Michael Matthew Groat PhD's Genealogical Database
Individuals: 97,713 Families: 61,838
Gedcom Last Modified: December 14, 2025 00:59:10
Lysandra Queen of Macedonia
- Preferred Name: Lysandra Queen of Macedonia[1]
- Gender: F
- Death: AFT 281 BC
- FSID: LT85-HPS
- Residence: Following the execution of her second husband, Agathocleas, she fled with her two children to the court of Seleucus I.283 BC in Thrace, Seleucid Empire with note: Wikipedia and Ptolemaic Dynasty genealogy records among other sources
- Birth: 312 BC
- Notes:
=== Life Sketch ===
She was married first to her maternal cousin Alexander, one of the sons of Cassander, King of Macedonia.
After Alexander’s death, Lysandra married her other maternal cousin Agathocles, the son of Lysimachus and Nicaea of Macedon.
By this second marriage (which took place, according to Pausanias, after the return of Lysimachus from his expedition against the Getae, 291 BC, she had several children, with whom and with Agathocles' paternal half-brother Alexander she fled to Asia after the murder of her husband by Lysimachus, at the instigation of Agathocles’ stepmother Arsinoe II, and besought assistance from Seleucus I Nicator.
The latter in consequence marched against Lysimachus, who was defeated and slain in the Battle of Corupedium, 281 BC.
From an expression of Pausanias, it appears that Lysandra must at this time have accompanied Seleucus I, and was possessed of much influence, but in the confusion that followed the death of Seleucus I a few months after there is no further record either of her or her children.
Preferred Parents:
Father: Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt, 1st Pharaoh of Ptolemaic Dynasty, b. 367 BC in Pella, Macedonia, Greece d. JAN 281 BC in Alexandria, Egypt
Mother: Eurydice of Macedonia, Queen of Egypt I, b. ABT 330 BC in Macedonia, Greece
Family 1: Alexander King of Macedon V, d. 294 BC in Larissa, Thessaly, Greece
Family 2: Agathocles ben Lysimachus of Thrace II, b. ABT 320 BC in Macedonia d. 284 BC in Macedonia, Greece
- Hilla of Thrace, Princess of Jerusalem, b. in Egypt d. ABT 240 BC
Sources:
- Title: Ptolemaic Dynasty: Lysandra
Author: Currently only archived on WayBack machine, but sources referenced in source material include: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.9.6 http://www.attalus.org/translate/fgh.html http://www.attalus.org/translate/eusebius2.html http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.10.3 http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.9.6 http://www.duke.edu/web/classics/grbs/FTexts/47/Dmitriev.pdf http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1.1 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D10%3Asection%3D4 https://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/english/trans16.html
Publication: Name: https://web.archive.org/web/20111126034756fw_/http://www.tyndalehouse.com/egypt/ptolemies/lysandra_fr.htm;
Note: Lysandra, daughter of Ptolemy I and Eurydice, date of birth unknown, first married Alexander V, later (c. Aug./Sept. 297) king of Macedon, till his murder by Demetrius Poliorcetes spring or summer of 294, by whom she had no known children. She second married Agathocles, son and heir of Lysimachus king of Thrace, c. 292/1, by whom she had at least two children. After the execution of Agathocles by his father, c. 283/2, she fled to the court of Seleucus I with her children. 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.
[2] Pausanias 1.9.6.
[3] Porphyry, FGrH 695, 698.
[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).
[5] Pausanias 1.9.6, 1.10.3.
[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.
[7] Pausanias 1.10.3.
[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.
Master Index
| Pedigree Chart
| Descendency Chart
Please send genealogical corrections, additions, or comments to Michael Matthew Groat PhD
Created by GIMMWebService Version 1.0.3 (Program Information), Copyright 2023 © Michael Groat
(Web design layout and pedigree indentation subroutine) Copyright 1996 © Randy Winch (gumby@edge.net) and Tim Doyle (tdoyle@doit.com)
(Internal GEDCOM data structures and GEDCOM file parsing) Copyright 2014-2021 © Giulio Genovese (giulio.genovese@gmail.com)
Like the program that you see? Any support is appreciated!
