A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Νικαία).

1. Daughter of Antipater, was sent by her father to Asia to be married to Perdiccas, B. C. 323, at a time when the former still hoped to maintain friendly relations with the regent. Perdiccas, though already entertaining hostile designs, married Nicaea : but not long afterwards, by the advice of Eumenes, determined to divorce her, and marry Cleopatra instead. This step, which he took just before setting out on his expedition to Egypt, led to an immediate rupture between him and Antipater. (Arrian, apud Phot. 70, a, b; Diod. 18.23.) We hear no more of Nicaea for some time, but it appears that she was afterwards -- though at what period we know not -- married to Lysimachus, who named after her the city, so celebrated in later times, on the Ascanian lake in Bithynia. (Strabo. xii. p. 565; Steph. Byz. s. v. Νίκαια.)