Prepelaus (in Greek Πρεπελαος; lived 4th century BC) was a general in the service of Cassander, king of Macedonia. He is first mentioned in 315 BC, when he was sent by Cassander on a secret mission to Alexander the son of Polyperchon, whom he succeeded in detaching from the cause of Antigonus and inducing to join his arms with those of Cassander.¹ Shortly after we find him commanding an army which was sent to support Asander in Caria, and co-operating with that general against Ptolemy, the nephew of Antigonus.² From this time we hear no more of him till 303 BC, when he held the important fortress of Corinth with a large force, but was unable to prevent its falling into the hands of Demetrius, and only saved himself by a hasty flight.³ In the following summer (302 BC) he was sent by Cassander, with a considerable army, to co-operate with Lysimachus in Asia Minor, where his arms were crowned with the most brilliant successes; he reduced in a short space of time the important cities of Adramyttium, Ephesus, and Sardis, and made himself master of almost the whole of Aeolia and Ionia. But he was unable to prevent the recovery of a great part of these conquests by Demetrius, before the close of the same autumn.⁴ After this we hear no more of him.

References

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

Notes

1 Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca, xix. 64

2 Ibid., xix. 68

3 Ibid., xx. 103

4 Ibid., xx. 107, 111

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