End as of 2/14/95
Philip had destroyed Stagira during his war on the Olynthian League, but he restored it and repopulated it
Philip gave Aristotle the pleasant shrine at Mieza for his instruction, stone benches, shady paths, etc.
Alexander always said that he he loved Aristotle more than he loved his father: "the one had given him life, the other taught him to live well."
In 340, Philip left 16 year old Alexander in charge of Macedonia while he attacked Byzantium
,Entrusted him with the royal seal, which gave him the authority to issue orders
Alexander issued them--conquered the Maedi in the NE and founder Alexandropolis (cf. Phillipopolis)
Alexander, however seems to have continued to share his mother's insecurity over his place at court:
The Quarrel:
Philip had the hots for another Cleopatra, whom he was going to marry in 337.
At an all-nighter held to celebrate it, her uncle, Attalus, toasted the idea the marriage would provide a LEGITIMATE heir to the throne.
Alexander's reaction to the charge against his legitmacy and status--the wine cup
Philip's reaction--the sword and the floor
Alexander's remark about the would-be conqueror of Asia
Olympias to Epirus; Alexander to Illyria--think about that!
Demaratus's intervention and the reconciliation
Olympias and his friends make Alexander try to intervene in his father's foreign policy
Pixodarus of Caria tries to marry his eldest daughter to Arrhidaeus
Philip needs the foothold for the invasion BUT
Olympias says that Philip is settling on Arridhaeus as his heir--he DOES, note, end up as King
Alexander gets Thessalus the tragic actor to suggest himself
Philip (understandably--explain why) hits the roof, chews out Al, banishes Harpalus, Nearchus, Erygius and Ptolemy
Olympias and Alexander's anxiety is fortunately ended in the following year...
Philip II bites the Big One--with considerable help
On the Final Aims of Philip II--What was he to do now?
Philip has the league of Corinth elect him strategos autokrator, not just the hegemon, but hegemon with absolute powers necessary for the Persian War, which is going to be a major effort
The old traditional view--Philip just wanted Asia Minor
Fredricksmeyer's Correct View
If the Persians couldn't stop you in Asia Minor, they probably couldn't stop you anywhere in the Empire--witness the 10,000, Agesilaius, and Cimon's raids in the 4th Century
If you did leave the empire intact, it would keep attacking you as soon as it recovered its breath.
The decapitated monster--if you could overthrow the Great King, all but the Persians themselves would be loyal more to the institution than to the man himself
Isocrates had urged it in his letter of 346
Delphi: Philip asks if he shall conquer the Persian King
"The Bull stands ready, wreathed for sacrifice"
Speaking of Sacrifice. . .
Philip's last invention--deification of the King
The Heroes of Greek Mythology
Apotheosis--Heracles, and the Two Ghosts in Homer
Meaning of Hero: King Conscerated to Hera
Divine Intercession or the Friendly Ghost--either way you got what you wanted
Worship of the Oikistes of a colonized city
Hagnon the Athenian Worshipped at Amphipolis
Then replaced by Brasidas after Amphipolis revolted from Athens in 424
Timoleon recieved hero/oikistes honors after his death in Syracuse in the 330's
Lysander, the Spartan general, actually was _honored_ as a god--altars set up and sacrifice made, Samos renaming festival of Hera the Lysandriea, hymns sung to him
Dion dictator of Syracuse in 357--sacrifices, liquid libations (as those given to heroes) and actual prayers and oaths sworn
Isocrates' Remark to Philip II after Chaeronea: Having united Greece, and defeated Persia, the only thing left you would be to become a God.(Ep. 3.5)
Political reasons--uniting the Greeks behind him as they had (briefly) coalesced behind Lysander
Still aimed at Persia--Persian tradition of deifying their DEAD king, Philip's ordering of a temple for his own family cult at Olympia.
Ruins found--Circular temple, not a hero's shrine
Philip's chrysoelephantine statue in the center to be surrounded by his descendants
Propaganda--Image of himself as the Hero and, coincidentally, his claimed descent from Heracles
Middle-Age Angst? (Philip was 46) When you start to feel yourself getting old, you begin to wonder about what it all means/has meant.
Aristotle Pol. 3.13.1248a: Men so clearly beyond their fellows in ability and virtue, like gods among men, cannot be bound by laws meant for lesser individuals--the guy is his kid's tutor!
Putting it all into practice--the Marriage of Cleopatra (Alexander's sister) and Alexander of Epirus at Pella in late summer, 336.
Parmenio and Attalus had previously been sent into Asia Minor to secure a foothold for the main army.
Memnon had given them considerable trouble, but they had secured their lodgement
Alexander was Cleopatra's uncle (Yecch!) and Olympias's brother
Possibly a nice gesture towards Olympias's family
Possibly a move to keep Epirus quiet while Philip was in Asia
Part of the wedding festival was a pageant asking the gods' aid for the upcoming war
Twelve Statues to be carried in (NO 13th!), and then Philip's
Was there going to be a divine sacrifice to him?
Well, SOMEBODY got the knife!
The Actual Assassination and the Aftermath
The circumstances--Philip was walking into the theatre where the pageant was taking place (we have found it), standing in between Alexander the son and Alexander of Epirus
Pausanias was a ranking member of his bodyguard, stationed in the first rank of the _Agema_.
Pausanias came up behind Philip with a Celtic dagger and stabbed him fatally, than ran past him into the theatre and toward waiting horses. . .
As he ran, he stumbled, and three of the other bodyguard, right behind him, stabbed him to death where he lay.
Aristotle gives the official Macedonian government's verdict on the assassination: Pausanias was a lone daggerman, acting out his personal hatred for Philip II.
The EXTREMELY sordid facts
Pausanias (II) and Pausanias (I)--the assassin, were pages at Philip's court, receiving education/indoctrination where they could be under close supervision
Pederasty was yet another of Philip's pecadilloes, but Pausanias I soon found his place in Philip's bed taken by Pausanias II.
Pausanias I proceeded to insult the masculinity and the morals of Pausanias II, a protege of Philip's newest father-in-law, Attalus
Pausanias II showed how brave and how masculine he was by getting himself killed in action at the first opportunity, taking all the blows meant for Philip in the next skirmish with the Illyrians.
Attalus, some time later, invited Pausanias I to dinner, got him drunk, and then had him taken out and gang-raped by the Stableboys.
This was all a bit too much for Philip, who gave Pausanias sympathy but absolutely nothing else when Pausanias asked him to take vengeance upon his new relative.
The next thing we hear about Pausanias, he's stabbed Philip in the back--case (and investigation) closed.
EXCEPT: Horses?
Riding in relays? Unlikely--he'd have left them along the road if that was his plan.
CONSPIRACY THEORY ONE: Alexander's!
The PERSIANS had murdered his father and supplied Pausanias with encouragement and a refuge
There was a precedent: The Persians do seem to have had something to do with the murder of Jason of Pherae in 370
Consequently, Alexander took command of the investigation and killed whom he pleased and silenced what he didn't want heard.
Still. . .CONSPIRACY THEORY TWO: Philip was the victim of Serbian Nationalism! This is a modern theory--Gavrilo Princep and Archduke Ferdinand, WWI.
Pausanias I was a native of Orestis, a recently-conquered district on the Western side of Macedonia, near the Illyrian border
It gets better--at least two of the bodyguards who overtook and killed Pausanias were from Orestis themselves!
Were they all in on it, hence the horses, but the others took the easy way out and silenced Pausanias?
CONSPIRACY THEORY THREE: (Ancient) Olympias had done it.
She certainly hated the very ground upon which Philip II had trod.(motive)
She was certainly close at hand when Pausanias was sleeping with Philip, and would have had plenty of time to incite the young man to murder and a "ride away together" to Epirus (opportunity)
Once Philip was safely dead, she proceeded to murder Cleopatra and her infant daughter rather horribly (benefit):
One account has her killing the baby in her mother's lap and forcing Cleopatra to hang herself
Another has her (Paus. 7.7) roasting them both to death on a brazier.
Plutarch: Alexander "showed" his anger.
Historical Line: This is a slander by Olympias's enemies at court, but who would dare accuse the Queen Mother to her intensely devoted son? Which brings us to...
CONSPIRACY THEORY FOUR: Alexander did it.
Fundamental question of every murder investigation: Cui Bono? Alexander inherited Philip's kingdom, army, and goal.
Alexander's remarks:
Plutarch: "My father will leave nothing for me to do," particularly if he conquers Persia, and Alexander was soldier enough to know that Philip could.
To Pausanias I: "The bride, the bridegroom, and the father all at once," what Euripedes Medea (Euripedes was at his grandfather's court!) had said when plotting her own revenge--Alexander implying that Pau sanias should kill Attalus and Cleopatra as well as Philip
Whose ends did blaming the thing on Persia serve?
Alexander's--making his war to avenge the Greek temples now a war to avenge his father: "this time, it's personal."
Alexander's--what better place to be a murderer than in charge of the murder investigation?
The evidence: Not only were two of those who killed Pausanias Orestrians, but ALL of them were very close friends of Alexander.
"Have I avenged my father's death?" "Do not speak of your father's death, my son, for he is not mortal." Hmm. Could involve deification, that.
And now is as good a place as any to treat the subject of the royal tombs at Vergina
In 1985, Andronicus, a member of the Greek Archaeological service announced that he had found the royal tombs of the Macedonian Kings
Philip had shifted the capital to Pella, but the burials continued to take place at the old site of Aigiai
Remember what I said about the legacy of Howard Carter! One of the 4 tombs (Tomb II) discovered had an uncanny resemblance to Tutankhamun's! It had been partially looted, but a great deal of amazing mater ial was intact
Carved ivory heads, one of them definitely Alexander's, another showing a bearded man with one eye
A beautiful gold-inlaid cloak, fallen to pieces, but reconstructed
A wreathe of oak leaves (gift from Epirus?) made of beautifully crafted beaten gold
Best of all: A gold cinerary box with the Macedonian star on the lid and BONES inside!
Beautiful arched ceiling--Fredricksmeyer got into a full-scale war with another scholar for proving that arched ceilings WERE traditionally used for underground construction, if almost never (at this time
Nobody's (now, to my knowledge) arguing that this isn't a royal Macedonian tomb, BUT
No inscription--no date except by pottery, which is still unpublished.
Bones were found in the other tombs:
Tomb I held a grown man, a woman, and an infant: Philip II, Cleopatra, and Europa?
Tomb III contains an adolescent male--Alexander IV, murdered by Cassander in 310
This one, the largest, contains an older man and a woman--Philip III Arridhaeus and his wife? Murdered by Olympias and Cassander in 317
Arguments for this ID:
The large tomb could have been built for Alexander during his lifetime, but Ptolemy hijacked the corpse
Philip III would have been the next in line
Again, we know that Olympias had murdered Cleopatra and Europa before Philip's body had (figuratively) cooled, and that would explain a triple royal burial in Tomb I
Alexander could have been showing his wrath with Olympias in permitting the burial
Arguments for Tomb II:
'Ware jeolousy. Again, it's always the wrong tomb
The forensic reconstruction of the male's skull and bones:
The broken leg--Philip had a broken leg
The shattered eye-socket--Philip had a shattered eye socket
Person had suffered severe illness--
Philip had to abandon his campaign in Thrace because of same
The reconstruction of the skin layers--No good.
First of all, a great deal of that is arbitrary and depends upon what the researcher is looking for
Second of all, we don't really have any good pictures of Philip!
Reason I still have my doubts:
The bodies/tombs suggestions above are extremely compelling
The bones of the male in question were cremated, for Pete's sake! Anything could have happened to them in the process! (Warn students to have ashes milled if they ever scatter someone)
For all we know, Arridaeus stuck his thumb in his eye socket and "fell down a lot."
Once again, sit back and keep an open mind while you're waiting for more data.
End as of 2/21/95