Lysimachus [key], c.355–281 b.c., Thessalian general of Alexander the Great. He was a commander in Alexander's fleet on the Hydaspes as well as his bodyguard. On Alexander's death (323 b.c.) Lysimachus took control of Thrace. He joined (314 b.c.) the other Diadochi—Cassander, Ptolemy I, and Seleucus I—in the league against Antigonus I, and after the defeat of Antigonus at Ipsus, Lysimachus took W Asia Minor as his share (301 b.c.). In 286 b.c. he added Macedon to his kingdom by defeating Pyrrhus. Five years later Lysimachus was defeated in a war with Seleucus and was killed in battle at Corupedium near Magnesia ad Sipylum. A legend says that Lysimachus' wife, Arsinoë (daughter of Ptolemy I), persuaded him to kill his son by a former marriage and that the son's widow took refuge with Seleucus and provoked the final war.
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