In 301 BCE, four kings – all former generals of Alexander the Great – met at the Battle of Ipsos. After a charge led by three hundred war elephants decided the issue, the prince Pleistarchus, a minor ally of the victors, was given a small corner of what is now southwest Turkey. Though threatened by the machinations of the great kings whose domains surrounded his, Pleistarchus managed to rule for the better part of a decade, transforming the little city of Herakleia into a royal capital ringed by a massive circuit of walls.