Macedon. Detalied history

Macedon traditionally lay on the fringes of the Greek world. One of the stories related that the foundation of the monarchy came from Temenos, king of Argos. This association led to Macedon’s participation in the Olympic Games. The kingdom was at the boundaries of Thessaly, Thrace, the Aegean coastal cities, and western Illyrians. Although the Macedonians spoke Greek, the language also had linguistic influences from other regions, which many Greeks interpreted to mean that they were only partial Greeks.

This bias came mainly from the Athenians, who were their traditional foes for the control of northern Greece. The kingdom during the Archaic and Classical periods was ruled by the Argead dynasty. It was constantly ravaged by its various neighbors and internal disruption. The central monarchy vacillated between strong royal leadership and local baronial control. The monarchy often had to spend its time controlling the local barons, who could be effective allies or dangerous foes.

During the early period when Macedon began to have formal diplomatic relations with other states, King Amyntas I (547-498) had to contend with a new foreign foe, Persia, which defeated the Lydian king Croesus and then expanded into Ionia. When Darius crossed into Thrace and moved against the Scythians, he defeated the Paionians, an enemy of Macedon. This weakening of the tribe allowed Macedon to exert its power in the Strymon Valley. Amyntas was able to use the situation to advance into the Thermaic Gulf.

The Macedonians at this time had friendly relations with Athens, having helped Pisistratus, and later Amyntas offered Pisistratus’s son, Hippias, refuge in 506. With their ancestral connection to Argos through myth, Amyntas’s son, Alexander I, competed as a runner in the Olympic Games. Alexander was later termed proxenos, or “guest friend” of Athens. Amyntas was able to keep Macedon independent of Persian control in 512, when Darius returned from Russia after the Scythian expedition. Darius had left his general, Megabazos, to reduce Thrace and control the region.

Macedon was not conquered, and Amyntas successfully kept Persia at bay, but they did apparently enter into some kind of arrangement, perhaps a treaty, but one in which Macedon did not submit. Amyntas died in 496, while the Ionian rebellion was occurring. Alexander took over and had to deal with the renewed Persian advance in 492, when Darius’s son-in-law Mardonius advanced to conquer Thrace again, and then expand westward and take over as many of the Greek cities as possible, which now included Thasos and the kingdom of Macedon.

The campaign did not succeed to the south of Macedon since the fleet was wrecked off Mount Athos, and Mardonius was later wounded in a Thracian attack. The connection between Macedon and Persia went even further when Alexander married off his sister to a son of Megabazos, Boubares, who took over as the satrap of Thrace. Alexander and Persia, therefore, had a close relationship, which also probably increased Alexander’s power inside Macedon. Nevertheless, he also maintained a friendship with Athens and other Greek cities.

After the death of Darius, his son, Xerxes, planned another invasion, having to wait until 483 so that he could put down a revolt in Egypt. During the next phase, Xerxes’s men began their advance from Thrace into Macedon and then to Thessaly. The Persians dug a canal through Mount Athos in order to allow the fleet and army to cooperate. In addition, the Persians established a series of storage depots to supply the advancing army. These depots were apparently constructed over a series of years and gave the Persians control spots for their invasion into Greece.

The Greeks advanced to Tempe in Thessaly, but Alexander warned them that the Persians knew of several other routes, and the Greeks withdrew. Therefore, Alexander could present the case to his Persian overlords that he had helped them by forcing a large Greek army out of their way. He could also tell the Greeks that he helped them by warning them of the Persian advance. He clearly provided the Persians with information and supplies for their invasion of Greece. Alexander then, as proxenos, attempted to negotiate a treaty between Persia and Athens. Although it failed, he could also argue that he had helped the Athenians by providing information to them about the Persian plans.

With the Persian defeat in 479 at Plataea, the Persians no longer held power in Thrace and Europe, and the satrapy no longer existed. Alexander now used the power vacuum to seize land in the interior of Macedon, gaining not only land and people, but most important, silver from the nearby mines of Mount Dysoron. There appears to have been continual contact between Persia and Macedon through Alexander’s nephew, the son of Boubares, who continued to hold office in Persia in Caria.

Herodotus would relate a series of stories concerning Alexander’s actions, such as his dedication of a golden statue to Delphi from the Persian proceeds taken after the Persian defeat. Alexander probably related a series of tales to Herodotus, who appears to have visited the Macedonian court. While his father, Amyntas, had accepted oversight from the Persians and probably was viewed by the Greeks as a sympathizer or even a turncoat.

Alexander gave out the story that when his father had accepted Persian control, Alexander attempted to turn his father Amyntas against them, and that Amyntas also gave help to the Greeks, such as at Plataea by telling the Greeks of their plans. Herodotus apparently believed his interpretation and put it in his Histories, which allowed Alexander to be seen as a Philhellene by later historians. Alexander probably had less impact than he made it out to sound.

After the Persian Wars, Alexander continued his attempt to solidify his position in Macedon. It appears that he continued to trade with Athens and did not object to the Athenian attempt to colonize the region and the subsequent attack by the Thracians and their victory over the Athenian colony. It appears that during the time of the Delian League, some members of Athens were on friendly grounds with Alexander, such as Cimon, who was charged with taking bribes from him, and although Cimon was acquitted, some politicians in Athens were not afraid to attempt to move against Macedon.

When Alexander died in the 450s, he had not yet made plans for a successor, even though he had five sons. His eldest son, Perdiccas, succeeded him, but the new leader was constantly at odds with his brothers, their families, and the barons in Macedon. He was forced to make a disadvantageous pact with Athens, probably in the early years of his reign.

By 433, when the Peloponnesian War broke out, Athens no longer was allied with Perdiccas and had thrown its support to his brother and another local prince. The break may have been due to the Athenian establishment of Amphipolis and the growing tension between the two states due to Athenian control of the Chalcidice region. By this time, the Macedonian king was weak both internally and externally. Perdiccas seems to have made a habit of going from one side to another, depending upon the situation.

This gave him the (justified) reputation of being unreliable and unfaithful to his allies. Crucially, Perdiccas did not need Athens, Sparta, or any other ally to remain in power; his use of these different states allowed him the opportunity to extend his power. Athenian practice from this period on was to keep Macedon weak and isolated, but on friendly terms. Perdiccas attempted to use the Spartans to counter the Athenians and use them against his internal enemies.

The Spartan general Brasidas already tested and distinguished during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War, attacked the Athenians, and during the cease-fire, he went into Perdiccas’s territory, which he plundered. Perdiccas’s attempt to manage the situation failed. The Peace of Nicias brought an end to the expeditions and war in the north, and Perdiccas was forced to make an alliance with Athens and give aid when needed. When he died in 413, Perdiccas had made his life’s work trying to navigate between the two major powers.

His son, Archelaos, was not like his father, trying to play both sides; instead, he allied himself with Athens. He gave support to the democracy at Samos during the time of the 400 in Athens. He was forty-five when he came to the throne, and he had seen how his father had acted and even helped with his diplomatic efforts. Archelaos may have assassinated other members of the royal family to solidify his position.

He also determined that the problems his father had was due to internal military weakness in Macedon, and he began the process of building up the infrastructure of the kingdom, including forts, supply depots, and roads. These allowed the central government to become more connected with the local population and control them. He made Pella, located on the Lydias River with direct access to the sea, his new capital. In addition, the site was better suited for all of Macedon as a central capital than the old one at Aigai.

Pella became a cultural center under Archelaos, with the Athenian playwright Euripides arriving, composing, and dying there in 406. Soon the political power of the Aegean changed with the destruction of the Athenian fleet and its surrender in 404. Archelaos died in 399 in a violent assassination, perhaps brought on by personal animosity. His son, Orestes, became king, even though he was a minor; his uncle, Aeropos, took over as guardian and then, three years later, murdered Orestes. He died of illness in 394, before he could solidify his position, and his son, Pausanias, took over. He in turn was assassinated, and Amyntas, the son of Arrhidaios and great-grandson of Alexander, took over. He had to face the incursion of the Illyrians under Bardylis, who drove Amyntas out of the region for a period of time.

At the same time, Olynthus posed a problem. Amyntas would spend the next decade struggling over Olynthus and the Chalcidian League. When the league was dissolved by Sparta in 379, Amyntas came out the winner, with no major threat in the north. Amyntas also appears to have made a treaty with Jason of Pherae in Thessaly, which secured his position even further. When Amyntas died in 369 after twenty-four years of rule, much had changed. Athens had lost the Peloponnesian War, and Sparta had been defeated by Thebes in 371 at Leuctra. Macedon had been restored to the power that it had had under Alexander.

During the next ten years, its power was constantly in flux until the youngest son of Amyntas, Philip, became king in 359 after three kings had died. Philip was in a precarious situation—Illyrian invaders under Bardylis were in possession of Upper Macedon, pretenders put forth, Athens attempting to control cities in the Chalcidice, other tribes from the north raiding, and the army was all but destroyed. Philip first had to secure his own position by paying off the Paionians, securing his interior; he then bribed a Thracian tribe that supported one of his rivals Pausanias, not only giving him a respite from the attacks, but also eliminating the rival.

The Athenians supported another pretender Argeus to the throne who they hoped would give them back Amphipolis; upon his arrival in Macedon, the pretender could not raise support, Philip defeated the forces and nothing more was heard from the pretender. Realizing that Athens would continually interfere with Amphi- polis, Philip in a master stroke gave it independence so that Athens could not make it an issue. In a sign of goodwill, he gave back Athenian prisoners.

With the Illyrians paid off, Philip had begun to build and train an army. He equipped them with the sarissa, a sixteen-foot pike that became a formable offensive weapon. Having been a hostage in Thebes under Pelopidas, he understood the importance of military exercise and discipline. He formulated the new infantry and cavalry and had them work together. He used this army to defeat the Paionians, whose lands were now regarded as Macedonian. He then marched out and defeated the Illyrians in a decisive battle that not only drove them out of Macedon, but destroyed over 7,000 Illyrians.

In addition, the local barons now owed their position to Philip, who had liberated them. To ensure his new cooperation with the Illyrians, he married a daughter of an Illyrian noble, and the union produced a daughter. Two years later, his general, Parmenio, won another battle against the Illyrians in 356, although peace was never secure with other incursions throughout Philip’s and his successors’ reigns. In 357, he married Olympias from the Molossian tribe in Epirus. In 356, she gave birth to a son, Alexander, which Philip designated as his heir.

He then began a series of attacks against his ally, Athens, but always claiming he was helping them. He first moved against Amphipolis, which he had given up, indicating he was doing it for his ally, Athens, but really for himself because he did not give it back to Athens. He also took Pydna from Athens. Also, in 356, he took Potidaia from Athens, enslaving the native population but making the Athenians return home. In 355, he took Methone, the last Athenian possession, razed it, and gave the territory to the Macedonians (but he lost an eye in the siege).

A major threat to Philip was Thrace. He was able to force two kings to become his clients, and he controlled a vast area to the east. The only region bordering Macedon was the Chalcidice peninsula. Olynthus had made a treaty with Athens counter to a treaty with Philip to not act unilaterally. They then made a further blunder by allowing Philip’s two half-brothers asylum and not extraditing them to Philip. Olynthus was the only city in the Chalcidian League to offer opposition to Philip. In 348, the city was sacked and razed by Philip and its citizens sold into slavery. In a little over ten years, Philip had secured his position, protected the frontiers, and expanded Macedon. He then moved against the Greek towns in Thrace, taking all but Perinthos and Byzantion by 341.

To the south of Macedon was Thessaly, with which it was friendly. Philip used his connection with Thessaly to intervene in Greek affairs through the Sacred War. He moved against the town of Pherai in 355, which led him to campaign against Phocis. To deal with the whole situation, Macedon needed to take Thessaly, which controlled half of the votes in the Amphictyonic League that were needed to punish Phocis. After a series of battles back and forth, Philip was finally successful. He was then elected leader of the Thessalian League. With his election, he now controlled the entire Amphitryonic League, which gave him entrance into the Greek world. By 346, he had ended the Sacred War and he presided over the Pythian Games—he was now a true Greek.

During his early reign, only Athens countered Philip, and he was able to outplay the city-state militarily and diplomatically. He was able to isolate it and then ally himself with it when doing so would favor Macedon. He was able to bribe some Athenians to support him and never pushed the military situation to such an extent to bring about a full-scale war. He had attempted to reach a peaceful solution, but by 338, he now realized that the only solution was to battle Thebes and Athens, the last obstacles in his plans to control central Greece.

He met them at Chaironeia, where he successfully defeated the allies. He then imposed a settlement on all of Greece (save Sparta, who refused) to create the Corinthian League, with himself as leader. He then planned his next adventure, an invasion of Asia Minor. He launched an early invasion force to Asia Minor and he planned to join them after his daughter’s marriage to his former brother-in-law, Alexander of Epirus. But during the celebration, Philip was attacked and assassinated.

Following his assassination, his son, Alexander III, later known as Alexander the Great, took over. He dealt quickly with a northern raid and then in 335 when Thebes rebelled, Alexander moved quickly, destroying the Theban army and razing the city. Alexander, secure in his position, now moved against Persia in 334 and Macedon remained at peace during his reign with his general Antipater in charge.