Antigonus III Doson - Family Background

Family Background

Antigonus III Doson was a half-cousin of his predecessor, Demetrius II Aetolicus. Doson's father was Demetrius the Fair (briefly king of Cyrene), the son of Demetrius Poliorcetes and his third wife, Ptolemaïs, daughter of Ptolemy I Soter and Eurydice, daughter of Antipater. As such, Demetrius the Fair was, on his father's side, a younger half-brother of Demetrius II's father, Antigonus II Gonatas, the son of Poliorcetes by his first wife, Phila, another of Antipater's daughters; as well as a nephew of both Ptolemy Keraunos and Meleager on his mother's side. According to Eusebius, Doson's own mother was a Thessalian noblewoman, Olympias, daughter of Pauliclitus of Larissa. Antigonus also had a brother named Echecrates, whose son, named Antigonus after Doson himself, was put to death by Perseus on the latter's accession to the throne of Macedon.

Doson's father, Demetrius the Fair, died sometime around 250 BC, as a result of events that occurred after being summoned from Macedonia to Cyrene to marry Berenice II, the daughter and heir of Magas of Cyrene. Rather than contenting himself with his young bride, Demetrius openly becaming lover of her powerful mother, Apama II. So the jealous bride took her revenge by having him assassinated. It is unclear whether Doson's mother had died before this time.

The meaning of Antigonus' by-name is uncertain. According to Plutarch it "implied that he was given to promising but did not perform his engagements", though even the exact meaning of this is unclear.