1. The Troubled Accession of Darius IV Codomannus
a) Parysatis systematically murdering everyone who'd helped
Artaxerxes against Cyrus, including Artaxerxes' wife Statira
(Plutarch)
b) Artaxerxes endeavored to re-conquer Egypt but could not control
Satraps
c) Son Darius tried to kill Artaxerxes, Ochus killed other heirs
d) Ochus acceeded in 358, conquered Egypt in the 340's, poisoned in
338 by eunuch Bagoas in Palace conspiracy
e) Bagoas tried to make Darius (cousin) his puppet, but ended up
poisoned himself.
2. Isocrates, for one, realized the state of things.
a) At the Olympic games of 380 he publicized (not a good speaker)
the Panegyricus, a plan for Greek revenge upon Persia.
(1) Agesilaius's Sparta was to command a landward,
panhellenic assault upon the Persian Empire
(2) Athens and her newest round of naval allies were to
conduct the war by sea.
(3) Impractical--too much blood spilled--2nd Athenian Naval
League "to force the Lacedaemonians to allow the Greeks
to enjoy peace in freedom."--Aristoteles' decree of 378/7.
b) Some strong man, then, would have to unite the warring Greeks
under his leadership
(1) He couldn't be a Spartan or an Athenian (Pausanias,
Themistocles)
(2) Could he be Jason of Pherae?
(a) Tagos of the Thessalian League
(b) Core army of 6000 Mercenaries
(c) Ally of Thebes against Sparta in 371
(d) Assassinated in 370.
(3) Could he be...Letter to Philip, 346: Program
(a) Unite Greeks
(b) Conquer foreign lands
(c) Settle excess Greek population abroad (in Thrace)
(d) But...what would HE get out of it?
A. Meanwhile, Back in Macedonia... The bodies hanging
from Alexander's Family Tree
1. Alexander's Grandfather was Amyntas III (394-370), allied
with the Chalcidean League vs. Athens and then had to
withdraw under the Illyrian threat.
a) War of Sparta with Chalcidian Confederacy (379) as violation of
King's Peace of 386, Amyntas ends up Spartan ally after
expulsion and restoration to Macedonian throne.
b) Amyntas married a young girl, Cleopatra, who took a young
lover, Ptolemy of Alorus
c) Ptolemy's long-suffering wife revealed the plot to Amyntas, who
died at 80 before taking action.
d) Cleopatra and Ptolemy called in Pelopidas of Thebes to arrange
the succession of Alexander II in 369-8
e) Once the Theban had left, Ptolemy and Cleopatra murdered
Alexander II at a folk-dance festival.
f) A pretender Pausanias attempted to expel those two, but
Cleopatra convinced the Athenian commander of a squadron off-
shore to intervene in her behalf
(1) This was Iphicrates, possibly Athens' most talented
military commander
(2) Amyntas had adopted Iphicrates, making Cleopatra's sons
Perdiccas and Philip his foster-brothers.
2. Ptolemy married Cleopatra and became Perdiccas's regent
a) Perdiccas seemed more interested in art and reading than revenge
and was spared.
b) Philip was sent by Alexander in 369 to Thebes as a hostage for
Cleopatra and Perdiccas's alliance
(1) Philip lived with Pammenes at Thebes
(2) Thebes had defeated Sparta at Leuctra in 371
(3) Because of his connection with Pelopidas, Philip would
have had contact with Epaminondas, the most brilliant
military innovator of his day
(4) Don't forget Philip's boyhood acquaintance with
Iphicrates!
c) Perdiccas bided his time and solved Ptolemy's problems in 365
d) Philip had been brought home by 364.
B. Perdiccas III died along with most (4000) of the
Macdonian army in a horrible defeat by the Illyrians under
King Bardylis in 359.
a) The Old Macedonian army was dead
b) The neighboring hill-tribes of the Paeonians were raiding and
working themselves up for an invasion
c) Nothing was in between Macedonia and the Illyrians
d) The pretender Pausanias was back with a Thracian army
e) Athens had their own boy, Argeus, who had a mercenary army
and had sent the fleet to back him up.
f) Perdiccas's son and heir, Amyntas, was a child.
C. Philip II--Savior of Macedon, Conqueror of Greece--
Nemesis of Persia?
1. Legally deposed Amyntas
a) Started as regent
b) Declared king by customary acclamation of the army
c) Amyntas still alive in 336
2. Philip started by groveling in the dust--until he found his gun.
a) Bardylis was old and did not press his advantage--Philip may
have hinted at a marriage alliance. The sources are unclear.
b) Philip simply bought off the Paeonians
c) Athenians had advanced as far as Methone
(1) Philip agreed to pull brother Alexander's garrison out of
Amphipolis
(2) Athenians abandoned Argeus, who got as far as Aigiai
(3) Philip pulverized Argeus, took prisoner some Athenian
"advisors"
(4) Returned the prisoners & made nice
(5) Declared Amphipolis autonomous
d) Somehow or other Philip split Pausanias and the Thracians
3. Philip needed money to rebuild his kingdom
a) He encouraged Thasian miners to settle on Mt. Pangaeus on his
Eastern frontier--Crenides became the fortress of Philippi
b) He moved on Amphipolis and bought his way into the city--after
nearly storming it
(1) Amphipolis offered a foothold for the Athenians
(2) Amphipolis had, in fact, asked Athens for help
(3) Amphipolis was too close to the gold mines.
(4) Philip again took Athenian prisoners, again returned
them.
c) Issuing the "Philippic" gold coins from an income estimated at
1000 talents=6000 drachma/year
d) New wealth, new regieme--Philip shifts capital from
Aigiai/Vergina to Pella (kings still buried at Vergina)
4. Having bought time, Philip proceeded to buy other things
a) He led off by purchasing Amphipolis--for the rest of his life he'd
say that a bag of gold on a little donkey's back was his most
effective siege weapon
b) Speaking of Siege Weapons, (more later), he had money enough
to hire the best military engineers availible--Dionysius I and the
Siege of Motya, wars with Carthage in 394.
c) The assorted Greek states had been fighting more or less
continuously since the 450's--retired veterans around to be hired
to drill the Macedonian farm boys
5. Philip's reforms of the Army
a) Previous kings had relied upon the nobles and their reinues to
form the main, still prestige arm of the Macedonian army--the
Hetairoi, companion cavalry.
b) Philip used his gold to hire and support a professional corps for
his own infantry--the pezhetairoi. The levy en masse could be
martialed with veteran rankers into the Phalanx, while the
professionals filled in the chinks (hypastpists, Philip's bodyguard)
c) Nobels not as grouchy as might be
(1) Army won, now, which beat being slaughtered by Illyrians
(2) What were the nobles to do about it if they objected.
d) Macedonia is going to burst through the borders--in all directions
D. Breaking the Boundaries--Philip's Earliest Campaigns
1. Athens in the North and Amphipolis--But Athens had her own
problems.
a) Social War of 356
(1) After Tissaphernes, Native Carian dynasts had replaced
Persian Satraps
(2) Mausolus wanted Rhodes, Cos, and Chios, but they were
Athenian allies
(3) Rhodes had oligarchs who wanted to throw off (cleruchs
on Samos) Athenians, coup, Mausolus finances fleet
(4) Allies defeat Athenians at Chios (kill Chabrias), Samos
(fleet action
(5) Chares ends up raiding (successfully!) Asia Minor (355) to
pay for his war BUT
(6) That angers Great King, Athens pulls back, and Philip
gets Amphipolis
b) Affairs in Greece Wildly Unstable
E. The Greek curse revisted: The Horrible 4th Century
1. Historiagraphical note: European distaste for the period, lack
of a Thucydides, loss of Theopompous and Oxhyrhynchus
Historian
2. Rise of Thebes
a) Phoebidas had seized the Theban Cadmaea in 382, violating the
King's Peace.
(1) Sparta began to advance to the North, forced the
dissolution of Chalcidean League (as noted) in 379
(2) Agesilaius going around forcing cities to adopt pro-
Spartan governments
b) Spartan puppets in Thebes cruel rulers
c) Pelopidas and associates plot and stage successful coup (The plot
drags on...), 379/8
d) Thebans and Athenian volunteers re-capture Cadmaea
e) Sphodrias in retaliation launches disastrous raid on Attica (life of
Agesilaius)--Athens had court-martialed officers responsible
f) Athenian alliance with militant Thebes, Jason of Pherae
3. Disastrous Spartan counterattacks
a) Badly-led invasions of Boetia in 378,377
b) Spartan naval effort to starve Athens again (people always re-
fight the last war) wiped out at Naxos, 376
c) Athenian/Theban cooperation collapses as resources began to
show strain
d) Spartans launch attack on Corcyra (foe of Allied Corinth), blow
it, in 374
e) Attempted settlement of war in 371
(1) Peace sworn as oath
(2) Athens swears
(3) Sparta swears
(4) Thebans not allowed to--Epaminondas's argument of
Boetian League=Laconian towns
4. Thebes allies with Jason of Pherae against Sparta
a) Phocis had been the cork in Thessaly's bottle
b) Alliance with Thebes flanked Phocis, and was building fleet
c) Spartan invasion in July of 371 defeated at Leuctra by
Epaminondas, 10,000 Spartans vs. 6000
(1) Epaminondas massed his hoplites 50 deep on the left flank
(2) Spartans twelve deep broke, line penetrated
(3) "The Trophy," Cleombrotus killed--end of Spartan
tradition of victory
(4) Jason arrives having darted through Phocians, dismantles
Heraclear fortress at Thermopyle, forces a peace.
(5) Jason's plan to move South & seize Delphi forestalled by
his 370 assassination.
d) Athens terrified by the prospect of a strong Thebes--even older
enemy than Sparta
5. Thebes moves to keep Sparta down
a) Reconstruction of Mantinea (destroyed in P.W.)--heavily fortified
b) Megalopolis built in Arcadia to unite scattered Arcadian villagers
c) Epaminondas invades Sparta in 370, and isn't all that determined
to take the city
d) Messenia refounded--helot refuge, resurrection of Sparta's oldest
and bitterest enemy.
e) Athens tries to support Sparta in 369--too late
f) Theban alliance not firm--Arcadians defeated seperately in 369
g) Thebans seize Oropos, Athens support Arcadian confederation,
Corinth frightened into neutrality
6. Thebes moves to secure northern frontier
a) Pelopidas in Thessaly, 369
b) Pelopidas and the deal with Cleopatra and Ptolemy in 368
c) Alexander of Pherae now threat--allies with Athens, seizes
Pelopidas, Epaminondas's rescue in 368.
d) Athens attacks in the north in 364-2--Thebes builds fleet, beats
Alexander, razes old enemy Orchomenus
7. Resurrection of Old States leads to resurrection of old Feuds
a) Arcadians capture Olympia from Elis, stage own games in 364
b) Arcadian, Argive, and Athenian troops repel Elean assualt on the
games in the very stands=NOTHING is sacred
c) Thebans attempt to keep Arcadian confederation from Spartan
alliance, Epaminondas nearly takes Sparta and dies defeating
Athenian/Arcadian/Spartan army (Leuctra tactics) at Mantinea in
362.
8. Thebes moves against Phocis (another old enemy) with the
Amphictyonic League--council to protect shrine of Delphi
a) Phocians hire mercenaries with Spartan support and seize Delphi
in 356
b) Impiety becomes strategic weapon--money for mercenaries
(eventually 10,000)
c) Philomelus uses frightened priestess as divine sanction
d) Philomelus killed in 354 vs. Spartan/Locrian army
e) Onomarchus takes over, Phocians strongest in 353-2
9. Philip seizes his chance
a) Lycophron of Pherae allied with Phocis
b) Thessalians, revolted, elected Philip tagos
c) Philip moves south, DEFEATED by something else Onomarchus
had bought--artillery!
d) "Battering Ram" response--Philip destroys Onomarchus's army
around 353, seizes Thessaly, gets ready to move South.
e) Athenians, Spartans help defend Thermopylae