Antigonus the One-Eyed nearly reassembled Alexander's empire before his rivals ganged up
A catapult bolt at the siege of Perinthus in 340 BC probably cost Antigonus an eye and gave him his nickname. For years afterwards he guarded Alexander's supply lines in Anatolia, and after Alexander died he briefly became the most powerful of the generals fighting over the empire, until his rivals united against him.
Born around 382 BC to a Macedonian noble named Philip, Antigonus was about the same age as King Philip II and almost certainly fought in his wars, where he befriended future power brokers such as Antipater and Eumenes. In 334 BC he led the allied Greek foot soldiers in Alexander's invasion of Persia. Alexander distrusted those troops and left them out of the Granicus battle, then made Antigonus governor of Phrygia.
It was a vital but unglamorous post. Antigonus besieged a leftover garrison of Carian and Greek mercenaries, hired them after they surrendered, and sent his own 1,500 men to join Alexander before Issus. When Persian forces regrouped in Cappadocia to cut Alexander's communications, Antigonus beat them in three separate battles.
After Alexander's death in 323 BC, he clashed with the regent Perdiccas and fled to Greece with his son Demetrius. He sided with Antipater, Craterus and Ptolemy, and when Perdiccas was murdered by his own officers, Antigonus was named general of Asia. In a single campaigning season he defeated Eumenes at Orkynia and trapped him in the fortress of Nora, then surprised and crushed the other Perdiccan commanders at Cretopolis. Eumenes escaped by a trick and fought on for years, once catching Antigonus mid-river at the Kopratas and killing or capturing 4,000 of his men.
By around 315 BC Antigonus held everything from the eastern provinces to Syria and Asia Minor. In 314 BC Ptolemy, Cassander and Lysimachus sent envoys demanding territories and a share of his treasure; he told them to prepare for war, and spent a year besieging Tyre. He crowned himself king in 306 BC. A coalition including Seleucus finally defeated and killed him at Ipsus in 301 BC, but Demetrius seized Macedonia in 294 BC, and their dynasty ruled it until Rome conquered it in 168 BC.
Source: Antigonus I Monophthalmus
