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Agathocles (in Greek Aγαθoκλης; died 284 BC) was the son of Lysimachus by an Odrysian woman who Polyaenus¹ calls Macris. Agathocles was sent by his father against the Getae, about 292 BC, but was defeated and taken prisoner. He was kindly treated by Dromichaetes, the king of the Getae, and sent back to his father with presents; but Lysimachus, notwithstanding, marched against the Getae, and was taken prisoner himself. He too was also released by Dromichaetes, who received in consequence the daughter of Lysimachus in marriage. According to some authors it was only Agathocles and according to others only Lysimachus, who was taken prisoner.² In 287 BC Agathocles was sent by his father against Demetrius Poliorcetes, who had marched into Anatolia to deprive Lysimachus of Lydia and Caria. In this expedition he was successful; he defeated Demetrius and drove him out of his father's provinces.³ Agathocles was destined to be the successor of Lysimachus, and was popular among his subjects; but his stepmother, Arsinoe, prejudiced the mind of his father against him; and after an unsuccessful attempt to poison him, Lysimachus cast him into prison, where he was murdered (284 BC) by Ptolemy Keraunos, who was a fugitive at the court of Lysimachus. His widow Lysandra fled with his children, and Alexander, his brother, to Seleucus in Asia, who made war upon Lysimachus in consequence.⁴

References

Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Agathocles (2)", Boston, (1867)

Notes

1 Polyaenus, Stratagemata, vi. 12
2 Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca, xxi. 12; Pausanias, Description of Greece, i. 9; Strabo, Geography, xiv. 4; Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Demetrius", 39, Moralia, "On the delays of divine vengeance"
3 Plutarch, "Demetrius", 46
4 Memnon, History of Herakleia, 5; Pausanias, i. 10; Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, xvii. 1