The Silent Years

This chapter offers a reconstruction of what might be referred to as ‘the Silent Years’, that is to say, 310–308 BC, where our ancient sources provide very little information about Demetrius Poliorcetes’ whereabouts and activities. Antigonus Monophthalmus himself campaigned unsuccessfully in Babylonia from 310 BC, and left Demetrius in charge of Antigonid possessions in Syria and Anatolia. During this time Ptolemy invaded Anatolia and, aided by the defection of Demetrius’ cousin Polemaeus, advanced as far as Greece. Demetrius’s reactions are only recorded in three brief source cameos, and cannot be pieced together with certainty, although this chapter is able to provide some discussion of what we can indeed know about these years.