Meleager (general)

Meleager (Greek: Mελέαγρος Meleagros; died 323 BC) was a Macedonian officer who served Alexander the Great with distinction.

Meleager, son of Neoptolemus, is first mentioned in the war against the Getae (335 BC). At the Battle of the Granicus in the following year (334 BC), he commanded one of the divisions (ταξεις) of the phalanx, a post which he afterwards continued to hold apparently throughout the campaigns in Asia. He was appointed, together with Coenus and Ptolemy, the son of Seleucus, to command the newly married troops which were sent home from Caria to spend the winter in Macedon, and rejoined Alexander at Gordium in the following summer (333 BC).

He was present at the battles of Issus and Gaugamela, and was associated with Craterus in the task of dislodging the enemy who guarded the passes into Persia. He took part in the passage of the Hydaspes and in various other operations in India.

Despite a long series of services, Alexander did not promote him to any higher or more confidential position, nor does Meleager take part in any separate command of importance.

After the death of Alexander (323 BC), he was the first to propose in the council of officers, that either Arrhidaeus or Heracles, the son of Barsine, should at once be chosen as king, rather than waiting to see if the pregnant Roxana would bear a son. The Roman historian, Curtius, states that Meleager broke out into violent invectives against the ambition of Perdiccas and then abruptly quit the assembly in order to encourage the soldiery to express their opposition against Perdiccas. The Greek historian, Diodorus, states that Meleager was sent by the assembled generals to appease the clamours and discontent of the troops, but instead of doing so, he joined the mutineers.

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