Aeacides of Epirus

Aeacides may also refer to Peleus, son of Aeacus, or Achilles, grandson of Aeacus.

Aeacides (Greek: Aἰακίδης; died 313 BC), king of Epirus (331-316, 313 BC), was son of Arymbas and grandson of Alcetas I. He succeeded to the throne of Epirus on the death of his cousin Alexander, who was slain in Italy.^[1] Aeacides married Phthia, the daughter of Menon of Pharsalus, by whom he had the celebrated Pyrrhus and two daughters, Deidamia and Troias. In 317 BC he assisted Polyperchon in restoring his cousin Olympias and the five-year-old king Alexander IV (mother and son of Alexander the Great), to Macedonia. In the following year he marched to the assistance of Olympias, who was hard pressed by Cassander; but the Epirots disliked the service, rose against Aeacides, and drove him from the kingdom. Pyrrhus, who was then only two years old, was with difficulty saved from destruction by some faithful servants. But becoming tired of the Macedonian rule, the Epirots recalled Aeacides in 313 BC; Cassander immediately sent an army against him under his brother, Philip, who conquered him the same year in two battles, in the last of which he was killed.^[2]

References

^ Livy, History of Rome, viii. 24
^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, i. 11; Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca, xix. 11, 36, 74; Plutarch, Lives, "Pyrrhus", 1-2

Sources

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).

External links

The Ancient Library - Aeacides

Preceded by Alexander I	King of Epirus 331–313 BC	Succeeded by Macedonian Rule
Preceded by Macedonian Rule	King of Epirus 313 BC	Succeeded by Alcetas II

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