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Philip II of Macedon (382–336) was the
king (basileus) of the kingdom of Macedon from 359 until his assassination in
336. He was a member of the Argead dynasty of Macedonian kings, the third son
of King Amyntas III of Macedon, and father of Alexander the Great and Philip
III. The rise of Macedon, its conquest and political consolidation of most of
Classical Greece during the reign of Philip II was achieved in part by his
reformation of the Ancient Macedonian army, establishing the Macedonian phalanx
that proved critical in securing victories on the battlefield. After defeating
the Greek city-states of Athens and Thebes at the Battle of
Chaeronea in 338, Philip II led the
effort to establish a federation of Greek states known as the League of
Corinth, with him as the elected hegemon and commander-in-chief of Greece for a
planned invasion of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia. However, his assassination
by a royal bodyguard, Pausanias of Orestis, led to the immediate succession of
his son Alexander, who would go on to invade the Achaemenid Empire in his
father's stead.
Biography:
See also: Rise of Macedon Further information: Expansion of Macedonia under
Philip II
Youth and accession:
Philip was the youngest son of the king Amyntas III and Eurydice I. In his
youth, Philip was held as a hostage in Illyria under Bardylis and then was held
in Thebes (c. 368–365), which was then the leading city of Greece. 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, 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. Originally appointed regent for his
infant nephew Amyntas IV, who was the son of Perdiccas III, Philip succeeded in
taking the kingdom for himself that same year. Philip's military skills and
expansionist vision of Macedonian greatness brought him early success. He first
had to remedy a predicament 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 Macedonia,
while the Athenians had landed, at Methoni on the coast, a contingent under the
Macedonian pretender Argaeus II.
Campaigns: - See PhilipIImaps for a map showing
locations for his battles and sieges
Early military career:
See also: Ancient Macedonian army and Government of Macedonia (ancient kingdom)
Using diplomacy, Philip pushed back the 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, at the time the most important army corps in
Macedonia.[citation needed] Philip had married Audata, great-granddaughter of
the Illyrian king of Dardania, Bardyllis. However, this did not prevent him
from marching against the Illyrians 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
earned the favour of the Epirotes.
The wounding of Philip:
The Athenians had been unable to conquer Amphipolis, which commanded the gold
mines of Mount Pangaion. So Philip reached an agreement with Athens to lease
the city to them after its conquest, in exchange for Pydna (lost by Macedon in
363). However, after conquering Amphipolis, Philip kept both cities (357). As
Athens had declared war against him, he allied Macedon with the Chalkidian
League of Olynthus. He subsequently conquered Potidaea, this time keeping his
word and ceding it to the League in 356.
In 357, Philip married the Epirote princess Olympias, who was the daughter of
the king of the Molossians. Alexander was born in 356, the same year as
Philip's racehorse won at the Olympic Games. During 356, Philip conquered the
town of Crenides and changed its name to Philippi. He then established a
powerful garrison there to control its mines, which yielded much of the gold he
later used for his campaigns. In the meantime, his general Parmenion defeated
the Illyrians again. In 355–354 he besieged Methone, the last city on the
Thermaic Gulf controlled by Athens. During the siege, Philip was injured in his
right eye, which was later removed surgically.
Despite the arrival of two Athenian fleets, the city fell in 354. Philip also
attacked Abdera and Maronea, on the Thracian coast (354–353).
Third Sacred War:
Philip was involved in the
Third Sacred War
which had begun in Greece in 356. In summer 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 earned Philip
immense prestige, as well as 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 did not attempt to advance into Central Greece
because the Athenians, unable to arrive in time to defend Pagasae, had occupied
Thermopylae. There were no hostilities with Athens yet, but Athens was
threatened by the Macedonian party which Philip's gold created in Euboea.
From 352 to 346, Philip did not again travel 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 neighbouring cities were in his hands. In 349, 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 for by Philip's gold). The Macedonian king
finally took Olynthus in 348 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,
Philip advanced to the conquest of the eastern districts about Hebrus, and
compelled the submission of the Thracian prince Cersobleptes. In 346, 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.
Later campaigns (346–336 BC):
With key Greek city-states in submission, Philip II turned to Sparta; he sent
them a message: "If I win this war, you will be slaves forever." In
another version, he warned: "You are advised to submit without further
delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay
your people, and raze your city." According to both accounts, the
Spartans' laconic reply was one word: "If." Philip II and Alexander
both chose to leave Sparta alone. Later, Macedonian arms were carried across
Epirus to the Adriatic Sea. In 345, Philip conducted a hard-fought campaign
against the Ardiaioi (Ardiaei), under their king Pleuratus I, during which
Philip was seriously wounded in the lower right leg by an Ardian soldier.
In 342, 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, Philip started the siege of
Perinthus, and in 339, began another
siege against the city of Byzantium. As
both sieges failed, Philip's influence over Greece was compromised. He
successfully reasserted his authority in the Aegean by defeating an alliance of
Thebans and Athenians at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338, and in the same year,
destroyed Amfissa because the residents had illegally cultivated part of the
Crisaian plain which belonged to Delphi. These decisive victories led to Philip
being recognized as the military leader of the League of Corinth, a Greek
confederation allied against the Persian Empire, in 338/7.
Members of the league agreed never to wage war against each other, unless it
was to suppress revolution. Asian campaign (336) Philip II was involved quite
early against the Achaemenid Empire. From around 352, he supported several
Persian opponents to Artaxerxes III, such as
Artabazos II, Amminapes or a Persian nobleman named Sisines, by receiving them
for several years as exiles at the Macedonian court.This gave him a good
knowledge of Persian issues, and may even have influenced some of his
innovations in the management of the Macedonian state.
Alexander was also acquainted with these Persian exiles during his youth. In
336, Philip II sent Parmenion, with Amyntas, Andromenes and Attalus, and an
army of 10,000 men into Asia Minor to make preparations for an invasion to free
the Greeks living on the western coast and islands from Achaemenid rule. At
first, all went well. The Greek cities on the western coast of Anatolia
revolted until the news arrived that Philip had been assassinated and had been
succeeded as king by his young son Alexander. The Macedonians were demoralized
by Philip's death and were subsequently defeated near Magnesia by the
Achaemenids under the command of the mercenary Memnon of Rhodes.
Assassination:
Philip was murdered in October 336, 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 Cleopatra of Macedon, who was
Philip's daughter by his fourth wife Olympias. While the king was entering
unprotected into the town's theatre (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 to Aegae. He
was pursued by three of Philip's bodyguards, tripped on a vine, and died by
their hands. The reasons for the assassination are difficult to expound fully:
There was already controversy among ancient historians, and 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, uncle of Philip's wife Cleopatra (renamed Eurydice upon
marriage).
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