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Philip of Macedon Biography

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PHILIP II (352-336 B.C.). King of Macedonia and father of Alexander the Great. He was born at Pella and was the youngest son of Amyntas II and Eurydice. When a youth he was taken by Pelopidas as a hostage to Thebes, where he lived several years. After the murder of his eldest brother, Alexander, by Ptolemy Alorites, he was appointed by his brother Perdiceas, when the latter, having slain Ptolemy, came to the throne, to the governorship of a separate district of the country. About 359 B.C. Perdiceas was slain in battle while fighting with the Illyrians, and Philip assumed the government as guardian of his young nephew, Amyntas, the son of Perdiceas; but he soon set aside Amyntas and took the crown himself. At this time Macedonia was attacked on one side by the Illyrians, Pannonians, and other tribes, and on the other by the Athenians, while within she was torn by the dissensions of several pretenders to the throne; but, buying off the Thracians, who were supporting the pretender Pausanias, conciliating the Athenians, who had taken up the cause of another pretender, Argæus, killing or otherwise disposing of the remaining pretenders, and defeating in battle the threatening tribes, Philip firmly established himself on his throne in less than two years. Henceforth his policy was one of aggression, and the Greek towns on the coast of Macedonia were the first objects of attack. Amphipolis, Pydna, and Potidæa, Athenian possessions or allies on the coast of Macedonia, were the first places to fall into his hands. He then secured possession of the rich and valuable gold mines of Thrace, together with the town of Crenides, which he enlarged and called by the name of Philippi, These victories had all been obtained before 355; in 354 he took Methone, on the Thermaic Gulf, after along siege, in the course of which he lost an eye, and then advanced into Thessaly, to aid the Aleuadæ against Lycophron, the tyrant of Pheræ. Defeating the force that was sent to oppose him, he established his supremacy throughout Thessaly and advanced as far south as the pass of Thermopylæ. The pass being guarded by a strong force of Athenians, who had been aroused by the eloquent warnings of Demosthenes, he returned and directed his arms against Thrace, where he succeeded in establishing his ascendancy. In 349 he began his attacks on the Chalcidian cities, and in 347 completed the conquest of the Chalcidic peninsula by taking the city of Olynthus. In 346 he succeeded in gaining a further foothold in Greece, being called in by the Thebans to assist in the Sacred War against the Phocians. All the towns of Phocis, numbering 22, together with the pass of Thermopylæ, surrendered to Philip without resistance. The place which the Phocians had occupied in the Amphictyonic Council was transferred to him, and he was appointed, jointly with the Thebans and the Thessalians, president of the Pythian games. In the following years he was again in Thrace, endeavoring to bring the cities in that country under his rule. He was unsuccessful in his attempt on Perinthus and Byzantium, and turned his attention once more to the northern tribes. In 339 B.C. he was again invited into Greece, this time by the Amphictyonie Council, to take charge of the army that was to oppose the Locrians. Alarmed at Philip's continued successes and by his entrance into Greece, the Athenians formed a coalition with Thebes and other Greek States to oppose his advance but the united army was utterly defeated at the battle of Chæronæ in 338. This battle marks the end of Greek independence; Philip was now master of Greece. He at once began preparations for the invasion of Persia on a grand scale. In 337, when deputies from all the different states of Greece except Sparta assembled at Corinth, he was chosen commander in chief of the Greek forces. In the midst of his preparations, however, he was assassinated at Ægæ by a youth of noble blood named Pausanias, while attending a celebration in honor of the marriage of his daughter with Alexander of Epirus (336 B.C.). The motive for the deed, as stated by Aristotle, was private resentment for neglect on Philip's part to punish Attalus for a gross insult offered to Pausanius.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 480-481.