CASSANDER (c. 354-297 b.c.), king of Macedonia, was probably born about 354 b.c. He first appears in history at the court of Alexander, defending his father Antipater against the accusations of his enemies. Whether it be true or not that he brought himself into disfavour by manifesting his contempt for the Eastern customs with which the king had surrounded himself, it is certain that he conceived a great hatred for Alexander, a hatred so well known that he was accused of having caused the king’s death by poison. When his father became regent of Macedonia, Cassander was made chiliarch; but, when Polysperchon succeeded Antipater, he was not content with this position, but allied himself with Ptolemy Soter and Antigonus, and declared war against the regent. His success was such as to win over most of the Greek States; and he also effected an alliance with Eurydice, the ambitious wife of King Arrhidaeus. Both she and her husband, however, together with Cassander’s brother Nicanor, and a number of others, were soon after slain by Queen Olympias. Cassander at once marched against Olympias, and, having forced her to surrender in Pydna, put her to death. Not long afterwards he also murdered Roxana and Alexander, the wife and son of Alexander the Great. Hë had already connected himself with the royal family by marriage with Thessalonica, Alexander’s half-sister, and, having formed an alliance with Seleucus, Ptolemy, and Lysimachus, and defeated Antigonus and Demetrius near Ipsus, in 301, Cassander became undisputed sovereign of Macedonia and nominal king of Greece. He died some three years after, in 297 b.c. For the history of his campaigns (which is given in Diodorus, xviii.-xxi.) see Macedonia. Cassander is said to have been a man of cultivated literary taste, and we ...