[9] Cassander left Alexander's court either shortly before or after the king's death in June of 323 BC, playing no part in the immediate power struggles over the empire.

[10] Cassander returned to Macedonia and assisted his father's governance, he was later assigned by Antipater to Antigonus as his chiliarch from 321 to 320, probably to monitor the latter's activities.

Waging war on Polyperchon, Cassander destroyed his fleet, put Athens under the control of Demetrius of Phaleron, and declared himself Regent in 317 BC.

When the city fell in the spring of 316, Olympias was killed, and Cassander had Alexander IV and Roxana confined at Amphipolis.

[6] That year, Cassander associated himself with the Argead dynasty by marrying Alexander's half-sister, Thessalonike, and overseeing the burial of Phillip III and Eurydice in the royal cemetery at Aegae; he further cemented his authority by founding Thessalonica, Cassandreia, and rebuilding Thebes.

[6] From 314 to 310, Cassander campaigned to the west and north, for a time extending Macedonian power as far as Apollonia and Epidamus, but was driven out by local rulers like Glaucius; his rule in Macedonia remained firm as he resettled defeated enemies in the tradition of Phillip II and fostered trade in the regions around his new cities.

[23] In early 302 BC, Cassander sent one of his generals, Prepelaus, with an army from Macedon to join Lysimachus in an invasion of Antigonus's territory in Asia-Minor.

[23] Demetrius invaded Thessaly with a numerically superior force, Cassander stopped his advance by refusing to give battle and fortifying his positions.

After the Battle of Ipsus in which Antigonus was killed, Cassander was undisputed in his control of Macedon; however, he had little time to savour the fact, dying of dropsy in 297 BC.

[32][33] From numismatic evidence, Evan Pitt argues that Cassander's actions until 311 BC were motivated more by self-preservation and maintenance of his own power rather than royal ambition and rivalry to Alexander the Great.