The Greeks Were on the Wrong End of all This--but, fortunately? Philip was not going to turn his back on powerful enemies.
First of all the Athenians (allies of Phocis, anyway)--Philip builds a navy
He announces it when he captures an Atheniangrain convoy off the Hellespont in the absence of its escorts in 353
Raids as far south as Euboea, the Attic coast
Philip attacks Cersobleptes of Thrace
Siege of Heraion Teichos, but Philip falls ill and it all starts to totter
Demosthenes (b. 384) begins his political career warning people of Philip's intentions
Thrace ends up paying tribute
Philip reduces the Chalcidean League
Initially allied with him against Athens
Philip gives them two cities, then they join with Athens
Splat--Philip conquers League cities one by one, Olynthus last
Demosthenes' Olynthiacs, and Mercenary army dispatched too late
Thrace revolts
Philip stirs up revolt on Euboea, Athens divides forces and sends Phocion, but loses on both fronts
Olynthus falls, city destroyed (348)(the Archaeologists, at least, are grateful!)
Greeks enslaved and sold throughout Greece
Tri-foil boltheads marked "Philippou" found at site
Athens tries to rally Peloponnesian Greeks against Philip but ends up agreeing to Peace of Philocrates in 346
Phocians exempted, Philip allowed Thracian forts (for the next round)
Athens got peace, Philip got everything he'd taken
Divide and Conquer--the Athenians sacrificed their alliance with Phocis, Philip bought off the Thebans with a few cities
Philip ended up with Phocis's seats on the Amphictyonic Council (board that superintended Delphi) and a foothold in Southern Greece
From 345-342 both sides garnered allies
Philip consolidated his links with the Euboean Oligarchs
Athens did get Megara and Chalcis but
Who was hurting who more?
From 342-341 Philip settles Thrace permanently, founded Philippopolis (Plovidiv) to control the province
Demosthenes and Athens got scared, effective
The Athenians captured Philip's allied cities on Euboea
Athenian admiral Diopeithes raided Philip's holdings in Thrace, and Philip's ally, Cardia
Byzantium and Perinthus were convinced to revolt against Philip
Philip's War machine grinds to a halt against Perinthus and Byzantium
Perinthus--the Wedding Cake from Hell
Byzantium resupplied by the Persians (Again!) and Athens
Athens rejuvenates her navy
Thrace revolts AGAIN--Philip wounded in leg
THAT did it--Philip crashes through Thermopyle in 341
Athenian navy helpless
Philip had won a nasty little round of council diplomacy at the Amphictyonic council and had a religious excuse to march South as of 339--Athens & Thebes ally Amphissa had profaned Delphi
The only good thing was that the Thebans and Athenians were first driven into each other's arms and then into an onrushing train...
Philip took Amphissa in Spring of 338--the city Philip had gotten as his "sacred" target
Athenians and Thebans failed to get to the other passes before Philip's "blitzkrieg" (Lightning war) did
Outflanked, Thebans and Athenians made their last stand at Charonea
SHOWDOWN:
Battle fought on August 7, 338 B.C.
Theban Forces:
Epaminondas' Army--trained in his tactics, the force that had (33 years ago) beaten Sparta
The Sacred Band--500 pairs of lovers, forbidden to retreat
Lesser allies: Corinthians, Achaeans, (surviving) Phocians
Athens--and Demosthenes, finally putting his body where his mouth was
Macedonia: The Sum of Philip's Horrors
Extreme Left--heavy companion cavalry under the command of the Crown Prince
Next to that, aimed squarely at the Thebans, the Phalanx
Right wing, other infantry, Hypaspists facing the Athenians and "refused"--retreating before them: "On to Macedonia! (Richmond!)
Right wing kept the Athenians too busy to notice what the Cavalry and the Phalanx had done to the Thebans
Thebans crushed by cavalry charge, Sacred Band wiped out (by Cavalry. (Plutarch) A stone lion stands above their (excavated) common grave
Hypaspists take the Athenians in the Rear, Demosthenes breaks the world record for the 500 meter dash--Athenian epitaph: "Only the gods are assured of success."
Philip allows the Greeks to retreat--why?
Thebes
Loses the Boetian League--back to square one
Plataea, Orchomenus rebuilt
Macedonian garrison in the Cadmeia vs.
Athens busily engaged in digging the last ditch
Long Walls Previously rebuilt
Hellespont closed, but Persians would probably have sent food from Egypt
In other words--the Iron Triangle
Philip sends ashes back in honor, Crown Prince and Parmenio to carry them, restores P.O.W's--Maybe that was the best way to get Athens out of the war?
Worked--citizenship, statue
Philip founds the League of Corinth--it's hard to shear a dead sheep
All states to send delegates to conclude a koine irene, common peace--in other words, you're either part of the solution or part of the problem
Sparta refuses
Gets attacked by Macedonians; Argives and Messenians
All disputed borders go to the other party
Philip lays out his diagramma and puts it up for a vote--or else
Wilcken--League of Nations style optimist
Rice--saw The Godfather, and knows about offers you can't refuse
Philip aimable and charming--flattery also a weapon in his arsenal
Delegates talked for months
Delegates did exactly what he wanted them to.
Structure of the League--a Greek Federated Puppet State
Permanent alliance--no end in sight
Synhedrion of the Greek states, sending Synhedrioi (explain)
Meets at Panhellenic festivals--saves trouble
Permanent council for day-to-day stuff
Bill of Rights--as is typical, ignored
Greek states to be free to do what Philip told them to
Exempt from Interference in their domestic affairs
Phililip's garrisons stayed just where they were
Alexander's Exiles decree of 324
And worse...
Macedonia not in as Greek state, not Greek!
Philip, however (Argead) is...
Synhedrion decides what to do...
Philip, however, does it as Hegemon and commander in Chief
And so Philip gets access to the manpower of the associated Greek states without the trouble of having to conquer them all
To show you how beloved this "First Greek Federation" wasn't...
It fell apart when Philip died
It fell apart when Alexander died
Demetrius I tried to set ip up again in 307...
It fell apart in 305
Who's the Crown Prince? FINALLY, I give you--Alexander the Great
Philip and Olympias--a Loathe Story
Met at Samothrace (East of Macedonia), Philip on the rebound from the death of his first two wives--he was about 20
She was an orphan, sister of the King of Epirus, Arybbas/Aelxander, who'd just done his own job of uniting a Northern Kingdom.
Epirotes--less Greek than Macedonians, more savage--as witnessed by
Olympias's violent character: As a girl, she was into wild partying (bacchic revels
Punk Rock (Orphism)
Snakes--they do/did (?) have rather large, tame snakes in that part of the world in those days
Greeks and Romans had a much higher opinion of snakes than we do
Snakes (earth-wise) were favored manifestations of Zeus, Dionysius, and as such--capable of impregnating a human female
Speaking of which...
Supposedly Philip caught Olympias in flagrante with a snake in her bed, which cooled things off between them
It's bad enough being cuckolded by your own species!
Who needs THAT kind of hangup?
Not that Philip wasn't a swinger himself
Married six times in all
Embraced Polygamy and nearly everything else sexually active within a 500 yard radius when he wanted to--as much of it as he could get, from whereever he could get it
Philip's remark on the Sacred Band, reconsidered in the light of his own past
Olympias did have a verifiably savage temper
She was accused of poisoning Philip's first son, Philip IV Arridhaeus, and so turning him into an idiot
She certainly killed him and dozens of other people, horribly, when she got the chance
She seems to have been successful in turning Alexander against his father, possibly with stories of Philip's debaucheries and his mother Cleopatra's goings on.
As someone once put it, "The only woman Alexander ever seems to have truly loved was his terrible mother."
A great deal of Alexander's dislike of Philip might have come from Philip's own unfaithfulness (he was the only one who got to sleep around!) which imperiled Olympias's position at court--she wasn't popular
Alexander's letters to Olympias survived for some time
He sent her the pick of the spoils from the Persian camp after the Granicus (334)
He ordered Antipater to (quite literally) let her get away with murder--mother's tears quote
Lifelong affection for older women
Timoclea at Thebes, but the only way to get good press out of that
Ada
Foster mother, cookies, etc.
BUT also queen of Matriarchal Caria and in possession of its strongest fortress
Darius's Mother
Treated her kindly after Issus--Darius not dead
When he was, sent her the body for a proper funeral
Role of the Queen-Mother at the Persian Court: Wife of a god
She could tell him a great deal about the Persian Empire
The Birth of a Hero--with appropriate portents
The assorted dreams--Thunderbolt, seal, the snake
Alexander's Birthday--6th Hecatombeon, 7/20/356
Temple of Ephesus (7 Wonders)burned down by a lunatic who wanted to be eternally famous--I won't tell you his name (mention, however, that bastard Wilkes Booth)
Philip took Potidea
Parmenio had beaten the Illyrians
Philip's chariot team had won at Olympia
Did this come from the event? Could be!
Alexander at Siwa, hailed as either
Pharoah, always the son of Amun-Ra
O paidion/O pai diou
Or?
Alexander seems to have believed that Zeus was his father, and wanted others to believe it
Olympias didn't ("Would Alexander stop making Hera jealous of me!")
The Army and his generals didn't
Lettter to Athenians: "So-called father"
If Zeus is your father, than why did YOU get Philip's Army?
They and Alexander had seen him bleed
Philip wasn't around to be asked, although there was the myth about why he'd lost his eye...
Hence the myths/rationalizations, etc., including Plutarch's
Philip's Own Actions Show a sincere and profound affection for the boy
Story of Bucephalus (13 T! GAD!--"Bull's Head" breed in Thessaly) But who bought Alexander the horse?
Alexander's Upbringing--the best that money could buy
Mother's relative Leonidas (named after Spartan hero of Thermopyle) put the boy under military discipline
"Best Cook"--used to send him on night marched in full field kit before a light breakfast, so he'd have a good appetite for dinner
Used to search through his things for goodies Olympias might have tried to slip him
Rode him constantly--the frankincense and myrrh jibe and Alexander's affectionate (?!) revenge--13 tons of the stuff
Alexander always seems to have kept himself in training and to have lived hard.
Lysimachus--neither polished nor educated BUT
He knew how to appeal to a boy's imagination. Philp was Peleus, Alexander was Achilles (to whom PHILIP was not related), and he was Phoenix
Alexander's refusal to desert Lysimachus in Arabia (and vice-versa), leading to the night attack on the Arabian camp
Philip noticed that Alexander responded more readily to persuasion than force--he'd been keeping track--and so Alexander got the best of the best for his"music" (explain) teacher--Aristotle
End as of 2/14/95