Culture

Philip II was born in 382 BC. in Pella, he was the third son of the king of Macedonia Amyntas III and Eurydice, daughter of Sirra (son-in-law of the king of Lygistida Arravaeus AD) and the most powerful and prominent Greek of his time. With a series of fundamental reforms in the whole structure of his kingdom he managed to enter the forefront of Greek affairs in the middle of the 4th century BC. After radically reorganizing his army, introducing, among other things, the sarissa, and devising new tactics for the phalanx of hoplites. According to Arrian, he copied from the Thracians and adopted the triangular formation for the attacks of the Macedonian cavalry. The reborn army then achieved its first victories, definitively thwarting the predatory raids of the Balkan people surrounding Macedonia and launching lightning offensive operations against its northern, western and eastern neighbors. He thus created a large state on the peninsula of Aimos with relations of alliance, subordination or subordination with the following people: Illyrians, Paeonians, Trivalles, Thracians, Ghettos, Scythians.

During the Third Holy War (355-352 BC) he clashed with the rising force of Phocis and the tyrant of Ferron, and despite his initial failures he managed to defeat them at the battle of Krokio Pedio in 352 BC. ., achieving at the same time two other victories in the military and diplomatic field: the submission of Thessaly to Macedonia (hence the integration of the famous Thessalian cavalry in its army) and the acceptance of Macedonia as a member of the Amphitheater Congress of Delphi, thus promoting Macedonia as a protagonist force of stability in Greek things. But only in 338 BC, after the battle of Chaeronia with particular cruelty, Philip managed to unite the Greeks. In this battle, Philip together with Alexander, who commanded a part of the army, faced the coalition of Athenians, Thebans and almost all the southern Greeks and defeated them.

Then, with the conference of Corinth, he united the Greeks politically, except for Sparta, which chose isolation and constant confrontation with the Macedonians, and neutral Crete. Philip, having expelled his first wife and mother of Alexander, Olympias, married a Macedonian princess, Cleopatra, niece of Attalus. At the wedding party, Attalos wishes the couple a quick legal successor (indirectly calling Alexander illegitimate). Alexander empties his glass in the face of Attalus and a terrible quarrel breaks out. Philip, drunk, draws his sword, but stumbles and falls down. Alexander comments "see the man who wants to go to Asia and can not go over a table".

Olympias and Alexander take refuge in her father's house in Epirus. Alexander's departure thwarts Philip, who cannot campaign without a regent. Alexander later returned and Philip resumed his plans, sending in June 336 BC. in the Hellespont to Attalus and Parmenion with 10,000 armies, to prepare the campaign. He then organized the celebration for the wedding of Cleopatra's daughter with the king of the Molossians, Alexander I, at the theater of Aigai. According to Diodorus, in a show of strength, Philip entered the theater without his guard. But then he was killed by one of his most trusted bodyguards, Pausanias. Pausanias was killed a few minutes later by his pursuers - Leonnato along with Perdiccas.

Alexander, with the support of Antipatros, who was acting regent, was proclaimed a new king by the army. The motives and moral perpetrators of the murder were not disclosed. But it seems that she had accomplices, which raises suspicions either to the Persians, who wanted to prevent the invasion of their state, or to Olympias, who felt humiliated, because Philip had divorced her for a younger and niece of General Attalus. But they could be some of Philip's internal opponents in Macedonia and the rest of Greece.