Alexander II of Epirus: A Hellenistic King of the Aeacid Dynasty

Introduction

Alexander II of Epirus, a Molossian king of the Aeacid dynasty, was the son of Pyrrhus and Lanassa, daughter of the Sicilian tyrant Agathocles. He succeeded his father in 272 BC and continued Pyrrhus’s foreign policy: he accompanied his father’s Italian operations early in his career, undertook campaigns against Illyrian forces, and resumed war with Antigonus II Gonatas. Taking advantage of Antigonus’s distractions, Alexander crossed into Macedon and for a time expelled Antigonus from the throne, but he was later driven from both Macedon and Epirus by Demetrius II, Antigonus’s son.

After fleeing to Acarnania, Alexander recovered Epirus with Acarnanian support and the loyalty of his subjects; sources also record an alliance or agreement with the Aetolian League that included the division of some Acarnanian cities. He employed tactical stratagems in warfare, including deceptive ruses in actions against Illyrians and a systematic reduction of supplies in the siege of Leucadia. Alexander married his half sister Olympias and had three children, Pyrrhus II, Ptolemy II and a daughter Phthia. Contemporary coinage in silver and bronze bears his portrait wearing an elephant’s scalp and an obverse showing Athena with spear and shield, an eagle standing on a thunderbolt.

Alexander’s reign ended in the mid-third century BC; on his death Olympias assumed the regency for their sons and arranged Phthia’s marriage to Demetrius. Ancient accounts preserve Alexander II as a Hellenistic regional king who sought to extend his father’s ambitions in Greece and Macedon, suffered reversals at the hands of the Antigonid princes, and left tangible numismatic evidence of his rule.