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He served under Philip II and Alexander the Great, accompanying Alexander throughout his long journeys. After the Battle of Issus in 333 BC, Polyperchon was appointed commander of the Tymphaean battalion (taxis) of the Macedonian phalanx, replacing Ptolemy, who had fallen in battle. Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri 2.12.1 (2025). 9780192801074, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192801074 He continued to lead this unit throughout Alexander’s campaigns, including the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC, where he was positioned in the center between the taxeis of Meleager and Amyntas. Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 17.57.2; Arrian, Anabasis 3.11.9
In 331/330, Polyperchon participated in the crossing of the Araxes River alongside Amyntas, Coenus, and the cavalry of Philotas, while Alexander advanced against Ariobarzanes.Quintus Curtius Rufus, Historiae Alexandri Magni 5.4.1 In 328, he was left in Bactria to help prevent rebellion in the region.Arrian, Anabasis 4.7.4 Quintus Curtius Rufus records an incident from 327 in which Polyperchon mocked a Persian who performed proskynesis, a ceremonial act of bowing and kissing the foot, which angered Alexander and led to Polyperchon being thrown from his couch; however, modern scholars reject the account as apocryphal, and Polyperchon likely was not present at court at the time.Quintus Curtius Rufus, Historiae 8.5.6–8
Early in the Indian campaign, he was left in Andaca with Craterus to subdue resistant provinces and destroy rebellious cities.Arrian, Anabasis 4.23.1-2 He later rejoined the main army in Arigaeum and took part in the campaigns against the Massagetae and the Assacenians.Arrian, Anabasis 4.25.5; 4.27.5 At the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BC, Polyperchon was left behind with Alcetas and Craterus to guard the base camp and was instructed not to cross the river until Porus had been defeated or abandoned the opposite bank.Arrian, Anabasis 5.13.1–2; Diodorus, 17.87.3
In August 324 BC, Alexander the Great ordered Craterus to lead a contingent of 10,000 veterans back to Macedon.Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri 7.12.4 Craterus was to replace Antipater as regent of the Macedonian kingdom in Europe, while Antipater was instructed to bring fresh troops to join Alexander in the East. Polyperchon was appointed as Craterus’s deputy, a decision that, according to Arrian, was due to Craterus’s declining health.Arrian, Anabasis 7.12.4Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus 13.2.7 Should anything happen to Craterus, Polyperchon was designated to assume his responsibilities. Their journey progressed slowly, and by the time of Alexander’s death in June 323 BC, both Craterus and Polyperchon were still in Cilicia.Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica 18.4.3
Craterus eventually marched west with a force of 10,000 infantry, 1,000 Persian archers and slingers, and 1,500 cavalry. His arrival proved decisive and shifted the balance of the war. Although Craterus held senior rank, he voluntarily deferred command to Antipater during the campaign.Diodorus, 18.12.1; Plutarch, Phocion 25.3Heckel, 2006 , Craterus, p. 98. Following the end of the Lamian War, the two commanders launched a new expedition against the Aetolian League. Despite initial successes, the campaign was abruptly abandoned when news arrived that Perdiccas, the imperial regent in Asia, had declared war on Antipater. In response, a Macedonian war council agreed to make peace with the Aetolian League in order to turn their focus eastward.Diodorus, 18.14.1
During this period, Polyperchon remained in Macedon, acting as governor in the absence of Antipater and Craterus.Diodorus, 18.15.2 When the two senior commanders crossed into Asia to confront Perdiccas’s forces, Polyperchon was formally entrusted with authority over Greece and Macedon.Diodorus, 18.38.2
Meanwhile, the Aetolians, now allied with Perdiccas, launched another incursion into Thessaly, hoping to draw Antipater back from his campaign in Asia. Their general, Alexander of Aetolia, captured several cities, besieged the key town of Amphissa in Locris, and routed a Macedonian force under Polycles. Reinforced by local Thessalian allies, his army grew significantly in strength. However, a counter-invasion of Aetolia by Acarnanian forces forced the Aetolians to withdraw. They left behind a rearguard under Menon of Pharsalus to hold their gains in Thessaly. Soon after, Polyperchon entered Thessaly with a large army and crushed Menon’s force in battle. Menon was killed during the fighting, marking a major Macedonian victory.
The First War of the Diadochi ended in 321 BC with the death of Perdiccas and the triumph of Antipater, who was confirmed as regent at the Partition of Triparadisus. Polyperchon remained at Antipater’s side for the next several years.
The appointment immediately provoked tension between the two men. Cassander refused to accept the arrangement and began rallying political and military support. Many within the Macedonian aristocracy, as well as powerful satraps in the eastern provinces, saw Cassander as a more favorable figure, both due to his lineage and due to suspicion of Polyperchon’s intentions to restore traditional monarchical authority. Within months, open hostility broke out between the rival camps, marking the beginning of a new phase in the Wars of the Diadochi. Polyperchon aligned himself with Eumenes against Cassander, Antigonus and Ptolemy.
Although Polyperchon was initially successful in securing control of the Greek cities, whose freedom he proclaimed, he suffered a major setback at Megalopolis in 317 BC. A few months later, his fleet was destroyed by Antigonus, and Cassander seized control of Athens in 316. a few months later his fleet was destroyed by Antigonus, and Cassander secured control of Athens the following year. Shortly thereafter, Polyperchon was driven from Macedon by Cassander, who took control of the disabled King Philip Arrhidaeus and his wife Eurydice.
Polyperchon fled to Epirus, where he joined Alexander's mother Olympias, widow Roxana, and infant son Alexander IV. He formed an alliance with Olympias and King Aeacides of Epirus, and Olympias led an army into Macedon. She was initially successful, defeating and capturing the army of King Philip, whom she had murdered, but soon Cassander returned from the Peloponnesus and captured and murdered her in 316, taking Roxana and the boy king into his custody.
However, Alexander’s assassination at Sicyon by a local named Alexion destabilized the arrangement. Cassander excluded Polyperchon from the peace settlement with Antigonus in 311 BC (as recorded in Antigonus’s letter to the people of Scepsis). When war again broke out between Antigonus and the others, Antigonus sent Heracles, the reputed illegitimate son of Alexander the Great by Barsine, to Polyperchon as a bargaining chip to use against Cassander. Polyperchon retaliated against Cassander by promoting Heracles as the rightful heir to the throne.
As part of the new agreement, Cassander agreed to formally recognize Polyperchon not only as strategos of the Peloponnese but also as a co-ruler with equal authority.Diodorus Siculus XX 28.2 The treaty also restored to Polyperchon his Macedonian estates, which had likely been granted to him in an earlier settlement but forfeited after his rebellion. This recognition effectively marked the end of Polyperchon’s decades-long struggle for control in the post-Alexandrian world.
Beloch asserts that by 304 BC, Polyperchon held sway over nearly the entire peninsula, with the exceptions of Corinth, Sicyon, and Sparta. Diodorus Siculus explicitly mentions several cities under his control at this time, including Bura and Skyros in Achaea, and Orchomenos in Arcadia.Diodorus XX 103.4–5 The loyalty of Argos and the cities of the Argolic Acte, namely Epidauros, Troezen, and Hermione, is uncertain, but Beloch interpreted Plutarch’s phrasing as evidence that at least a significant portion of these cities had come under Polyperchon’s control during this period.Plutarch, Life of Demetrius 25 He further argued that the pattern of reconquests between 307 and 304 BC indicates a deliberate and largely successful campaign to re-establish Polyperchon's authority across the Peloponnese.
However, this resurgence proved to be short-lived. In 303 BC, Demetrius Poliorcetes launched a campaign in Greece and quickly reversed many of Polyperchon’s gains. He captured Argos, Achaea, Elis, and most of Arcadia, leaving Polyperchon in control only of a few remaining cities, including Messenia and Mantineia.Diodorus XX.103 After this point, he disappears from the historical record, but the lack of further reference is only because Diodorus Siculus's subsequent narrative is lost and no others cover this period in sufficient detail. A mention in Plutarch's Life of Pyrrhus 8.3 suggests that Polyperchon might have lived into the early 3rd century BC. It is possible that Demetrius’ campaign against Messene in the year 295 was also directed against him.Plutarch, Life of Demetrius 33
Diodorus had previously referred to Polyperchon as “almost the oldest among Alexander’s companions-in-arms” in 319 BC, suggesting he was already elderly at the time of his appointment as regent.Diodorus XVIII.48.4 Polyperchon was likely in his eighties by 303 BC.
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