Iollas son of Antipater

Antipater

Antipater was a Macedonian general and a supporter of kings Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great. In 320 BC, he became Regent of all of Alexander's Empire. Antipater was one of the sons of a Macedonian nobleman called Iollas or Iolaus and his family were distant collateral relatives to the...

, and brother of Cassander

Cassander

Cassander , King of Macedonia , was a son of Antipater, and founder of the Antipatrid dynasty...

, king of Macedon

Macedon

Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south....

. He was one of the royal youths who, according to the Macedonian custom, held offices about the king's person, and was cup-bearer to Alexander the Great at the period of his last illness (323 BC

323 BC

Year 323 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Longus and Cerretanus...

). Those writers who adopt the idea of the king having been poisoned, represent Iollas as the person who actually administered the fatal draught, at the banquet given to Alexander by Medius

Medius of Larissa

Medius , son of Oxythemis, was a native of Larissa in Thessaly and a friend of Alexander the Great. He is mentioned as commanding a trireme during the descent of the Indus river, but with this exception his name does not occur in the military operations of the king...

, who, according to this story, was an intimate friend of Iollas, and had been induced by him to take part in the plot. Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

 writes that it was never heard of until six years afterwards (317 BC

317 BC

Year 317 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Brutus and Barbula...

), when Olympias

Olympias

Olympias was a Greek princess of Epirus, daughter of king Neoptolemus I of Epirus, the fourth wife of the king of Macedonia, Philip II, and mother of Alexander the Great...

 availed herself of this as an excuse for the cruelties she exercised upon the friends and adherents of Antipater. Iollas was then dead, but she caused his grave to be opened, and desecrated with every mark of indignity. The period or occasion of his death is nowhere mentioned: the last heard of him is in 322 BC

322 BC

Year 322 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rullianus and Curvus...

, when he accompanied his sister Nicaea

Nicaea of Macedonia

For other uses, see NicaeaNicaea was a Greek Macedonian noblewoman and was a daughter of the powerful regent Antipater by unnamed mother...

 to Asia, where she was married to Perdiccas

Perdiccas

Perdiccas was one of Alexander the Great's generals. After Alexander's death in 323 BC he became regent of all Alexander's empire.Arrian tells us he was son of Orontes, a descendant of the independent princes of the Macedonian province of Orestis...

. Hyperides proposed the voting a reward to Iollas as the murderer of Alexander.