ar began in
the year 315, and was carried on with great vehemence and alternate
success in Syria, Phoenicia, Asia Minor, and Greece. After four years
all parties became exhausted with the struggle, and peace was
accordingly concluded in 311, on condition that the Greek cities should
be free, that Cassander should retain his authority in Europe till
Alexander came of age, that Ptolemy and Lysimachus should keep
possession of Egypt and Thrace respectively, and that Antigonus should
have the government of all Asia. This hollow peace, which had been
merely patched up for the convenience of the parties concerned, was not
of long duration. It seems to have been the immediate cause of another
of those crimes which disgrace the history of Alexander's successors.
His son, Alexander, who had now attained the age of sixteen, was still
shut up with his mother Roxana in Amphipolis; and his partisans, with
injudicious zeal, loudly expressed their wish that he should be
released and placed upon the throne. In order to avert this event
Cassander contrived the secret murder both of the mother and the son.

This abominable act, however, does not appear to have caused a breach
of the peace. Ptolemy was the first to break it (B.C. 310), under the
pretext that Antigonus, by keeping his garrisons in the Greek cities of
Asia and the islands, had not respected that article of the treaty
which guaranteed Grecian freedom. After the war had lasted three years
Antigonus resolved to make a vigorous effort to wrest Greece from the
hands of Cassander and Ptolemy, who held all the principal towns in it.
Accordingly, in the summer of 307 B.C. he despatched his son Demetrius
from Ephesus to Athens, with a fleet of 250 sail, and 5000 talents in
money. Demetrius, who afterwards obtained the surname of
"Poliorcetes," or "Besieger of Cities," was a young man of ardent
temperament and great abilities. Upon arriving at the Piraeus he
immediately proclaimed the object of his expedition to be the
liberation of Athens and the expulsion of the Macedonian garrison.
Supported by the Macedonians, Demetrius the Phalerean had now ruled
Athens for a period of more than ten years. Of mean birth, Demetrius
the Phalerean owed his elevation entirely to his talents and
perseverance. His skill as an orator raised him to distinction among
his countrymen; and his politics, which led him to embrace the party of
Phocion, recommended him to Cassander and the Macedonians.