During a series of wars between Alexander's successors, Antigonus briefly emerged as the most powerful of the Diadochi, ruling over Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia and northern Mesopotamia.

Cassander, Seleucus, Ptolemy and Lysimachus formed a coalition against him, which culminated in his decisive defeat and death at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC.

[3] In 334 BC, Antigonus served as the commander of the allied Greek infantry, a division of Alexander's invasion army of the Persian Empire.

Alexander did not trust his Greek infantry and had left them behind when he marched to confront the Western Satraps; therefore Antigonus did not participate in the Battle of the Granicus.

Antigonus successfully performed his primary responsibility: to defend Alexander's lines of supply and communication during the latter's extended campaign against the Achaemenid Persian Empire.

[5] After defeating the Persian counter-attack, Antigonus focused on conquering the rest of Phrygia and maintaining Alexander's lines of communication and supply.

At the division of the provinces (the so-called Partition of Babylon) after Alexander's death in 323 BC, Antigonus held authority over Phrygia, Lycaonia, Pamphylia, Lycia and western Pisidia confirmed by Perdiccas, the regent of the empire.

[6] Leonnatus had left with his army for Greece, leaving Antigonus alone to deal with Cappadocia, a task he apparently could not or would not complete without additional aid.

From there, Perdiccas turned west towards Phrygia as a provocation toward Antigonus, who escaped with his son Demetrius to Greece, where he obtained the favor of Antipater, the viceroy of Macedonia (321 BC),[6] and Craterus, one of Alexander's top generals.

[7] The war ended in 320 BC, when Perdiccas was murdered by discontented officers (Seleucus and Antigenes) while unsuccessfully trying to invade Ptolemy's satrapy of Egypt.

Leaving Eumenes under siege, Antigonus now marched on the combined forces of Alcetas, Dokimos, Attalos and Polemon near Cretopolis in Pisidia.

Antigonus did not move against Eumenes directly because he was tied up in northwestern Asia Minor campaigning against Cleitus the White who had a large fleet at the Hellespont.

[11] Meanwhile, Eumenes had taken control of Cilicia, Syria and Phoenicia, formed an alliance with Antigenes and Teutamos, the commanders of the Silver Shields and the Hypaspists,[12] and begun to raise a naval force on behalf of Polyperchon.

Unable to sway Seleucus and Pheiton, Eumenes had left his winter quarters early and marched on Susa, a major royal treasury, in Susiana.

[23] Antigonus, faced with disaster, decided to abandon the crossing and turned back northward, marching up into Media, threatening the upper satrapies.

In the late summer of 316 BC, Antigonus moved southward again in the hope of bringing Eumenes to battle and ending the war quickly.

[26] During the winter of 316–315 BC, Antigonus tried to surprise Eumenes in Persia by marching his army across a desert and catching his enemy off guard, unfortunately, he was observed by some locals who reported it to his opponents.

[28] According to Plutarch and Diodorus, Eumenes had won the battle but lost control of his army's baggage camp thanks to his ally Peucestas' duplicity or incompetence.

This loss was especially severe for the Silver Shields; the camp contained loot they had accumulated over 30 years of successful warfare, as well as the soldiers' women and children.

[30] As a result, Antigonus now was in possession of the empire's Asian territories, his authority stretching from the eastern satrapies to Syria and Asia Minor in the west.

After the battle, Seleucus, who was fighting for Ptolemy, made his way back to Babylonia, and soon established control over his old satrapy and went on to secure the eastern provinces against Antigonus.

The peace agreement was soon violated by Ptolemy and Cassander based on the pretext that Antigonus had placed garrisons in some of the free Greek cities.

Antigonus now prepared a large army and a formidable fleet, the command of which he gave to Demetrius, and hastened to attack Ptolemy in his own dominions.

[6] The siege of Rhodes lasted a year and ended in 304 BC when Demetrius, meeting with obstinate resistance, was obliged to make a peace treaty upon the terms that the Rhodians would build ships for Antigonus and aid him against any enemy except for Ptolemy.

[40] The most powerful dynasts of the empire, now kings in their own right: Cassander, Seleucus, Ptolemy, and Lysimachus, responded to Antigonus's successes by allying with each other, often through marriage.

However, the united forces of Seleucus, Lysimachus, and Prepelaos defeated the army of Antigonus and Demetrius at the decisive Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC.

Antigonus appears (under the Greek form of his name, Antigonos) in L. Sprague de Camp's historical novels An Elephant for Aristotle and The Bronze God of Rhodes, set approximately twenty years apart.

Antigonus appears in the earlier chapters of Alfred Duggan's historical novel Elephants and Castles (U.S. title: Besieger of Cities), based on the life of his son Demetrius.

Antigonous is a supporting antagonist in the Eric Flint alternate history novel The Alexander Inheritance, and its sequel The Macedonian Hazard.