BATTLE OF IPSUS. 387 ing the forraidablt, army of the allies — Ptolemj, Seleukus, Lysimachus, and Kassander. Before retiring from Greece, Demetrius concluded a truce with Kassander, whereby it was stipulated that the Grecian cities, both in Europe and Asia, should be permanently autonomous and free from garrison or control. This stipulation served only as an honorable pretext for leaving Greece ; Demetrius had little expectation that it would be observed.^ In the ensuing spring was fought the de- cisive battle of Ipsus in Phrygia (b. c. 300), by Antigonus and Demetrius, against Ptolemy, Seleukus, and Lysimachus ; with a large army and many elephants on both sides. Antigonus was completely defeated and slain, at the age of more than eighty years. His Asiatic dominion was broken up, chiefly to the profit of Seleukus, whose dynasty became from henceforward ascendent, from the coast of Sj^ria eastward to the Caspian Gates and Parthia ; sometimes, though imperfectly, farther cast- ward, nearly to the Indus.^ The effects of the battle of Ipsus were speedily felt in Greece. The Athenians passed a decree proclaiming themselves neutral, and excluding both the belligerent parties from Attica. Deme- trius, retiring with the remnant of his defeated army, and em- barking at Ephesus to sail to Athens, was met on the voyage by Athenian envoys, who respectfully acquainted him that he would not be admitted. At the same time, his wife Dtidanieia, whom ' Diodor. x.K. 111. It must have been probably during this campaign that Demetrius began or projected the foundation of the important city of Demetrias on the Gulf of Magnesia, which afterwards became one of the great strongholds of the Macedonian ascendency in Greece (Strabo, ix. ]>. 436-443, in which latter passage, the reference to Hieronyinus of Kardia seems to prove that that historian gave a full description of Demetrias and its foundation). See about Demetrias, Mannert, Georgr. Griech. v. vii. p. 'S')l.
- Mr. Fynes Clinton (Fast. Hell. b. c. 301) places the battle of Ipsus in
August 301 B. c. ; which appears to me some months earlier than the reality. It is clear from Diodorus, (and indeed from Mr. Clinton's own admission) that winter-quarters in Asia intervened between the departure of Demetrius from Athens in or soon after April 301 b. c, and the battle of Ipsus. Moreover Demetrius, immediately after leaving Athens, carried on many operations against Kassander in Thessaly, before crossing ovei to Asia to ioin Antigonus (Diodor. xx. 110, 111).
