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2 results

  • 9 - The Use of Divination by Macedonian Kings

  • Edited by Roger D. Woodard, State University of New York, Buffalo
  • Book:
    Divination and Prophecy in the Ancient Greek World
    Published online:
    22 December 2022
    Print publication:
    05 January 2023, pp 219-239

  • Summary

    Macedonian kings used four methods of divination common among the Greeks – extispicy and other sacrifices, teratology, oneiromancy, and oracles – and resembled the Greeks in regard to when and how they consulted seers. The evidence mainly concerns Alexander III but allows conclusions to be drawn about traditional Macedonian royal practice. This practice differed from Greek divination on two counts: the employment of Egyptian and Babylonian seers by both Alexander and his Successors and the combination of royal divination with ruler cult; in other words, the combination of some sacrifices made by or for Macedonian kings with sacrifices made to them as quasi-divine beings. Demetrius Poliorcetes illustrates the perils of combining divination and ruler cult. This chapter also surveys Macedonian divinatory personnel, notably Aristander of Telmessus, Alexander’s chief seer, but also including unnamed Babylonian seers employing astrological methods foreign to the Greeks and Macedonians.

  • 4 - The formation of the Hellenistic kingdoms

  • Edited by F. W. Walbank, University of Liverpool, A. E. Astin, Queen's University Belfast, M. W. Frederiksen, R. M. Ogilvie
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    06 September 1984, pp 101-117

  • Summary

    The pattern of the great Hellenistic kingdoms was fixed, under the three dynasties: the Ptolemaic, the Seleucid and the Antigonid, which were to preside over their destinies until their respective ends. Having narrowly escaped from the massacre of Ipsus, Demetrius Poliorcetes had hurled himself at Ephesus: he had to keep control of the sea. The occupation of the northern half of Macedonia in 288/7 expense of Demetrius, had further increased the importance of Lysimachus' state, and its ruler might well have seemed to have a chance of achieving what the Antigonids had attempted in vain, if not the re-establishment of Alexander's empire, at least a kingdom centred on the Aegean sea with all the coasts held by the same sovereign. The European Greek cities were broadly sympathetic to Lysimachus from hatred of the Antigonids, since Gonatas still held Corinth, Piraeus, Chalcis and some other towns, mainly in the Peloponnese.