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Battle of Myus

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Battle of Myus
Part of the Wars of the Diadochi
Date311 BC
Location
Myus (?) / Syria - Levant
Result Antigonid decisive victory
Peace of 311 BC
Belligerents
Ptolemies Antigonids
Commanders and leaders
Cilles Demetrius I Poliorcetes

The Battle of Myus was a military engagement that took place in 311 BC. The battle occurred in Syria or more generally, the Levant, at an unknown location named Myus, between an Antigonid force led by Demetrius I Poliorcetes and a Ptolemaic force under the command of a close associate of Ptolemy, Cilles. It concluded with an Antigonid victory, permitting to mitigate the defeat of Gaza, and likely led to the Peace of 311 BC among the various Diadochi.

Background[edit]

The Third War of the Diadochi saw Ptolemy and Seleucus, who had taken refuge in Egypt, opposing Antigonus I Monophtalmus and his son, Demetrius I.[1] The latter was in charge of the Antigonid armies in Syria.[1] During a decisive confrontation in Palestine, less than a year earlier, Demetrius was defeated by his adversaries and had to flee the battlefield, during the Battle of Gaza.[1] Ptolemy then sent one of his generals, a Macedonian named Cilles, described as one of his close associates by Diodorus Siculus,[2] to take advantage of the victory at Gaza and decisively defeat Demetrius in Syria.[3]

Battle[edit]

Course and results[edit]

The sources are particularly vague and elusive regarding this battle: it took place at an unknown location, likely in Syria[4] or the Levant, named Myus.[1][5] Demetrius set an ambush for his adversary and managed to destroy a sufficiently significant portion of their forces, although ancient sources varied between the entirety[2][3] and a small number,[6] to repel the Egyptian incursion.[1][7]

After receiving news of the battle, while he was in Celaenae,[5] Antigonus responded by moving towards the Levant to assist his son in case of an Egyptian counter-offensive, but it never came.[1] He also emulated publicly his son for the victory.[8] Instead, this victorious ambush seemed to establish a status quo, freezing the Levantine borders; it likely also tilted the balance slightly in favor of the Antigonids, after the defeat at Gaza, in the context of the upcoming peace of 311 BC.[1]

Legacy[edit]

Besides Diodorus Siculus,[2] Plutarch,[3] and Pausanias[6] who mention the event, Plautus referenced it in one of his works, Curculio (The Weevil).[9][10]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wheatley, Pat; Dunn, Charlotte (2020). Demetrius the besieger. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp. 49–77. ISBN 978-0-19-883604-9.
  2. ^ a b c "LacusCurtius • Diodorus Siculus — Book XIX Chapters 73‑101". penelope.uchicago.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-05-27. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
  3. ^ a b c "Plutarch • Life of Demetrius". penelope.uchicago.edu. Archived from the original on 2024-06-07. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
  4. ^ McTavish, John E. (2019). "A New Chronology for Seleucus Nicator's Wars from 311–308 B.C.E." Phoenix. 73 (1): 62–85. doi:10.1353/phx.2019.0055. ISSN 1929-4883.
  5. ^ a b Wheatley, Pat (1998). "The Chronology of the Third Diadoch War, 315-311 B. C." Phoenix. 52 (3/4): 257–281. doi:10.2307/1088670. ISSN 0031-8299. JSTOR 1088670. Archived from the original on 2024-04-13. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
  6. ^ a b "Pausanias, Description of Greece, Attica, chapter 6". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
  7. ^ Hensel, Benedikt; Nocquet, Dany; Adamczewski, Bartosz; Faculté de théologie protestante (Montpellier, France), eds. (2020). Yahwistic diversity and the Hebrew Bible: tracing perspectives of group identity from Judah, Samaria, and the Diaspora in biblical traditions. Forschungen zum Alten Testament. 2. Reihe. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. p. 189. ISBN 978-3-16-158304-9.
  8. ^ Wheatley, Pat (2001). "The Antigonid Campaign in Cyprus, 306 Bc". Ancient Society. 31: 133–156. doi:10.2143/AS.31.0.49. ISSN 0066-1619. JSTOR 44079822.
  9. ^ Elderkin, G. W. (1934-01-01). "The Curculio of Plautus". American Journal of Archaeology. 38 (1): 29–36. doi:10.2307/498924. ISSN 0002-9114. JSTOR 498924.
  10. ^ "Plaute : le charançon (Curculio)". remacle.org. Archived from the original on 2023-07-20. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
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