ABSTRACT
The confl icts between the kings of the eastern Mediterranean kingdoms largely centred on the successive wars between the Seleukids and the Ptolemies, where the main prize was Syria, but another major region of confl ict, involving the Ptolemies, the Antigonids of Macedon, and the Greek states, was in and around the Aegean Sea. The immediate origin of this confl ict area was in the ambitions of Antigonos Monophthalamos. He had dominated Greece, the Aegean region, and Asia Minor until his death, but he had never managed to gain full control in Greece nor any access to Macedon. His son, Demetrios Poliorketes, inherited control of his father’s great fl eet after the old man died in the battle at Ipsos and proceeded to seize control of Macedon for a time from 294. He instituted a great programme of army and navy expansion, clearly aiming to revive his father’s dead empire.
