Cleopatra
2. A daughter of Philip and Olympias, and sister of Alexander the Great, married Alexander, king of Epeirus, her uncle by the mother's side, B. C. 336.
It was at the celebration of her nuptials, which took place on a magnificent scale at Aegae in Macedonia, that Philip was murdered. (
Diod. 16.92.) Her husband died in B. C. 326 ; and after the death of her brother, she was sought in marriage by several of his generals, who thought to strengthen their influence with the Macedonians by a connexion with the sister of Alexander. Leonatus is first mentioned as putting forward a claim to her hand, and he represented to Eumenes that he received a promise of marriage from her. (
Plut. Eum. 3.) Perdiccas next attempted to gain her in marriage, and after his death in B. C. 321, her hand was sought by Cassander, Lysimachus, and Antigonus.
She refused, however, all these offers; and, anxious to escape from Sardis, where she had been kept for years in a sort of honourable captivity, she readily acceded to proposals from Ptolemy; but, before she could accomplish her design, she was assassinated by order of Antigonus. (
Diod. 18.23,
20.37;
Just. 9.6,
13.6,
14.1; Arrian, apud
Phot. p. 70, ed. Bekker.)
