He was the son of Craterus who had faithfully governed Corinth and Chalcis for his half-brother Antigonus II Gonatas. His grandmother was Phila, the celebrated daughter of Antipater and first wife of Demetrius Poliorcetes. According to a note in Livy (XXXV, 26), his mother's name may have been Nicaea and this was also the name of his wife.