Everything about Philip Ii Of Macedonia totally explained
Philip II of Macedon (
Greek:
Φίλιππος Β' ο Μακεδών —
φίλος =
friend +
ίππος =
horse — transliterated (note: modern Greek pronunciation)) (
382–
336 BC) was an ancient
Greek king (
basileus) of
Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336. He was the father of
Alexander the Great,
Philip III and possibly
Ptolemy I, the founder of the
Ptolemaic dynasty in
Egypt.
Life
Born in
Pella, Philip was the youngest son of the king
Amyntas III and
Eurydice II. In his youth, (c. 368–365 BC) Philip was a hostage in
Thebes, which was the leading city of
Greece during the
Theban hegemony. While a captive there, Philip received a military and diplomatic education from
Epaminondas, became
eromenos of
Pelopidas
, and lived with
Pammenes, who was an enthusiastic advocate of the
Sacred Band of Thebes. In
364 BC, Philip returned to Macedon. The deaths of Philip's elder brothers,
King Alexander II and
Perdiccas III, allowed him to take the throne in
359 BC. Originally appointed
regent for his infant nephew
Amyntas IV, who was the son of Perdiccas III, Philip managed to take the kingdom for himself that same year.
Philip's military skills and expansionist vision of Macedonian greatness brought him early success. He had however first to re-establish a situation which had been greatly worsened by the defeat against the
Illyrians in which King Perdiccas himself had died. The
Paionians and the
Thracians had sacked and invaded the eastern regions of the country, while the
Athenians had landed, at
Methoni on the coast, a contingent under a Macedonian pretender called
Argeus. Using diplomacy, Philip pushed back Paionians and Thracians promising tributes, and crushed the 3,000 Athenian
hoplites (359). Momentarily free from his opponents, he concentrated on strengthening his internal position and, above all, his army. His most important innovation was doubtless the introduction of the
phalanx infantry corps, armed with the famous
sarissa, an exceedingly long spear which was intended mostly to counter cavalry, at the time the most important army corps in Macedonia.
Philip had married
Audata, great-granddaughter of the Illyrian king of
Dardania,
Bardyllis. However, this didn't prevent him from marching against them in 358 and crushing them in a ferocious battle in which some 7,000 Illyrians died (357). By this move, Philip established his authority inland as far as
Lake Ohrid and the favour of the
Epirotes.
He also used the
Social War as an opportunity for expansion. He agreed with the Athenians, who had been so far unable to conquer
Amphipolis, which commanded the
gold mines of
Mount Pangaion, to lease it to them after its conquest, in exchange for
Pydna (lost by Macedon in 363). However, after conquering Amphipolis, he kept both the cities (357). As Athens declared war against him, he allied with the
Chalcidian League of
Olynthus. He subsequently conquered
Potidaea, this time keeping his word and ceding it to the League in 356. One year before Philip had married the
Epirote princess
Olympias, who was the daughter of the king of the
Molossians.
In
356 BC, Philip also conquered the town of
Crenides and changed its name to
Philippi: he established a powerful garrison there to control its mines, which granted him much of the gold later used for his campaigns. In the meantime, his general
Parmenion defeated the Illyrians again. Also in 356
Alexander was born, and Philip's race horse won in the
Olympic Games. In 355–354 he besieged
Methone, the last city on the
Thermaic Gulf controlled by Athens. During the siege, Philip lost an eye. Despite the arrival of two Athenians fleets, the city fell in 354. Philip also attacked
Abdera and Maronea, on the
Thracian sea-board (354–353).
Involved in the
Third Sacred War which had broken out in Greece, in the summer of
353 he invaded
Thessaly, defeating 7,000
Phocians under the brother of Onomarchus. The latter however defeated Philip in the two succeeding battles. Philip returned to Thessaly the next summer, this time with an army of 20,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry including all Thessalian troops. In the
Battle of Crocus Field 6,000 Phocians fell, while 3,000 were taken as prisoners and later drowned. This battle granted Philip an immense prestige, as well the free acquisition of
Pherae. Philip was also
tagus of Thessaly, and he claimed as his own
Magnesia, with the important harbour of
Pagasae. Philip didn't attempt to advance into
Central Greece because the Athenians, unable to arrive in time to defend Pagasae, had occupied
Thermopylae.
Hostilities with Athens didn't yet take place, but Athens was threatened by the Macedonian party which Philip's gold created in
Euboea. From 352 to
346 BC, Philip didn't again come south. He was active in completing the subjugation of the
Balkan hill-country to the west and north, and in reducing the Greek cities of the coast as far as the
Hebrus. To the chief of these coastal cities, Olynthus, Philip continued to profess friendship until its neighboring cities were in his hands.
In
349 BC, Philip started the siege of Olynthus, which, apart from its strategic position, housed his relatives
Arrhidaeus and
Menelaus, pretenders to the Macedonian throne. Olynthus had at first allied itself with Philip, but later shifted its allegiance to Athens. The latter, however, did nothing to help the city, its expeditions held back by a revolt in Euboea (probably paid by Philip's gold). The
Macedonian king finally took Olynthus in
348 BC and razed the city to the ground. The same fate was inflicted on other cities of the Chalcidian peninsula.
Macedon and the regions adjoining it having now been securely consolidated, Philip celebrated his
Olympic Games at
Dium. In
347 BC, Philip advanced to the conquest of the eastern districts about Hebrus, and compelled the submission of the
Thracian prince
Cersobleptes. In
346 BC, he intervened effectively in the war between Thebes and the Phocians, but his wars with Athens continued intermittently. However, Athens had made overtures for peace, and when Philip again moved south, peace was sworn in Thessaly. With key Greek city-states in submission, Philip turned to
Sparta; he sent them a message, "You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I'll destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city." Their reply was "If". Philip and Alexander would both leave them alone. Later, the Macedonian arms were carried across Epirus to the
Adriatic Sea. In
342 BC, Philip led a great military expedition north against the
Scythians, conquering the Thracian fortified settlement Eumolpia to give it his name,
Philippopolis (modern
Plovdiv).
In
340 BC, Philip started the siege of
Perinthus. Philip began another siege in
339 of the city of
Byzantium. After unsuccessful sieges of both cities, Philip's influence all over Greece was compromised. However, he successfully reasserted his authority in the
Aegean by defeating an alliance of Thebans and Athenians at the
Battle of Chaeronea in
338 BC, while in the same year, Philip destroyed
Amfissa because the residents had illegally cultivated part of the Crisaian plain which belonged to
Delphi. Philip created and led the
League of Corinth in
337 BC. Members of the League agreed never to wage war against each other, unless it was to suppress
revolution. Philip was elected as leader (
hegemon) of the army of invasion against the
Persian Empire. In
336 BC, when the invasion of Persia was in its very early stage, Philip was assassinated, and was succeeded on the throne of Macedon by his son
Alexander III.
Assassination
The murder happened in October of
336 BC, at
Aegae, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Macedon. The court had gathered there for the celebration of the marriage between
Alexander I of Epirus and Philip's daughter
Cleopatra. While the king was entering unprotected into the town's theater (highlighting his approachability to the Greek diplomats present), he was killed by
Pausanias of Orestis, one of his seven bodyguards. The assassin immediately tried to escape and reach his associates who were waiting for him with horses at the entrance of Aegae. He was pursued by three of Philip's bodyguards and died by their hands.
The reasons for Pausanias' assassination of Phillip are difficult to fully expound, since there was controversy already among ancient historians. The only contemporary account in our possession is that of
Aristotle, who states rather tersely that Philip was killed because Pausanias had been offended by the followers of
Attalus, the king's father-in-law.
Fifty years later, the historian
Cleitarchus expanded and embellished the story. Centuries later, this version was to be narrated by
Diodorus Siculus and all the historians who used Cleitarchus. In the sixteenth book of Diodorus' history, Pausanias had been a lover of Philip, but became jealous when Philip turned his attention to a younger man, also called Pausanias. His taunting of the new lover caused the youth to throw away his life, which turned his friend, Attalus, against Pausanias. Attalus took his revenge by inviting Pausanias to dinner, getting him drunk, then subjecting him to sexual assault.
When Pausanias complained to Philip the king felt unable to chastise Attalus, as he was about to send him to Asia with Parmenion, to establish a bridgehead for his planned invasion. He also married Attalus's niece, or daughter,
Eurydice. Rather than offend Attalus, Phillip attempted to mollify Pausanius by elevating him within the bodyguard. Pausanias' desire for revenge seems to have turned towards the man who had failed to avenge his damaged honour; so he planned to kill Philip, and some time after the alleged rape, while Attalus was already in Asia fighting the Persians, put his plan in action. Other historians (for example,
Justin 9.7) suggested that Alexander and/or his mother
Olympias were at least privy to the intrigue, if not themselves instigators. The latter seems to have been anything but discreet in manifesting her gratitude to Pausanias, if we accept Justin's report: he tells us that the same night of her return from exile she placed a crown on the assassin's corpse and erected a tumulus to his memory, ordering annual sacrifices to the memory of Pausanias.
Many modern historians have observed that all the accounts are improbable. In the case of Pausanias, the stated motive of the crime hardly seems adequate. On the other hand, the implication of Alexander and Olympias seems specious: to act as they did would have required brazen effrontery in the face of a military machine personally loyal to Philip. What appears to be recorded in this are the natural suspicions that fell on the chief beneficiaries of the murder; their actions after the murder, however sympathetic they might appear (if actual), can't prove their guilt in the deed itself. Further convoluting the case is the possible role of propaganda in the surviving accounts: Attalus was executed in Alexander's consolidation of power after the murder; one might wonder if his enrollment among the conspirators wasn't for the effect of introducing political expediency in an otherwise messy purge (Attalus had publicly declared his hope that Alexander wouldn't succeed Philip, but rather that a son of his own niece Eurydice, recently married to Philip and brutally murdered by Olympias after Philip's death, would gain the throne of Macedon).
Marriages
The dates of Philip's multiple marriages and the names of some of his wives are contested. Below is the order of marriages offered by Athenaeus, 13.557b-e:
Archaeological findings
On
November 8,
1977, Greek archaeologist
Manolis Andronikos found, among other royal tombs, an unopened tomb at
Vergina in the Greek prefecture of
Imathia. The finds from this tomb were later included in the traveling exhibit
The Search for Alexander displayed at four cities in the
United States from
1980 to
1982. Initially identified as belonging to Philip II, Eugene Borza and others have suggested that the tomb actually belonged to Philip's son,
Philip Arrhidaeus. Disputations often relied on contradictions between "the body" or "skeleton" of Philip II and reliable historical accounts of his life (and injuries).
Further Information
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