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Aeacides (in Greek Aιακιδης; died 313 BC), the son of Arybbas, king of Epirus, succeeded to the throne on the death of his cousin Alexander, who was slain in Italy.¹ Aeacides married Phthia, the daughter of Menon of Pharsalus, by whom he had the celebrated Pyrrhus and two daughters, Deidamia and Troias. In 317 BC he assisted Polyperchon in restoring Olympias and the young king Alexander IV, who was then only five years old, to Macedonia. In the following year he marched to the assistance of Olympias, who was hard pressed by Cassander; but the Epirots disliked the service, rose against Aeacides, and drove him from the kingdom. Pyrrhus, who was then only two years old, was with difficulty saved from destruction by some faithful servants. But becoming tired of the Macedonian rule, the Epirots recalled Aeacides in 313 BC; Cassander immediately sent an army against him under his brother, Philip, who conquered him the same year in two battles, in the last of which he was killed.²

Aeacides of Epirus

Ancient Epirus (*)

Pausanias 1.9.7

...Lysimachus also went to war with Pyrrhus, son of Aeacides. Waiting for his departure from Epeirus (Pyrrhus was of a very roving disposition) he ravaged Epeirus until he reached the royal tombs.

Pausanias 1.11.1

... The Athenians have also a statue of Pyrrhus. This Pyrrhus was not related to Alexander, except by ancestry. Pyrrhus was son of Aeacides, son of Arybbas, but Alexander was son of Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus, and the father of Neoptolemus and Aryblas was Alcetas, son of Tharypus. And from Tharypus to Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, are fifteen generations.

References

Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Aeacides", Boston, (1867)

Notes

1 Livy, History of Rome, viii. 24
2 Pausanias, Description of Greece, i. 11; Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca, xix. 11, 36, 74; Plutarch, Lives, "Pyrrhus", 1-2

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This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1867).

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