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Argead dynasty

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Argead dynasty (in Greek: οἱ Ἀργεάδαι hoi Argeádai) were an ancient Greek noble family. They were the ruling family and founders of Macedon, a kingdom in northern Greece from c. 700 BC - c. 309 BC. The members of the family claimed descent from Heracles, the demigod and they have allegedly migrated to the region from the southern Greek city of Argos (thus the name Argead). The family's greatest members were Philip II of Macedon, who united the Greeks, and Alexander the Great, who defeated the Persian Empire and created the Empire of Alexander. The Argead line ended during the wars of the Diadochi when Alexander III's sister Cleopatra was murdered in Sardis by the local garrison commander at the behest of Antigonus I Monophthalmus, before she could flee to Egypt to accept the marriage proposal of Ptolemy I. The last legitimate male of the Argead line was Alexander IV, son of Alexander III with Roxanne, the daughter of the Bactrian warlord and later Satrap of Paropamisadai Oxyartes. He was murdered by Cassander, the current King and formally strategos of Macedon, after he entered into a treaty with his fellow Diadochi, acknowledging the end of their independent rule when Alexander's young son came of age.

Before acquiescing to Cassander, the successor to the imperial regency (an office first held by Perdiccas, until his murder at the failure of his Nile campaign) Polyperchon championed the cause of an illegitimate son of Alexander III, Heracles, born of his union with the Persian Barsine. He had been raised in Pergamon, unacknowledged by Alexander, but was sufficient for the now deposed and ineffective regent's attempt to topple Cassander. Before he could be put to any use however, Polyperchon was bribed by Cassander with a minor position in Southern Greece and a personal army, in exchange for the murder of the Argead "pretender." With him the Argead line terminated, his murder having come only a few years after Alexander IV.

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Last updated on Wednesday March 05, 2008 at 11:47:07 PST (GMT -0800)
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