King Philip of Macedon

• Philip was responsible in a very large way for the success of his son Alexander

• In fact what Alexander did was actually planned by his father

• However, Philip was murdered and it was left to Alexander to achieve greatness

Focus Questions:

• Who was Philip?

• What did he do?

• How did he lay the foundation for Alexander?

• Who killed him?

• Why?

Map of Ancient Greece (363 BCE)

Macedonia- Before Philip

Macedonia- During Philip’s Expansion (348 BCE)

After Philip’s Death (336 BCE)

• We can see that Philip expanded and consolidated the Greek world

• His next step was to have been the invasion of Persia but he was murdered

• But first some background...

• Philip’s elder brother, Alexander I king of Macedonia was assassinated

• due to palace intrigue Philip was a hostage to Thebes for 3 years (368-365 BCE). It was during this time that he learned Greek tactics and about the phalanx

• On his return to Macedonia he was able to seize power (after the death of his brother, Perdiccas) and began his consolidation of power over Greece.

• Philip came to power in the most difficult times; the country was virtually at the brink of collapse, its neighbors (Thracians, Illyrians, and Greeks) ready to put an end to its existence.

• The Macedonian state was weakened by internal turmoil, Paeonia was independent of Macedonian control, and additional claimants to the throne now supported by foreign powers were a serious threat to Philip's reign. 

Philip provided his Macedonian solders in the phalanx with sarissa, a spear which was long 6 meters, about 18 feet. The sarissa , when held upright by the rear rows of the phalanx (there were usually eight rows), helped hide maneuvers behind the phalanx from the view of the enemy. When held horizontal by the front rows of the phalanx, it was a brutal weapon for people could be run through from 20 feet away.

• Philip made the military a way of life for the Macedonian men. It became a professional occupation that paid well enough that the soldiers could afford to do it year-round, unlike in the past when the soldiering had only been a part-time job, something the men would do during the off peak times of farming.

• This allowed him to count on his man regularly, building unity and cohesion among his men.

Professionalizes the army

• Philip did not just wage war to gain control of Macedonia and all of Greece

• While only 21 years of age:

• He bought off the Thracian king with gifts and persuaded him to put to death the first Macedonian pretender to the throne who had found a refuge at the Thracian court

• Careful not to upset the Athenians, he made a treaty with them, ceding the city of Amphipolis on the Macedonian coast to them

Uses Diplomacy

• First he married the Illyrian princess Audata, thus sealing an alliance with the Illyrians, then he married Phila, the princess of the Macedonian canton of Elimea, with which he strengthened the internal Macedonian unity. In 357 BC he married princess Olympias from the neighboring country of Epirus

Political Marriages

Philip Olympia

When he was only in his twenties Philip met and married Olympia. Their marriage

produced Alexander III

• Everything was going great for Philip, he had recently married (for the 7th time), was in control of all of Greece (except Sparta) and had already started his pre-invasion of the Persian empire

• Nothing could stop him...

• In the spring of 336 BC, Philip begun the invasion of Persia. He sent generals Attalus and Parmenio with an advance force of 10,000 Macedonian troops, to cross over into Asia Minor and pave the way for the later advance of the main army.

• And while the Macedonians were crossing the Hellespont, in Macedonia everything was ready for the grand celebration for the wedding of Philip's daughter Cleopatra to prince Alexander of Epirus, brother of Olympias.

• The first day of the celebrations the guests saw a lavish entertained of every sort. But on the second day of the celebration, while entering the theater passing between his son Alexander and his new son-in-law Alexander, Philip was struck with a dagger and killed on the spot. The assassin Pausanias, a young Macedonian noble, attempted to escape but tripped and was killed on the spot by few close friends of Philip's son Alexander.

Why did Pausanias kill Philip? Was there a larger conspiracy?

• There is a claim that Pausanias was driven into committing the murder after he was denied justice by the king when he sought his support in punishing Cleopatra's uncle Attalus for earlier mistreatment.

• But there are also reports that claim that both Olympias and Alexander were responsible for the assassination, by driving the young man into committing the act. That might explain why Pausanias was instantly put to death by Alexander's close friends instead of being captured alive.

• According to historian Nicholas Hammond in his Philip of Macedon

• Attalus shouted to the crowd, "Now legitimate sons, not bastards will be born to kings," and a miffed Alexander dumped a tankard on his head in disgust. Philip, worried about appearing ungracious,

• ... drew his sword to kill his son but fell in a drunken stupor, and Alexander mocked his father with the taunt, "See you men, here is the man who was planning to cross from Europe to Asia. Why, in crossing from one couch to the other he has fallen flat on his face." Olympias too was outraged not only at Philip bringing girl after girl into their marriage-bed but now trying to kill their son. When she let fly at her husband, he responded by divorcing her ... a diplomatic Corinthian, Demacratus, took Philip to task: "You do very well to take thought for Greece, Philip, when you have filled your own household with such faction and disasters."

Why would Alexander have wanted to kill his father?

Did Pausanias act alone? Were Alexander or his mother involved?

Either way Philip was dead although he did accomplish a

lot, things that Alexander would exploit to their fullest.

Philip stands high among the makers of kingdoms. Restless energy, determination, a faculty for animating and organizing a strong people, went with unscrupulous duplicity and a full-blooded vehemence in the pleasures of sense. Yet Philip was not untouched by ideal considerations, as is proved by the respect, no doubt sincere, which he showed for Hellenic culture, by the forbearance and deference with which he treated Athens, the sacred city of that culture and his mortal foe. A special interest belongs to the Macedonian kingdom as it was shaped by Philip, since it forestalls a system which was not to find the time ripe for it in European history till many centuries later the national kingdom quickened with the culture developed by the ancient city-states. The national kingdoms founded by the Northern races, after the fall of the Roman Empire, under the influence of the classical tradition, are the beginnings of the modern European system; Philip of Macedon foreshadows Theodoric, Charlemagne and William the Conqueror. But this first national kingdom within the sphere of Greek culture could not ultimately live between the surge of the Northern barbarians and the Roman power. (www.1911encyclopedia.org/Philip_II_Of_Macedonia)