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Philip 2nd of Macedonia
(382-336 BC), king of Macedonia (359-336 BC), was born in Pella, the capital
of ancient Macedonia. He was educated king who had good knowledge in the
politics. Long before Philip was born, the ancient Macedonians regarded the
ancient Greeks as potentially dangerous neighbors, not as kind people. The
Greeks stereotyped the Macedonians as "barbarians" and treated them in
the same bigoted manner in which they treated all non-Greeks. Herodotus, the
Father of History, relates how the Macedonian king Alexander 1st
(498-454 BC), a Philhellene (that is "a friend of the Greeks" and logically
a non-Greek), wanted to take a part in the Olympic games. The Greek athletes
protested, saying they would not run with a barbarian. Historian Thucydidius
also considered the Macedonians as barbarians. Philip 2nd, the
Macedonian "barbarian" was a hostage in Thebes, from 367 to 365, then the
greatest power in Greece. During that period he observed the military
techniques of Thebes, which will help him later reorganize the Macedonian
army on the model of the Theban phalange. In 364 Philip returned to
Macedonia and in 359 he was made regent for his infant nephew Amyntas.
Later that year he seized the
Macedonian throne. Philip came to power at the time when the Macedonians had
just suffered a defeat from the Illyrians. Macedonia was in political and
military turmoil, and Philip immediately set about bringing the people of
Macedonia under his control. In less than two years he will secure the
safety of his kingdom and firmly establish himself on the throne. After
defeating the Illyrians in 358 BC, Philip sought to bring all of Upper
Macedonia under his control and make them loyal to him. Apart from military,
Philip had several political inventions that helped turn Macedonia into a
world power. Later near
Bitola, he built the city
Heraklea Lynkestis. His primary method of creating alliances and
strengthening loyalties was through marriage. In 357 BC he married
Olympiadas, daughter of an Epyrian king, from the royal house of Molossia,
and a year later they had a son, Alexander. But Alexander never got along
well with his father, although Philip was proud of Alexander for the
Bucephalus incident. Alexander had always been closer to Olympias than to
Philip. Philip and Olympias also did not get along all that well. The family
essentially was split apart irreparably when Philip married a woman named
Cleopatra, a Macedonian. At the wedding banquet, Cleopatra's father made a
remark about Philip fathering a "legitimate" heir, i.e., one that was pure
Macedonian. Alexander took exception and threw his cup at the man, and some
sources say
Alexander killed him, some that was killed by
his lover. Enraged, Philip stood up and charged at Alexander, only to trip
and fall on his face in his drunken stupor. Alexander, rather upset at the
scene, is to have shouted:
"Here is the man
who was making ready to cross from Europe to Asia, and who cannot even
cross from one table to another without losing his balance."
"Olympias - mother of Alexander"
When Philip divorced Olympias Alexander fled. Although allowed to return, he
remained isolated and insecure until Philip was assassinated (some think
that Olympias may have even had a role in Philip's murder), in the summer of
336 BC. Philip allowed the sons of nobles to receive education in the court
of the king. Here the sons would not only develop a fierce loyalty for the
king, but it was also a way for Philip to, in a sense, hold the children
hostage to keep their parents from interfering with his authority. He also
gave more people positions of power and more of a sense of belonging to the
kingdom. From then on, Philip's policy was aggressive. In 357 he conquered
the Athenian colony of Amphipolis in Thrace. That gave him a possession of
the gold mines of Mount Pangaeus, which will finance his wars. In 356 he
captured Potidea in Chalcidice, Pydna on the Thermaic Gulf, and in 355 the
Thracian town of Crenides, later acquiring new name Philippi. In 354 Philip
conquered Methone, advanced into Thessaly but did not attempt to take the
pass of Thermopylae in 352 because it was strongly guarded by the Athenians.
In 351 the great Athenian orator Demostenes delivered the first of his
Philippics, a series of speeches warning the Athenians about the Macedonian
menace to Greek liberty. The great Athenian statesman Demostenes, spoke of
Philip 2nd:
"Philip 2nd cannot
be a friend of the Greeks. He is not only no Greek, not even related to
the Greeks, but not even a barbarian from any place that can be named with
honors, but a pestilent knave from Macedonia, whence it was never yet
possible to buy a decent slave."
The Macedonian "barbarian" defeated
Greece at the battle of Chaeronea in August 338 BC and appointed himself
"Commander of the Greeks". Philip's army was greatly outnumbered by the
Athenian and Theban forces, yet his phalanges overwhelmed the Athenians and
Thebans. His victory made him complete master of Greece. This battle had
established Macedonian hegemony over Greece and this date is commonly taken
as the end of Greek history and the beginning of the Macedonian era. Two
years later, in the spring of 336 BC, Philip start preparing for his big
invasion of Persia. He sent Attalus and Parmenion with 10,000 troops over
into Asia Minor but just before he was to travel to Asia to begin the
conquest, he was assassinated. His vision to conquer the Middle East, will
be carried away by his son Alexander the Great. However, without the
military and political efforts of Philip, Alexander would have never been as
successful as he was. According to Bosworth, Philip's work with the
Macedonian army and establishment of alliances with the Balkan peoples gave
both himself and Alexander the resources necessary to carry out such
conquests.
"The Macedonian Sun"
Philip introduced the 6 meter long
sarissa, a wooden pike with metal tip, for use by his infantry in the
phalange. The sarissa, when held upright by the rear rows of the phalange
(there were usually eight rows), helped hide maneuvers behind the phalange
from the view of the enemy. When held horizontal by the front rows of the
phalange, it was a rather brutal weapon. People could be run through from 20
feet away, giving quite an advantage to the phalange in hand-to-hand
combat. Philip made the military a way of life for many Macedonian men. He
made the military a professional occupation that paid well enough that the
soldiers could afford to do it year-round, unlike in the past when the
soldiering had only been a part-time job, something the men would do during
the off peak times of farming. This allowed him to count on his man
regularly, building unity and cohesion within the army. In addition to the
basic
phalange, Philip and Alexander used light
auxiliaries, archers, a siege train, and a cavalry. |
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