Antigonus I Monophthalmus

Born c. 382 BC of a Macedonian noble family, served under Philip II and was already a senior commander when Alexander succeeded in 336. Lost his right eye at an early siege (the by-name *Monophthalmus* / 'the One-Eyed' is fixed in Plut. *Demetr.* 1 + Diod. 18.50). Made satrap of Greater Phrygia at the Babylon settlement of 323 (Diod. 18.3); confirmed and promoted to *strategos autokrator of Asia* at Triparadisus 321 with the prosecution of the war against Eumenes. After Gabiene 316 (Diod. 19.42–43 + Plut. *Eum.* 16–19) held all of Asia from the Hellespont to the Indus and was the dominant Diadochus through the 310s. The naval victory of his son Demetrius at Salamis-in-Cyprus 306 was the occasion of his assumption of the royal title (Plut. *Demetr.* 17–18 + Diod. 20.53.1) — the first of the Diadochi to take the diadem, the others responding within months. Killed in the centre of his own line at the battle of Ipsus, summer 301, in his eighty-first year (Plut. *Demetr.* 29.5: 'Antigonus, in the eighty-first year of his age... received many wounds, and stood his ground bravely... fell, surrounded by enemy javelins'). His empire was partitioned by the victors that night; his dynasty was preserved by his son Demetrius and reconstituted at Pella by his grandson Antigonus II Gonatas.

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