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BATTLE OF IPSUS
The Battle of Ipsus was fought between some of the Diadochi (the successors of Alexander the Great) in 301 BC near the village of that name in Phrygia. Antigonus I Monophthalmus and his son Demetrius I of Macedon were pitted against the coalition of three other companions of Alexander: Cassander, ruler of Macedon; Lysimachus, ruler of Thrace; and Seleucus I Nicator, ruler of Babylonia and Persia.
Antigonus was 80 years old and the ruler of modern day Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, and Judea. His army was huge and had defeated many enemies. He had 75 war elephants. His enemies had a somewhat smaller force (believed to be around 60,000 men), but they had Seleucus and some 400 elephants, which Seleucus had obtained from the Indian emperor Chandragupta Maurya two year earlier in exchange for his easternmost territories [1]. This was the only major European battle in which both sides employed Indian war elephants.
Except Plutarch's life of Demetrius, almost no histories have survived with an account of the battle.
Both sides deployed their phalanxes in the centre, both sides also deployed their light infantry and elephants ahead of the main battle line, however of Seleucus's elephants only 100 were deployed, the rest were held in reserve. Lysimachus and Seleucus split their cavalry evenly between each wing, however Antigonus deployed the largest and most experienced of his cavalry under Demetrius on the right wing.
In the centre the elephants and light infantry met, each sides infantry attempting to hamstring the enemies elephants while protecting their own. Demetrius then advanced driving the enemies left wing under Seleucus's son Antiochus, however he was blocked from attacking the allies phalanx by the elephant reserve under Seleucus. Meanwhile in the centre Antigonus' more numerous and experienced troops appeared to be carrying the day, however a detachment of horse archers and skirmishers transferred from the allied right flank to attack Antigonus' unguarded right flank. Harassed and bombarded by javelins Antigonus' men began to lose hope. Soon many of them began to desert until both armies became hopelessly disorganised and as Antigonus desperately tried to rally his men he died under a hail of javelins.
The battle resulted in the division of the short-lived Alexandrian Empire into three main power centers: Macedon in the west, Syria and Babylonia (under the Seleucids) in the center, and Egypt (under the Ptolemies) to the south. Ipsus is an important battle, but it finalized the breakup of an empire, not the creation of one, which may account for its obscurity.
Notes
- ^ "The Indians occupy [in part] some of the countries situated along the Indus, which formerly belonged to the Persians: Alexander deprived the Ariani of them, and established there settlements of his own. But Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus in consequence of a marriage contract, and received in return five hundred elephants." Strabo 15.2.1(9)
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