Hi there. You're listening to the Hellenistic Age podcast, Episode 37, Antigated Macedon, Gannatus, and the Macedonian Anarchy. It's rather ironic that the conquest of the Persian Empire by the Macedonian King, Alexander

the Great, ultimately led to nothing but chaos for his homeland.

The Argiate House that had dominated the Macedonian throne for centuries would become extinct only 15 years after Alexander's death,

while Macedon herself would be thrown into civil wars and invasions by would-be kings and aggressive barbarians for almost 40.

The dynasty that would ultimately take control of the region would be the Antigonids,

founded by Antigonus I, but not truly confirmed until his grandson,

Antigonus II Gannatus, who finally established a degree of control of Macedon in the early 3rd century BC.

Though in control of the ancestral heartland of Macedon and the Greek

peninsula, and family members were nowhere near as prone to committing acts of parasite

as the other dynasties, the Antigonids were the first of the Hellenistic kingdoms to fall,

thanks to its proximity to the expanding Roman Republic, and were just not on the same power

level as the neighboring Salucids or Ptolemies.

But for almost a hundred years, they remained formidable opponents, and the court of Pella

was a center of intellectual patronage, especially under the likes of Antignus Canatus, ensuring

that Macedon would at least continue as a prosperous and respected kingdom during the Hellenistic period.

In this episode, we'll be focusing on the early career of Antigna Cannatus, along with a revisit

with Antigna's the One-Eyed and Demetrius Polyarquides.

Just for clarification, I'm not going to cover well-trotting ground, as I have already spent a great deal of time

talking about the affairs of Antigna's the One-Eyed and Demetrius Polyarquides in many episodes. Hell, they were virtually the protagonists in episode 16 through 18, and were major characters in my episodes on Salukas I and Ptolemy I first Sotter. So, if I plan to cover certain events, there is an emphasis on the connection with Gannatus.

Born in the year 319 in the Greek region of Thessaly, Antigonus Gannatus found himself in tumultuous

times. His mother was Fila, a daughter of the former standing region of Macedon, Antipater,

and his father was a young man named Demetrius, the soon-to-be Demetrius the first Polyarquites. We don't know the origins of the nickname Ganatas, or what it exactly means. It could be in reference to the area of Ganoi and Thessaly. It could be an affectionate nickname, meaning nobillini's. But either way, it is uncharacteristically casual compared to the epithets of other Hellenistic

...