| |
 PHILIP
II (359-336 B.C.)
Philip II of Macedonia ruled from 359-336 B.C.
Without the military and political efforts of Philip, Alexander would
never have been as successful as he was.
Philip came to power in 359 B.C. after the Macedonians had just suffered
a defeat at the hands of the Illyrians. Macedonia was in political and
military turmoil, and Philip immediately set about bringing the people
of Macedonia under his control. After exacting revenge on the Illyrians
by defeating them in 358 B.C., Philip sought to bring all of Upper
Macedonia under his control and make them loyal to him. His primary
method of creating alliances and strengthening loyalties was through
marriage. The most important marriage for Philip was to Olympia, from
the royal house of Molossia. By 357 B.C., they were married, and she
gave birth to Alexander the next year.
Philip had several political and military
innovations that helped make Macedonia the power that it was at the time
of his assassination in 336 B.C. Philip increased the size of the group
of Royal Companions, the hetairoi, giving more people positions
of power and more of a sense of belonging to the kingdom. He is also
credited with beginning the practice of allowing the sons of nobles to
receive education in the court of the king. Here the sons would not only
develop a fierce loyalty for the king, but it was also a way for Philip
to, in a sense, hold the children hostage to keep their parents from
interfering with his authority.
Philip's military zenith was at the battle at Chaeronea in August of 338
B.C.. Philip's army was greatly outnumbered by the Athenian and Theban
forces, yet his phalanxes overwhelmed the Athenians and Thebans. Athens
and Thebes were forced to become subjects of Philip and Macedonia,
leaving Sparta as the only Greek state not under Macedonian control.
At the Council at Corinth the next year, Philip outlined his system for
ruling the Greek states. He gave freedom and autonomy to all the
political parties in each state, yet established a network of
bureaucracies that would be stable and loyal to Philip. Then, with the
support of all Greece, Philip declared war on Persia to retaliate for
the Persian invasion of Greece several generations before. In the spring
of 336 B.C.E., Philip sent Attalus and Parmenion with 10,000 troops over
into Asia Minor to begin liberating Greek cities along the coast. Just
before Philip himself was to travel to Asia to begin the conquest, he
was assassinated.
Assassination of
Philip
According to the ancient source Diodorus,
Philip was hosting a massive banquet as a going away party before he
left for Asia. Leading the procession into the theater on the second
day, were thirteen statues, twelve of the Olympian gods and one of
Philip. Philip wanted his march into the theater to be triumphant, and
so he asked his bodyguards to stand back and out of the way to show to
his people that he had nothing to fear. At that very moment, however, a
man named Pausanias rushed forward from the crowd and stuck a dagger in
Philip's chest. During his escape, Pausanias tripped and fell and was
killed on the spot.
Pausanias had sought revenge from Philip
because apparently he, the king, and another man named Pausanias were
involved in a love triangle. The first Pausanias was a handsome
bodyguard of Philip's, whom Philip enjoyed very much. Soon the second
Pausanias seemed to replace the first as a favorite of the king's. The
first Pausanias called the second one a whore, and, with his pride
wounded, the second Pausanias gave his life up for the king by taking
blows meant for Philip in a battle with the Illyrians.
The first Pausanias now felt slighted because
he believed that Philip still liked the dead Pausanias. To ease his
pain, Attalus, a close friend of the king and leader of the upcoming
invasion of Asia, got Pausanias drunk and then let several stable boys
rape him. Philip liked Attalus too much to punish him, and instead gave
Pausanias a promotion to a higher position as bodyguard to placate him.
Doubly slighted, Pausanias plotted to kill Philip in the manner
mentioned above.
Innovations of Philip
Were it not for the innovations of Philip, the Macedonian army would
have had a heck of a time conquering an entire continent.
Philip's military innovations created the
fighting power that Alexander inherited, making it a force to be
reckoned with. Philip introduced the 12 cubit (6 meter) sarissa,
a wooden pike with metal tip, for use by his infantry in the phalanx.
The sarissa, when held upright by the rear rows of the phalanx
(there were usually eight rows), helped hide maneuvers behind the
phalanx from the view of the enemy. When held horizontal by the front
rows of the phalanx, it was a rather brutal weapon. People could be run
through from 20 feet away, giving quite an advantage to the phalanx in
hand-to-hand combat.
Philip made the military a way of life for many
Macedonian men. In the past, soldiering had only been a part-time job,
something the men would do during the off peak times of farming. When
the fighting season ended at the start of the harvest, the men would
return to the farms. Philip made the military an occupation that paid
well enough that the soldiers could afford to do it year-round.
By making the military a full-time occupation,
Philip was able to drill his men regularly, building unity and cohesion
within the army. Alexander fought with the finest military machine that
Asia or Greece had ever seen, primarily because of the amount of time
and effort spent on maneuvers.
In addition to the basic phalanx, Philip and
Alexander used light auxiliaries, archers, a siege train, and a cavalry.
With all of these working well together, both Philip and Alexander
rarely, if ever, lost any battle.
Back To Index
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
