Antigonus I Monophthalmos

Antigonus I Monophthalmos came closer than any of Alexander's generals to reuniting his empire, and died at eighty-one trying. Born around 382 BC, he lost an eye at a siege, from which his epithet the one-eyed derives, and served under Philip II and then Alexander, who left him as satrap of Phrygia in 333 BC — a rear-area post that kept him out of the Indian campaign and alive. He held the region for a decade, securing Alexander's communications through Anatolia. After Alexander's death in 323 BC he refused to cooperate with the regent Perdiccas, fled to Antipater in Europe, and returned as commander in Asia. He destroyed Eumenes, the ablest of his rivals, in a two-year campaign ending in 316 BC when Eumenes' own veterans handed him over in exchange for their baggage. By 315 BC he controlled Asia Minor, Syria and the eastern provinces, and was by far the strongest of the successors. Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus and Cassander combined against him repeatedly for that reason. He was the first to claim the royal title, in 306 BC, after his son Demetrius destroyed Ptolemy's fleet at Salamis in Cyprus, and the others followed. His son besieged Rhodes for a year with siege towers of unprecedented size, earning the name Poliorcetes, the besieger, and failed; the Rhodians sold the abandoned equipment and built the Colossus with the proceeds. The coalition met him at Ipsus in Phrygia in 301 BC. Seleucus's elephants cut Demetrius's cavalry off from the phalanx, and Antigonus was killed by javelins.

• Lived: 382 BCE – 301 BCE
• Nationality: Macedonian
• Roles: general, ruler