1.
Demetrius II Nicator
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For the similarly named Macedonian ruler, see Demetrius II of Macedon. For the Macedonian prince, see Demetrius the Fair, Demetrius II, called Nicator, was one of the sons of Demetrius I Soter, brother of Antiochus VII Sidetes and his mother could have been Laodice V. He ruled the Seleucid Empire for two periods, separated by a number of years of captivity in Hyrcania in Parthia. As a young boy, he fled to Crete after the death of his father, his mother and his older brother, about 147 BC he returned to Syria, and with the backing of Ptolemy VI Philometor, king of Egypt, regained his fathers throne. The Egyptian king also divorced his daughter Cleopatra Thea from Balas, Alexander fled to the Nabateans who, anxious to stay on good terms with Egypt, cut off his head. However, Demetrius was not a popular king, the people of Syria had little respect for the young boy, who had come to power with the help of Egypt and Cretan mercenaries led by the ruthless condottiere Lasthenes. The Antiochenians offered the Seleucid throne to Ptolemy VI, who had conquered most of southern Syria for his own interest. The Egyptian troops marched home, leaderless and disillusioned, and with Balas dead as well Demetrius became sole master of the Seleucid kingdom, the pillaging of the Cretan soldiers caused the Antiochenians to rise in rebellion, and only after terrible massacres was order restored. Soon after, the general Diodotus conquered Antioch and had his protégé Antiochus VI Dionysus, Demetrius proved unable to retake the capital, instead establishing himself in Seleucia. Diodotus had Antiochus VI deposed a few later, and made himself king as Tryphon. In 139 BC, Parthian activity forced Demetrius to take action and he marched against Mithradates I, king of Parthia and was initially successful, but was defeated in the Iranian mountains and taken prisoner the following year. King Mithradates had kept Demetrius II alive and even married him to a Parthian princess named Rhodogune, when the two friends were captured, the Parthian king did not punish Kallimander but rewarded him for his fidelity to Demetrius. The second time Demetrius was captured when he tried to escape, Mithradates humiliated him by giving him a set of dice. It was however for reasons that the Parthians treated Demetrius II kindly. In 130 BC Antiochus Sidetes felt secure enough to march against Parthia, now Phraates II made what he thought was a powerful move, he released Demetrius, hoping that the two brothers would start a civil war. However, Sidetes was defeated soon after his brothers release and never met him, Phraates II set people to pursue Demetrius, but he managed to safely return home to Syria and regained his throne and his queen as well. However, the Seleucid kingdom was now but a shadow of its former glory, recollections of his cruelties and vices – along with his humiliating defeat – caused him to be greatly detested. The Egyptian queen Cleopatra II set up an army for Demetrius, hoping to engage him in her wars against her brother king Ptolemy VIII
2.
Antigonus II Gonatas
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Antigonus Gonatas was born around 319 BC, probably in Gonnoi in Thessaly unless Gonatas is derived from an iron plate protecting the knee. He was related to the most powerful of the Diadochi, Antigonuss father was Demetrius Poliorcetes, who was the son of Antigonus I Monophthalmus, who then controlled much of Asia. His mother was Phila, the daughter of Antipater, the latter controlled Macedonia and the rest of Greece and was recognized as regent of the empire, which in theory remained united. In this year, however, Antipater died, leading to further struggles for territory, the careers of Antigonuss grandfather and father showed great swings in fortune. The fate of Antigonus Gonatas, now 18, was tied with that of his father Demetrius. Jealousy among the victors eventually allowed Demetrius to regain part of the power his father had lost and he conquered Athens and in 294 BC he seized the throne of Macedonia from Alexander, the son of Cassander. Hoping to seize Lysimachuss territories in Thrace and Asia, Demetrius delegated command of his forces in Boeotia to Antigonus, while he was away, the Boeotians rose in rebellion, but were defeated by Antigonus, who bottled them up in Thebes. After the failure of his expedition to Thrace, Demetrius rejoined his son at the siege of Thebes, as the Thebans defended their city stubbornly, Demetrius often forced his men to attack the city at great cost, even though there was little hope of capturing it. It is said that, distressed by the losses, Antigonus asked his father, Why, father. Demetrius appears to have showed his contempt for the lives of his soldiers by replying, but he also showed a similar disregard for his own life and was badly wounded at the siege by a bolt through the neck. In 291 BC, Demetrius finally took the city after using siege engines to demolish its walls, but control of Macedonia and most of Greece was merely a stepping stone to his plans for further conquest. He aimed at nothing less than the revival of Alexanders empire and started making preparations on a scale, ordering the construction of a fleet of 500 ships. Such preparations and the intent behind them, naturally alarmed the other kings, Seleucus, Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Pyrrhus. In the spring of 288 BC Ptolemys fleet appeared off Greece, at the same time, Lysimachus attacked Macedonia from the east while Pyrrhus did so from the west. Demetrius left Antigonus in control of Greece, while he hurried to Macedonia, by now the Macedonians had come to resent the extravagance and arrogance of Demetrius, and were not prepared to fight a difficult campaign for him. In 287 BC, Pyrrhus took the Macedonian city of Verroia and Demetriuss army promptly deserted, at this change of fortune, Phila, the mother of Antigonus, killed herself with poison. Demetrius therefore returned and besieged the city, but he grew impatient. Leaving Antigonus in charge of the war in Greece, he assembled all his ships and embarked with 11,000 infantry and all his cavalry to attack Caria and Lydia, provinces of Lysimachus
3.
Antigonus III Doson
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Antigonus III Doson was king of Macedon from 229 BC to 221 BC. He was a member of the Antigonid dynasty, Antigonus III Doson was a half-cousin of his predecessor, Demetrius II Aetolicus. Dosons father was Demetrius the Fair, the son of Demetrius Poliorcetes and his wife, Ptolemaïs, daughter of Ptolemy I Soter and Eurydice. According to Eusebius, Dosons own mother was a Thessalian noblewoman, Olympias, Antigonus also had a brother named Echecrates, whose son, named Antigonus after Doson himself, was put to death by Perseus on the latters accession to the throne of Macedon. Rather than contenting himself with his bride, Demetrius openly became the lover of her powerful mother. So the jealous bride took her revenge by having him assassinated and it is unclear whether Dosons mother had died before this time. The meaning of Antigonus by-name is uncertain, according to Plutarch it implied that he was given to promising but did not perform his engagements, though even the exact meaning of this is unclear. When Demetrius II died in battle in 229 BC, his son and would-be successor, according to Plutarch, both the Macedonian army and nobility thought the political situation too volatile to wait for Philip V to mature enough to assume command. As a consequence, the Macedonian nobility turned to Doson, who was made regent of the kingdom and married to his predecessors widow. Unlike his Antigonid ancestors, he had no rivals to challenge his right to rule. Yet, even as king he apparently envisioned himself as caretaker for his cousins son, as king, Antigonus III proved to be as much a master of tactical diplomacy as of military strategy. In less than a decade of rule he not only secured the borders of his nation, unlike previous Macedonian rulers who attempted direct dominion over their fiercely independent neighbors to the West and South, he formed alliances with Epirus and the Achaean League. Establishing his base on the heights above Corinth, Antigonus reconstituted a broad-based Hellenic league under his leadership before launching his attack on Sparta. However, in a gesture, Antigonus restrained his soldiers from plundering Sparta, saying it was Cleomenes, not Sparta. Antigonus did not long survive this victory, for, while his forces were campaigning in the southern Peloponnese, Illyrians invaded Macedonia from the north. Antigonus had to rush north to repel this new threat and his death occurred soon after, when he returned to Macedon and engaged the Illyian army, for though Macedonian forces were once again victorious, the commander became sick during the battle and died. Antigonus III Doson entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith
4.
Philip V of Macedon
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Philip V was King of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia from 221 to 179 BC. Philips reign was marked by an unsuccessful struggle with the emerging power of the Roman Republic. Philip was attractive and charismatic as a young man, the son of Demetrius II and Chryseis, Philip was nine years old at his fathers death in 229 BC. He had a paternal half sister called Apame. His cousin, Antigonus Doson, administered the kingdom as regent until his death in 221 BC when Philip was seventeen years old, on his ascent to the throne, Philip quickly showed that while he was young, this did not mean that Macedon was weak. In the first year of his rule, he pushed back the Dardani, in the Social War, the Hellenic League of Greek states was assembled at Philip V’s instigation in Corinth. He then led the Hellenic League in battles against Aetolia, Sparta, in this way he was able to increase his own authority amongst his own ministers. His leadership during the Social War made him well-known and respected both within his own kingdom and abroad and he first tried to invade Illyria from the sea, but with limited success. His first expedition in 216 BC had to be aborted, while he suffered the loss of his fleet in a second expedition in 214 BC. A later expedition by land met with success when he captured Lissus in 212 BC. In 215 BC, he entered into a treaty with Hannibal and their treaty defined spheres of operation and interest, but achieved little of substance or value for either side. Philip became heavily involved in assisting and protecting his allies from attacks from the Spartans, romes alliance with the Aetolian League in 211 BC effectively neutralised Philips advantage on land. The intervention of Attalus I of Pergamum on the Roman side further exposed Philips position in Macedonia, Philip and his troops sacked Thermum, the religious and political centre of Aetolia. His troops destroyed 2,000 statues and hauled away vast sums of treasure which included some fifteen thousand shields and suits of arms the Aetolians had decorated their stoas with. These shields were the armor taken from the enemies of the Aetolians during their previous military victories, Philip V took immense sums of gold and treasures and then burned down temples and public buildings of the Aetolians. Philip was able to force the Aetolians to accept his terms in 206 BC, the following year he was able to conclude the Peace of Phoenice with Rome and its allies. This expansion of Macedonian influence created alarm in a number of neighbouring states, including Pergamum and their navies clashed with Philip’s off Chios and Lade in 201 BC. At around the time, the Romans were finally the victors over Carthage
5.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Demetrius s.v. Demetrius II". Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 982–983.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the 
