Cassander Cassander ( Greek : Κάσσανδρος Ἀντιπάτρου , " Kassandros son of Antipatros " ; ca . 350 BC – 297 BC ) , was a Greek Hellenistic King of Ancient Macedon ( 305 – 297 BC ) , son of Antipater , and founder of the Antipatrid dynasty . He was the namesake of his paternal uncle , Cassander . Early history . In his youth , Cassander was taught by the philosopher Aristotle at the Lyceum in Macedonia . He was educated alongside the Crown Prince in a group that included Hephaestion , Ptolemy and Lysimachus . His family were distant collateral relatives to the Argead dynasty . Cassander is first recorded as arriving at Alexander the Great ’ s court in Babylon in 323 BC , where he had been sent by his father , Antipater , most likely to help uphold Antipater ’ s regency in Macedon , although a later contemporary who was hostile to the Antipatrids suggested that Cassander had journeyed to the court to poison the King . Whatever the truth of this suggestion , Cassander stood out amongst the diadochi in his hostility to Alexander ' s memory . As Cassander and the other diadochi struggled for power , Alexander IV , Roxana , and Alexander ’ s supposed illegitimate son Heracles were all executed on Cassander ' s orders , and a guarantee to Olympias to spare her life was not respected . Cassander ' s decision to restore Thebes , which had been destroyed under Alexander , was perceived at the time to be a snub to the deceased King . It was later even said that he could not pass a statue of Alexander without feeling faint . Cassander has been perceived to be ambitious and unscrupulous , and even members of his own family were estranged from him . Later history . As Antipater grew close to death in 319 BC , he transferred the regency of Macedon not to Cassander , but to Polyperchon , possibly so as not to alarm the other diadochi through an apparent move towards dynastic ambition , but perhaps also because of Cassander ’ s own ambitions . Cassander rejected his father ’ s decision , and immediately went to seek the support of Antigonus , Ptolemy and Lysimachus as his allies . Waging war on Polyperchon , Cassander destroyed his fleet , put Athens under the control of Demetrius of Phaleron , and declared himself Regent in 317 BC . After Olympias ’ successful move against Philip III later in the year , Cassander besieged her in Pydna . When the city fell two years later , Olympias was killed , and Cassander had Alexander IV and Roxanne confined at Amphipolis . Cassander associated himself with the Argead dynasty by marrying Alexander ’ s half - sister , Thessalonica , and he had Alexander IV and Roxanne executed in either 310 BC or the following year . By 309 BC , Polyperchon began to claim that Heracles was the true heir to the Macedonian inheritance , at which point Cassander bribed him to have the boy killed . After this , Cassander ’ s position in Greece and Macedonia was reasonably secure , and proclaimed himself King in 305 BC . After the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC , in which Antigonus was killed , he was undisputed in his control of Macedonia ; however , he had little time to savour the fact , dying of dropsy in 297 BC . Cassander ’ s dynasty did not live much beyond his death , with his son Philip dying of natural causes , and his other sons Alexander and Antipater becoming involved in a destructive dynastic struggle along with their mother . When Alexander was ousted as joint king by his brother , Demetrius I took up Alexander ' s appeal for aid and ousted Antipater II , killed Alexander V and established the Antigonid dynasty . The remaining Antipatrids , such as Antipater Etesias , were unable to re - establish the Antipatrids on the throne . Of more lasting significance was Cassander ’ s refoundation of Therma into Thessalonica , naming the city after his wife . Cassander also founded Cassandreia upon the ruins of Potidaea . External links . < br >