Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Menander 2.
MENANDER (Μένανδρος). 1, An officer in the service of Alexander, one of those called ἑταῖροι, but who held the command of a body of mercenaries. He was appointed by Alexander, during the settlement of the affairs of Asia made by that monarch when at Tyre (B. C. 331), to the government of Lydia, and appears to have remained at that post till the year 323, when he was commissioned to conduct a reinforcement of troops to Alexander at Babylon, where he arrived just before the king's last illness. (Arrian, Anab. iii. 6. § 12, vii. 23. § 2.) In the division of the provinces, after the death of Alexander, he received his former government of Lydia, of which he hastened to take possession. (Arrian, ap. Phot. p. 69, b.; Dexippus, ibid. p. 64, a.; Justin, xiii. 4; Curt. x. 30. § 2; Diod. xviii. 3, erroneously has Meleager instead.) He appears to have early attached himself to the party of Antigonus, to whom he was the first to give information of the ambitious schemes of Perdiccas for marrying Cleopatra. (Arrian, ap. Phot. p. 70, b.) In the new distribution of the provinces at Triparadeisus he lost his government of Lydia, which was given to Cleitus (Id. p. 72, a.); but this was probably only in order that he might cooperate the more freely with Antigonus, as we find him commanding a part of the army of the latter in the first campaign against Eumenes (B. C. 320). The following year, on learning the escape of Eumenes from Nora, he advanced with an army into Cappadocia to attack him, and compelled him to take refuge in Cilicia. (Plut. Eum. 9; Diod. xviii. 59.) From this time no farther mention of Menander is found in history.
2. An officer appointed by Alexander to command a fortress in Bactria, whom he afterwards put to death for abandoning his post. (Plut. Alex. 57.)
3. A native of Laodiceia, who was a general of cavalry in the service of Mithridates, and figures on several occasions in the wars of that monarch. He was one of those selected to command the army under the king's son, Mithridates, which was opposed to Fimbria, B. C. 85 (Memnon, c. 34); and again in the operations against Lucullus, near Cabeira, he commanded a detachment of the army of Mithridates, which was destined to cut off a convoy of provisions guarded by Sornatius, but was defeated by that general with heavy loss. (Plut. Lucull. 17.) He afterwards fell a prisoner into the hands of Pompey, and was one of the captives who served to adorn his triumph. (App. Mithr. 117.)
[E. H. B.]