Eupolemus

Eupolemus, son of Simalus (in Ancient Greek: Eυπόλεμoς Σίμαλου) was a Macedonian officer in the fourth century BC. He served the Antipatrids as a strategos during the later Wars of the Diadochi. Scholarship suggests that he acted as a deputy to Cassander's brother, Pleistarchus, and succeeded him in the rule of Caria.

Asian Expedition

In 313 BC, Eupolemus accompanied Prepelaus as one of his lieutenants when Prepelaus was sent to aid Asander against Antigonus Monophthalmus in Asia Minor. After arriving in Caria (Asander's satrapy in Asia Minor), they started planning their campaign against Ptolemaeus, Antigonus's nephew and the commander of his forces in western Asia Minor. They decided upon a surprise attack during the winter (after the campaigning season had ended); Eupolemus was sent with 8,000 infantry and 200 cavalry to strike at Ptolemaeus after the latter had dispersed his forces into their winter quarters. However, some deserters from Eupolemus's strike force betrayed their plans to Ptolemaeus, who gathered 8,300 infantry and 600 cavalry from the nearest camps and marched against Eupolemus. In the middle of the night, Ptolemaeus launched a surprise attack on Eupolemus's camp, capturing the entire force, including Eupolemus. His captivity proved to be short-lived, as the next year (312 BC), Cassander named him strategos of Greece when he moved northward against Antigonus. Eupolemus worked closely with Pleistarchus who had been placed in control of Chalkis. Eupolemus next surfaces in 307 BC, fighting alongside Cassander and Pleistarchus in Attica.

Dynast of Caria

Bronze coin depicting three overlapping Macedonian shields, the outer two with spearheads in their centers / EYΠO-ΛEMOY, sword in a sheath, labrys (double axe) below; Mylasa mint. Struck under Eupolemos circa 295-280 BC

It has traditionally been assumed that this Eupolemus must have been the same as "Eupolemus, son of Potalus, the Macedonian" (Εὐπόλεμος Ποτάλου Μακεδών) noted from an inscription in Iasos, owing to both men being notable Macedonians in Caria and in possession of the same rare name. Recent paleography has suggested that the Iasos inscription mentioning Eupolemus Pόtalou Μακεδών was likely from the 270s-260s BC, precluding it from referring to the Eupolemus who had served under Cassander.

However, epigraphic evidence from a more recently discovered dedication from Iasos of an andron to Artemis Astias by Eupolemus, son of Simalus led Roberta Fabiani to conclude that the patronymic "Simalou" can thus be ascribed to Eupolemos with a reasonable degree of certainty that it refers to the man who was the general of Cassander. The engraving’s style dates the inscription to the early third century BC. Fabiani states that the sheer volume of attestations to Eupolemus disqualifies chronologies that place his period of power from only around 315–313 BC as a mere strategos and that he ought to be regarded as having become a dynast of Caria by the 290s BC.