Menon IV of Pharsalus

Who was Menon IV of Pharsalus?

Menon was a citizen of Pharsalus in Thessaly, and a man of great influence and reputation, took a prominent part in the Lamian war, and commanded the Thessalian cavalry in the battle with the Macedonians, in which Leonnatus was slain. Plutarch tells us that his services were highly valued by the confederates, and that he held a place in their estimation second only to Leosthenes, At the battle of Crannon, he and Antiphilus, the Athenian, were defeated by Antipater and Craterus, though the Thessalian horse under his command maintained in the action its superiority over that of the enemy; and they felt themselves compelled to open a negotiation with the conquerors, which led to the dissolution of the Greek confederacy. But when Antipater was obliged to cross over to Asia against Perdiccas, the Aetolians renewed the war, and were zealously seconded in Thessaly by Menon, through whose influence it probably was that most of the Thessalian towns were induced to take part in the insurrection. Soon after, however, he was defeated by Polyperchon in a pitched battle, in which he himself was slain, 321 BC. His daughter Phthia he gave in marriage to Aeacides, king of Epirus, by whom she became the mother of Pyrrhus.