, saved his king's life
in India and played a minor role in the wars of the Diadochi.
Leonnatus was the son of Anteas, a member of the royal house of Lyncestis,
a small kingdom in the valley of the Crna that had been included in Macedonia
by king Philip, the father of Alexander and the son of a mother who belonged to
the Lyncestian dynasty.
Leonnatus, being a distant relative of Alexander, must have been close
to the crown prince. They were of the same age and may have shared the same teachers
(e.g., the famous Macedonian philosopher Aristotle). The Lyncestian prince was
present when Philip was assassinated in October 336 and played a role in the pursuit
and killing of the killer.
When Alexander set out against Persia,
Leonnatus was in his personal company. Military commands are unknown, but he played
a role in the aftermath of the battle of Issus (November 333). The Persian king
Darius III Codomannus had been defeated, his chariot and bow captured, and his
mother, wife, and daughters taken prisoner. When the women saw the bow and chariot,
they thought that Darius was dead, and started mourning. Alexander sent Leonnatus
to inform them that Darius was not dead, and that they need not fear any harm.
When Alexander was in Egypt,
one of his seven bodyguards died, and Leonnatus was appointed as successor. This
meant that he was very close to the king and could exercise great influence. He
could make and break people, as Philotas was to discover in October 330: the cavalry
officer was suspected of treason and Leonnatus was one of his accusers. He was
executed. On the other hand, when Alexander was angry with the aged officer Clitus
and wanted to kill him, Leonnatus tried to prevent the murder. However, this time,
he had insufficient influence on his king (Autumn 328). Later, he discovered a
conspiracy among the pages.
There is a strange story that Leonnatus was so fond of wrestling,
that he took trainers and camel-loads of sand wherever he went in Asia. If there
is any truth to this, we must date it in these years.
In the Summer of 327, Alexander wanted to introduce the Persian custom
of proskynesis at his court. Most Macedonians felt offended by what they considered
to be an act of slavish submissiveness. Leonnatus even started to laugh and make
fun of the ritual, which caused Alexander's anger. They were reconciled, however,
and in the months after the incident, we meet Leonnatus for the first time as
a commander: with Ptolemy (another bodyguard) and Perdiccas (a cavalry officer),
he besieged one of the mountain fortresses in Sogdiana. In the Spring of 326,
he played a role in the attack on a village in Gandara (i.e., the valley of the
river Kabul), where he was wounded. The wound can not have been very severe, because
in May, he took part in the battle of the Hydaspes, in which Alexander defeated
the Indian king Porus.
That Leonnatus, in spite of the fact that he did not command large
units, remained very close to Alexander, can be shown from the fact that he was
one of those who occupied the office of trierarch in the Autumn of 326. They were
responsible for the building of parts of the fleet that the Macedonians had to
build to advance along the Indus river to the Indian Ocean. On their voyage to
the south, they had to subdue the Mallians, which proved to be difficult. During
the siege of their capital, modern Multan, Alexander was seriously wounded by
an arrow; he owed his survival to his bodyguards Leonnatus, Abreas and Peucestas,
who protected the king with the sacred shield that the king had taken with him
at Troy (January 325).
In July, the army reached the Ocean. It was divided in two groups:
Alexander commanded an army that moved along the coast to the west to Carmania,
and Nearchus led the navy. Alexander's men first defeated the Oreitans, the 'mountain
people' of southern Pakistan. Hephaestion, who commanded the baggage train, was
ordered to build a new city, Rhambaceia (modern Las Bela). Leonnatus was left
behind to defend the region; after all, Nearchus still had to pass along the shore
and the grain store had to be kept intact. The Oreitans attempted to attack the
Macedonian rearguard, but Leonnatus defeated them, for which he received a diadem
in the Spring of 324, when the armies had reunited at Susa.
On June 11, 323, Alexander died in Babylon.
Immediately, his generals -known as the Diadochi- started to quarrel about the
succession, in which cavalry and infantry were at each other's throats. Leonnatus
sided with Perdiccas, Lysimachus (another bodyguard), Seleucus, Eumenes and Ptolemy,
cavalry commanders that were to play an important role in the next years. The
commander of the infantry Meleager was killed, and Perdiccas was appointed regent
for the new king, Alexander's mentally unfit brother Philip Arridaeus. Perdiccas
made Leonnatus satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia.
A civil war was prevented, but war had become inevitable. When the
Athenians heard that Alexander had died, they revolted (Autumn 323). They had
been preparing the war for some time and were joined by several other Greek towns.
They occupied Thermopylae,
and when the Macedonian commander Antipater arrived, he was repelled and forced
to hide in the nearby fortress of Lamia.
In the meantime, Alexander's sister Cleopatra, the widow of king Alexander
of Molossis, offered her hand to Leonnatus. If they married, Leonnatus would be
a powerful rival to Perdiccas, and might reasonably claim the throne. However,
the marriage never took place. In the Spring of 322, Leonnatus set out from his
satrapy to relieve Antipater. A victory over the Greeks would certainly enhance
his claim to the throne. He was successful, but was killed in action, having survived
his friend with only one year. It is tempting to think that he was murdered to
prevent a civil war with Perdiccas.
Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
