Battle of Ipsus in the context of "Diadochi"

Demetrius I Poliorcetes (/dɪˈmiːtriəs pɒliɔːrˈsiːtiːz/; Greek: Δημήτριος Πολιορκητής, Dēmḗtrios Poliorkētḗs, lit. 'the Besieger of Cities'; 337 – 283 BC) was a Macedonian Greek nobleman and military leader who became king of Asia between 306 and 301 BC, and king of Macedon between 294 and 288 BC. A member of the Antigonid dynasty, he was the son of its founder, Antigonus I Monophthalmus, and his wife Stratonice, as well as the first member of the family to rule Macedon in Hellenistic Greece.

In 307 BC, Demetrius successfully ousted Cassander's governor of Athens and after defeating Ptolemy I at the Battle of Salamis (306 BC) he gave his father the title of basileus ("king") over a land spanning from the Aegean Sea to the Middle East. He acquired the title Poliorcetes ("the besieger") after the unsuccessful siege of Rhodes in 305. While Antigonus I and Demetrius planned a revival of the Hellenic League with themselves as dual hegemons, a coalition of the diadochi; Cassander, Seleucus I, Ptolemy I, and Lysimachus defeated the two at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, in which Antigonus I was killed and the Asian territory of his empire was lost. In 294, Demetrius managed to successfully seize control of Athens and establish himself as king of Macedon. He ruled until 288 when he was eventually driven out by Pyrrhus and Lysimachus and later surrendered to Seleucus I in Cilicia, dying there in 283. After a long period of instability, Demetrius's son, Antigonus II Gonatas, managed to solidify the dynasty in the kingdom and establish its hegemony over much of Hellenistic Greece.

Antigonus I Monophthalmus (Ancient Greek: Ἀντίγονος Μονόφθαλμος Antigonos Monophthalmos, "Antigonus the One-Eyed"; 382 – 301 BC) was a Macedonian Greek general and successor of Alexander the Great. A prominent military leader in Alexander's army, he went on to control large parts of Alexander's former empire. He assumed the title of basileus (king) in 306 BC and reigned until his death. He was the founder of the Antigonid dynasty, which ruled over Macedonia until its conquest by the Roman Republic in 168 BC.

Antigonus likely served under Philip II of Macedon. He took part in Alexander's invasion of Achaemenid Persia and was named satrap of Phrygia. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, he also received Pamphylia and Lycia in accordance with the Partition of Babylon. However, he later incurred the enmity of Perdiccas, the regent of Alexander's empire, and was driven from Phrygia. He fled to Greece and formed an alliance with Antipater, later joined by Ptolemy, against Perdiccas. Perdiccas was murdered by his own officers in 320 BC, and Antipater was elected the new regent. During a series of wars between Alexander's successors, Antigonus briefly emerged as the most powerful of the Diadochi, ruling over Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia and northern Mesopotamia. Cassander, Seleucus, Ptolemy and Lysimachus formed a coalition against him, which culminated in his decisive defeat and death at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC. His kingdom was divided up by Lysimachus and Seleucus, but his son Demetrius survived and went on to seize control of Macedonia in 294 BC.

Stratonice (Ancient Greek: Στρατoνίκη, romanized: Stratoníkē; fl. 4th century BC) was daughter of Corrhaeus (Κορῥαῖος, Korrhaĩos, a Macedonian otherwise unknown), and wife of Antigonus I, king of Asia, by whom she became the mother of two sons, Demetrius Poliorcetes and Philip, who died in 306 BC.

In 316 BC, she is mentioned as entering into negotiations with Docimus, when that general was shut up with the other adherents of Perdiccas, in a fortress of Phrygia: but having induced him to quit his stronghold, she caused him to be seized and detained as a prisoner. After the battle of Ipsus she fled from Cilicia (where she had awaited the issue of the campaign) with her son Demetrius to Salamis in Cyprus, 301 BC. Here she probably died, as nothing is mentioned of her when the island fell into the power of Ptolemy some years afterwards.

Ipsus or Ipsos (Ancient Greek: Ἴψος) or Ipsous (Ἴψους), was a town of ancient Phrygia a few miles below Synnada. The place itself never was of any particular note, but it is celebrated in history for the great battle fought in its plains, in 301 BCE, by the aged Antigonus and his son Demetrius against the combined forces of Cassander, Lysimachus, and Seleucus, in which Antigonus lost his conquests and his life. From Hierocles and the Acts of Councils, we learn that in the seventh and eighth centuries it was the see of a Christian bishop. No longer the seat of a residential bishop, Ipsus remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church.

Its site is located near Çayırbağ in Asiatic Turkey.