Lysandra1, daughter of Ptolemy I and Eurydice2, date of birth unknown, first married Alexander V, later (c. Aug./Sept. 297) king of Macedon3, till his murder by Demetrius Poliorcetes spring or summer of 2944, by whom she had no known children. She second married Agathocles, son and heir of Lysimachus king of Thrace5, c. 292/16, by whom she had at least two children7. After the execution of Agathocles by his father, c. 283/2, she fled to the court of Seleucus I with her children8. Her subsequent career, and that of her children, is unknown.
[1] PP VI 14529 = PP VI 14530. Gr: Lusandra. On the suggestion that Ptolemy I had two daughters called Lysandra, see here. Ý
[2] Pausanias 1.9.6. Ý
[3] Porphyry, FGrH 695, 698. Ý
[4] Plutarch, Demetrius 36. Since Lysimachus was Demetrius' enemy there is no need to suppose, with Macurdy (Hellenistic Queens, 57), that Lysandra returned to Egypt after the death of Alexander. She probably fled directly to Lysimachus' court. The dates of Alexander V are determined by dead reckoning back from the assassination of Seleucus I using the Macedonian and Thessalian kinglists in Porphyry in Eusebius, Chronicorum (ed. Schoene) 241, 245, which give him amd his brother reigns of 3 years and 6 months preceding the 6 year 6 month reign of Demetrius and the 5 year 6 month reign of Lysimachus, modified by Phlegon's statement (FGrH 257a -- pOxy 2082) that Cassander died in the latter part of the (intercalary) month, the second Artemisios in Olympiad 120.3 (i.e. 298/7) (i.e. May 297, according to N. G. L. Hammond and F. W. Walbank, A History of Macedonia III (1988) 208) and that Philip IV died four months later (FGrH 257a F 3). Ý
[5] Pausanias 1.9.6, 1.10.3. Ý
[6] Plutarch (Demetrius 31.3) says that Lysimachus and his son Agathocles each married a daughter of Ptolemy I about the same time (i.e. c. 300), while Pausanias gives Lysandra as the name of Agathocles' wife and states firstly (1.9.6) that the marriage took place after Lysimachus was returned from captivity by the Getae (c. 292/1) and secondly (1.10.3) that Lysandra already had children by Agathocles at the time that Lysimachus married Arsinoe II (c. 300).
Macurdy (Hellenistic Queens, 36) proposes to interpret Plutarch to mean that a dual marriage was proposed in 300, but only the marriage of Lysimachus to Arsinoe II took place at that time; however she acknowledges that the second statement of Pausanias must still then be a mistake. While it is sometimes proposed to reconcile the evidence either by creating an unknown daughter of Ptolemy, first wife of Agathocles, or by creating two daughters of Ptolemy both called Lysandra, the simplest solution seems to be that the historical tradition got confused, the reality being one Lysandra who married twice, and that Agathocles did not marry her till the late 290s. Another possibility -- that Lysimachus did not marry Arsinoe II till c. 292 -- can be ruled out by the details surrounding that marriage, notably the ages of her sons.
In a recent review of this issue, S. Dimitriev, GRBS 47 (2007) 135, suggests that Pausanias 1.10.3 is referring to a promotion of Arsinoe II to chief queen after her full brother, Ptolemy II, was made coregent in Egypt, an act which meant that Lysandra's family would no longer be influential in Egypt and in fact would be a source of antigonism. At that time, c. 285, Lysandra would certainly have been married and probably already had children. Ý
[7] Pausanias 1.10.3. Ý
[8] Pausanias 1.10.4. The date of the death of Agathocles is estimated circumstantially from the accounts of Justin 17.1 and Pausanias 1.10.3 - 4, which imply that the war with Seleucus broke out shortly thereafter, see the discussion in N. G. L. Hammond and F. W. Walbank, A History of Macedonia III 239 n. 2. Ý
Update Notes:
8-9 Feb 2002: Added individual trees
16 Feb 2002: Split out into separate entry
23 Aug 2003: Added Xrefs to online Justin.
13 Sep 2004: Add Xref to online Eusebius
11 Mar 2005: Added Greek transcription
14 June 2008: Note Dmitriev's
proposal to reconcile the data on the dates of the marriages of
Lysandra and Arsinoe II
Website © Chris Bennett, 2001-2011 -- All rights reserved