User:PericlesofAthens/Draft for Macedonia (ancient Kingdom)

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HISTORY

History

Section 1

Main article: Achaemenid Macedonia

The entrance to one of the royal tombs at Vergina, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides report the legend that the Macedonian kings of the Argead dynasty were descendants of Temenus of Argos, the latter believed to have had the mythical Heracles as one of his ancestors. The legend states that three brothers and descendants of Temenus wandered from Illyria to Upper Macedonia, where a local king nearly had them killed and forced into exile due to an omen that the youngest Perdiccas would become king. The latter eventually obtained the title after settling near the alleged gardens of Midas next to Mount Bermius in Lower Macedonia. Another legend propagated by Justin stated that Caranus of Macedon was the first Macedonian king and he was succeeded by Perdiccas I. Greeks of the Classical period generally accepted the origin story provided by Herodotus if not another involving lineage from Zeus, chief god of the Greek pantheon, lending credence to the idea that the Macedonian ruling house possessed the divine right of kings. Herodotus wrote that Alexander I of Macedon (r. 498-454 BC) convinced the Hellanodikai authorities of the Ancient Olympic games that his Argive lineage stemmed back to Temenus and hence his Greek identity should permit him to enter the Olympic competitions.

Very little is known about the first five kings of Macedonia. There is much greater evidence for the reigns of Amyntas I of Macedon (r. 547-498 BC) and his successor Alexander I, especially due to the latter's aid given to the Persian commander Mardonius at the Battle of Platea in 479 BC, during the Greco-Persian Wars. Although stating that the first several kings were most likely legendary figures, Malcolm Errington uses the rough estimate of 25 years for the reign periods of each of these kings to claim that Aigai (modern Vergina) had been under their rule since roughly the mid-7th century BC.

Silver coin of Alexander I of Macedon (r. 498-454 BC), most likely minted after 480 BC, Archaeological Museum of Pella

The kingdom was situated in the fertile alluvial plain, watered by the rivers Haliacmon and Axius, called Lower Macedonia, north of the mountain Olympus. Around the time of Alexander I, the Argead Macedonians started to expand into Upper Macedonia, lands inhabited by independent Greek tribes like the Lyncestae and the Elimiotae and to the West, beyond the Axius river, into the Emathia, Eordaia, Bottiaea, Mygdonia, Crestonia and Almopia regions settled by, among others, many Thracian tribes. To the north of Macedonia lay various non-Greek peoples such as the Paeonians due north, the Thracians to the northeast, and the Illyrians, with whom the Macedonians were frequently in conflict, to the northwest. To the south lay Thessaly, with whose inhabitants the Macedonians had much in common both culturally and politically, while to the west lay Epirus, with whom the Macedonians had a peaceful relationship and in the 4th century BC formed an alliance against Illyrian raids.

After Darius I of Persia launched a military campaign launched against the Scythians in Europe in 513 BC, he left behind his general Megabazus to quell the Paeonians, Thracians, and coastal Greek city-states of the Balkans. In 512/511 BC Megabazus sent envoys demanding Macedonian submission as a vassal state to the Achaemenid Empire of ancient Persia, to which Amyntas I responded by formally accepting the hegemony of the Persian king of kings. This began the period of Achaemenid Macedonia that lasted for roughly three decades, in which the Macedonian kingdom was largely autonomous yet was expected to provide troops and provisions for the Achaemenid army. Amyntas II, son of Amyntas I's daughter Gygaea of Macedon and her husband Bubares, son of Megabazus, was given the Phrygian city of Alabanda as an appanage by Xerxes I, to secure the Persian-Macedonian marriage alliance. Persian authority over Macedonia was interrupted by the Ionian Revolt (499-493 BC), yet the Persian general Mardonius was able to subjugate Macedonia, bringing it under Persian rule. It is doubtful, though, that Macedonia was ever officially included within a Persian satrapy (i.e. province). The Macedonian king Alexander I must have viewed his subordination as an opportunity to aggrandize his own position, since he used Persian military support to extend his own borders. The Macedonians provided military aid to Xerxes I during the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 480-479, which saw Macedonians and Persians fighting against a Greek coalition led by Classical Athens and Sparta. Following the Athenian victory at Salamis, the Persians sent Alexander I as an envoy to Athens in hopes to strike an alliance with their erstwhile foe, yet his diplomatic mission was rebuffed. Persian control over Macedonia ceased when they were ultimately defeated by the Greeks and fled the Greek mainland in Europe.

Section 2

Silver tetrobol coins issued during the reign of Perdiccas II (r. 454-413 BC)

Macedon (orange) during the Peloponnesian War around 431 BC, with Athens and the Delian League (yellow), Sparta and Peloponnesian League (red), independent states (blue), and the Persian Achaemenid Empire (purple).

Alexander I, who Herodotus claimed was entitled proxenos and euergetes ('benefactor') by the Athenians, cultivated a close relationship with the Greeks following the Persian defeat and withdrawal, sponsoring the erection of statues at both Delphi and Olympia. After his death in 454 BC, he was granted the posthumous title Alexander I 'the Philhellene' ('friend of the Greeks'), perhaps designated by later Hellenistic Alexandrian scholars, most certainly preserved by the Greco-Roman historian Dio Chrysostom, and most likely influenced by Macedonian propaganda of the 4th century BC that emphasized the positive role the ancestors of Philip II had in Greek affairs. Alexander I's successor Perdiccas II of Macedon (r. 454-413 BC) was not only saddled with internal revolt by the petty kings of Upper Macedonia, but also faced serious challenges to Macedonian territorial integrity by Sitalces, a ruler in Thrace, and the Athenian city-state that fought four separate wars against Macedonia under Perdiccas II. During his reign Athenian settlers began to encroach upon his coastal territories in Lower Macedonia to gather resources such as timber and pitch in support of their navy, a practice that was actively encouraged by Pericles when he had colonists settle among the Bisaltae along the Strymon River. From 176 BC onward the Athenians coerced some of the coastal towns of Macedonia along the Aegean Sea to join the Athenian-led Delian League as tributary states and in 437/436 BC founded the city of Amphipolis at the mouth of the Strymon River.

War broke out in 433 BC when Athens, perhaps seeking additional cavalry and resources in anticipation of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), allied with a brother and cousin of Perdiccas II who were in open rebellion against him. This led Perdiccas to seek alliances with Sparta and Ancient Corinth, yet when his efforts were rejected he instead promoted the rebellion of nearby nominal Athenian allies in Chalkidiki, winning over the important city of Potidaea. Athens responded by sending a naval invasion force that captured Therma and laid siege to Pydna, although they were unsuccessful in retaking Chalkidiki and Potidaea, and so sued for peace with Macedonia. War resumed shortly after with the Athenian capture of Beroea and Macedonian aid given to the Potidaeans during an Athenian siege, yet by 431 BC the Athenians and Macedonians concluded a peace treaty and alliance orchestrated by the Thracian ruler Sitalces of the Odrysian kingdom. Under this arrangement Perdiccas was given back Therma and no longer had to contend with his rebellious brother, Athens, and Sitacles all at once; in exchange he aided the Athenians in their subjugation of settlements in Chalkidiki.

In 429 BC Perdiccas II sent aid to the Spartan commander Cnemus in Acarnania, yet the Macedonian forces arrived to late to enter the Battle of Naupactus, which was an Athenian victory. In that same year Sitalces, according to Thucydides, invaded Macedonia at the behest of Athens to aid them in subduing Chalkidiki and punish Perdiccas II for violating the terms of their peace treaty. However, given Sitalces' huge Thracian invading force (allegedly 150,000 soldiers) and a nephew of Perdiccas II that he intended to place on the Macedonian throne after toppling the latter's regime, Athens must have become wary of acting on their supposed alliance since they failed to provide him with promised naval support. Sitalces eventually retreated from Macedonia, perhaps due to logistical concerns: a shortage of provisions and harsh winter conditions. In 424 BC Perdiccas began to play a prominent role in the Peloponnesian War by aiding the Spartan general Brasidas in convincing Athenian allies in Thrace to defect and ally with Sparta. After failing to convince Perdiccas II to make peace with Arrhabaeus of Lynkestis (a small region of Upper Macedonia), Brasidas agreed to aid the Macedonian fight against Arrhabaeus, although he expressed his concerns about leaving his Chalkidaean allies to their own devices against Athens, as well as the fearsome Illyrian reinforcements arriving on the side of Arrhabaeus. The massive combined force commanded by Arrhabaeus apparently caused the army of Perdiccas II to flee in haste before the battle began, which enraged the Spartans under Brasidas who proceeded to snatch pieces of the Macedonian baggage train left unprotected. Subsequently Perdiccas II not only made peace with Athens but switched sides, blocking Peloponnesian reinforcements from reaching Brasidas via Thessaly. The treaty offered Athens economic concessions, but it also guaranteed internal stability in Macedonia since Arrhabaeus and other domestic detractors were convinced to lay down their arms and accept Perdiccas II as their suzerain lord.

A Macedonian didrachm minted during the reign of Archelaus I of Macedon (r. 413-399 BC)

Perdiccas II was obliged to aid to the Athenian general Cleon, yet he and Brasidas died in 422 BC, and the Peace of Nicias struck in the following year between Athens and Sparta nullified the Macedonian king's responsibilities as an erstwhile Athenian ally. After the Battle of Mantinea in 418 BC Sparta and Argos formed a new alliance, which, alongside the threat of neighboring poleis in Chalkidiki who were aligned with Sparta, induced Perdiccas II to abandon his Athenian alliance in favor of Sparta once again. This proved to be a strategic error, since Argos quickly switched sides as a pro-Athenian democracy, allowing Athens to punish Macedonia with a naval blockade in 417 BC along with the resumption of military activity in Chalkidiki. Perdiccas II agreed to a peace settlement and alliance with Athens once more in 414 BC and, on his death a year later, was succeeded by his son Archelaus I of Macedon (r. 413-399 BC).

Archelaus I maintained good relations with Athens throughout his reign, relying on Athens to provide naval support in his 410 BC siege of Pydna, but also providing Athens with timber and naval equipment. With improvements to military organization and building of new infrastructure such as fortresses, Archelaus was able to strengthen Macedonia and project his power into Thessaly where he aided his allies, yet he faced some internal revolt as well as problems fending off Illyrian incursions led by Sirras. Although he retained Aigai as a ceremonial and religious center, Archelaus I moved the capital of the kingdom north to Pella, which was then positioned by a lake with a river connecting it to the Aegean Sea. He improved the financial system and currency of his kingdom, while his royal court attracted the presence of well-known intellectuals such as the Athenian playwright Euripides. Historical sources offer wildly different and confused accounts as to who assassinated Archelaus I, although it likely involved a homosexual love affair with royal pages at his court. What ensued was a power struggle lasting from 399 to 393 BC of four different monarchs claiming the throne: Orestes of Macedon, son of Archelaus I; Aeropus II of Macedon, uncle, regent, and murderer of Orestes; Pausanias of Macedon, son of Aeropus II; and Amyntas II of Macedon, who was married to the youngest daughter of Archelaus I. Amyntas III of Macedon (r. 393-370 BC), son of Arrhidaeus and grandson of Amyntas I, succeeded to the throne by killing Pausanias.

Section 3

Main article: Rise of Macedon

Further information: Argead dynasty

Left: a bust of Philip II of Macedon (r. 359-336 BC) from the Hellenistic period, located at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
Right: another bust of Philip II, a 1st-century AD Roman copy of a Hellenistic Greek original, now in the Vatican Museums

Philip II of Macedon (r. 359-336 BC), who spent much of his adolescence as a political hostage in Thebes, was twenty-four years old when he acceded to the throne and immediately faced crises that threatened to topple his leadership. However, with the use of deft diplomacy he was able to convince the Thracians under Berisades to cease their support of Pausanias, a pretender to the throne, and the Athenians to halt their backing of another pretender named Argaeus (perhaps the same who had caused trouble for Amyntas III). He achieved these by bribing the Thracians and their Paeonian allies and removing a garrison of Macedonian troops from Amphipolis, establishing a treaty with Athens that relinquished his claims to that city. He was also able to make peace with the Illyrians who had threatened his borders.

Map of the Kingdom of Macedon at the death of Philip II in 336 BC (light blue), with the original territory that existed in 431 BC (red outline), and dependent states (yellow)

The exact date in which Philip II initiated reforms to radically transform the Macedonian army's organization, equipment, and training is unknown, including the formation of the Macedonian phalanx armed with long pikes (i.e. the sarissa), yet it took a period of several years and proved immediately successful against his Illyrian and Paeonian enemies. Confusing accounts in ancient sources have led modern scholars to debate how much Philip II's royal predecessors may have contributed to these military reforms, although it is perhaps more likely that his years of captivity in Thebes during the Theban hegemony influenced his ideas, especially after meeting with the renowned general Epaminondas.

Although Macedonia and the rest of Greece traditionally practiced monogamy in marriage, Philip II divulged in the 'barbarian' practice of polygamy, marrying seven different wives and perhaps only one of them for non-military purposes. For instance, his first marriages were to Phila of Elimeia of the Upper Macedonian aristocracy as well as the Illyrian princess Audata, granddaughter(?) of Bardylis, to ensure a marriage alliance with their people. To establish an alliance with Larissa in Thessaly, he married the Thessalian noblewoman Philinna in 358 BC, who bore him a son who would later rule as Philip III Arrhidaeus. In 357 BC he married Olympias in order to secure an alliance with Arybbas of Epirus, the King of Epirus and the Molossians, and with this marriage bore a son who would later rule as Alexander III of Macedon (better known as Alexander the Great) and, through the dynastic house of Epirus, claim descent from the legendary Achilles. It has been argued whether or not the Achaemenid Persian kings influenced Philip's practice of polygamy, although it seems to have been practiced by Amyntas III who had three sons with a possible second wife Gygaea: Archelaus, Arrhidaeus, and Menelaus. Philip II had Archelaus put to death in 359 BC, while Philip's other two half brothers fled to Olynthos, serving as a casus belli for the Olynthian War (349-348 BC) against the Chalcidian League.

While Athens was preoccupied with the Social War (357–355 BC), Philip took this opportunity to retake Amphipolis in 357 BC, for which the Athenians later declared war on him, and by 356 BC recaptured Pydna and Potidaea, the latter of which he handed over to the Chalcidian League as promised in a treaty of 357/356 BC. In this year he was also able to take Crenides, later refounded as Philippi and providing much wealth in gold, while his general Parmenion was victorious against the Illyrian king Grabos of the Grabaei. During the siege of Methone from 355-354 BC, Philip lost his right eye to an arrow wound, but was able to capture the city and was even cordial to the defeated inhabitants (unlike the Potidaeans, who had been sold into slavery).

It was at this stage when Philip II involved Macedonia in the Third Sacred War (356-346 BC). The conflict began when Phocis captured and plundered the temple of Apollo at Delphi as a response to Thebes' demand that they submit unpaid fines, causing the Amphictyonic League to declare war on Phocis and a civil war among the members of the Thessalian League aligned with either Phocis or Thebes. Philip II's initial campaign against Pherae in Thessaly in 353 BC at the behest of Larissa ended in two disastrous defeats by the Phocian general Onomarchus. However, he returned the following year and defeated Onomarchus at the Battle of Crocus Field, which led to his election as leader (archon) of the Thessalian League, ability to recruit Thessalian cavalry, provided him a seat on the Amphictyonic Council and a marriage alliance with Pherae by wedding Nicesipolis, niece of the tyrant Jason of Pherae.

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.

After campaigning against the Thracian ruler Cersobleptes, Philip II began his war against the Chalcidian League in 349 BC. Despite an Athenian intervention by Charidemos, Olynthos was captured by Philip II in 348 BC, whereupon he sold its inhabitants into slavery, bringing back some Athenian citizens to Macedonia as slaves as well. The Athenians, especially in a series of speeches by Demosthenes known as the Olynthiacs, were unsuccessful in persuading their allies to counterattack, so in 346 BC they concluded a treaty with Macedonia known as the Peace of Philocrates. The treaty stipulated that Athens would relinquish Macedonian coastal claims and Amphipolis in return for the enslaved Athenians as well as guarantees that Philip would not attack Athenian settlements in the Thracian Chersonese. Meanwhile, Phocis and Thermopylae were captured, the Delphic temple robbers executed, and Philip II was awarded the two Phocian seats on the Amphictyonic Council as well as the position of master of ceremonies over the Pythian Games. Athens initially opposed his membership on the council and refused to attend the games in protest, but they were eventually swayed to accept these conditions, partially due to the oration On the Peace by Demosthenes.

For the next few years Philip II was occupied with reorganizing the administrative system of Thessaly, campaigning against the Illyrian ruler Pleuratus I, deposing Arybbas in Epirus in favor of his brother-in-law Alexander I of Epirus (through Philip II's marriage with Olympias), and defeating Cersebleptes in Thrace, which allowed him to extend Macedonian control over the Hellespont in anticipation of an invasion into Achaemenid Asia. War broke out with Athens in 340 BC while Philip II was engaged in two ultimately unsuccessful sieges of Perinthus and Byzantion, followed by a successful campaign against the Scythians along the Danube and Macedonia's involvement in the Fourth Sacred War against Amphissa in 339 BC. Hostilities between Thebes and Macedonia began when Thebes ousted a Macedonian garrison from Nicaea (near Thermopylae), leading Thebes to join Athens, Megara, Corinth, Achaea, and Euboea in a final confrontation against Macedonia at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. After the Macedonian victory there, Philip II imposed harsh conditions on Thebes, imposing an oligarchy there, yet was lenient to Athens due to his desire to utilize their navy in a planned invasion of the Persian Empire. He was then instrumental in forming the League of Corinth that included the major Greek city-states minus Sparta, being elected as the leader (hegemon) of its council (synedrion) by the spring of 337 BC despite the Kingdom of Macedonia being excluded as an official member of the league.

Coronation of Alexander the Great, from a 15th-century Flemish illuminated manuscript on parchment

With his election by the league as their commander-in-chief (strategos) of a campaign to invade the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, Philip II sought to shore up further Macedonian support by marrying Cleopatra Eurydice of Macedon, niece of Attalus, yet talk of providing new potential heirs infuriated Philip II's son Alexander (already a veteran of the Battle of Chaeronea) and his mother Olympias, who fled together to Epirus before Alexander was recalled to Pella. Further tensions arose when Philip II offered his son Arrhidaeus's hand in marriage to Ada of Caria, daughter of Pixodarus, Persian satrap of Caria. When Alexander intervened and proposed to marry Ada instead, Philip cancelled the wedding arrangements altogether and exiled Alexander's advisors Ptolemy, Nearchus, and Harpalus. To reconcile with Olympias, Philip II had their daughter Cleopatra of Macedon marry Olympias' brother (and Cleopatra's uncle) Alexander I of Epirus, yet Philip II was assassinated by his bodyguard Pausanias of Orestis during their wedding feast and succeeded by his son Alexander III, later known as Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 BC).

Section 4

Further information: Wars of Alexander the Great and Wars of the Diadochi

Left: Bust of Alexander the Great by the Athenian sculptor Leochares, 330 BC, Acropolis Museum, Athens
Right: Bust of Alexander the Great, a Roman copy of the Imperial Era (1st or 2nd century AD) after an original bronze sculpture made by the Greek sculptor Lysippos, Louvre, Paris

The empire of Alexander the Great at the time of its maximum expansion.

Before Philip II was assassinated in the summer of 336 BC, relations with his son Alexander III had degenerated to the point where he excluded him entirely from his planned invasion of Asia, relegating him instead to the position as regent of Greece and deputy hegemon of the League of Corinth. This alongside his mother Olympias' apparent concern over Philip II bearing another potential heir with his new wife Cleopatra Eurydice of Macedon have led scholars to wrangle over the idea of her and Alexander III's possible roles in Philip's murder. Nonetheless, Alexander III was immediately proclaimed king by an assembly of the army and leading aristocrats, chief among them being Antipater and Parmenion. By the end of his reign and military career in 323 BC Alexander III would rule over an empire consisting of mainland Greece, Asia Minor, the Levant, ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and much of Central and South Asia (i.e. modern Pakistan). His first pressing concerns, however, would be to bury his father at Aigai (Vergina) and to pursue a campaign of suppression closer to home in the Balkans. The Greek members of the League of Corinth revolted yet were soon quelled by military force and diplomacy, Alexander III forcing them to rejoin the league and elect him as hegemon to carry out the invasion of Achaemenid Persia. Alexander III also took the opportunity to settle the score he had with his rival Attalus (who had taunted him during the wedding feast of Cleopatra Eurydice and Philip II) by having him executed.

In 335 BC Alexander III led a campaign against the Thracian tribe of the Triballi at Haemus Mons, fighting them along the Danube and forcing their surrender on Peuce Island. Shortly thereafter the Illyrian king Cleitus of the Dardani threatened to attack Macedonia, yet Alexander III took the initiative and besieged them at Pelion (in modern Albania). When Alexander III was given news that Thebes had once again revolted from the League of Corinth and were besieging the Macedonian garrison in Cadmea, Alexander III left the Illyrian front and marched to Thebes, which he placed under siege. After breaching the walls, Alexander III's forces killed 6,000 Thebans, took 30,000 inhabitants as prisoners of war, and burned the city to the ground as a warning to others, which proved effective since no other Greek state aside from Sparta dared to challenge against Alexander III for the remainder of his reign.

Throughout his military career and kingship, Alexander III won every battle that he personally commanded. His first victory against the Persians in Asia Minor at the Battle of the Granicus in 334 BC utilized a small cavalry contingent that successfully distracted the Persians, allowed his infantry to cross the river, and his companions to drive them from the battle with a cavalry charge. Following the tradition of Macedonian warrior kings, Alexander III personally led the cavalry charge at the Battle of Issus in 333 BC, forcing Darius III and his army to flee. Darius III, despite having superior numbers, was again forced to flee the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC. The Persian king was later captured and executed by his own satrap of Bactria and kinsman Bessus in 330 BC, who the Macedonian king subsequently hunted down and executed in what is now Afghanistan, securing the region of Sogdia in the process. At the 326 BC Battle of the Hydaspes (modern-day Punjab), when the war elephants of King Porus of the Pauravas threatened Alexander III's troops, he had them form open ranks to surround the elephants and dislodge their handlers by using their sarissa pikes. When his Macedonian troops threatened mutiny at Opis, Babylonia (near modern Baghdad, Iraq) in 324 BC, Alexander III offered Macedonian military titles and greater responsibilities to Persian officers and units instead, forcing his troops to seek forgiveness, which the king offered at a banquet urging reconciliation between Persians and Macedonians.

The Stag Hunt Mosaic, c. 300 BC, from Pella; the figure on the right is possibly Alexander the Great due to the date of the mosaic along with the depicted upsweep of his centrally-parted hair (anastole); the figure on the left wielding a double-edged axe (associated with Hephaistos) is perhaps Hephaestion, one of Alexander's loyal companions.

Despite his skills as a commander, Alexander III perhaps undercut his own rule by demonstrating signs of megalomania. While utilizing effective propaganda such as the cutting of the Gordian Knot, he also attempted to portray himself as a living god and son of Zeus following his visit to the oracle at Siwah in the Libyan Desert (in modern-day Egypt) in 331 BC. When he attempted to have his men prostrate before him at Bactra in 327 BC in an act of proskynesis (borrowed from the Persian kings), the Macedonians and Greeks considered this blasphemy and usurpation of the authority of the gods. Alexander III's court historian Callisthenes refused to perform this ritual there and the others took his example, an act of protest that led Alexander III to abandon the practice. When Alexander III had Parmenion murdered at Ecbatana in 330 BC, this was "symptomatic of the growing gulf between the king's interests and those of his country and people," according to Errington. His murder of Cleitus the Black in 328 BC is described as "vengeful and reckless" by Dawn L. Gilley and Ian Worthington. He also pursued the polygamous habits of his father Philip II and encouraged his men marry native women in Asia, leading by example when he wed Roxana, a Sogdian princess of Bactria.

Meanwhile, in Greece the only disturbance to Macedonian rule was the attempt by the Spartan king Agis III to lead a rebellion of the Greeks against the Macedonians. However, he was defeated in 331 BC at the Battle of Megalopolis by Antipater, who was serving as regent of Macedonia and deputy hegemon of the League of Corinth in Alexander's stead. Although the governor of Thrace, Memnon, had threatened to rebel, it appears that Antipater dissuaded him with diplomacy before campaigning against Agis III in the Peloponnese. Antipater deferred the punishment of Sparta to the League of Corinth headed by Alexander III, who ultimately pardoned the Spartans on the condition that they submit fifty nobles as hostages. Antipater's hegemony was somewhat unpopular in Greece due to his practice of exiling malcontents and garrisoning cities with Macedonian troops, yet in 330 BC Alexander III declared that the tyrannies installed in Greece were to be abolished and Greek freedom restored (despite the possibility that the Macedonian king most likely had Antipater install them in the first place).

When Alexander III died at Babylon in 323 BC his mother Olympias immediately accused Antipater and his faction with poisoning him, although there is no evidence to confirm this. With no official heir apparent, the loyalties of the Macedonian military command became split between one side proclaiming Alexander III's half-brother Philip III of Macedon (r. 323-317 BC) as king and another siding with Alexander IV of Macedon (r. 323-309 BC), son of Alexander III and Roxana. Aside from the Euboeans and Boeotians, the Greeks also immediately rose up in a rebellion against Antipater known as the Lamian War (323-322 BC). When Antipater was defeated at the 323 BC Battle of Thermopylae he fled to Lamia where he was besieged by the Athenian commander Leosthenes, who died in the fighting as well as Leonnatus who came to rescue Antipater by lifting the siege. Although Antipater ultimately subdued the rebellion, he died in 319 BC and left a vacuum of power wherein the two proclaimed kings of Macedonia became pawns in a power struggle between the diadochi, the former generals of Alexander's army who were now carving up his empire.

Section 5

Further information: Antipatrid dynasty, Antigonid dynasty, and Cleomenean War

The portrait busts of Pyrrhus of Epirus (top left), Demetrius I of Macedon (top right), Seleucus I Nicator (bottom left), and Lysimachus (bottom right), Roman-era copies of Hellenistic Greek originals from the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, Naples National Archaeological Museum

Ancient Macedonian paintings of Hellenistic-era military armor, arms, and gear from the Tomb of Lyson and Kallikles in ancient Mieza (modern-day Lefkadia), Imathia, Central Macedonia, Greece, dated 2nd century BC.

The beginning of Hellenistic Greece was defined by the struggle between the Antipatrid dynasty, led first by Cassander (r. 305-297 BC), son of Antipater, and the Antigonid dynasty, led by Antigonus I of Macedon (r. 306-301 BC) and his son the future king Demetrius I of Macedon (r. 294-288 BC). While Cassander was besieging Athens in 303 BC, Demetrius invaded Boeotia in order to sever Cassander's path of retreat back to Macedonia, although Cassander managed to hastily abandon the siege and march back to Macedonia. Although Antigonus and Demetrius attempted to recreate Philip II's Hellenic league with themselves as dual hegemons, a revived coalition of Cassander, Ptolemy I Soter (r. 305-283 BC) of Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty, Seleucus I Nicator (305-281 BC) of the Seleucid Empire, and Lysimachus (306-281 BC), King of Thrace decisively defeated the Antigonids at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, killing Antigonus and forcing Demetrius into flight.

Passages and sources for making the sub-section

Eckstein 2013

"In the mid 220s B.C.E. a profound political crisis wracked the Peloponnese. The Achaean League, led by Aratus of Sicyon, had succeeded over a period of thirty years in driving out the power of Antigonid Macedon, a process that included substituting democracies in poleis once ruled by pro-Macedonian tyrants. But after 227 B.C.E. the Achaean League was unable to deal with the growing military power of King Cleomenes III of Sparta and his propaganda of social revolution. Thus Aratus invited Macedon under Antigonus III Doson back into the Peloponnese as the only alternative to revolutionary rule over Achaea by Sparta. King Antigonus and his Macedonians, with the Achaeans and other allies, destroyed Cleomenes' army at the battle of Sellasia in 222. But the price for Antigonus' help was high: Corinth, the largest city of the League, was given up to Macedon, and Achaea itself became a subordinate member of Antigonus' 'Hellenic Symmachy.' Aratus' extraordinary decision to cancel a generation of anti-Macedonian effort in order to save Achaea from Sparta was controversial in his own time, and after. One prominent contemporary critic of Aratus' decision was the historian Phylarchus - a supporter of Cleomenes and his social reforms. Part of Phylarchus' work contained a bitter attack on the character and policies of Aratus and Achaea."

Adams 2010

The beginning of Hellenistic Greece was defined by the struggle between the Antipatrid dynasty, led first by Cassander (r. 305-297 BC), son of Antipater, and the Antigonid dynasty, led by Antigonus I of Macedon (r. 306-301 BC) and his son the future king Demetrius I of Macedon (r. 294-288 BC). While Cassander was besieging Athens in 303 BC, Demetrius invaded Boeotia in order to sever Cassander's path of retreat back to Macedonia, although Cassander managed to hastily abandon the siege and march back to Macedonia. Although Antigonus and Demetrius attempted to recreate Philip II's Hellenic league with themselves as dual hegemons, a revived coalition of Cassander, Ptolemy I Soter (r. 305-283 BC) of Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty, Seleucus I Nicator (305-281 BC) of the Seleucid Empire, and Lysimachus (306-281 BC), King of Thrace decisively defeated the Antigonids at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, killing Antigonus and forcing Demetrius into flight.

Cassander died in 297 BC and his sickly son Philip IV of Macedon died the same year, being succeeded by Cassander's other sons Alexander V of Macedon (r. 297-294 BC) and Antipater II of Macedon (r. 297-294 BC) and their mother Thessalonike of Macedon acting as regent. While Demetrius fought against the Antipatrid forces in Greece, Antipater II killed his own mother and regent to obtain power, causing his brother Alexander V to beseech Pyrrhus of Epirus (r. 297-272 BC) for aid. In exchange for defeating the forces of Antipater II and forcing him to flee to the court of Lysimachus in Thrace, Pyrrhus was awarded the westernmost portions of the Macedonian kingdom. Demetrius marched north and invited his nephew Alexander V into his camp for a banquet on friendly pretenses, yet had him assassinated as he attempted to leave. Demetrius was proclaimed king in Macedonia, yet his subjects became increasingly concerned by his conduct as a seemingly aloof monarch and Eastern-style autocrat.

War broke out between Pyrrhus and Demetrius in 290 BC when Lanassa, wife of Pyrrhus, left him for Demetrius and offered him her dowry of Corcyra. The war dragged on until 288 BC, when Demetrius lost the support of the Macedonians and fled the country, which was then divided between Pyrrhus and Lysimachus.

By 286 BC Lysimachus was able to expel Pyrrhus and his forces from Macedonia altogether, yet in 282 BC a new war erupted between Lysimachus and Seleucus I. The conflict came to a head at the Battle of Corupedion where Lysimachus was killed, allowing Seleucus I to claim both Thrace and Macedonia. In yet another reversal of fortunes Seleucus I was then assassinated in 281 BC by his officer Ptolemy Keraunos, son of Ptolemy I and grandson of Antipater, who was then proclaimed king of Macedonia. There was little respite from the political chaos in Macedonia, though, since Ptolemy Keraunos was killed in battle in 279 BC by Celtic invaders in the Gallic invasion of Greece. The Gallic warbands ravaged Macedonia until the arrival of Antigonus Gonatas, son of Demetrius, defeated them in Thrace at the Battle of Lysimachia in 277 BC. He was then proclaimed king Antigonus II of Macedon (r. 277-274 BC; 272-239 BC).

Beginning in 280 BC Pyrrus embarked on a campaign against the Roman Republic in southern Italy known as the Pyrrhic War, followed by his invasion of Sicily. He returned to Epirus in 275 BC after the ultimate failure of both campaigns. Despite having a depleted treasury, Pyrrhus was aware that political situation in Macedonia under Antigonus II was still unstable and decided to invade the country in 274 BC. After defeating the largely mercenary army of Antigonus II, Pyrrhus was able to drive him out of Macedonia to take refuge with his naval fleet.

Pyrrhus lost much of his support among the Macedonians in 273 BC when his unruly Gallic mercenaries plundered the royal cemetery of Aigai. Pyrrhus pursued Demetrius in Greece yet while he was occupied with the war in the Peloponnese, Demetrius was able to recapture Macedonia. While battling over control over Argos in 272 BC, Pyrrhus was killed while fighting in the city's streets, allowing Antigonus to reclaim Greece as well. He then restored the Argead dynastic graves at Aigai by constructing a massive tumulus. Antigonus also secured the Illyrian front and annexed Paeonia.

The Antigonid naval fleets docked at Corinth and Chalkis during the reign of Antigonus II also proved instrumental in the maintenance of Antigonid-imposed local regimes in various Greek cities.

However, the Aetolian League proved to be a perennial problem for Antigonus II's ambitions in controlling central Greece, while the formation of the Achaean League in 251 BC pushed Macedonian forces out of much of the Peloponnese and at times incorporated Athens and Sparta. While the Seleucid Empire aligned with Antigonid Macedonia during the Syrian Wars with Ptolemaic Egypt, the latter used its powerful navy to disrupt Antigonus II's efforts in controlling mainland Greece. With the aid of the Ptolemaic navy, the Athenian statesman Chremonides led a revolt against Macedonian authority known as the Chremonidean War (267-261 BC). However, by 265 BC Athens was surrounded and besieged by Antigonus II's forces, a Ptolemaic fleet was defeated in the Battle of Cos, and Athens finally surrenderd in 261 BC. After Macedonia forming an alliance with the Seleucid ruler Antiochus II, a peace settlement between Antigonus II and Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt was finally struck in 255 BC.

However, in 251 BC Aratus of Sicyon led a rebellion against Antigonus II and in 250 BC Ptolemy II openly threw his support behind the self-proclaimed king Alexander of Corinth.

Although Alexander died in 246 BC and Antigonus was able to score a naval victory against the Ptolemies at the Battle of Andros, the Macedonians lost the Acrocorinth to the forces of Aratus in 243 BC, followed by the induction of Corinth into the Achaean League. Antigonus II finally made peace with the Achaean League in a treaty of 240 BC, ceding the territories that he had lost in Greece. Antigonus II died in 239 BC and was succeeded by his son Demetrius II of Macedon (r. 239-229 BC). Seeking an alliance with Macedonia to defend against the Aetolians, the queen mother and regent Olympias II of Epirus offered her daughter Phthia of Macedon to Demetrius II in marriage, which he accepted yet damaged relations with the Seleucids by divorcing Stratonice of Macedon. Although the Aetolians formed an alliance with the Achaean League as a result, Demetrius II was able to invade Boeotia and capture it from the Aetolians by 236 BC.

Demetrius II hold over Greece diminished by the end of his reign, though, when he lost Megalopolis and most of the Peloponnese except Argos to the Achaean League and was denied an ally in Epirus when the monarchy was toppled in a republican revolution. Demetrius II's struggle to defend Acarnania against Aetolia became so desperate the he enlisted the aid of the Illyrian king Agron, whose Illyrian pirates raided the coasts of western Greece and even defeated the combined navies of the Aetolian and Achaean Leagues at the Battle of Paxos in 229 BC. Yet another Illyrian ruler Longarus of the Dardanian Kingdom invaded Macedonia and defeated an army of Demetrius II shortly before his death in 229 BC. Although his child son Philip immediately inherited the throne, his regent Antigonus III Doson (r. 229-221 BC), nephew of Antigonus II, was proclaimed king by the army and Philip his heir following a string of military victories against the Illyrians in the north and the Aetolians in Thessaly.

Although the Achaean League had been fighting Macedonia for almost two decades, Aratus sent an embassy to Antigonus III in 226 BC seeking an unexpected alliance now that the reformist king Cleomenes III of Sparta was threatening the rest of Greece in the Cleomenean War (229-222 BC). In exchange for military aid, Antigonus III demanded the return of Corinth to Macedonian control, which Aratus finally agreed to in 225 BC.

Antigonus III's first move against Sparta was to capture Arcadia in the spring of 224 BC. After reforming a Hellenic league in the same vein as Philip II's League of Corinth and hiring Illyrian mercenaries for additional support, Antigonus III managed to defeat Sparta at the Battle of Sellasia in 222 BC. For the first time in Sparta's history their city was then occupied by a foreign power, restoring Macedonia's position as the leading power in Greece. Antigonus died a year later, perhaps from tuberculosis, leaving behind a strong Hellenistic kingdom for his successor Philip V.

Bringmann 2007

Cassander forced Pyrrhus of Epirus to flee his kingdom in 302 BC and seek refuge with his brother-in-law Demetrius Poliorcetes. Demetrius and his father king Antigonus Monophthalmus were defeated at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC by a Diadochi coalition led by Cassander, Lysimachus, Seleucus I Nicator, and Ptolemy I Soter. Pyrrhus fought alongside Demetrius in this battle and, although they were defeated, Pyrrhus was nevertheless elected as strategos of the Greek cities that remained in the hands of Antigonus Monophthalmus. However, Demetrius declared a new alliance with Ptolemy I of Egypt, where Pyrrhus was then sent as a hostage from 299-298 BC. After the death of Cassander, Pyrrhus regained his kingdom in Epirus with the aid of his new father-in-law Philip via his marriage to Antigone of Epirus. When Antigone died Pyrrhus then remarried to Lanassa, daughter of king Agathocles of Syracuse, which provided him with Corcyra as a wedding gift. However, in 291 BC she fled to Demetrius Poliorcetes, now king Demetrius I of Macedon (r. 294-288 BC), due to her refusal to accept the polygamous marriage of her husband to Bircenna. Although Demetrius captured Corcyra and attempted to secure all of Macedonia under his rule, he was expelled from his kingdom in favor of Pyrrhus, who was declared king of Macedonia in 288 BC. However, Lysimachus was still able to control eastern Macedonia from his power base in Thrace and Asia Minor. By 283 BC Pyrrhus had also lost western Macedonia to Lysimachus. The latter's fortunes were reversed in 281 BC, however, when Seleucus I defeated his forces at the Battle of Corupedium. In yet another reversal, Seleucus I was murdered by Ptolemy Keraunos, who secured his position as king of Macedon by gifting Pyrrhus, then a pretender to the throne, with an army of 5,000 men and twenty war elephants for his desired invasion of Magna Graecia and war with Rome.

Pyrrhus' war in Sicily and southern Italy ended in a disappointing stalemate. Running short on provisions for his army while the Romans kept replenishing theirs, he decided returned to Macedonia in 275 BC and challenge Antigonus Gonatas, son of Demetrius Poliorcetes and current king of Macedonia, as a rightful claimant to his throne. Antigonus, who had just defeated the invading Celts at the Battle of Lysimachia, lost the 274 BC Battle of Aous to Pyrrhus, yet the latter was killed during a battle in Argos in 272 BC. While Antigonus' throne was now secure, the end of the Pyrrhic War in Italy also allowed the subsequent rise of Rome on the Italian peninsula, with important Greek cities such as Tarentum becoming Roman allies.

Eckstein 2010

Philip V of Macedon (r. 221-179 BC) was only 17 when he acceded to the throne and, despite the successes of his predecessor Antigonus III, faced immediate challenges to his authority by the Aetolian League. Philip V and his allies were successful against the Aetolians and their allies in the Social War (220–217 BC), yet Philip V pursued a peace settlement with the Aetolians once he heard of the Carthaginian victory over the Romans at the Battle of Lake Trasimene in 217 BC. Demetrius of Pharos is alleged to have convinced Philip V to first secure Illyria in advance of an invasion of the Italian peninsula. In 216 BC Philip V sent a hundred light warships into the Adriatic Sea to attack Illyria, a motion that did not go unnoticed by Rome when Scerdilaidas of the Ardiaean Kingdom appealed to the Romans for aid. Rome responded by sending ten heavy quinquiremes from Roman Sicily to patrol the Illyrian coasts, causing Philip V to reverse course and order his fleet to retreat, averting open conflict for the time being.

Conflict with Rome and decline

Main article: Macedonian Wars

Further information: Pyrrhic War, Punic Wars, and Macedonian–Carthaginian Treaty

The Kingdom of Macedonia (orange) under Philip V (r. 221-179 BC), with Macedonian dependent states (dark yellow), the Seleucid Empire (bright yellow), Roman protectorates (dark green), the Kingdom of Pergamon (light green), independent states (light purple), and possessions of the Ptolemaic Empire (violet purple)

In 215 BC, at the height of the Second Punic War with Carthaginian Empire, Roman authorities intercepted a ship off the Calabrian coast holding both a Macedonian envoy and a Carthaginian ambassador to Macedonia, who possessed a Punic document (later translated into Greek and preserved by Polybius) of Hannibal Barca declaring an alliance with Philip V of Macedon. The treaty stipulated that Carthage had the sole right to negotiate terms with Rome after its hypothetical surrender, yet it deferred to the Macedonian interests in the Adriatic Sea and promised mutual aid in the event that a resurgent Rome, after losing its allies in northern and southern Italy, should lash out at either Macedonia or Carthage in revenge. However, Rome was able to thwart Philip V's ambitions in the Adriatic during the First Macedonian War (214-205 BC). In 214 BC Rome positioned a naval fleet at Oricus when it along with Apollonia were assaulted by Philip V. When the Macedonians captured Lissus and threatened to invade southern Italy in support of Hannibal, the Roman Senate responded by inciting the Aetolian League, as well as Attalus I of Pergamon, Sparta, Elis, and Messenia to wage war against Philip V, keeping him occupied and away from Italy.

A year after the Aetolian League concluded a peace agreement with Philip V in 206 BC, the Romans also negotiated the Treaty of Phoenice, which ended the war and allowed the Macedonians to retain the settlements they had captured in Illyria. Although the Romans rejected an Aetolian request in 202 BC for Rome to declare war on Macedonia once again, the Roman Senate gave serious consideration to the similar offer made by Pergamon and its ally Rhodes in 201 BC. Although Rome's envoys played a critical role in convincing Athens to join the anti-Macedonian alliance with Pergamon and Rhodes in 200 BC, the comitia centuriata rejected the Roman Senate's proposal for a declaration of war on Macedonia. Meanwhile, Philip V conquered vital territories in the Hellespont and Bosporus as well as Ptolemaic Samos, which led Rhodes to form an alliance with Pergamon, Byzantium, Cyzicus, and Chios against Macedonia. Philip V arranged a nominal alliance with the Seleucid king Antiochus III, yet he lost the naval Battle of Chios in 201 BC and was subsequently blockaded at Bargylia by a combined fleet of the Rhodian and Pergamene navies.

A tetradrachm of Philip V of Macedon (r. 221-179 BC), with the king's portrait on the obverse and Athena Alkidemos brandishing a thunderbolt on the reverse

While Philip V was ensnared in a conflict with several Greek maritime powers, Rome viewed these unfolding events as an opportunity to punish a former ally of Hannibal, come to the aid of its Greek allies, and commit to a war that perhaps required a limited amount of resources in order to achieve victory. With Carthage finally subdued following the Second Punic War, the Roman strategy changed from protecting southern Italy from Macedonia to actively engaging in the Hellenistic realm to the east. The Roman Senate demanded that Philip V cease hostilities against neighboring Greek powers and defer to an international arbitration committee for any and all grievances. Seeking either war or humiliation for the Macedonian king, his predictable rejection of their proposal served as a useful tool of propaganda demonstrating the honorable and philhellenic intentions of the Romans contrasted with the combative and antagonistic Macedonian response. When the comitia centuriata finally voted in approval of the Roman Senate's declaration of war and handed their ultimatum to Philip V by the summer of 200 BC, demanding that a tribunal assess the damages owed to Rhodes and Pergamon, the Macedonian king rejected it outright. This marked the beginning of the Second Macedonian War (200-197 BC), with Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus spearheading military operations by landing at Apollonia along the coast of Illyria with two Roman legions.

Although the Macedonians were able to successfully defend their territory for roughly two years, the Roman consul Titus Quinctius Flamininus managed to expel Philip V from Macedonia in 198 BC with him and his forces taking refuge in Thessaly. When the Achaean League abandoned Philip V to join the Roman-led coalition, the Macedonian king sued for peace, but the terms offered were considered too stringent and so the war continued. In June 197 BC the Macedonians were defeated at the Battle of Cynoscephalae. Rome, dismissing the Aetolian League's demands to dismantle the Macedonian monarchy altogether, ratified a treaty that forced Macedonia to relinquish control of much of its Greek possessions, including Corinth, while allowing it to preserve its core territory, if only to act as a buffer against Illyrian and Thracian incursions into Greece. Although the Greeks, especially the Aetolians, suspected Roman intentions of supplanting Macedonia as the new hegemonic power in Greece, Flaminius announced at the Isthmian Games of 196 BC that Rome intended to preserve Greek liberty by leaving behind no garrisons or exacting tribute of any kind. This promise was delayed due to the Spartan king Nabis capturing Argos, necessitating Roman intervention and a peace settlement with the Spartans, yet the Romans finally evacuated Greece in the spring of 194 BC.

Encouraged by the Aetolian League and their calls to liberate Greece from the Romans, the Seleucid king Antiochus III landed with his army at Demetrias in Thessaly and was elected strategos by the Aetolians. However, Philip V of Macedon decided to maintain his alliance with the Romans, along with the Achaean League, Rhodes, Pergamon, and Athens. The Romans defeated the Seleucids in the 191 BC Battle of Thermopylae as well as the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC, forcing the Seleucids to pay a war indemnity, dismantle most of its navy, and abandon its claims to any territories north or west of the Taurus Mountains. In this agreement Philip V was able to gain a small amount of territory ceded by the Seleucids in Europe, while Rhodes and Eumenes II of Pergamon gained significantly larger territories in Asia Minor.

A tetradrachm of Perseus of Macedon (r. 179-168 BC); British Museum

While becoming increasingly entangled in Greek affairs and failing to please all sides in various disputes, the Roman Senate decided in 183 BC to force Philip V to abandon the cities of Aenus and Maronea, in order to assuage the fears of Eumenes II that these Macedonian-held settlements threatened the security of his possessions in the Hellespont. Perseus of Macedon (r. 179-168 BC) succeeded Philip and executed his brother Demetrius, who had been favored by the Romans yet was charged by Perseus with high treason. Perseus then attempted to form marriage alliances with Prusias II of Bithynia and Seleucus IV Philopator of the Seleucid Empire, along with renewed relations with Rhodes that greatly unsettled Eumenes II. Although Eumenes II attempted to undermine these diplomatic relationships, Perseus fostered an alliance with the Boeotian League, extended his authority into Illyria and Thrace, and in 174 BC won the role of managing the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in the Amphictyonic Council. Eumenes II came to Rome and delivered a speech to the Senate denouncing the alleged crimes and transgressions of Perseus. This convinced the Roman Senate to declare the Third Macedonian War (171-168 BC), although Klaus Bringmann asserts that negotiations with Macedonia were completely ignored due to Rome's "political calculation" that their kingdom had to be destroyed in order to ensure the elimination of the "supposed source of all the difficulties which Rome was having in the Greek world". Although Perseus' forces were able to score a victory against the Romans at the Battle of Callinicus in 171 BC, the Macedonian army was defeated at the Battle of Pydna in June 168 BC. Perseus fled to Samothrace but surrendered shortly afterwards, was brought to Rome for the triumph of Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus, and placed under house arrest at Alba Fucens where he died in 166 BC.

The Romans formally disestablished the Macedonian monarchy by installing four separate allied republics in its stead, their capitals located at Amphipolis, Thessalonica, Pella, and Pelagonia. The Romans imposed severe laws inhibiting many social and economic interactions between the inhabitants of these republics, including the banning of marriages between them, yet the Romans did not collect taxes or tribute despite the (temporary) prohibition on the use of Macedonia's gold and silver mines. However, a certain Andriscus claiming Antigonid descent rebelled against the Romans and was pronounced king of Macedonia, defeating the army of the Roman praetor Publius Iuventius during the Fourth Macedonian War (150-148 BC). Despite this, Andriscus was defeated later that year at the second Battle of Pydna by Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus. This was followed in 146 BC by the Roman destruction of Carthage and victory over the Achaean League at the Battle of Corinth, ushering in the era of Roman Greece and the establishment of the Roman province of Macedonia.

GOVERNMENT

Institutions

Sources

The earliest known government of ancient Macedonia was that of its monarchy, lasting until 167 BC when it was abolished by the Romans. Written evidence about Macedonian governmental institutions made before Philip II of Macedon's reign is both rare and non-Macedonian in origin. The main sources of early Macedonian historiography are the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Diodorus Siculus, and Justin. Contemporary accounts given by those such as Demosthenes were often hostile and unreliable; even Aristotle, who lived in Macedonia, provides us with terse accounts of its governing institutions. Polybius was a contemporary historian who wrote about Macedonia, while later historians include Livy, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Plutarch, and Arrian. The works by these historians affirm the hereditary monarchy of Macedonia and basic institutions, yet it remains unclear if there was an established constitution for Macedonian government. The main textual primary sources for the organization of Macedonia's military as it existed under Alexander the Great include Arrian, Curtis, Diodorus, and Plutarch, while modern historians rely mostly on Polybius and Livy for understanding detailed aspects of the Antigonid-period military.

Division of power

The Vergina Sun, the 16-ray star covering the royal burial larnax of Philip II of Macedon, discovered at site of the ancient Aigai.

At the head of Macedonia's government was the king (basileus). From at least the reign of Philip II the king was assisted by the royal pages (basilikoi paides), bodyguards (somatophylakes), companions (hetairoi), friends (philoi), an assembly that included members of the military, and magistrates during the Hellenistic period. Evidence is lacking for the extent to which each of these groups shared authority with the king or if their existence had a basis in a formal constitutional framework. Before the reign of Philip II the only institution supported by textual evidence is the monarchy. In 1931 Friedrich Granier was the first to propose that by the time of Philip II's reign Macedonia had a constitutional government with laws that delegated rights and customary privileges to certain groups, especially to its citizen soldiers, although the majority of evidence for the army's alleged right to appoint a new king and judge cases of treason stems from the reign of Alexander III of Macedon. Pietro de Francisci was the first to refute these ideas and advance the theory that the Macedonian government was an autocracy ruled by the whim of the monarch, although this issue of kingship and governance is still unresolved in academia.

Kingship and the royal court

The Macedonian hereditary monarchy existed since at least the period of Archaic Greece, evolving possibly from a tribal system and with roots in Mycenaean Greece due to its seemingly Homeric aristocratic attributes. Thucydides wrote that in previous ages Macedonia used to be divided into small tribal regions each having their own petty king, the tribes of Lower Macedonia eventually coalescing under one great king who exercised power as an overlord over the lesser kings of Upper Macedonia. The Argead dynasty lasted from the reign of Perdiccas I of Macedon until that of Alexander IV of Macedon, supplanted by the Antigonid dynasty during the Hellenistic period. The direct line of father-to-son succession was broken after the assassination of Orestes of Macedon in 396 BC (allegedly by his regent and successor Aeropus II of Macedon), clouding the issue of whether primogeniture was the established custom or if there was a constitutional right for an assembly of the army or the people to choose another king. It is also unclear if certain male offspring were considered more legitimate than others, since Archelaus I of Macedon was the son of Perdiccas II of Macedon and a slave woman, although Archelaus succeeded the throne after murdering his father's designated heir apparent and son from another mother.

Historical sources confirm that the Macedonian kings before Philip II at least upheld the privileges and responsibilities of hosting foreign diplomats, initiating the kingdom's foreign policies, and negotiating deals such as alliances with foreign powers. After the Greek victory at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC, the Persian commander Mardonius had Alexander I of Macedon sent to Athens as a chief envoy to orchestrate an alliance between the Achaemenid Empire and Athens. The decision to send Alexander was based on his marriage alliance with a noble Persian house and his previous formal relationship with the city-state of Athens. With their ownership of natural resources including gold, silver, timber, and royal land, the early Macedonian kings were also capable of bribing foreign and domestic parties with impressive gifts.

Little is known about the judicial system of ancient Macedonia apart from the fact that the king acted as the chief judge of the kingdom. The Macedonian kings were also supreme commanders of the military, with early evidence including not only Alexander I's role in the Greco-Persian Wars but also with the city-state of Potidaea accepting Perdiccas II of Macedon as their commander during their rebellion against the Delian League of Athens in 432 BC. In addition to the esteem won by serving as Macedonia's supreme commander, Philip II was also highly regarded for his acts of piety in serving as the high priest of the nation. This was performed through daily ritual sacrifices and the leading of religious festivals. Alexander imitated various aspects of his father's reign, such as granting land and gifts to loyal aristocratic followers. However, he lost some core support among them for adopting some of the trappings of an Eastern, Persian monarch, a "lord and master" as Carol J. King suggests instead of a "comrade-in-arms" as was the traditional relationship of Macedonian kings with their companions.

Royal pages

The royal pages were adolescents boys and young men conscripted from aristocratic households and serving the kings of Macedonia perhaps from the reign of Philip II onward, although more solid evidence for their presence in the royal court dates to the reign of Alexander the Great. Royal pages played no direct role in high politics and were conscripted as a means to introduce them to political life. After a period of training and service, pages were expected to become members of the king's companions and personal retinue. During their training, pages were expected to guard the king as he slept, supply him with horses, aid him in mounting his horse, accompany him on royal hunts, and serve him during symposia (i.e. formal drinking parties). While conscripted pages would have looked forward to a lifelong career at court or even a prestigious post as a governor, they can also be regarded as hostages held by the royal court in order to ensure the loyalty and obedience of their aristocratic fathers. The abusive punishment of pages such as flogging carried out by the king at times led to intrigue and conspiracy against the crown, as did the frequent homosexual relations between the pages and the elite, sometimes with the king. Although there is little evidence for royal pages in the Antigonid period, they did exist at the end of the dynasty when fleeing with Perseus of Macedon to Samothrace following his defeat by the Romans in 168 BC.

Bodyguards

Royal bodyguards served as the closest members to the king at court and on the battlefield. They were split into two categories: the agema of the hypaspists, a type of ancient special forces usually numbering in the hundreds, and a smaller group of men handpicked by the king either for their individual merits or to honor the noble families to which they belonged. Therefore the bodyguards, limited in number and forming the king's inner circle, weren't always responsible for protecting the king's life on and off the battlefield; their title and office was more a mark of distinction perhaps used to quell rivalries between aristocratic houses.

Companions, friends, councils, and assemblies

An atrium with a pebble-mosaic paving, in Pella, Greece

The companions, including the elite companion cavalry and pezhetairoi infantry, represented a substantially larger group than the king's bodyguards. The ranks of the companions were greatly increased during the reign of Philip II when he expanded this institution to include Upper Macedonian aristocrats as well as Greeks. The most trusted or highest ranking companions formed a council that served as an advisory body to the king. A small amount of evidence also suggests that an assembly of the army during times of war and a people's assembly during times of peace existed in ancient Macedonia. The first recorded instance dates to 359 BC, when Philip II called together a number of assemblies to address them with speech and raise their morale following the death of Perdiccas III of Macedon in battle against the Illyrians. Members of the council had the right to speak their minds freely, and although there is no evidence that they voted on affairs of state or that the king was even obligated to implement their ideas, it is clear that he was at least occasionally pressured to do so. However, there is perhaps insufficient evidence to allow a conclusion that councils and assemblies were regularly upheld, constitutionally grounded, or that their decisions were always heeded by the king. At the death of Alexander the Great the companions immediately formed a council to assume control of his empire, albeit temporarily and followed quickly afterwards by open rivalry and conflict.

Magistrates, the commonwealth, local government, and allied states

There is epigraphic evidence from the Hellenistic period and Antigonid dynasty that that the Macedonian kingdom relied on various regional officials to conduct affairs of state. This includes a number of high-ranking municipal officials, including the military-rooted strategos and politarch, i.e. the elected governor (archon) of a large city (polis), but also the politico-religious office of the epistates. Although these were highly influential members of local and regional government, Carol J. King asserts that they were not collectively powerful enough to formally challenge the authority of the Macedonian king or his right to rule. Malcolm Errington affirms that no evidence exists about the personal backgrounds of these officials, although they may have been picked from the available aristocratic pools of philoi and hetairoi that were used to fill vacancies of officers in the army.

In ancient Athens, the Athenian democracy was restored on three separate occasions following the initial conquest of the city by Antipater in 322 BC. However, when it fell repeatedly under Macedonian rule it was governed by a Macedonian-imposed oligarchy composed of the wealthiest members of the city-state, their membership determined by the value of their property. Within the Macedonian commonwealth, the Koinon of Macedonians, there is some epigraphic evidence from the 3rd century BC that foreign relations were handled by the central government. Although Macedonian cities nominally participated in panhellenic events on their own accord, in reality the granting of asylia (inviolability, diplomatic immunity, and the right of asylum at sanctuaries) to certain cities (e.g. Kyzikos in Anatolia) was handled directly by the king or a preexisting regulation. Likewise the city-states within contemporary Greek koina (i.e. federation of city-states, the sympoliteia) obeyed the federal decrees voted on collectively by the members of their league. In city-states belonging to a league or commonwealth, the granting of proxenia (i.e. the hosting of foreign ambassadors) was usually a right shared by local and central authorities. While there is plenty of surviving evidence that the granting of proxenia was the sole prerogative of central authorities in the neighboring Epirote League, a small amount of evidence suggests the same arrangement in the Macedonian commonwealth. However, city-states that were allied with the Kingdom of Macedonia yet existed outside of Macedonia proper issued their own decrees regarding proxenia.

Military FIRST DRAFT

Main articles: Ancient Macedonian army and Antigonid Macedonian army

Further information: Hellenistic armies and Macedonian phalanx

Early Macedonian army FIRST DRAFT

The basic structure of the army was the division of the companion cavalry (hetairoi) with the foot companions (pezhetairoi), augmented by various allied troops, foreign levied soldiers, and mercenaries. The foot companions existed perhaps since the reign of Alexander I of Macedon (r. 498-454 BC), while Macedonian troops are accounted for in the history of Herodotus as subjects of the Persian Empire fighting the Greeks at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. Macedonian cavalry, wearing muscled cuirasses, became renowned in Greece during and after their involvement in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), at times siding with either Athens or Sparta and supplemented by local Greek infantry instead of relying on Macedonian infantry. An early 4th-century BC stone-carved relief from Pella shows a Macedonian infantryman wearing a pilos helmet and wielding a short sword showing a pronounced Spartan influence on the Macedonian army before Philip II. At the beginning of Philip II's reign in 359 BC the Macedonian army consisted of 10,000 infantry and 600 cavalry, the latter figure similar to that recorded for the 5th century BC.

Philip II and Alexander the Great FIRST DRAFT

An ancient fresco of Macedonian soldiers from the tomb of Agios Athanasios, Thessaloniki, Greece, 4th century BC

Philip II's infantry wielded peltai shields that already disembarked from the hoplon style shield featured in sculpted artwork of a Katerini tomb dated perhaps to the reign of Amyntas III of Macedon (r. 381-369). His early infantry were also equipped with protective helmets and greaves, as well as sarissa pikes, yet they were eventually equipped with heavier armor such as cuirasses, since the Third Philippic of Demosthenes in 341 BC described them as hoplites instead of lighter peltasts. As evidenced by the Alexander Sarcophagus, troops serving Alexander the Great were armored in the hoplite fashion. The elite hypaspistai infantry, composed of handpicked men from the ranks of the pezhetairoi and perhaps synonymous with earlier doryphoroi, were formed during the reign of Philip II and saw continued use during the reign of Alexander the Great. Philip II was also responsible for the establishment of the royal bodyguards (somatophylakes) and royal pages (basilikoi paides). Following the acquisition of the lucrative mines at Krinides (renamed Philippi), the royal treasury could afford to field a permanent, professional standing army. The increase in state revenues allowed the Macedonians to build a small navy for the first time, including triremes.

The army under Philip II was renowned for its discipline and, although it did not succeed in every battle, was able to successfully adopt the military tactics of its enemies, such as the embolon (i.e. 'flying wedge') formation of the Scythians. This offered cavalry far greater maneuverability and an edge in battle that previously did not exist in the Classical Greek world. Philip II was also able to field archers, including mercenary Cretan archers and perhaps some native Macedonians. He hired engineers such as Polyidus of Thessaly and Diades of Pella capable of building state of the art siege engines and artillery firing large bolts.

Fresco of an ancient Macedonian soldier (thorakitai) wearing chainmail armor and bearing a thureos shield

During the reign of Alexander the Great, the only Macedonian cavalry units attested in battle were the companion cavalry. However, during his campaign in Asia against the Persian Empire he formed a hipparchia (i.e. unit of a few hundred horsemen) of companion cavalry composed entirely of ethnic Persians. When marching his forces into Asia, Alexander brought 1,800 cavalrymen from Macedonia, 1,800 cavalrymen from Thessaly, 600 cavalrymen from the rest of Greece, and 900 prodromoi cavalry from Thrace. Antipater was able to quickly levy 600 native Macedonian cavalry to fight in the Lamian War when it began in 323 BC. For his infantry, the most elite members of his hypaspistai were designated as the agema, yet a new term for hypaspistai emerged after the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC: the argyraspides ('silver shields'). The latter continued to serve after the reign of Alexander the Great and may have been of Asian origin. Overall his pike-wielding infantry numbered some 12,000 men, 3,000 of which were elite hypaspistai and 9,000 of which were pezhetairoi. Alexander continued using Cretan archers and for the first time a clear reference to native Macedonian archers is made, although after the Battle of Gaugamela archers of Asian extract became commonplace and were organized into chiliarchs.

Antigonid period military FIRST DRAFT

The Macedonian army continued to evolve under the Antigonid dynasty. It is uncertain how many men were appointed as somatophylakes, which numbered eight men at the end of Alexander the Great's reign, while the hypaspistai seem to have morphed into assistants of the somatophylakes rather than a separate unit in their own right. At the Battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 BC the Macedonians commanded some 16,000 phalanx pikemen. Alexander the Great's 'royal squadron' of companion cavalry were similarly numbered to the 800 cavalrymen of the 'sacred squadron' (Latin: sacra ala; Greek: hiera ile) commanded by Philip V of Macedon during the Social War of 219 BC. Due to the Roman historian Livy's accounts of the battles of Callinicus in 171 BC and Pydna in 168 BC, it is known that the Macedonian cavalry were also divided into groups with similarly named officers as had existed in Alexander's day. The regular Macedonian cavalry numbered 3,000 at Callinicus, which was separate from the 'sacred squadron' and 'royal cavalry'. Thanks to contemporary inscriptions from Amphipolis and Greia dated 218 and 181 respectively, historians have been able to partially piece together the organization of the Antigonid army under Philip V, such as its command by tetrarchai officers assisted by grammateis (i.e. secretaries or clerks).

The veteran, top tier Antigonid-period Macedonian infantry were the peltasts, lighter and more maneuverable soldiers wielding peltai javelins, swords, and a smaller bronze shield than Macedonian phalanx pikemen, although they sometimes served in that capacity. Among the peltasts roughly 2,000 men were selected to serve in the elite agema vanguard, with other peltasts numbering roughly 3,000. The amount of peltasts varied over time, perhaps never more than 5,000 men (the largest figure mentioned by ancient historians, an amount that existed in the Social War of 219 BC). They fought alongside the phalanx pikemen, divided now into chalkaspides 'bronze shield' and leukaspides 'white shield' regiments, up until the very end of the kingdom in 168 BC.

SOURCES

References

• Amemiya, Takeshi (2007). Economy and Economics of Ancient Greece. London & New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-70154-9.
• Bringmann, Klaus (2007) [2002]. A History of the Roman Republic. Translated by Smyth, W. J. Cambridge & Malden: Polity Press. ISBN 978-0-7456-3371-8.
• de Francisci, Pietro (1948). A. Giuffrè (ed.). Arcana Imperii II (in Italian). Vol. 1. Milan. pp. IV-495.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Eckstein, Arthur M. (2013). "Polybius, Phylarchus, and Historiographical Criticism". Classical Philology. 108 (4). The University of Chicago Press: 314–338. doi:10.1086/671786. JSTOR 10.1086/671786.
• Granier, Friedrich (1931). Die makedonische Heeresversammlung: ein Beitrag zum antiken Staatsrecht. Münchener Beiträge zur Papyrusforschung und antiken Rechtsgeschichte 13. Heft (in German). Munich: CH Beck Verlag.
• Hatzopoulos, M. B. (1996). Macedonian Institutions Under the Kings: a Historical and Epigraphic Study. Vol. 1. Athens & Paris: Research Centre for Greek and Roman Antiquity, National Hellenic Research Foundation; Diffusion de Boccard. ISBN 960-7094-90-5.
• King, Carol J. (2010). "Macedonian Kingship and Other Political Institutions". In Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (eds.). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Oxford, Chichester, & Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 373–391. ISBN 978-1-4051-7936-2.
• Sawada, Noriko (2010). "Social Customs and Institutions: Aspects of Macedonian Elite Society". In Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (eds.). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Oxford, Chichester, & Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 392–408. ISBN 978-1-4051-7936-2.
• Sekunda, Nicholas Viktor (2010). "The Macedonian Army". In Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (eds.). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Oxford, Chichester, & Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 446–471. ISBN 978-1-4051-7936-2.

GA responses

• My source, Joseph Roisman (2010), also does not explicitly state exactly how long these cities were besieged, yet at least makes it clear that the entire conflict lasted from 433 BC to 431 BC, when Athens and Macedonia were finally reconciled by way of negotiations staged by Sitalces. Also, keep in mind that Athens, upon sending all these forces into Chalcidice, were most likely spending huge sums of money to maintain the war effort there. If you fail in a siege it is often disastrous, unless you have other cities falling to your forces. Roisman makes it clear that "what saved the [Macedonian King Perdiccas II] was the Athenians' eagerness to focus all their efforts on regaining the Chalcidice and Potidaea, which forced them to make peace with him" (p. 147). He slightly contradicts himself, though, by explaining in the same paragraph that the Athenians reinforced their siege at Pydna with 2,000 hoplites sailing there on 40 ships (Pydna being to the west of the Chalcidice, along the Thermaic Gulf). Given what my source says, I'm not sure how to make any of this any clearer than it already is, aside from Roisman's input that "the king's efforts at mobilizing allies and forcing Athens to fight on more than one front appeared to bear fruit" (p. 147). I've decided to provide Roisman's assertion here into the article. I hope it clarifies things.
• I'm not sure if I'd characterize these outbursts of hostilities as something akin to the modern Continuation War. Roisman simply says the truce was broken shortly after the initial peace talks.
• I have provided further context as to why the Thracian ruler Sitalces of the Odrysian Kingdom was involved in the negotiation process between Athens and Macedonia.
• The peace treaty and alliance were a combined settlement. It's basically implied that one does not become an ally with another until hostilities between the two have formally ended. Rewording this to make it even more explicitly clear is perhaps an unnecessary level of detail, especially given the current size of this article.
• That's a very good point about the statement regarding Archelaus I of Macedon and Athens! I have amended the article accordingly, using your reworded suggestion.
• I've specified how he improved the kingdom's currency by increasing silver content and issuing new copper coins. Great suggestion!
• Roisman asserts that the period between 399-393 BC is very unclear and we can't make strong judgments about any of these four kings. All of them except Orestes managed to mint new currency that imitated that of Archelaus I, albeit in a debased form. There is no clear information about civil war or territorial exchanges between them, and not all of them were simultaneously proclaimed king (for instance, Aeropus II only became king after killing Orestes). I've decided to specify in the article about the ambiguity surrounding this period, with little evidence aside from the numismatic proof (and the implied written histories' input on the matter).
• I have made it clear that Philip II's marriages, perhaps barring one of them, were used to ensure the loyalty of subjects as well as friendship of new allies.
• I reworded that part about the League of Corinth.

History article lead draft

The Kingdom of Macedonia (orange) in 336 BC, at the end of the reign of Philip II of Macedon

The kingdom of Macedonia was an ancient state in what is now the Macedonian region of northern Greece, founded in the mid-7th century BC during the period of Archaic Greece. Led first by the Argead dynasty of kings, Macedonia became a vassal state of the Achaemenid Empire of ancient Persia during the reigns of Amyntas I of Macedon (r. 547–498 BC– ) and his son Alexander I of Macedon (r. 498–454 BC– ). The period of Achaemenid Macedonia came to an end in roughly 479 BC with the ultimate Greek victory against the second Persian invasion of Greece led by Darius I of Persia and the withdrawal of Persian forces from the European mainland.

During the age of Classical Greece, Perdiccas II of Macedon (r. 454–413 BC– ) became heavily involved in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) between Classical Athens and Sparta, shifting his alliance from one city-state to another while attempting to retain Macedonian control over the Chalcidice peninsula. His reign was also marked by conflict and temporary alliances with the Thracian ruler Sitalces of the Odrysian Kingdom. He eventually made peace with Athens, which formed an alliance with Macedonia that carried over into the reign of Archelaus I of Macedon (r. 413–399 BC– ). His reign brought peace, stability, and financial security to the Macedonian realm, yet his little-understood assassination (perhaps by a royal page) left the kingdom in peril and conflict. The turbulent reign of Amyntas III of Macedon (r. 393–370 BC– ) witnessed devastating invasions by both the Illyrian ruler Bardylis of the Dardani and the Chalcidian city-state of Olynthos, both of which were defeated with the aid of foreign powers, the city-states of Thessaly and Sparta, respectively. Alexander II (r. 370–368 BC– ) invaded Thessaly but failed to hold Larissa, which was captured by Pelopidas of Thebes, who made peace with Macedonia on condition that they surrender noble hostages, including the future king Philip II of Macedon (r. 359–336 BC– ).

Philip II came to power when his older brother Perdiccas III of Macedon (r. 368–359 BC– ) was defeated and killed in battle by the forces of Bardylis. With the use of skillful diplomacy, Philip II was able to make peace with the Illyrians, Thracians, Paeonians, and Athenians who threatened his borders. This allowed him time to dramatically reform the Ancient Macedonian army, establishing the Macedonian phalanx that would prove crucial to his kingdom's success in subduing Greece. He gradually enhanced his political power by forming marriage alliances with foreign powers, destroying the Chalcidian League in the Olynthian War (349–348 BC), and becoming an elected member of the Thessalian and Amphictyonic Leagues for his role in defeating Phocis in the Third Sacred War (356–346 BC). After the Macedonian victory over a coalition led by Athens and Thebes at the 338 BC Battle of Chaeronea, Philip established the League of Corinth and was elected as its hegemon in anticipation of commanding a united Greek and Macedonian invasion of the Achaemenid Empire. However, when Philip II was assassinated by one of his bodyguards, he was succeeded by his son Alexander III, better known as Alexander the Great (r. 336–323 BC– ), who invaded Achaemenid Egypt and Asia and toppled the rule of Darius III, who was forced to flee into Bactria (in what is now Afghanistan) where he was killed by one of his kinsmen, Bessus. This pretender to the throne was eventually executed by Alexander, yet the latter eventually succumbed to an unknown illness at the age of 32, whose death led to the Partition of Babylon by his former generals, the diadochi, ushering in the Hellenistic period in West Asia and the Mediterranean world.

Macedonia continued its role as the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece, yet its authority became diminished due to civil wars between the Antipatrid and nascent Antigonid dynasty. After surviving crippling invasions by Pyrrhus of Epirus, Lysimachus, Seleucus I Nicator, and the Celtic Galatians, Macedonia under the leadership of Antigonus II of Macedon (r. 277–274 BC; 272–239 BC– ) was able to subdue Athens and defend against the naval onslaught of Ptolemaic Egypt in the Chremonidean War (267–261 BC). However, the rebellion of Aratus of Sicyon in 351 BC led to the formation of the Achaean League, which proved to be a perennial problem for the ambitions of the Macedonian kings in mainland Greece. Macedonian power saw a resurgence under Antigonus III Doson (r. 229–221 BC– ), who defeated the Spartans under Cleomenes III in the Cleomenean War (229–222 BC). Although Philip V of Macedon (r. 221–179 BC– ) managed to defeat the Aetolian League in the Social War (220–217 BC), his attempts to project Macedonian power into the Adriatic Sea and formation of a Macedonian–Carthaginian Treaty with Hannibal alarmed the Roman Republic, which convinced a coalition of Greek city-states to attack Macedonia while Rome focused on defeating Hannibal in Italy. Rome was ultimately victorious in the First (214–205 BC) and Second Macedonian War (200–197 BC) against Philip V, who was also defeated in the Cretan War (205–200 BC) against a coalition led by Rhodes. Macedonia was forced to relinquish its holdings in Greece outside of Macedonia proper, while the Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC) succeeded in toppling the monarchy altogether, after which Rome placed Perseus of Macedon (r. 179–168 BC– ) under house arrest and established four client state republics in Macedonia. In an attempt to dissuade rebellion in Macedonia, Rome imposed stringent constitutions in these states that limited their economic growth and interactivity. However, Andriscus, a pretender to the throne claiming descent from the Antigonids, briefly revived the Macedonian monarchy during the Fourth Macedonian War (150–148 BC). However, his forces were crushed at the second Battle of Pydna by the Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, leading to the establishment of the Roman province of Macedonia and the initial period of Roman Greece.

Summary version

Main article: History of Macedonia (ancient kingdom)

Early history and legend

Main articles: Achaemenid Macedonia and Argead dynasty

Further information: List of ancient Macedonians § Kings

The entrance to one of the royal tombs at Vergina, a UNESCO World Heritage site

The Classical Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides reported the legend that the Macedonian kings of the Argead dynasty were descendants of Temenus, king of Argos, and could therefore claim the mythical Heracles as one of their ancestors as well as a direct lineage from Zeus, chief god of the Greek pantheon. The assertion that the Argeads descended from the legendary Temenus was accepted by the Hellanodikai authorities of the Ancient Olympic Games, permitting Alexander I of Macedon (r. 498–454 BC– ) to enter the competitions due to his perceived Greek identity and heritage. The reign of Alexander I's father Amyntas I of Macedon (r. 547–498 BC– ) during the Archaic period marks the point where Macedonia enters the historical record, since very little is known about the kings prior to his reign. Contradictory legends state that either Perdiccas I of Macedon or Caranus of Macedon were the founders of the Argead dynasty, with either five or eight kings before Amyntas I.

The kingdom of Macedonia was situated along the Haliacmon and Axius rivers in Lower Macedonia, north of Mount Olympus. Historian Malcolm Errington posits the theory that one of the earliest Argead kings must have established Aigai (modern Vergina) as their capital in the mid-7th century BC. Prior to the 4th century BC, the kingdom covered a region approximately corresponding to the western and central parts of the region of Macedonia in modern Greece. It gradually expanded into the region of Upper Macedonia, inhabited by the Greek Lyncestae and Elimiotae tribes, and into regions of Emathia, Eordaia, Bottiaea, Mygdonia, Crestonia and Almopia, which were inhabited by various peoples such as Thracians and Phrygians. Macedonia's non-Greek neighbors included Thracians inhabiting territories to the northeast, Illyrians to the northwest, and Paeonians to the north, while the lands of Thessaly to the south and Epirus to the west were inhabited by Greeks with similar cultures to that of the Macedonians.

A silver octadrachm of Alexander I of Macedon (r. 498–454 BC– ), minted c. 465–460 BC, showing an equestrian figure wearing a chlamys (short cloak) and petasos (head cap) while holding two spears and leading a horse

A year after Darius I of Persia (r. 522–486 BC– ) launched an invasion into Europe against the Scythians, Paeonians, Thracians, and several Greek city-states of the Balkans, the Persian general Megabazus used diplomacy to convince Amyntas I to submit as a vassal of the Achaemenid Empire, ushering in the period of Achaemenid Macedonia. Achaemenid Persian hegemony over Macedonia was briefly interrupted by the Ionian Revolt (499–493 BC), yet the Persian general Mardonius brought it back under Achaemenid suzerainty. Although Macedonia enjoyed a large degree of autonomy and was never made a satrapy (i.e. province) of the Achaemenid Empire, it was expected to provide troops for the Achaemenid army. Alexander I provided Macedonian military support to Xerxes I (r. 486–465 BC– ) during the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 480–479 BC, with Macedonian soldiers fighting on the side of the Persians at the 479 BC Battle of Platea. Following the Greek victory at the 480 BC Battle of Salamis, Alexander I was employed as an Achaemenid diplomat to strike a peace treaty and alliance with Athens, yet this proposal was rejected. Soon afterwards the Achaemenid forces were forced to withdraw from mainland Europe, marking the end of Persian control over Macedonia.

Involvement in the Classical Greek world

Further information: Delian League, Spartan hegemony, and Theban hegemony

Macedon (orange) during the Peloponnesian War around 431 BC, with Athens and the Delian League (yellow), Sparta and Peloponnesian League (red), independent states (blue), and the Persian Achaemenid Empire (purple).

Although initially a Persian vassal, Alexander I of Macedon fostered friendly diplomatic relations with his former Greek enemies, the Athenian and Spartan-led coalition of Greek city-states. However, his successor Perdicas II (r. 454–413 BC– ) led the Macedonians to war in four separate conflicts against Athens, leader of the Delian League, which encroached upon his coastal territories in Lower Macedonia as incursions by the Thracian ruler Sitalces of the Odrysian kingdom threatened Macedonia's territorial integrity in the northeast. The Athenian statesman Pericles promoted colonization of the Strymon River, where the colonial city of Amphipolis was founded in 437/436 BC that could provide Athens with a steady supply of silver and gold as well as timber and pitch to support the Athenian navy. Two separate wars were fought against Athens between 433-431 BC, spurred by an Athenian alliance with a brother and cousin of Perdiccas II who had rebelled against him. The Macedonian king then promoted the rebellion of Athen's allies in Chalcidice and won over the strategic city of Potidaea. The latter was eventually besieged by Athens after their capture of Therma and Beroea, yet Therma was returned to Macedonia and much of the Chalcidice to Athens in a peace treaty brokered by Sitalces, who provided Athens with military aid in exchange for acquiring new Thracian allies.

In 429 BC, during the height of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) between Athens and Sparta, Perdiccas II sent military aid to the Spartans at Acarnania yet the Macedonians arrived too late, allowing the Athenians to prevail at the Battle of Naupactus. Athens retaliated the same year by convincing Sitalces to invade Macedonia, but the Athenians eventually declined to offer the powerful Thracian ruler any naval support in the Chalcidice, perhaps out of fear for his regional ambitions. Sitalces retreated from Macedonia due to a shortage of provisions for the army during winter. In 424 BC Perdiccas II helped to persuade Athenian allies in Thrace to defect and ally with Sparta. In return the Spartan general Brasidas agreed to help Perdiccas II put down the revolt of Arrhabaeus, a local ruler of Lynkestis (in Upper Macedonia), although he expressed concern over the massive Illyrian army allied with Arrhabaeus and leaving Sparta's Chalcidian allies exposed to Athenian attacks while the Spartan army was away. At the Battle of Lyncestis the Macedonians panicked and fled before the fighting began against the forces of Arrhabaeus, enraging Brasidas, whose soldiers looted the unattended Macedonian baggage train. As a result, Perdiccas II promptly switched sides and allied with the Athenians instead, blocking Brasidas' Peloponnesian reinforcements in Thessaly and forcing Arrhabaeus and other rebels to surrender and accept the Macedonian king as their suzerain lord.

A Macedonian didrachm minted during the reign of Archelaus I of Macedon (r. 413–399 BC– )

Brasidas died in 422 BC, the year Athens and Sparta struck an accord with the Peace of Nicias that freed Macedonia from its obligations as an Athenian ally. Following the 418 BC Battle of Mantinea the victorious Spartans formed an alliance with Argos, a military pact Perdiccas II was keen to join given the threat of Spartan allies remaining in the Chalcidice. Yet when Argos suddenly switched sides as a pro-Athenian democracy, the Athenian navy was able to form a blockade against Macedonian seaports and invade the Chalcidice in 417 BC. Perdiccas II sued for peace in 414 BC, forming an alliance with Athens that was continued by his son and successor Archelaus I (r. 413–399 BC– ). Athens even provided naval support to Archelaus I in the 410 BC Macedonian siege of Pydna, in exchange for timber and naval equipment.

Although Archelaus I was faced with some internal revolts and had to fend off an invasion of Illyrians led by Sirras of Lynkestis, he was able to project Macedonian power into Thessaly where he sent military aid to his allies. Although he retained Aigai as a ceremonial and religious center, Archelaus I moved the capital of the kingdom north to Pella, which was then positioned by a lake with a river connecting it to the Aegean Sea. He improved Macedonia's currency by minting coins with a higher silver content as well as issuing separate copper coinage. His royal court attracted the presence of well-known intellectuals such as the Athenian playwright Euripides. Yet when Archelaus I was assassinated (perhaps in a homosexual love affair with royal pages at his court) the kingdom was plunged into chaos, in an era lasting from 399 to 393 BC that included the reign of four different monarchs: Orestes, son of Archelaus I; Aeropus II, uncle, regent, and murderer of Orestes; Pausanias, son of Aeropus II; and Amyntas II, who was married to the youngest daughter of Archelaus I. Very little is known about this turbulent period, yet it came to an end when Amyntas III (r. 393–370 BC– ), son of Arrhidaeus and grandson of Amyntas I, killed Pausanias and claimed the Macedonian throne.

A silver stater of Amyntas III of Macedon (r. 393–370 BC– )

However, the troubles for Macedonia did not end with the accession of Amyntas III, who was forced to flee his kingdom in either 393 or 383 BC (based on conflicting accounts), due to a massive invasion by the Illyrian Dardani led by Bardylis. The pretender to the throne Argaeus ruled in his absence, yet Amyntas III eventually returned to his kingdom with the aid of Thessalian allies. Amyntas III was also nearly overthrown by the forces of the Chalcidian city of Olynthos, but with the aid of Teleutias, brother of the Spartan king Agesilaus II, the Macedonians forced Olynthos to surrender and dissolve their Chalcidian League in 379 BC.

Alexander II (r. 370–368 BC– ), son of Eurydice I and Amyntas III, succeeded his father and immediately invaded Thessaly to wage war against the tagus (supreme Thessalian military leader) Alexander of Pherae, capturing the city of Larissa. The Thessalians, desiring to remove both Alexander II and Alexander of Pherae as their overlords, appealed to Pelopidas of Thebes for aid; he succeeded in recapturing Larissa and, in the peace agreement arranged with Macedonia, received aristocratic hostages including Alexander II's brother and future king Philip II (r. 359–336 BC– ). When Alexander was assassinated by his brother-in-law Ptolemy of Aloros, the latter acted as an overbearing regent for Perdiccas III (r. 368–359 BC– ), younger brother of Alexander II, who eventually had Ptolemy put to death when reaching the age of majority in 365 BC. The remainder of Perdiccas III's reign was marked by political stability and financial recovery. However, an Athenian invasion led by Timotheus, son of Conon, managed to capture Methone and Pydna, followed by an Illyrian invasion led by Bardylis that succeeded in killing Perdiccas III and 4,000 Macedonian troops in battle.

Rise of Macedon

Main article: Rise of Macedon

Further information: Argead dynasty, Amyntas IV of Macedon, and League of Corinth

Left: a bust of Philip II of Macedon ((r. 359–336 BC– ) from the Hellenistic period, located at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
Right: another bust of Philip II, a 1st-century AD Roman copy of a Hellenistic Greek original, now in the Vatican Museums

Map of the Kingdom of Macedon at the death of Philip II in 336 BC (light blue), with the original territory that existed in 431 BC (red outline), and dependent states (yellow)

Philip II was twenty-four years old when he acceded to the throne in 359 BC. Through the use of deft diplomacy, he was able to convince the Thracians under Berisades to cease their support of Pausanias, a pretender to the throne, and the Athenians to halt their support of another pretender. He achieved these by bribing the Thracians and their Paeonian allies and removing a garrison of Macedonian troops from Amphipolis, establishing a treaty with Athens that relinquished his claims to the city. He was also able to make peace with the Illyrians who had threatened his borders.

Philip II spent his initial years radically transforming the Macedonian army. The reform of its organization, equipment, training, and introduction of the Macedonian phalanx armed with long pikes (i.e. the sarissa) proved immediately successful when tested against his Illyrian and Paeonian enemies. Confusing accounts in ancient sources have led modern scholars to debate how much Philip II's royal predecessors may have contributed to these military reforms. It is perhaps more likely that his adolescent years of captivity in Thebes as a political hostage during the Theban hegemony influenced his ideas, especially after meeting with the renowned general Epaminondas.

The Macedonians and Greeks traditionally practiced monogamy, but Philip II practiced polygamy and married seven wives with perhaps only one that didn't involve the loyalty of his aristocratic subjects or new allies. His first marriages were to Phila of Elimeia of the Upper Macedonian aristocracy as well as the Illyrian princess Audata, granddaughter(?) of Bardylis, to ensure a marriage alliance. To establish an alliance with Larissa in Thessaly, he married the Thessalian noblewoman Philinna in 358 BC, who bore him a son who would later rule as Philip III Arrhidaeus (r. 323–317 BC– ). In 357 BC, he married Olympias in order to secure an alliance with Arybbas, the King of Epirus and the Molossians. This marriage would bear a son who would later rule as Alexander III (better known as Alexander the Great) and claim descent from the legendary Achilles by way of his dynastic heritage from Epirus. It is unclear whether or not the Achaemenid Persian kings influenced Philip's practice of polygamy, although his predecessor Amyntas III had three sons with a possible second wife Gygaea: Archelaus, Arrhidaeus, and Menelaus. Philip II had Archelaus put to death in 359 BC, while Philip's other two half brothers fled to Olynthos, serving as a casus belli for the Olynthian War (349–348 BC) against the Chalcidian League.

While Athens was preoccupied with the Social War (357–355 BC), Philip retook Amphipolis from them in 357 BC and the following year recaptured Pydna and Potidaea, the latter of which he handed over to the Chalcidian League as promised in a treaty. In 356 BC he took Crenides, refounding it as Philippi, while his general Parmenion defeated the Illyrian king Grabos of the Grabaei. During the 355-354 BC siege of Methone Philip lost his right eye to an arrow wound, but managed to capture the city and treated the inhabitants cordially, unlike the Potidaeans who had been enslaved.

Philip II then involved Macedonia in the Third Sacred War (356–346 BC). It began when Phocis captured and plundered the temple of Apollo at Delphi instead of submitting unpaid fines, causing the Amphictyonic League to declare war on Phocis and a civil war among the members of the Thessalian League aligned with either Phocis or Thebes. Philip II's initial campaign against Pherae in Thessaly in 353 BC at the behest of Larissa ended in two disastrous defeats by the Phocian general Onomarchus. However, in 352 BC Philip II defeated Onomarchus at the Battle of Crocus Field, which led to his election as leader (archon) of the Thessalian League, provided him a seat on the Amphictyonic Council, and allowed for a marriage alliance with Pherae by wedding Nicesipolis, niece of the tyrant Jason of Pherae.

After campaigning against the Thracian ruler Cersobleptes, Philip II began his war against the Chalcidian League in 349 BC. Despite an Athenian intervention by Charidemus, Olynthos was captured by Philip II in 348 BC and its inhabitants were sold into slavery, including some Athenian citizens. The Athenians, especially in a series of speeches by Demosthenes known as the Olynthiacs, were unsuccessful in persuading their allies to counterattack and in 346 BC concluded a treaty with Macedonia known as the Peace of Philocrates. The treaty stipulated that Athens would relinquish Macedonian coastal claims and Amphipolis in return for the enslaved Athenians as well as guarantees that Philip would not attack Athenian settlements in the Thracian Chersonese. Meanwhile, Phocis and Thermopylae were captured, the Delphic temple robbers executed, and Philip II was awarded the two Phocian seats on the Amphictyonic Council and the position of master of ceremonies over the Pythian Games. Athens initially opposed his membership on the council and refused to attend the games in protest, but they were eventually accepted these conditions, perhaps after some persuasion by Demosthenes in his oration On the Peace.

Left: a 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.
Right: the ruins of the Philippeion at Olympia, Greece, which was built by Philip II of Macedon to celebrate his victory at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC

Over the next few years Philip II reformed local governments in Thessaly, campaigned against the Illyrian ruler Pleuratus I, deposed Arybbas in Epirus in favor of his brother-in-law Alexander I (through Philip II's marriage with Olympias), and defeated Cersebleptes in Thrace. This allowed him to extend Macedonian control over the Hellespont in anticipation of an invasion into Achaemenid Anatolia. In 342 BC Philip II conquered a Thracian city in what is now Bulgaria and renamed it Philippopolis (modern Plovdiv). War broke out with Athens in 340 BC while Philip II was engaged in two ultimately unsuccessful sieges of Perinthus and Byzantion, followed by a successful campaign against the Scythians along the Danube and Macedonia's involvement in the Fourth Sacred War against Amphissa in 339 BC. Thebes ejected a Macedonian garrison from Nicaea (near Thermopylae), leading Thebes to join Athens, Megara, Corinth, Achaea, and Euboea in a final confrontation against Macedonia at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. After the Macedonian victory there, Philip II installed an oligarchy in Thebes, yet was lenient to Athens due to his desire to utilize their navy in a planned invasion of the Achaemenid Empire. He was then chiefly responsible for the formation of the League of Corinth that included the major Greek city-states except Sparta, being elected as the leader (hegemon) of its council (synedrion) by the spring of 337 BC despite the Kingdom of Macedonia being excluded as an official member.

After his election by the League of Corinth as their commander-in-chief (strategos autokrator) of a forthcoming campaign to invade the Achaemenid Empire, Philip II sought to shore up further Macedonian support by marrying Cleopatra Eurydice, niece of general Attalus. Talk of providing new potential heirs infuriated Philip II's son Alexander, a veteran of the Battle of Chaeronea, and his mother Olympias, who fled together to Epirus before Alexander was recalled to Pella. When Philip II arranged a marriage between his son Arrhidaeus and Ada of Caria, daughter of Pixodarus, the Persian satrap of Caria, Alexander intervened and proposed to marry Ada instead. Philip then cancelled the wedding altogether and exiled Alexander's advisors Ptolemy, Nearchus, and Harpalus. To reconcile with Olympias, Philip II had their daughter Cleopatra marry Olympias' brother (and Cleopatra's uncle) Alexander I of Epirus, yet Philip II was assassinated by his bodyguard Pausanias of Orestis during their wedding feast and succeeded by Alexander.

Empire

Further information: Wars of Alexander the Great, Wars of the Diadochi, and Chronology of the expedition of Alexander the Great into Asia

Left: Bust of Alexander the Great by the Athenian sculptor Leochares, 330 BC, Acropolis Museum, Athens
Right: Bust of Alexander the Great, a Roman copy of the Imperial Era (1st or 2nd century AD) after an original bronze sculpture made by the Greek sculptor Lysippos, Louvre, Paris

The empire of Alexander the Great at the time of its maximum expansion.

Modern scholars have argued over the possible role of Alexander III 'the Great' and his mother Olympias in the assassination of Philip II in 336 BC, noting Philip II's choice to exclude Alexander from his planned invasion of Asia, the relegated position Alexander was given as regent of Greece and deputy hegemon of the League of Corinth, and the potential bearing of another male heir between Philip II and his new wife Cleopatra Eurydice. Nonetheless, Alexander III (r. 336–323 BC– ) was immediately proclaimed king by an assembly of the army and leading aristocrats, chief among them being Antipater and Parmenion. By the end of his reign and military career in 323 BC, Alexander would rule over an empire consisting of mainland Greece, Asia Minor, the Levant, ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and much of Central and South Asia (i.e. modern Pakistan). Among his first acts was the burial of his father at Aigai, followed by a military campaign in the Balkans. The members of the League of Corinth revolted at the news of Philip II's death, yet were soon quelled by military force alongside persuasive diplomacy, electing Alexander as hegemon of the league to carry out the planned invasion of Achaemenid Persia. Alexander then executed his rival Attalus, who had taunted him during the wedding feast of his daughter Cleopatra Eurydice and Philip II.

In 335 BC, Alexander fought against the Thracian tribe of the Triballi at Haemus Mons and along the Danube, forcing their surrender on Peuce Island. Shortly thereafter the Illyrian king Cleitus of the Dardani threatened to attack Macedonia, yet Alexander took the initiative and besieged them at Pelion (in modern Albania). When Thebes had once again revolted from the League of Corinth and were besieging the Macedonian garrison in the Cadmea, Alexander left the Illyrian front and marched to Thebes, which he placed under siege. After breaching the walls, Alexander's forces killed 6,000 Thebans, took 30,000 inhabitants as prisoners of war, and burned the city to the ground as a warning that convinced all other Greek states minus Sparta not to challenge Alexander again.

Throughout his military career and kingship, Alexander won every battle that he personally commanded. His first victory against the Persians in Asia Minor at the Battle of the Granicus in 334 BC utilized a small cavalry contingent as a distraction to allow his infantry to cross the river followed by a cavalry charge from his companion cavalry. Alexander led the cavalry charge at the Battle of Issus in 333 BC, forcing the Persian king Darius III and his army to flee. Darius III, despite having superior numbers, was again forced to flee the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC. The Persian king was later captured and executed by his own satrap of Bactria and kinsman, Bessus, in 330 BC. The Macedonian king subsequently hunted down and executed Bessus in what is now Afghanistan, securing the region of Sogdia in the process. At the 326 BC Battle of the Hydaspes (modern-day Punjab), when the war elephants of King Porus of the Pauravas threatened Alexander's troops, he had them form open ranks to surround the elephants and dislodge their handlers by using their sarissa pikes. When his Macedonian troops threatened mutiny at Opis, Babylonia (near modern Baghdad, Iraq) in 324 BC, Alexander offered Macedonian military titles and greater responsibilities to Persian officers and units instead, forcing his troops to seek forgiveness at a staged banquet of reconciliation between Persians and Macedonians.

The Stag Hunt Mosaic, c. 300 BC, from Pella; the figure on the right is possibly Alexander the Great due to the date of the mosaic along with the depicted upsweep of his centrally-parted hair (anastole); the figure on the left wielding a double-edged axe (associated with Hephaistos) is perhaps Hephaestion, one of Alexander's loyal companions.

Despite his skills as a commander, Alexander perhaps undercut his own rule by demonstrating signs of megalomania. While utilizing effective propaganda such as the cutting of the Gordian Knot, he also attempted to portray himself as a living god and son of Zeus following his visit to the oracle at Siwah in the Libyan Desert (in modern-day Egypt) in 331 BC. When he attempted to have his men prostrate before him at Bactra in 327 BC in an act of proskynesis borrowed from the Persian kings, the Macedonians and Greeks considered this blasphemy and usurpation of the gods' authority. Alexander's court historian Callisthenes refused to perform this ritual there and the others followed suit, an act of protest that led Alexander to abandon the practice. When Alexander had Parmenion murdered at Ecbatana in 330 BC, this was "symptomatic of the growing gulf between the king's interests and those of his country and people," according to Errington. His murder of Cleitus the Black in 328 BC is described as "vengeful and reckless" by Dawn L. Gilley and Ian Worthington. He also pursued the polygamous habits of his father Philip II and encouraged his men to marry native women in Asia, leading by example when he wed Roxana, a Sogdian princess of Bactria. He then married Stateira II, eldest daughter of Darius III, and Parysatis II, youngest daughter of Artaxerxes III, at the Susa weddings in 324 BC.

Meanwhile, in Greece the Spartan king Agis III attempted to lead a rebellion of the Greeks against Macedonia. However, he was defeated in 331 BC at the Battle of Megalopolis by Antipater, who was serving as regent of Macedonia and deputy hegemon of the League of Corinth in Alexander's stead. Before Antipater embarked on his campaign in the Peloponnese, Memnon, the governor of Thrace, was dissuaded from rebellion by use of diplomacy. Antipater deferred the punishment of Sparta to the League of Corinth headed by Alexander, who ultimately pardoned the Spartans on the condition that they submit fifty nobles as hostages. Antipater's hegemony was somewhat unpopular in Greece due to his practice (perhaps by order of Alexander) of exiling malcontents and garrisoning cities with Macedonian troops, yet in 330 BC Alexander declared that the tyrannies installed in Greece were to be abolished and Greek freedom was to be restored.

Kingdoms of the diadochi c. 301 BC, after the Battle of Ipsus

  Kingdom of Ptolemy I Soter

  Kingdom of Cassander

  Kingdom of Lysimachus

  Kingdom of Seleucus I Nicator

  Epirus

Other

  Carthage

  Roman Republic

  Greek States

When Alexander the Great died at Babylon in 323 BC, his mother Olympias immediately accused Antipater and his faction of poisoning him, although there is no evidence to confirm this. With no official heir apparent, the Macedonian military command became split between one side proclaiming Alexander's half-brother Philip III Arrhidaeus (r. 323–317 BC– ) as king and another siding with Alexander's infant son with Roxana, Alexander IV (r. 323–309 BC– ). Except for the Euboeans and Boeotians, the Greeks also immediately rose up in a rebellion against Antipater known as the Lamian War (323–322 BC). When Antipater was defeated at the 323 BC Battle of Thermopylae, he fled to Lamia where he was besieged by the Athenian commander Leosthenes. Leonnatus rescued Antipater by lifting the siege. Antipater defeated the rebellion, yet his death in 319 BC left a vacuum of power wherein the two proclaimed kings of Macedonia became pawns in a power struggle between the diadochi, the former generals of Alexander's army.

A council of the army convened in Babylon immediately after Alexander's death, naming Philip III as king and the chiliarch Perdiccas as his regent. However, Antipater, Antigonus Monophthalmus, Craterus, and Ptolemy formed a coalition against Perdiccas in a civil war initiated by Ptolemy's seizure of the hearse of Alexander the Great. Perdiccas was assassinated in 321 BC by his own officers during a failed campaign in Egypt against Ptolemy, where his march along the Nile River resulted in the drowning of 2,000 of his men. Although Eumenes of Cardia managed to kill Craterus in battle, this had little to no effect on the outcome of the 321 BC Partition of Triparadisus in Syria where the victorious coalition settled the issue of a new regency and territorial rights. Antipater was appointed as regent over the two kings. However, before Antipater died in 319 BC he named the staunch Argead loyalist Polyperchon as his successor, passing over his own son Cassander and ignoring the right of the king to choose a new regent (since Philip III was considered mentally unstable), in effect bypassing the council of the army as well.

Forming an alliance with Ptolemy, Antigonus, and Lysimachus, Cassander had his officer Nicanor capture the Munichia fortress of Athens' port town Piraeus in defiance of Polyperchon's decree that Greek cities should be free of Macedonian garrisons, sparking the Second War of the Diadochi (319–315 BC). Given a string of military failures by Polyperchon, in 317 BC Philip III, by way of his politically-engaged wife Eurydice II of Macedon, officially replaced him as regent with Cassander. Afterwards Polyperchon desperately sought the aid of Olympias in Epirus. A joint force of Epirotes, Aetolians, and Polyperchon's troops invaded Macedonia and forced the surrender of Philip III and Eurydice's army, allowing Olympias to execute the king and force his queen to commit suicide. Olympias then had Nicanor and dozens of other Macedonian nobles killed, yet by the spring of 316 BC Cassander defeated her forces, captured her, and placed her on trial for murder before sentencing her to death.

Cassander married Philip II's daughter Thessalonike and briefly extended Macedonian control into Illyria as far as Epidamnos. However, by 313 BC it was retaken by the Illyrian king Glaucias of Taulanti. By 316 BC Antigonus had taken the territory of Eumenes and managed to eject Seleucus Nicator from his Babylonian satrapy, leading Cassander, Ptolemy, and Lysimachus to issue a joint ultimatum to Antigonus in 315 BC for him to surrender various territories in Asia. Antigonus promptly allied with Polyperchon, now based in Corinth, and issued an ultimatum of his own to Cassander, charging him with murder for executing Olympias and demanding that he hand over the royal family, king Alexander IV and the queen mother Roxana. The conflict that followed lasted until the winter of 312/311 BC, when a new peace settlement recognized Cassander as general of Europe, Antigonus as 'first in Asia', Ptolemy as general of Egypt, and Lysimachus as general of Thrace. Cassander had Alexander IV and Roxana put to death in the winter of 311/310 BC, had Heracles of Macedon executed in 309 BC as part of a peace settlement with Polyperchon, and by 306–305 BC the diadochi were declared kings of their respective territories.

Hellenistic era

Further information: Antipatrid dynasty, Antigonid dynasty, Hellenistic period, Pyrrhic War, Chremonidean War, and Cleomenean War

The portrait busts of Pyrrhus of Epirus (top left), Demetrius I of Macedon (top right), Seleucus I Nicator (bottom left), and Lysimachus (bottom right), Roman-era copies of Hellenistic Greek originals from the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, Naples National Archaeological Museum

The beginning of Hellenistic Greece was defined by the struggle between the Antipatrid dynasty, led first by Cassander (r. 305–297 BC– ), son of Antipater, and the Antigonid dynasty, led by Antigonus I Monophthalmus (r. 306–301 BC– ) and his son, the future king Demetrius I (r. 294–288 BC– ). Cassander besieged Athens in 303 BC but was forced to retreat back to Macedonia when Demetrius invaded Boeotia to his rear, attempting to sever his path of retreat. While Antigonus and Demetrius attempted to recreate Philip II's Hellenic league with themselves as dual hegemons, a revived coalition of Cassander, Ptolemy I Soter (r. 305–283 BC– ) of Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty, Seleucus I Nicator (r. 305–281 BC– ) of the Seleucid Empire, and Lysimachus (r. 306–281 BC– ), King of Thrace defeated the Antigonids at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, killing Antigonus and forcing Demetrius into flight.

Cassander died in 297 BC and his sickly son Philip IV died the same year, being succeeded by Cassander's other sons Alexander V of Macedon (r. 297–294 BC– ) and Antipater II of Macedon (r. 297–294 BC– ), with their mother Thessalonike of Macedon acting as regent. While Demetrius fought against the Antipatrid forces in Greece, Antipater II killed his own mother and regent to obtain power. His desperate brother Alexander V then requested aid from Pyrrhus of Epirus (r. 297–272 BC– ), who had fought alongside Demetrius at the Battle of Ipsus, yet was sent to Egypt as a hostage as part of an agreement between Demetrius and Ptolemy I. In exchange for defeating the forces of Antipater II and forcing him to flee to the court of Lysimachus in Thrace, Pyrrhus was awarded the westernmost portions of the Macedonian kingdom. Demetrius had his nephew Alexander V assassinated and was then proclaimed king in Macedonia, yet his subjects protested against his aloof, Eastern-style autocracy.

War broke out between Pyrrhus and Demetrius in 290 BC when Lanassa, wife of Pyrrhus, daughter of Agathocles of Syracuse, left him for Demetrius and offered him her dowry of Corcyra. The war dragged on until 288 BC, when Demetrius lost the support of the Macedonians and fled the country. Macedonia was then divided between Pyrrhus and Lysimachus, the former taking western Macedonia and the latter eastern Macedonia. By 286 BC, Lysimachus expelled Pyrrhus and his forces from Macedonia. However, in 282 BC a new war erupted between Seleucus I and Lysimachus; the latter was killed in the Battle of Corupedion, allowing Seleucus I to take control of Thrace and Macedonia. In two dramatic reversals of fortune Seleucus I was assassinated in 281 BC by his officer Ptolemy Keraunos, son of Ptolemy I and grandson of Antipater, who was then proclaimed king of Macedonia yet killed in battle in 279 BC by Celtic invaders in the Gallic invasion of Greece. The Macedonian army proclaimed the general Sosthenes of Macedon as king, although he apparently refused the title. After defeating the Gallic ruler Bolgios and driving out the raiding party of Brennus, Sosthenes died and left a chaotic situation in Macedonia. The Gallic invaders ravaged Macedonia until Antigonus Gonatas, son of Demetrius, defeated them in Thrace at the 277 BC Battle of Lysimachia and was then proclaimed king Antigonus II of Macedon (r. 277–274 BC; 272–239 BC– ).

In 280 BC Pyrrus embarked on a campaign in Magna Graecia (i.e. southern Italy) against the Roman Republic known as the Pyrrhic War, followed by his invasion of Sicily. Ptolemy Keraunos secured his position on the Macedonian throne by gifting Pyrrhus five-thousand soldiers and twenty war elephants for this endeavor. Pyrrhus returned to Epirus in 275 BC after the ultimate failure of both campaigns, which contributed to the rise of Rome now that Greek cities in southern Italy such as Tarentum became Roman allies. Pyrrhus invaded Macedonia in 274 BC, defeating the largely mercenary army of Antigonus II at the 274 BC Battle of Aous and driving him out of Macedonia to seek refuge with his naval fleet in the Aegean.

Ancient Macedonian paintings of Hellenistic-era military arms and armor from a tomb in ancient Mieza (modern-day Lefkadia), Imathia, Central Macedonia, Greece, 2nd century BC

Pyrrhus lost much of his support among the Macedonians in 273 BC when his unruly Gallic mercenaries plundered the royal cemetery of Aigai. Pyrrhus pursued Antigonus II in the Peloponnese, yet Antigonus II was ultimately able to recapture Macedonia. Pyrrhus was killed while besieging Argos in 272 BC, allowing Antigonus II to reclaim the rest of Greece as well. He then restored the Argead dynastic graves at Aigai, secured the Illyrian front, and annexed Kingdom of Paeonia.

While the Aetolian League hampered Antigonus II's control over central Greece, the formation of the Achaean League in 251 BC pushed Macedonian forces out of much of the Peloponnese and at times incorporated Athens and Sparta. While the Seleucid Empire aligned with Antigonid Macedonia against Ptolemaic Egypt during the Syrian Wars, the Ptolemaic navy heavily disrupted Antigonus II's efforts to control mainland Greece. With the aid of the Ptolemaic navy, the Athenian statesman Chremonides led a revolt against Macedonian authority known as the Chremonidean War (267–261 BC). However, by 265 BC Athens was surrounded and besieged by Antigonus II's forces, a Ptolemaic fleet was defeated in the Battle of Cos, and Athens finally surrenderd in 261 BC. After Macedonia formed an alliance with the Seleucid ruler Antiochus II, a peace settlement between Antigonus II and Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt was finally struck in 255 BC.

The Temple of Apollo at Corinth, built c. 540 BC, with the Acrocorinth (i.e. the acropolis of Corinth that once held a Macedonian garrison) seen in the background

In 251 BC Aratus of Sicyon led a rebellion against Antigonus II and in 250 BC Ptolemy II declared his support for the self-proclaimed king Alexander of Corinth. Although Alexander died in 246 BC and Antigonus was able to score a naval victory against the Ptolemies at Andros, the Macedonians lost the Acrocorinth to the forces of Aratus in 243 BC, followed by the induction of Corinth into the Achaean League. Antigonus II made peace with the Achaean League in 240 BC, ceding the territories that he had lost in Greece. Antigonus II died in 239 BC and was succeeded by his son Demetrius II of Macedon (r. 239–229 BC– ). Seeking an alliance with Macedonia to defend against the Aetolians, the queen mother and regent Olympias II of Epirus offered her daughter Phthia of Macedon to Demetrius II in marriage, which he accepted yet damaged relations with the Seleucids by divorcing Stratonice of Macedon. Although the Aetolians formed an alliance with the Achaean League as a result, Demetrius II was able to invade Boeotia and capture it from the Aetolians by 236 BC.

The Achaean League managed to capture Megalopolis in 235 BC and by the end of Demetrius II's reign most of the Peloponnese except Argos was taken from the Macedonians. Demetrius II also lost an ally in Epirus when the monarchy was toppled in a republican revolution. Demetrius II enlisted the aid of the Illyrian king Agron to defend Acarnania against Aetolia and in 229 BC they managed to defeat the combined navies of the Aetolian and Achaean Leagues at the Battle of Paxos. Another Illyrian ruler Longarus of the Dardanian Kingdom invaded Macedonia and defeated an army of Demetrius II shortly before his death in 229 BC. Although his child son, Philip immediately inherited the throne, his regent Antigonus III Doson (r. 229–221 BC– ), nephew of Antigonus II, was proclaimed king by the army and Philip as his heir following a string of military victories against the Illyrians in the north and the Aetolians in Thessaly.

A tetradrachm minted during the reign of Antigonus III Doson (r. 229–221 BC– ), possibly at Amphipolis, bearing the portrait image of Poseidon on the obverse and a scene on the reverse depicting Apollo sitting on the prow of a ship

Aratus sent an embassy to Antigonus III in 226 BC seeking an unexpected alliance now that the reformist king Cleomenes III of Sparta was threatening the rest of Greece in the Cleomenean War (229–222 BC). In exchange for military aid, Antigonus III demanded the return of Corinth to Macedonian control, which Aratus finally agreed to in 225 BC. In 224 BC Antigonus III's forces took Arcadia from Sparta and after reforming a Hellenic league in the same vein as Philip II's League of Corinth he managed to defeat Sparta at the Battle of Sellasia in 222 BC. Sparta was occupied by a foreign power for the first time in its history, restoring Macedonia's position as the leading power in Greece. Antigonus died a year later, perhaps from tuberculosis, leaving behind a strong Hellenistic kingdom for his successor Philip V.

Philip V of Macedon (r. 221–179 BC– ) faced immediate challenges to his authority by the Illyrian Dardani and Aetolian League. Philip V and his allies were successful against the Aetolians and their allies in the Social War (220–217 BC), yet he made peace with the Aetolians once he heard of incursions by the Dardani in the north and the Carthaginian victory over the Romans at the Battle of Lake Trasimene in 217 BC. Demetrius of Pharos is alleged to have convinced Philip V to first secure Illyria in advance of an invasion of the Italian peninsula. In 216 BC, Philip V sent a hundred light warships into the Adriatic Sea to attack Illyria, a motion that did not go unnoticed by Rome when Scerdilaidas of the Ardiaean Kingdom appealed to the Romans for aid. Rome responded by sending ten heavy quinquiremes from Roman Sicily to patrol the Illyrian coasts, causing Philip V to reverse course and order his fleet to retreat, averting open conflict for the time being.

Conflict with Rome

Main article: Macedonian Wars

Further information: Cretan War (205–200 BC), Punic Wars, and Macedonian–Carthaginian Treaty

The Kingdom of Macedonia (orange) under Philip V (r. 221–179 BC– ), with Macedonian dependent states (dark yellow), the Seleucid Empire (bright yellow), Roman protectorates (dark green), the Kingdom of Pergamon (light green), independent states (light purple), and possessions of the Ptolemaic Empire (violet purple)

In 215 BC, at the height of the Second Punic War with the Carthaginian Empire, Roman authorities intercepted a ship off the Calabrian coast holding a Macedonian envoy and a Carthaginian ambassador in possession of a treaty composed by Hannibal Barca declaring an alliance with Philip V of Macedon. The treaty stipulated that Carthage had the sole right to negotiate the terms of Rome's hypothetical surrender, catered to the Macedonian interests in the Adriatic Sea, and promised mutual aid in the event that a resurgent Rome should seek revenge against either Macedonia or Carthage. Although the Macedonians were perhaps only interested in safeguarding their conquered territories in Illyria, the Romans were nevertheless able to thwart Philip V's ambitions in the Adriatic during the First Macedonian War (214–205 BC). In 214 BC, Rome positioned a naval fleet at Oricus when it along with Apollonia were assaulted by Macedonian forces. When the Macedonians captured Lissus in 212 BC, the Roman Senate responded by inciting the Aetolian League, Sparta, Elis, Messenia, and Attalus I (r. 241–197 BC– ) of Pergamon to wage war against Philip V, keeping him occupied and away from the Italian peninsula.

A year after the Aetolian League concluded a peace agreement with Philip V in 206 BC, the Roman Republic negotiated the Treaty of Phoenice, ending the war and allowing the Macedonians to retain some captured settlements in Illyria. Although the Romans rejected an Aetolian request in 202 BC for Rome to declare war on Macedonia once again, the Roman Senate gave serious consideration to the similar offer made by Pergamon and its ally Rhodes in 201 BC. These states were concerned by Philip V's alliance with Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid Empire, which invaded the war-weary and financially exhausted Ptolemaic Empire in the Fifth Syrian War (202–195 BC) as Philip V captured Ptolemaic settlements in the Aegean Sea. Although Rome's envoys played a critical role in convincing Athens to join the anti-Macedonian alliance with Pergamon and Rhodes in 200 BC, the comitia centuriata (i.e. people's assembly) rejected the Roman Senate's proposal for a declaration of war on Macedonia. Meanwhile, Philip V conquered vital territories in the Hellespont and Bosporus as well as Ptolemaic Samos, which led Rhodes to form an alliance with Pergamon, Byzantium, Cyzicus, and Chios against Macedonia. Despite Philip V's nominal alliance with the Seleucid king, he lost the naval Battle of Chios in 201 BC and was subsequently blockaded at Bargylia by a combined fleet of the victorious Rhodian and Pergamene navies.

A tetradrachm of Philip V of Macedon (r. 221–179 BC– ), with the king's portrait on the obverse and Athena Alkidemos brandishing a thunderbolt on the reverse

While Philip V was busy fighting several Greek maritime powers, Rome viewed this as an opportunity to punish a former ally of Hannibal, come to the aid of its Greek allies, and commit to a war that perhaps required a limited amount of resources in order to achieve victory. However, Arthur M. Eckstein stresses that the Roman Senate "did not plot long range-strategies" and instead "lurched from crisis to crisis" while allowing itself to become involved in the Hellenistic east only at the strong urging of its allies and despite its own exhausted and war-weary populace. The Roman Senate demanded that Philip V cease hostilities against neighboring Greek powers and defer to an international arbitration committee for settling grievances. Seeking either war or humiliation for the Macedonian king, his predictable rejection of their proposal served as a useful tool of propaganda demonstrating the honorable, philhellenic intentions of the Romans contrasted with the combative Macedonian response. When the comitia centuriata finally voted in approval of the Roman Senate's declaration of war in 200 BC and handed their ultimatum to Philip V, demanding that a tribunal assess the damages owed to Rhodes and Pergamon, the Macedonian king rejected it. This marked the beginning of the Second Macedonian War (200–197 BC), with Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus spearheading military operations by landing at Apollonia along the coast of Illyria with two Roman legions.

Bronze bust of Eumenes II of Pergamon, a Roman copy of a Hellenistic Greek original, from the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum

The Macedonians successfully defended their territory for roughly two years, but the Roman consul Titus Quinctius Flamininus managed to expel Philip V from Macedonia in 198 BC, his forces taking refuge in Thessaly. When the Achaean League switched their loyalties from Macedonia to Rome, the Macedonian king sued for peace, but the terms offered were considered too stringent and so the war continued. In June 197 BC, the Macedonians were defeated at the Battle of Cynoscephalae. Rome then ratified a treaty that forced Macedonia to relinquish control of much of its Greek possessions outside of Macedonia proper, if only to act as a buffer against Illyrian and Thracian incursions into Greece. Although the Greeks, especially the Aetolians, suspected Roman intentions of supplanting Macedonia as the new hegemonic power in Greece, Flaminius announced at the Isthmian Games of 196 BC that Rome intended to preserve Greek liberty by leaving behind no garrisons or exacting tribute of any kind. Although delayed by negotiations with the Spartan king Nabis, who had meanwhile captured Argos, the Romans eventually evacuated Greece in 194 BC.

Encouraged by the Aetolian League and their calls to liberate Greece from the Romans, the Seleucid king Antiochus III landed with his army at Demetrias, Thessaly in 192 BC, and was elected strategos by the Aetolians. However, Macedonia, the Achaean League, and other Greek city-states maintained their alliance with Rome. The Romans defeated the Seleucids in the 191 BC Battle of Thermopylae as well as the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC, forcing the Seleucids to pay a war indemnity, dismantle most of its navy, and abandon its claims to any territories north or west of the Taurus Mountains in the 188 BC Treaty of Apamea. With Rome's acceptance Philip V was able to capture some cities in central Greece in 191-189 BC that had been allied to Antiochus III, while Rhodes and Eumenes II (r. 197–159 BC– ) of Pergamon gained territories in Asia Minor.

Failing to please all sides in various territorial disputes, the Roman Senate decided in 184/183 BC to force Philip V to abandon Aenus and Maronea, since these had been declared free cities in the Treaty of Apamea. This assuaged the fear of Eumenes II that Macedonia could no longer threaten his lands in the Hellespont. Perseus of Macedon (r. 179–168 BC– ) succeeded Philip V and executed his brother Demetrius, who had been favored by the Romans yet was charged by Perseus with high treason. Perseus then attempted to form marriage alliances with Prusias II of Bithynia and Seleucus IV Philopator of the Seleucid Empire, along with renewed relations with Rhodes that greatly unsettled Eumenes II. Although Eumenes II attempted to undermine these diplomatic relationships, Perseus fostered an alliance with the Boeotian League, extended his authority into Illyria and Thrace, and in 174 BC won the role of managing the Temple of Apollo at Delphi as a member of the Amphictyonic Council.

Left: a tetradrachm of Perseus of Macedon (r. 179–168 BC– ); British Museum
Right: the Triumph of Aemilius Paulus (detail) by Carle Vernet, 1789

Eumenes II came to Rome in 172 BC and delivered a speech to the Senate denouncing the alleged crimes and transgressions of Perseus. This convinced the Roman Senate to declare the Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC). Although Perseus' forces were victorious against the Romans at the Battle of Callinicus in 171 BC, the Macedonian army was defeated at the Battle of Pydna in June 168 BC. Perseus fled to Samothrace but surrendered shortly afterwards, was brought to Rome for the triumph of Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus, and placed under house arrest at Alba Fucens where he died in 166 BC. The Romans abolished the Macedonian monarchy by installing four separate allied republics in its stead, their capitals located at Amphipolis, Thessalonica, Pella, and Pelagonia. The Romans imposed severe laws inhibiting many social and economic interactions between the inhabitants of these republics, including the banning of marriages between them and the (temporary) prohibition on gold and silver mining. However, a certain Andriscus claiming Antigonid descent rebelled against the Romans and was pronounced king of Macedonia, defeating the army of the Roman praetor Publius Iuventius Thalna during the Fourth Macedonian War (150–148 BC). Despite this, Andriscus was defeated in 148 BC at the second Battle of Pydna by Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, whose forces occupied the kingdom. This was followed in 146 BC by the Roman destruction of Carthage and victory over the Achaean League at the Battle of Corinth, ushering in the era of Roman Greece and the gradual establishment of the Roman province of Macedonia.

Ethnic identity

Main article: Ancient Macedonians § Identity

See also: Macedonia (terminology), Ethnography, and Cultural anthropology

Terracotta statues depicting ancient Macedonians wearing the kausia, a headgear that led the Persians to refer to the Macedonians as "Yaunã Takabara" ("Greeks with hats that look like shields"). Left: Athenian terracotta figurine, c. 300 BC Right: Macedonian terracotta figurine, 3rd century BC

There is some disagreement among both ancient authors and modern scholars about the ethnic identity of the ancient Macedonians. Ernst Badian notes that nearly all surviving references to antagonisms and differences between Greeks and Macedonians exist in the written speeches of Arrian, who lived during a period (i.e. the Roman Empire) in which any notion of an ethnic disparity between Macedonians and other Greeks was incomprehensible. Hatzopoulos argues that there was no real ethnic difference between Macedonians and Greeks, only a political distinction contrived after the creation of the League of Corinth in 337 BC (which was led by Macedonia through the league's elected hegemon Philip II, despite him not being a member of the league itself). Other academics who concur that the difference between the Macedonians and Greeks was a political rather than a true ethnic discrepancy include Michael B. Sakellariou, Malcolm Errington, and Craige B. Champion.

Anson argues that some Hellenic authors expressed complex if not ever-changing and ambiguous ideas about the exact ethnic identity of the Macedonians, who were considered by some such as Aristotle in his Politics as barbarians and others as semi-Greek or fully Greek. Roger D. Woodard asserts that in addition to persisting uncertainty in modern times about the proper classification of the Macedonian language and its relation to Greek, ancient authors also presented conflicting ideas about the Macedonians. Any preconceived ethnic differences between Greeks and Macedonians faded soon after the Roman conquest of Macedonia by 148 BC and then the rest of Greece with the defeat of the Achaean League by the Roman Republic at the Battle of Corinth (146 BC).

Military

Main articles: Ancient Macedonian army and Antigonid Macedonian army

Further information: Hellenistic armies and Macedonian phalanx

Left image: a Macedonian infantryman, possibly a hypaspist, equipped with a hoplon shield and wearing a linothorax cuirass and Thracian helmet; bas relief from the Alexander Sarcophagus, 4th century BC
Right image: an ancient Macedonian bronze shield excavated from the archaeological site at Bonče in the Republic of Macedonia, dated 4th century BC

Early Macedonian army

The basic structure of the Ancient Macedonian army was the division of the companion cavalry (hetairoi) with the foot companions (pezhetairoi), augmented by various allied troops, foreign levied soldiers, and mercenaries. The foot companions existed perhaps since the reign of Alexander I of Macedon. Macedonian cavalry, wearing muscled cuirasses, became renowned in Greece during and after their involvement in the Peloponnesian War, at times siding with either Athens or Sparta. Macedonian infantry in this period consisted of poorly trained shepherds and farmers, while the cavalry was composed of noblemen. As evidenced by early 4th-century-BC artwork, there was a pronounced Spartan influence on the Macedonian army before Philip II. Nicholas Viktor Sekunda states that at the beginning of Philip II's reign in 359 BC, the Macedonian army consisted of 10,000 infantry and 600 cavalry, yet Malcolm Errington cautions that these figures cited by ancient authors should be treated with some skepticism.

Philip II and Alexander the Great

Further information: Military tactics in Ancient Greece and Thessalian cavalry

Imitating the Greek example of martial exercises and issuing of standard equipment for citizen soldiery, Philip II transformed the Macedonian army from a levied force of unprofessional farmers into a well-trained fighting force. Philip II adopted some of the military tactics of his enemies, such as the embolon (i.e. 'flying wedge') cavalry formation of the Scythians. His infantry wielded peltai shields that replaced the earlier hoplon style shield, were equipped with protective helmets, greaves, either cuirass breastplates or kotthybos stomach bands, and armed with sarissa pikes and a dagger as a secondary weapon. The elite hypaspistai infantry, composed of handpicked men from the ranks of the pezhetairoi, were formed during the reign of Philip II and saw continued use during the reign of Alexander the Great. Philip II was also responsible for the establishment of the royal bodyguards (somatophylakes).

An ancient fresco of Macedonian soldiers from the tomb of Agios Athanasios, Thessaloniki, Greece, 4th century BC

For his lighter missile troops, Philip II employed mercenary Cretan archers as well as Thracian, Paeonian, and Illyrian javelin throwers, slingers, and archers. He hired engineers such as Polyidus of Thessaly and Diades of Pella, who were capable of building state of the art siege engines and artillery firing large bolts. Following the acquisition of the lucrative mines at Krinides (renamed Philippi), the royal treasury could afford to field a permanent, professional standing army. The increase in state revenues under Philip II allowed the Macedonians to build a small navy for the first time, which included triremes.

The only Macedonian cavalry units attested under Alexander were the companion cavalry, yet he formed a hipparchia (i.e. unit of a few hundred horsemen) of companion cavalry composed entirely of ethnic Persians while campaigning in Asia. When marching his forces into Asia, Alexander brought 1,800 cavalrymen from Macedonia, 1,800 cavalrymen from Thessaly, 600 cavalrymen from the rest of Greece, and 900 prodromoi cavalry from Thrace. Antipater was able to quickly levy 600 native Macedonian cavalry to fight in the Lamian War when it began in 323 BC. The most elite members of Alexander's hypaspistai were designated as the agema, yet a new term for hypaspistai emerged after the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC: the argyraspides ('silver shields'). The latter continued to serve after the reign of Alexander the Great and may have been of Asian origin. Overall, his pike-wielding phalanx infantry numbered some 12,000 men, 3,000 of which were elite hypaspistai and 9,000 of which were pezhetairoi. Alexander continued the use of Cretan archers and introduced native Macedonian archers into the army. After the Battle of Gaugamela, archers of West Asian backgrounds became commonplace.

Antigonid period military

Fresco of an ancient Macedonian soldier (thorakites) wearing chainmail armor and bearing a thureos shield, 3rd century BC, İstanbul Archaeology Museums

The Macedonian army continued to evolve under the Antigonid dynasty. It is uncertain how many men were appointed as somatophylakes, which numbered eight men at the end of Alexander the Great's reign, while the hypaspistai seem to have morphed into assistants of the somatophylakes. At the Battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 BC, the Macedonians commanded some 16,000 phalanx pikemen. Alexander the Great's 'royal squadron' of companion cavalry were similarly numbered to the 800 cavalrymen of the 'sacred squadron' (Latin: sacra ala; Greek: hiera ile) commanded by Philip V of Macedon during the Social War of 219 BC. The regular Macedonian cavalry numbered 3,000 at Callinicus, which was separate from the 'sacred squadron' and 'royal cavalry'. Thanks to contemporary inscriptions from Amphipolis and Greia dated 218 and 181 respectively, historians have been able to partially piece together the organization of the Antigonid army under Philip V.

The most elite Antigonid-period infantry from at least the time of Antigonus III Doson were the peltasts, lighter and more maneuverable soldiers wielding peltai javelins, swords, and a smaller bronze shield than Macedonian phalanx pikemen, although they sometimes served in that capacity. Among the peltasts, roughly 2,000 men were selected to serve in the elite agema vanguard, with other peltasts numbering roughly 3,000. The amount of peltasts varied over time, perhaps never more than 5,000 men. They fought alongside the phalanx pikemen, divided now into chalkaspides 'bronze shield' and leukaspides 'white shield' regiments.

The Antigonid Macedonian kings continued to expand and equip the navy. Cassander maintained a small fleet at Pydna, Demetrius I of Macedon had one at Pella, and Antigonus II Gonatas, while serving as a general for Demetrius in Greece, used the navy to secure the Macedonian holdings in Demetrias, Chalkis, Piraeus, and Corinth. The navy was considerably expanded during the Chremonidean War (267–261 BC), allowing the Macedonian navy to defeat the Ptolemaic Egyptian navy at the 255 BC Battle of Cos and 245 BC Battle of Andros, and enabling Macedonian influence to spread over the Cyclades. Antigonus III Doson used the Macedonian navy to invade Caria, while Philip V allegedly sent two-hundred ships to fight in the Battle of Chios in 201 BC. The Macedonian navy was reduced to a mere six vessels as agreed in the 197 BC peace treaty that concluded the Second Macedonian War with the Roman Republic, although Perseus of Macedon quickly assembled some lemboi at the outbreak of the Third Macedonian War in 171 BC.

Historical overview

The expansion of the Macedonian kingdom has been described as a three-stage process. As a frontier kingdom on the border of the Greek world with barbarian Europe, the Macedonians first subjugated their immediate northern neighbours—various Illyrian and Thracian tribes—before turning against the states of southern and central Greece. Macedonia then led a pan-Hellenic military force against their primary objective—the conquest of Persia—which they achieved with remarkable ease. Afterwards the Macedonians continued to rule much of Hellenistic Greece (323-146 BC), forming alliances with Greek leagues such as the Cretan League and Epirote League (and before this, the Kingdom of Epirus. However, they often fell into conflict with the Achaean League, Aetolian League, the city-state of Sparta, and the Ptolemaic dynasty of Hellenistic Egypt that intervened in wars of the Aegean region and mainland Greece. After Macedonia formed an alliance with Hannibal of Ancient Carthage in 215 BC, the rival Roman Republic responded by fighting a series of wars against Macedonia in conjunction with its Greek allies such as Pergamon and Rhodes. The Romans abolished the Macedonian monarchy under Perseus of Macedon (r. 179-168 BC– ) and replaced it with four client state republics after the Third Macedonian War (171-168 BC). A brief revival of the monarchy by Andriscus led to the Fourth Macedonian War (150-148 BC) with Rome, the latter of which established the Roman province of Macedonia following their victory and subjugation of the Macedonians.