Cassander

Cassander took Macedonia after Alexander's death and destroyed his family to keep it. Born around 355 BC, he was the eldest son of Antipater, the regent Alexander had left in charge of Macedonia and Greece, and was educated with Alexander at Aristotle's school without ever being close to him. He was sent to Babylon in 324 BC to answer complaints against his father and is said to have laughed at Persians prostrating themselves, at which Alexander seized his hair and beat his head against a wall. Plutarch reports that years later Cassander could not look at a statue of Alexander without shaking. Antipater died in 319 BC and, in an unusual act, passed the regency to Polyperchon rather than to his son. Cassander allied with Ptolemy and Antigonus, took Athens and Macedonia by 316 BC, and installed Demetrius of Phalerum to govern Athens for him. He then eliminated the dynasty systematically. Olympias, Alexander's mother, was condemned by an assembly and killed in 316 BC. Alexander IV, Alexander's posthumous son by Roxana, was held at Amphipolis and murdered with his mother around 310 BC when he approached the age of majority. Heracles, an illegitimate son, was killed in 309 BC. He married Alexander's half-sister Thessalonike, which was his own claim to legitimacy, and named a city after her that still carries it. He rebuilt Thebes, which Alexander had razed. He took the royal title in 305 BC and died of dropsy in 297 BC. His line was extinguished within four years. Thessaloniki is the second city of Greece.

• Lived: 355 BCE – 297 BCE
• Nationality: Macedonian
• Roles: ruler, general