The struggles between the generals, who divided
among themselves the world of Alexander, went
through five stages before things settled down into
the state in which we find them in the last period of
Greek nominal independence. In the first two of
these, B.C. 323 and 321, the empire is still professedly
united under the two kings, Philip Arrhidaeus
(half-brother of Alexander the Great) and Alexander IV.,
his posthumous child by Roxana. In the third (B.C.
312) Philip has disappeared (murdered by Olympias
in B.C. 317), and though Alexander is still nominally
king, four great satraps are really exercising
independent power—Ptolemy, son of Lagos, in Egypt;
Lysimachus, in Thrace; Antigonus, in Asia;
Seleucus in Babylonia. In B.C. 311 Alexander and
Roxana were murdered by the order of Cassander.
Then followed fresh quarrels, ended at last by a
naval victory of Demetrius, son of Antigonus, over
Ptolemy (B.C. 306).
COIN OF PTOLEMY, KING OF EGYPT, OB. B.C. 285.
After this the Diadochi assumed the title of king, Ptolemy of Egypt, Antigonus of Syria and Asia Minor, Seleucus of Upper Asia (Babylonia), Lysima-
