A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

4 70 POLYSPERCHON. POLYSTRATUS.
sperchon, and sent to Athens to undergo the form perchon to his cause, by offering him the chief
of a trial. (Diod. xviii. 49, 54-58, 62, 64-66; command in the Peloponnese. The bribe was
Plut. Phoc. 31-34. For a more detailed account accepted, and for a short time Polysperchon and
of these transactions see PHOCION.) his son conjointly carried on the war in the PeloBy the destruction of Phocion and his friends, ponnese against Cassander and the generals ot
the regent hoped to have secured the adherence of Ptolemy. But before the end of the same year
the Athenians; but while he was still in Phocis Alexander was gained over by Cassander; and
with the king (B. c. 318), Cassander himself un- Polysperchon, though he did not follow the exexpectedly arrived in Attica with a considerable ample of his son, and coalesce with his old enemy,
fleet and army, and established himself in the at least assumed a position hostile to Antigonus,
Peiraeeus. Hereupon Polysperchon advanced into as we find him in 313 defending Sicyon and
Attica and laid siege to the Peiraeeus, but finding Corinth against Telesphorus, the lieutenant of that
that he made little progress, he left his son Alex- general. (Id. ib. 60, 62, 64, 74.) From this time
ander to continue the blockade, while he himself we lose sight of him till B. c. 310, when he again
advanced into the Peloponnese with a large army. assumed an important part by reviving the longHere he at first met with little opposition: almost forgotten pretensions of Heracles the son of Barall the cities obeyed his mandates and expelled or sine (now the only surviving son of Alexander)
put to death the leaders of their respective oli- to the throne of Macedonia. Having induced the
garchies: Megalopolis alone refused submission, unhappy youth to quit his retirement at Pergamus,
and was immediately besieged by the regent him- and join him in the Peloponnese, he persuaded the
self with his whole army. Polysperchon had Aetolians to espouse his cause, and with their
apparently expected an easy victory, but the valour assistance raised a large army, with which he
of the citizens frustrated his calculations: all his advanced towards Macedonia. He was met at
attacks were repulsed, and after some time he found Trampyae in Stymphaea by Cassander, but the
himself compelled to raise the siege and withdraw latter, distrusting the fidelity of his own troops,
from the Peloponnese. Shortly afterwards his ad- instead of risking an engagement, entered into
miral Cleitus, who had been despatched with a fleet secret negotiations with Polysperchlon, and endeato the Hellespont, was totally defeated by that of voured by promises and flatteries to induce him to
Cassander under Nicanor, and his forces utterly abandon the pretender whom he had himself set
destroyed. (Diod. xviii. 68-72.) up. Polysperchon had the weakness to give way,
These reverses quickly produced an unfavourable and the meanness to serve the purposes of Cassanturn in the disposition of the Greek states towards der by the assassination of Heracles at a banquet.
Polysperchon: and Athens in particular again (Diod. xx. 20-28. For further details and auabandoned his alliance for that of Cassander, who thorities, see HERACLES.) It is satisfactory to
established an oligarchical government in the city know that Polysperchon did not reap the expected
under the presidency of Demetrius of Phalerus. reward of his crime: Cassander had promised him
(Id. ib. 74, 75.) At the same time Eurydice, the the chief command of the Peloponnese, but this he
active and intriguing wife of the unhappy king certainly never obtained, though we find him at a
Arrhidaeus, conceived the project of throwing off later period possessing a certain footing in that
the yoke of the regent, and concluded an alliance country: he seems to have occupied a subordinate
with Cassander, while she herself assembled an and inglorious position. The last occasion on which
army with which she obtained for a time the his name occurs in history is in B. c. 303, when we
complete possession of Macedonia. But in the find him co-operating with Cassander and Prepespring of 317 Polysperchon having united his laus against Demetrius (Diod. xx. 103), but no
forces with those of Aeacides king of Epeirus, notice of his subsequent fortunes or the period of
invaded Macedonia, accompanied by Olympias, his death has been transmitted to us.*
whose presence alone quickly determined the con- Polysperchon appears to have been a soldier of
test. [OLYMPIAS]. During the subsequent events considerable merit, and to have been regarded by
Polysperchon plays but a subordinate part. We the Macedonians with favour as belonging to the
do not learn that he interposed to prevent the older race of Alexander's generals; but he was
cruelties of Olympias, or to save the life of the altogether unequal to the position in which he
unhappy king, of whom he was the nominal found himself placed on the death of Antipater,
guardian: and though he afterwards occupied the and his weakness degenerated into the basest vilpasses of Perrhaebia with an army, he was unable lany in such instances as the surrender of Phocion,
to prevent the advance of Cassander into Mace- and the assassination of Heracles.
donia, or to avert the fall of Pydna, which fell 2. A leader of mercenaries who joined with
into the hands of the enemy, while Polysperchon Leptines in the assassination of Callippus. (Plut.
was still shut up in Perrhaebia. Here he was Dion, 58.) [CALLIPPUS.] [E. H. B.]
reduced to great straits by Cassander's general POLYSTE'PHANUS (oevrTse'qpavos), a
Callas, and was besieged in the town of Azorus, Greek writer, possessed no small reputation, but
when the news of the death of Olympias (B. c. his writings were full of incredible tales. (Gell. ix.
316) caused him to despair of recovering his 4.) Harpocration (s. v. AoUvrppo'pos) quotes a
footing in Macedonia, and he withdrew with a work of his 7rspl KprnV1v.
small force into Aetolia. (Diod. xix. 11, 35, 36, POLY'STRATUS. 1. An eminent Epicurean
52.) - philosopher, who succeeded Hermarchus as head of
From thence he appears to have joined his son
Alexander in the Peloponnese, where we find him * Justin, by some inconceivable error, represents
in B. C. 315, when the altered position of affairs Polysperchon as killed in the war against Eumehaving united Cassander with Lysimachus, Ptolemy, nes, before the death of Antipater (xiii. 8): and
and Seleucus in a general coalition against Anti- again (xv. 1, init.) alludes to him as dead before
gonus, the latter sought to attach the aged Polys- the murder of Heracles the son of Barsine.