Demetrius I Poliorcetes

Son of Antigonus the One-Eyed and Stratonice, born 337/336 BC — the same year as Alexander's accession. Naval victor at Salamis-in-Cyprus 306 against Ptolemy (Plut. *Demetr.* 16–17 + Diod. 20.49–52) — the engagement that triggered the Antigonid royal title and the Diadochic kingships. By-name *Poliorcetes*, 'the Besieger', earned at the great Rhodian siege of 305/4 (Diod. 20.81–88, 20.91–100), the year-long blockade of the island-city for which he had built the colossal *Helepolis* (the 'city-taker' siege-tower, nine storeys high) and which the Rhodians used as the bronze for the Colossus of Rhodes after his withdrawal. Cut off from his father's centre at Ipsus 301 by Seleucus's elephant-line after the over-pursuit on the Antigonid right (Plut. *Demetr.* 28–29); escaped with five thousand foot to Cilicia and held the Aegean fleet. Took Athens 295, took Macedon 294, lost both to Pyrrhus and Lysimachus 287, surrendered to Seleucus 286 and was kept in honourable captivity at the Syrian palace of Apamea, where he drank himself to death by 283 (Plut. *Demetr.* 52). His son Antigonus II Gonatas would re-conquer Macedon 277 after the Galatian invasion and found the Antigonid dynasty in its definitive form.

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