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ærian was his nameo

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From Britannica

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Arrian: Arrian, Greek historian and philosopher who was one of the most distinguished authors of the 2nd-century Roman Empire. He was the author of a work describing the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Titled Anabasis, presumably in order to recall Xenophon's work of that title, it describes Alexander's

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History of Philip and Macedon

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Philip of Macedon Philip II of Macedonia Biography

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Macedonia is an ancient kingdom located in south-eastern Europe, north of Greece, west of Thrace, and east of Illyria. Philip II was born in 382 BC, in Pella, the capital of the ancient Macedonian kingdom, as the youngest son of king Amyntas III. After his fathers death, Macedonia slowly disintegrated.

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https://sawstonancienthistory.wikispaces.com/Revision+notes

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Wiki page about Alexander the Great's father. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_II_of_Macedon

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Philip II of Macedon ( Greek: Philippos; 382 BC - 21 October 336 BC) was the king () of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia from 359 BC until his death in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty, founders of the ancient kingdom, and the father of Alexander the Great.

The rise of Macedon, including its conquest and political consolidation of most of Classical Greece during his reign, was achieved by his reformation of the army (the establishment of the Macedonian phalanx that proved critical in securing victories on the battlefield), his extensive use of siege engines, and his use of effective diplomacy and marriage alliances.

After defeating the Greek city-states of Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, 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.

Philip was born in either 383 or 382 BC, and was the youngest son of King Amyntas III and Eurydice of Lynkestis. He had two older brothers, Alexander II and Perdiccas III, as well as a sister named Eurynoe. Amyntas later married another woman, Gygaea, with whom he had three sons, Philip's half-brothers Archelaus, Arrhidaeus, and Menelaus.

After the assassination of Alexander II, Philip was sent as a hostage to Illyria by Ptolemy of Aloros. Philip was later held in Thebes ( c. 368-365 BC), which at the time was the leading city of Greece. While in Thebes, Philip received a military and diplomatic education from Epaminondas, and lived with Pammenes, who was an enthusiastic advocate of the Sacred Band of Thebes.

Philip's military skills and expansionist vision of Macedonia brought him early success. He first had to remedy the woes over Macedonian territory faced by his throne's government. This was a predicament that had greatly worsened through Macedonia's defeat by the Illyrians, a struggle in which King Perdiccas himself had died. The Paeonians and the Thracians had sacked and invaded the eastern regions of Macedonia, while the Athenians had landed at Methoni on the coast with a contingent under the Macedonian pretender Argaeus II.

Using diplomacy, Philip pushed back the Paeonians and Thracians promising tributes, and defeated the 3,000 Athenian hoplites (359 BC). Momentarily free from his opponents, he concentrated on strengthening his internal position and, above all, his army. Philip II made many notable contributions to the Macedonian army. The cavalry, which were the primary source of the army's strength, went from a force of 600 to 4000 from the time of the battles with the Illyrians to 334 BC. The discipline and training of the soldiers increased as well, and the Macedonian soldiers under Philip were provided with the possibility of promotion through the ranks and rewards and bonus wages for exceptional service. In addition to these changes, Philip created the Macedonian phalanx, an infantry formation that consisted of soldiers all armed with a Philip is credited for adding the sarissa to the Macedonian army, where it soon was the common weapon used by most soldiers.

After securing the western and southern borders of Macedon, Philip went on to besiege Amphipolis in 357 BC. 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 his conquest, in exchange for Pydna (which was lost by Macedon in 363 BC). However, after conquering Amphipolis, Philip captured Pydna for himself and kept both cities (357 BC). Athens soon declared war against him, and as a result, Philip allied Macedon with the Chalcidian League of Olynthus. He subsequently conquered Potidaea, this time keeping his word and ceding it to the League in 356 BC.

Coin of the western Odrysian king Cetriporis, who was subjugated by Philip in the late 350s

In 355-354 BC 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 BC. Philip also attacked Abdera and Maronea, on the Thracian coast (354-353 BC).

Map of the territory of Philip II of Macedon

Philip's involvement in the Third Sacred War (356-346 BC) began in 354 BC. At the request of the Thessalian League, Philip and his army traveled to Thessaly in order to capture Pagasae, resulting in an alliance with Thebes. A year later in 353 BC, Philip was once again asked to assist in battle, but this time against the tyrant Lycophron who was supported by Onomarchus. Philip and his forces invaded Thessaly, defeating 7,000 Phocians and forcing Phayllus, the brother of Onomarchus, to leave.

That same year, Onomarchus and his army defeated Philip in two succeeding battles. Philip returned to Thessaly the next summer, this time with an army of 20,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, and the additional support of the Thessalian League's forces. At the Battle of Crocus Field, 6,000 Phocians fell and 3,000 were taken as prisoners and later drowned. This battle earned Philip immense prestige as well as the free acquisition of Pherae. He was made the leader () of the Thessalian League and was able to claim Magnesia and Perrhaebia, which expanded his territory to Pagasae. Philip did not attempt to advance into Central Greece because the Athenians, unable to arrive in time to defend Pagasae, had occupied Thermopylae.

Silver tetradrachm dated to the reign of Philip II. Obv.: laureate head of Zeus facing right; rev.: a youth on horseback advancing right. The legend along the top reads ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ (Philip).

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.

Statue of Philip II, 350-400 AD. Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier.

With key Greek city-states in submission, Philip II turned to Sparta, warning them "If I invade Laconia, I shall turn you out." The Spartans' laconic reply was one word: "If." Philip proceeded to invade Laconia, devastate much of it and eject the Spartans from various parts.

In 345 BC, 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 BC, Philip led a 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, and in 339 BC, 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 BC, 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 BC. Members of the league agreed never to wage war against each other, unless it was to suppress revolution.

Philip II was involved quite early against the Achaemenid Empire. From around 352 BC, 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 BC, 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.

Roman medallion of Olympias, the fourth wife of Philip II and mother of Alexander the Great. From the Museum of Thessaloniki.

The kings of Macedon practiced polygamy. Philip II had seven wives throughout his life, all members of royalty from foreign dynasties, and all of which were considered queens, making their children royalty as well. The dates of Philip's multiple marriages and the names of some of his wives are contested. Below is the order of marriages:

Audata, the daughter of Illyrian king Bardyllis. Mother of Cynane.

Phila of Elimeia, the sister of Derdas and Machatas of Elimiotis.

Nicesipolis of Pherae, Thessaly, mother of Thessalonica.

Olympias of Epirus, daughter of Neoptolemus I, mother of Alexander the Great and Cleopatra.

Philinna of Larissa, mother of Arrhidaeus later called Philip III of Macedon.

Meda of Odessos, daughter of the king Cothelas, of Thrace.

Cleopatra, daughter of Hippostratus and niece of general Attalus of Macedonia. Philip renamed her Cleopatra Eurydice of Macedon.

Depiction of Philip's assassination by Pausanias in The Story of the Greatest Nations (c. 1900)

The reasons for the assassination are difficult to ascertain. There was controversy even among ancient historians; the only known surviving contemporary account is that of Aristotle, who states simply that Philip was killed because Pausanias had been offended by Attalus (Philip's uncle-in-law) and his friends. Attalus was the uncle of Philip's wife Cleopatra (renamed Eurydice upon marriage).

Fifty years later, the historian Cleitarchus expanded and embellished the story. Centuries afterwards, this version was propagated by Diodorus Siculus and other historians who relied on Cleitarchus. According to the sixteenth book of Diodorus' history, Pausanias of Orestis had been a lover of Philip, but became jealous when Philip turned his attention to a younger man, also called Pausanias. The elder Pausanias' taunting of the new lover caused the younger Pausanias to throw away his life in battle, which turned his friend Attalus against the elder Pausanias. Attalus took his revenge by getting Pausanias of Orestis drunk at a public dinner and then raping him.

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 an invasion he was planning. Also, Philip had recently married Attalus' niece, Cleopatra Eurydice. Rather than offend Attalus, Philip tried to mollify Pausanias by elevating him within his personal bodyguard. Pausanias then seems to have redirected his desire for revenge towards the man who had failed to avenge his damaged honour, and accordingly to plan to kill Philip. Some time after the alleged rape, while Attalus was away in Asia fighting the Persians, he put his plan into action.

Some modern historians have claimed that none of the accounts are probable: They say that in the case of Pausanias, the purported motive for the crime hardly seems adequate. Furthermore they claim that implicating Alexander and Olympias in the plot seems specious, to act as they did would have required them to act with an improbable degree of brazen effrontery in the face of a military whose members were personally loyal to Philip. What seems to have been recorded, rather, are simply suspicions that were naturally directed towards the chief beneficiaries of the assassination; however, their actions in response to the murder are hardly evidence of their guilt with respect to the crime itself, regardless of how sympathetic they might have seemed afterward.

Scholar Daniel Ogden has noted that if there was a sexual side to the murder, "then it can be contextualized in this regard against known homosexual relationships in and around the Macedonian court" and that according to Aristotle, the regicide of Archelaus I of Macedon was by his former , Crateuas and Hellenocrates of Larissa.

Whatever the actual background to the assassination, it may have had an enormous effect on later world events, far beyond what any conspirators could have predicted. As asserted by some modern historians, had the older and more settled Philip been the one in charge of the war against Persia, he might have been content to make relatively moderate conquests, e.g., making Anatolia into a Macedonian province, and, unlike his son Alexander, not have wanted to push further into an overall conquest of Persia and further campaigns in India.

In 1977, Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos started excavating the Great Tumulus at Aigai near modern Vergina, the capital and burial site of the kings of Macedon, and found that two of the four tombs in the tumulus were undisturbed since antiquity. Moreover, these two, and particularly Tomb II, contained fabulous treasures and objects of great quality and sophistication.

Although there was much debate for some years, as suspected at the time of the discovery Tomb II has been shown to be that of Philip II as indicated by many features, including the greaves, one of which was shaped consistently to fit a leg with a misaligned tibia (Philip II was recorded as having broken his tibia). Also, the remains of the skull show damage to the right eye caused by the penetration of an object (historically recorded to be an arrow).

Two scientists who studied some of the bones claimed in 2015 that Philip was buried in Tomb I, not Tomb II. On the basis of age, knee ankylosis, and a hole matching the penetrating wound and lameness suffered by Philip, the authors of the study identified the remains of Tomb I in Vergina as those of Philip II. Tomb II instead was identified in the study as that of King Arrhidaeus and his wife Eurydice II. The Greek Ministry of Culture replied that this claim was baseless, and that the archaeological evidence shows that the ankylotic knee belongs to another body which was thrown or put into Tomb I after this had been looted, and probably between 276/5 and 250 BC. Besides this, the theory that Tomb I belonged to Philip II had previously been shown to be false.

More recent research gives further evidence that Tomb II contains the remains of Philip II.

The tomb of Philip II of Macedon at the Museum of the Royal Tombs in Vergina

The golden larnax and the golden grave crown of Philip

The gilded silver diadem of Philip II, found in his tomb at Vergina.

Philip commissioned the construction of the Philippeion at Olympia to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Chaeronea.

The heroon at Vergina in Macedonia (the ancient city of Aegae - Αἰγαί) is thought to have been dedicated to the worship of the family of Alexander the Great and may have housed the cult statue of Philip. It is probable that he was regarded as a hero or deified on his death. Though the Macedonians did not consider Philip a god, he did receive other forms of recognition from the Greeks, e.g. at Eresos (altar to Zeus Philippeios), Ephesos (his statue was placed in the temple of Artemis), and at Olympia, where the Philippeion was built.

Isocrates once wrote to Philip that if he defeated Persia, there would be nothing left for him to do but to become a god, and Demades proposed that Philip be regarded as the thirteenth god; however, there is no clear evidence that Philip was raised to the divine status accorded his son Alexander.

Philip is mentioned in the opening verse of the deutero-canonical First Book of Maccabees.

Niketerion (victory medallion) bearing the effigy of king Philip II of Macedon, 3rd century AD, probably minted during the reign of Roman Emperor Alexander Severus

1. Worthington, Ian. 2008. ^ Philip II of Macedonia. New Haven: Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0300164763

2. Cosmopoulos, Michael B. 1992. ^ Macedonia: An Introduction to its Political History. Winnipeg: Manitoba Studies in Classical Civilization, p. 30 (Table 2: The Argeiad Kings).

3. Diodorus Sicilus, Book 16, 89.[3] "διόπερ ^ ἐν Κορίνθῳ τοῦ κοινοῦ συνεδρίου συναχθέντος διαλεχθεὶς περὶ τοῦ πρὸς Πέρσας πολέμου καὶ μεγάλας ἐλπίδας ὑποθεὶς προετρέψατο τοὺς συνέδρους εἰς πόλεμον. τέλος δὲ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἑλομένων αὐτὸν στρατηγὸν αὐτοκράτορα τῆς Ἑλλάδος μεγάλας παρασκευὰς ἐποιεῖτο πρὸς τὴν ἐπὶ τοὺς Πέρσας στρατείαν...καὶ τὰ μὲν περὶ Φίλιππον ἐν τούτοις ἦν"

4. ^ Green, Peter (2013). Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-0520954694.

5. Howe, T. (2017), "Plain tales from the hills: Illyrian influences on Argead military development", in S. Müller, T. Howe, H. Bowden and R. Rollinger (eds.), ^ The History of the Argeads: New Perspectives. Wiesbaden, 99-113.

6. ^ Green, Peter (2013). Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C. : A Historical Biography. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-0520954694.

7. ^ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Mason, Charles Peter (1870). "Argaeus". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 279.

8. Hatzopoulos, Miltiades B. (1980). Philip of Macedon. Athens: Ekdotike Athenon S.A. p. 59.

9. ^ The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 6: The Fourth Century BC by D. M. Lewis, 1994, p. 374, ISBN 0-521-23348-8: "... The victory over Bardylis made him an attractive ally to the Epirotes, who too had suffered at the Illyrians' hands, and his recent alignment ..."

10. ^ Green, Peter (2013). Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C. : A Historical Biography. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0520954694.

11. ^ Hammond, N.G.L. (1966). "The Kingdoms in Illyria circa 400-167 B.C." The Annual of the British School at Athens. 61: 239-266. doi:10.1017/S0068245400019043. JSTOR 30103175. S2CID 164155370. Archived from the original on 10 March 2021.

12. ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bevan, Edwyn Robert (1911). "Philip II., king of Macedonia". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 377.

13. ^ Plutarch; W.C. Helmbold. "De Garrulitate". Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University. Archived from the original on 5 May 2021. ἂν ἐμβάλω εἰς τὴν Λακωνικήν, ἀναστάτους ὑμᾶς ποιήσω

14. ^ Cartledge, Paul (2002). Sparta and Lakonia : a regional history, 1300-362 B.C. (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. p. 273. ISBN 0-415-26276-3. Philip laid Lakonia waste as far south as Gytheion and formally deprived Sparta of Dentheliatis (and apparently the territory on the Messenian Gulf as far as the Little Pamisos river), Belminatis, the territory of Karyai and the east Parnon foreland.

15. Ashley, James R., ^ The Macedonian Empire: The Era of Warfare Under Philip II and Alexander the Great, 359-323 BC. McFarland, 2004, p. 114, ISBN 0-7864-1918-0

16. ^ Cawkwell, George (1978). Philip II of Macedon. London: Faber & Faber. p. 170. ISBN 0-571-10958-6.

17. ^ Wells, H. G. (1961) [1937]. The Outline of History: Volume 1. Doubleday. pp. 279-280. ... in 338 B.C. a congress of Greek states recognized him as captain-general for the war against Persia.

18. ^ Wells, H. G. (1961) [1937]. The Outline of History: Volume 1. Doubleday. p. 282. The murderer had a horse waiting, and would have got away, but the foot of his horse caught in a wild vine, and he was thrown from the saddle by the stumble, and slain by his pursuers.

19. ^ Aristotle. Politics. pp. 5.10, 1311b.

20. ^ Diodorus Siculus. "The Library of History". 16.91-95. Archived from the original on 4 March 2010.

21. Diodorus Siculus. "The Library of History". 16.91-95. Archived from the original on 4 March 2010.

22. ^ Marcus Junianus, Justinus (1768). "9.7". Justini historiæPhilippicæ: Cum versionse anglica, ad verbum, quantum fieri potuit, facta, or, The history of Justin; with an English translation, as literal as possible. By John Clarke, author of the essays upon education and study. Translated by Clarke, John (6th ed.). London: Printed for L. Hawes, W. Clarke, and R. Collins, in Pater-Noster Row, M.DCC.LXVIII. pp. 89-90.

23. Hatzopoulos, Miltiades B. (1980). Philip of Macedon. Athens: Ekdotike Athenon S. A. pp. 170-175.

24. ^ Ogden, Daniel (2009). "Alexander's Sex Life". In Heckel, Waldemar; Tritle, Lawrence A. (eds.). Alexander the Great: A New History. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 212. ISBN 978-1-4051-3081-3. If the relationship was indeed a sexual one, then it can be contextualized in this regard against known homosexual relationships in and around the Macedonian court. The sensitivities associated with them had often erupted into regicide. Aristotle tells that the killers of Archelaus, Crateuas and Hellenocrates of Larissa, had been former eromenoi of the king.

25. ^ Worthington, Ian (2004). Alexander the Great: Man and God. Routledge (published 2014). p. 48. ISBN 978-1-317-86645-9. Archived from the original on 22 March 2022. As the centuries passed, the location of Philip's tomb was forgotten, as indeed was the site of ancient Aegae. In 1977 the Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos excavated a large tumulus at Vergina, which N.G.L. Hammond identified with Aegae.

26. ^ National Geographic article outlining recent archaeological examinations of Tomb II Archived 1 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine.

27. ^ "Hatzopoulos B. Miltiades, The Burial of the Dead (at Vergina) or The Unending Controversy on the Identity of the Occupant of Tomb II. Tekmiria, vol. 9 (2008)". Archived from the original on 28 July 2011.

28. See John Prag and Richard Neave's report in ^ Making Faces: Using Forensic and Archaeological Evidence, published for the Trustees of the British Museum by the British Museum Press, London: 1997.

29. Musgrave, Jonathan; Prag, A. J. N. W.; Neave, Richard; Fox, Robin Lane; White, Hugh (8 August 2010). "The Occupants of Tomb II at Vergina. Why Arrhidaios and Eurydice must be excluded". International Journal of Medical Sciences. 7 (6): s1-s15. doi:10.7150/ijms.7.s1 (inactive 31 January 2024). Archived from the original on 23 March 2023 - via www.medsci.org.

30. Antonis Bartsiokas; et al. (20 July 2015). "The lameness of King Philip II and Royal Tomb I at Vergina, Macedonia". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 112 (32): 9844-48. Bibcode:2015PNAS..112.9844B. doi:10.1073/pnas.1510906112. PMC 4538655. PMID 26195763.

31. ^ [1]Archived 3 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine "Ministry of Culture [Greece]: Answer to the conclusions of a study on the tomb of Philip" (Υπουργείο Πολιτισμού: Απάντηση στα συμπεράσματα μελέτης για τον τάφο του Φιλίππου, Newspaper To Vima (Το Βήμα), 22 July 2015. (in Greek)

32. ^ Antikas, Theodore G.; Wynn-Antikas, Laura K. (11 May 2015). "New Finds from the Cremains in Tomb II at Aegae Point to Philip II and a Scythian Princess". International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. 26 (4) (published July-August 2016): 682-692. doi:10.1002/oa.2459. Archived from the original on 26 June 2021 - via Wiley Online Library.

33. Backgrounds of early Christianity By Everett Ferguson p. 202 ^ ISBN 0-8028-0669-4

34. The twelve gods of Greece and Rome By Charlotte R. Long p. 207 ^ ISBN 90-04-07716-2

Primary sources

Diodorus Siculus (1968). Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes. Translated by Oldfather, Charles H. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Plutarch (1923). Plutarch's Lives. Translated by Perrin, Bernadotte. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Secondary sources

Anson, Edward (2009). "Philip II, Amyntas Perdicca, and Macedonian Royal Succession". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. 58 (3): 276-286 - via JSTOR.

Carney, Elizabeth (2006). Olympias: Mother of Alexander the Great. Routledge.

King, Carol J. (2018). Ancient Macedonia. Routledge.

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Philip II of Macedon ( Greek: Philippos; 382 BC - 21 October 336 BC) was the king () of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia from 359 BC until his death in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty, founders of the ancient kingdom, and the father of Alexander the Great.

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Campaigner and hunter

In 336 Alexander became king not only of Macedon, but also of most of mainland Greece. He inherited the mantle of his late father, as leader of a pan-hellenic expedition of holy revenge and liberation against the once mighty Persian empire. During the 11 years of his almost non-stop campaigning in Asia (334-323), periods of rest and recreation were infrequent as he strove to achieve his ambitious aims, to the undoubted chagrin of his officers and troops; but one of his favourite means of relaxation was hunting.

As his biographer Plutarch put it, 'When he had time on his hands, he would get up and sacrifice to the gods ... then he would go on to spend the day hunting ...' . For example, in a safari park near Maracanda (Samarkand in Uzbekistan) in the early 320s, a bag of no fewer than 4,000 wild game, including lions, is reported. That was the reward for the capture of the fearsome Sogdian Rock.

To illustrate this, at the Pella Archaeological Museum in Macedonia there is a beautiful pebble mosaic, which is thought to depict Alexander in pursuit of danger and excitement - a mosaic that originally adorned a floor in a luxurious Hellenistic-period house, the so-called House of Dionysus. According to the favoured interpretation, this may well be modelled on a bronze statue-group in the round executed by Alexander's court sculptor, Lysippus, and shows his leading companion, Craterus, famously supporting Alexander as he hunted lions in a game park in Syria.

Sometimes, though, it was not only wild game that was the object of Alexander's hotheaded attention. More than once, a leading Macedonian made the mistake of intercepting the major quarry and robbing Alexander of the pleasure and pride of making the kill.

In one of these incidents, the offender was a member of Alexander's own royal retinue, one Dimnus, who received humiliating punishment for his supposed presumptuousness. It has been said that there was a direct connection between this punishment and Dimnus's alleged plotting against Alexander's life in 327 BC.

The Alexander Romance

Alexander himself died at Babylon in June 323 BC, at the age of only 32. The circumstances of his death are almost as unclear as those of his father, though it probably smacks too much of the historical novel to suggest that Alexander was assassinated, possibly by poison. Rather, he is most likely to have caught a deadly fever, probably malarial, after years of pushing himself beyond reasonable limits.

His passing was greeted very differently in different parts of his vastly enlarged empire. The traditional enemies of Macedon in Greece were thrilled to bits, whereas those Greeks and non-Greeks who had gladly worshipped him as a living god felt genuinely bereft. Whatever is thought of his lifetime achievements, there is no questioning the impact of his posthumous fame.

Thanks above all to the literary text known as the Alexander Romance, created originally at the great leader's most famous foundation - the city of Alexandria, in Egypt - Alexander has featured internationally as a hero, a quasi-holy man, a Christian saint, a new Achilles, a philosopher, a scientist, a prophet, and a visionary. The more earthy musings of the hero of Shakespeare's Hamlet, in the graveyard scene, are just one chauvinistic illustration of the fact that Alexander has featured in the literature of some 80 countries, stretching from our own Britannic islands (as Arrian, called them) to the Malay peninsula - by way of Kazakhstan.

That is another way of saying that Alexander is probably the most famous of the few individuals in human history whose bright light has shot across the firmament to mark the end of one era and the beginning of another.

One of our best sources on Alexander, Arrian, focused on one particular quality of Alexander, his pothos or overmastering desire to achieve or experience the humanly - and divinely - unprecedented. Alexander's hunt for what was in the end unattainable by him in his lifetime provides us with the chance, and the motive, to conduct a new hunt to try to capture the daunting immensity of his achievement.

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Alexander the Great: Hunting for a New Past

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In 336 Alexander became king not only of Macedon, but also of most of mainland Greece. He inherited the mantle of his late father, as leader of a pan-hellenic expedition of holy revenge and liberation against the once mighty Persian empire.

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A brief guide to the World of Alexander gallery