Early history and legend , a
UNESCO World Heritage Site The
Classical Greek historians Herodotus and
Thucydides reported the
legend that the
Macedonian kings of the
Argead dynasty were descendants of
Temenus, king of
Argos, and could therefore claim the mythical
Heracles as one of their
ancestors as well as
a direct lineage from
Zeus, chief god of the
Greek pantheon. Contradictory legends state that either
Perdiccas I of Macedon or
Caranus of Macedon were the founders of the Argead dynasty, with either five or eight kings before AmyntasI. The assertion that the Argeads descended from Temenus was accepted by the
Hellanodikai authorities of the
Ancient Olympic Games, permitting
Alexander I of Macedon () to enter the competitions owing to his perceived Greek heritage. Little is known about the kingdom before the reign of AlexanderI's father
Amyntas I of Macedon () during the
Archaic period. Before the 4th centuryBC, the kingdom covered a region corresponding roughly to the
western and
central parts of the
region of Macedonia in modern
Greece. It gradually expanded into the regions of
Emathia,
Pieria,
Bottiaea,
Almopia,
Eordaea,
Mygdonia,
Crestonia, and
Bisaltia, which were inhabited by various peoples such as
Thracians and
Phrygians, and into the region of
Upper Macedonia, inhabited by the Greek tribes of
Lyncestae,
Orestae, and
Elimiotae. Macedonia's non-Greek neighbours included Thracians, inhabiting territories to the northeast,
Illyrians to the northwest, and
Paeonians to the north, while the lands of
Thessaly to the south and
Epirus to the west were inhabited by Greeks with similar cultures to that of the Macedonians.
of Alexander I of Macedon (), minted , showing an equestrian figure wearing a chlamys (short cloak) and petasos'' (head cap) while holding two spears and leading a horse A year after
Darius I of Persia () launched
an invasion into Europe against the
Scythians,
Paeonians,
Thracians, and several Greek city-states of the
Balkans, the Persian general
Megabazus used diplomacy to convince AmyntasI to submit as a
vassal of the
Achaemenid Empire, ushering in the period of
Achaemenid Macedonia. Achaemenid Persian
hegemony over Macedonia was briefly interrupted by the
Ionian Revolt (499–493BC), yet the Persian general
Mardonius brought it back under Achaemenid
suzerainty. Although Macedonia enjoyed a large degree of
autonomy and was never made a
satrapy (i.e. province) of the Achaemenid Empire, it was expected to provide troops for the
Achaemenid army. AlexanderI provided Macedonian military support to
Xerxes I () during the
Second Persian invasion of Greece in 480–479 BC, and Macedonian soldiers fought on the side of the Persians at the 479BC
Battle of Platea. Following the
Greek victory at Salamis in 480BC, AlexanderI was employed as an Achaemenid diplomat to propose a peace treaty and alliance with
Athens, an offer that was rejected. Soon afterwards, the Achaemenid forces were
forced to withdraw from mainland Europe, marking the end of Persian control over Macedonia.
Involvement in the Classical Greek world around 431BC, with
Athens and the
Delian League (yellow),
Sparta and
Peloponnesian League (red), independent states (blue), and the Persian
Achaemenid Empire (purple) Although initially a Persian vassal, AlexanderI of Macedon fostered friendly diplomatic relations with his former Greek enemies, the Athenian and
Spartan-led coalition of Greek city-states. His successor
PerdiccasII () led the Macedonians to war in four separate conflicts against Athens, leader of the
Delian League, while incursions by the Thracian ruler
Sitalces of the
Odrysian kingdom threatened Macedonia's
territorial integrity in the northeast. The Athenian statesman
Pericles promoted colonization of the
Strymon River near the Kingdom of Macedonia, where the colonial city of
Amphipolis was founded in 437/436BC so that it could provide Athens with a steady supply of silver and gold as well as
timber and
pitch to support the
Athenian navy. Initially Perdiccas II did not take any action and might have even welcomed the Athenians, as the Thracians were foes to both of them. Thus, two separate wars were fought against Athens between 433 and 431BC. After capturing the Macedonian cities
Therma and
Beroea, Athens besieged Potidaea but failed to overcome it; Therma was returned to Macedonia and much of Chalcidice to Athens in a
peace treaty brokered by Sitalces, who provided Athens with military aid in exchange for acquiring new Thracian allies. PerdiccasII sided
with Sparta in the
Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) between Athens and Sparta, and in 429 BC Athens retaliated by persuading Sitalces to invade Macedonia, but he was forced to retreat owing to a shortage of provisions in winter. In 424 BC,
Arrhabaeus, a local ruler of
Lynkestis in Upper Macedonia, rebelled against his
overlord Perdiccas, and the Spartans agreed to help in putting down the revolt. At the
Battle of Lyncestis the Macedonians panicked and fled before the fighting began, enraging the Spartan general
Brasidas, whose soldiers looted the unattended Macedonian
baggage train. Perdiccas then changed sides and supported Athens, and he was able to put down Arrhabaeus's revolt. minted during the reign of
Archelaus I of Macedon () Brasidas died in 422 BC, the year Athens and Sparta struck an accord, the
Peace of Nicias, that freed Macedonia from its obligations as an Athenian ally. Following the 418BC
Battle of Mantinea, the victorious Spartans formed an alliance with
Argos, a military pact PerdiccasII was keen to join given the threat of Spartan allies remaining in Chalcidice. When Argos suddenly switched sides as a pro-Athenian
democracy, the Athenian navy was able to form a
blockade against Macedonian
seaports and invade Chalcidice in 417BC. PerdiccasII sued for peace in 414BC, forming an alliance with Athens that was continued by his son and successor
ArchelausI (). Athens then provided naval support to ArchelausI in the 410BC Macedonian siege of
Pydna, in exchange for timber and naval equipment. Although Archelaus I was faced with some internal revolts and had to fend off an invasion of Illyrians led by
Sirras of Lynkestis, he was able to project Macedonian power into Thessaly where he sent military aid to his allies. Although he retained Aigai as a ceremonial and religious centre, ArchelausI moved the
capital of the kingdom north to
Pella, which was then positioned by a lake with a river connecting it to the
Aegean Sea. He improved Macedonia's
currency by minting
coins with a
higher silver content as well as issuing separate
copper coinage. His royal court attracted the presence of well-known intellectuals such as the Athenian
playwright Euripides. When ArchelausI was assassinated (perhaps following a
homosexual love affair with
royal pages at his court), the kingdom was plunged into chaos, in an era lasting from 399 to 393BC that included the reign of four different monarchs:
Orestes, son of ArchelausI;
AeropusII, uncle,
regent, and murderer of Orestes;
Pausanias, son of AeropusII; and
AmyntasII, who was married to the youngest daughter of ArchelausI. Very little is known about this turbulent period; it came to an end when
AmyntasIII (), son of Arrhidaeus and grandson of AmyntasI, killed Pausanias and claimed the Macedonian throne. '' of
Amyntas III of Macedon () Amyntas III was forced to flee his kingdom in either 393 or 383BC (based on conflicting accounts), owing to a massive invasion by the
Illyrians led by
Bardylis. The
pretender to the throne
Argaeus ruled in his absence, yet AmyntasIII eventually returned to his kingdom with the aid of Thessalian allies. AmyntasIII was also nearly overthrown by the forces of the Chalcidian city of
Olynthos, but with the aid of
Teleutias, brother of the Spartan king
Agesilaus II, the Macedonians forced Olynthos to surrender and dissolve their
Chalcidian League in 379BC.
Alexander II (), son of
EurydiceI and AmyntasIII, succeeded his father and immediately invaded Thessaly to wage war against the
tagus (supreme Thessalian military leader)
Alexander of Pherae, capturing the city of
Larissa. The Thessalians, desiring to remove both AlexanderII and Alexander of Pherae as their
overlords, appealed to
Pelopidas of
Thebes for aid; he succeeded in recapturing Larissa and, in the peace agreement arranged with Macedonia, received aristocratic
hostages including AlexanderII's brother and future king
PhilipII (). When Alexander was assassinated by his brother-in-law
Ptolemy of Aloros, the latter acted as an overbearing regent for
PerdiccasIII (), younger brother of AlexanderII, who eventually had Ptolemy executed when reaching the
age of majority in 365BC. The remainder of Perdiccas III's reign was marked by political stability and financial recovery. However, an Athenian invasion led by
Timotheus, son of
Conon, captured
Methone and Pydna, and an Illyrian invasion led by Bardylis succeeded in killing PerdiccasIII and 4,000 Macedonian troops in battle.
Rise of Macedon in 336BC (light blue), with the original territory that existed in 431BC (red outline), and
dependent states (yellow) Philip II was twenty-four years old when he acceded to the throne in 359BC. Through the use of deft diplomacy, he was able to convince the Thracians under
Berisades to cease their support of
Pausanias, a pretender to the throne, and the Athenians to halt their support of
another pretender. He achieved these by bribing the Thracians and their
Paeonian allies and establishing a treaty with Athens that relinquished his claims to Amphipolis. He was also able to make peace with the Illyrians who
had threatened his borders. Philip II spent his initial years radically transforming the
Macedonian army. A reform of its organization, equipment, and training, including the introduction of the
Macedonian phalanx armed with
long pikes (i.e. the
sarissa), proved immediately successful when tested against his Illyrian and Paeonian enemies. Confusing accounts in ancient sources have led modern scholars to debate how much PhilipII's royal predecessors may have contributed to these reforms and the extent to which his ideas were influenced by his
adolescent years of captivity in Thebes as a political hostage during the
Theban hegemony, especially after meeting with the general
Epaminondas. The Macedonians, like the other Greeks, traditionally practised
monogamy, but PhilipII practised
polygamy and married seven wives with
perhaps only one that did not involve the loyalty of his aristocratic subjects or new allies. His first marriages were to
Phila of Elimeia of the Upper Macedonian aristocracy as well as the Illyrian princess
Audata to ensure a marriage alliance. To establish an alliance with Larissa in Thessaly, he married the Thessalian noblewoman
Philinna in 358BC, who bore him a son who would later rule as
Philip III Arrhidaeus (). In 357BC, he married
Olympias to secure an alliance with
Arybbas, the
king of Epirus and the
Molossians. This marriage would bear a son who would later rule as AlexanderIII (better known as
Alexander the Great) and claim descent from the legendary
Achilles by way of his
dynastic heritage from Epirus. It is unclear whether or not the Achaemenid Persian kings influenced PhilipII's practice of polygamy, although his predecessor AmyntasIII had three sons with a possible second wife Gygaea: Archelaus, Arrhidaeus, and
Menelaus. PhilipII had Archelaus put to death in 359BC, while PhilipII's other two half brothers fled to Olynthos, serving as a
casus belli for the
Olynthian War (349–348BC) against the Chalcidian League. While Athens was preoccupied with the
Social War (357–355 BC), PhilipII retook Amphipolis from them in 357BC and the following year recaptured Pydna and Potidaea, the latter of which he handed over to the Chalcidian League as promised in a treaty. In 356BC, he took
Crenides, refounding it as
Philippi, while his general
Parmenion defeated the Illyrian king
Grabos II of the
Grabaei. During the 355–354BC siege of Methone, PhilipII lost his right eye to an arrow wound, but managed to capture the city and treated the inhabitants cordially, unlike the Potidaeans, who had been enslaved. Philip II then involved Macedonia in the
Third Sacred War (356–346BC). It began when
Phocis captured and plundered the temple of
Apollo at
Delphi instead of submitting unpaid fines, causing the
Amphictyonic League to declare war on Phocis and a
civil war among the members of the
Thessalian League aligned with either Phocis or Thebes. PhilipII's initial campaign against
Pherae in Thessaly in 353BC at the behest of Larissa ended in two disastrous defeats by the Phocian general
Onomarchus. PhilipII in turn defeated Onomarchus in 352BC at the
Battle of Crocus Field, which led to PhilipII's election as leader (
archon) of the Thessalian League, provided him a seat on the Amphictyonic Council, and allowed for a marriage alliance with Pherae by wedding
Nicesipolis, niece of the tyrant
Jason of Pherae. Philip II had some early involvement with the Achaemenid Empire, especially by supporting
satraps and mercenaries who rebelled against the central authority of the Achaemenid king. The satrap of
Hellespontine Phrygia Artabazos II, who was in rebellion against
Artaxerxes III, was able to take refuge as an exile at the Macedonian court from 352 to 342 BC. He was accompanied in exile by his family and by his mercenary general
Memnon of Rhodes.
Barsine, daughter of Artabazos, and future wife of Alexander the Great, grew up at the Macedonian court. Despite an Athenian intervention by
Charidemus, Olynthos was captured by PhilipII in 348BC, and its inhabitants were
sold into slavery, including some
Athenian citizens. The Athenians, especially in a series of speeches by
Demosthenes known as the
Olynthiacs, were unsuccessful in persuading their allies to counterattack and in 346BC concluded a treaty with Macedonia
known as the Peace of
Philocrates. The treaty stipulated that Athens would relinquish claims to Macedonian coastal territories, the Chalcidice, and Amphipolis in return for the release of the enslaved Athenians as well as guarantees that PhilipII would not attack Athenian settlements in the
Thracian Chersonese. Meanwhile, Phocis and
Thermopylae were captured by Macedonian forces, the
Delphic temple robbers were executed, and PhilipII was awarded the two Phocian seats on the Amphictyonic Council and the position of
master of ceremonies over the
Pythian Games. Athens initially opposed his membership on the council and refused to attend the games in protest, but they eventually accepted these conditions, perhaps after some persuasion by Demosthenes in his oration
On the Peace. Over the next few years, Philip II reformed local governments in Thessaly, campaigned against the Illyrian ruler
Pleuratus I, deposed Arybbas in
Epirus in favour of his brother-in-law
AlexanderI (through PhilipII's marriage to Olympias), and defeated Cersebleptes in Thrace. This allowed him to extend Macedonian control over the
Hellespont in anticipation of an invasion into
Achaemenid Anatolia. In 342BC, PhilipII conquered
a Thracian city in what is now
Bulgaria and renamed it
Philippopolis (modern
Plovdiv). War broke out with Athens in 340BC while PhilipII was engaged in two ultimately unsuccessful sieges of
Perinthus and
Byzantion, followed by a successful campaign against the Scythians along the
Danube and Macedonia's involvement in the
Fourth Sacred War against
Amphissa in 339BC. Thebes ejected a Macedonian garrison from
Nicaea (near Thermopylae), leading Thebes to join Athens,
Megara, Corinth,
Achaea, and
Euboea in a final confrontation against Macedonia at the
Battle of Chaeronea in 338BC. After the Macedonian victory at Chaeronea, PhilipII installed an
oligarchy in Thebes, yet was lenient toward Athens, wishing to utilize their navy in a planned invasion of the Achaemenid Empire. He was then chiefly responsible for the formation of the
League of Corinth that included the major Greek city-states except Sparta. Despite the Kingdom of Macedonia's official exclusion from the league, in 337BC, PhilipII was elected as the leader (
hegemon) of its council (
synedrion) and the
commander-in-chief (
strategos autokrator) of a forthcoming campaign to invade the Achaemenid Empire. Philip's plan to punish the Persians for the suffering of the Greeks and to liberate the Greek cities of Asia Minor as well as perhaps the panhellenic fear of another Persian invasion of Greece, contributed to his decision to invade the Achaemenid Empire. The Persians offered aid to Perinthus and Byzantion in 341–340BC, highlighting Macedonia's strategic need to secure Thrace and the Aegean Sea against increasing Achaemenid encroachment, as the Persian king
Artaxerxes III further consolidated his control over satrapies in
western Anatolia. The latter region, yielding far more wealth and valuable resources than the Balkans, was also coveted by the Macedonian king for its sheer economic potential. When Philip II married
Cleopatra Eurydice, niece of general
Attalus, talk of providing new potential heirs at the wedding feast infuriated PhilipII's son Alexander, a veteran of the Battle of Chaeronea, and his mother Olympias. When PhilipII arranged a marriage between his son Arrhidaeus and
Ada of Caria, daughter of
Pixodarus, the Persian satrap of
Caria, Alexander intervened and proposed to marry Ada instead. PhilipII then cancelled the wedding altogether and exiled Alexander's advisors
Ptolemy,
Nearchus, and
Harpalus. To reconcile with Olympias, PhilipII had their daughter
Cleopatra marry Olympias' brother (and Cleopatra's uncle) AlexanderI of Epirus, but PhilipII was assassinated by his bodyguard,
Pausanias of Orestis, during their wedding feast and succeeded by Alexander in 336BC.
Alexander's Empire Modern scholars have argued over the possible role of
AlexanderIII "the Great" and his mother Olympias in the assassination of PhilipII, noting the latter's choice to exclude Alexander from his planned invasion of Asia, choosing instead for him to act as regent of Greece and deputy
hegemon of the League of Corinth, and the potential bearing of another male heir between PhilipII and his new wife, Cleopatra Eurydice. AlexanderIII () was immediately proclaimed king by
an assembly of the army and leading aristocrats, chief among them being
Antipater and Parmenion. By the end of his reign and military career in 323BC, Alexander would rule over an empire consisting of
mainland Greece,
Asia Minor, the
Levant,
ancient Egypt,
Mesopotamia,
Persia, and much of
Central and
South Asia (i.e. modern
Pakistan). Among his first acts was the burial of his father at Aigai. The members of the League of Corinth revolted at the news of PhilipII's death, but were soon quelled by military force alongside persuasive diplomacy, electing Alexander as
hegemon of the league to carry out the planned invasion of Achaemenid Persia. In 335 BC, Alexander
fought against the Thracian tribe of the
Triballi at
Haemus Mons and along the
Danube, forcing their surrender on
Peuce Island. Shortly thereafter, the Illyrian chieftain
Cleitus, son of
Bardylis, threatened to attack Macedonia with the aid of
Glaucias, king of the
Taulantii, but Alexander took the initiative and
besieged the Illyrians at
Pelion (in modern
Albania). When Thebes had once again revolted from the League of Corinth and was besieging the Macedonian garrison in the
Cadmea, Alexander left the Illyrian front and marched to Thebes, which he
placed under siege. After breaching the walls, Alexander's forces killed 6,000 Thebans, took 30,000 inhabitants as
prisoners of war, and burned the city to the ground as a warning that convinced all other Greek states except Sparta not to challenge Alexander again. Throughout his military career, Alexander won every battle that he personally commanded. His first victory against the Persians in Asia Minor at the
Battle of the Granicus in 334BC used a small cavalry contingent as a distraction to allow his infantry to cross the river followed by a
cavalry charge from his
companion cavalry. Alexander led the cavalry charge at the
Battle of Issus in 333BC, forcing the Persian king
Darius III and his army to flee. At the 326BC
Battle of the Hydaspes (modern-day
Punjab), when the
war elephants of
King Porus of the
Pauravas threatened Alexander's troops, he had them form open ranks to surround the elephants and dislodge their handlers by using their
sarissa pikes. When his Macedonian troops threatened
mutiny in 324BC at
Opis,
Babylonia (near modern
Baghdad,
Iraq), Alexander offered Macedonian military titles and greater responsibilities to Persian officers and units instead, forcing his troops to seek forgiveness at a staged banquet of reconciliation between Persians and Macedonians. , c.300BC, from
Pella; the figure on the right is possibly
Alexander the Great due to the date of the
mosaic along with the depicted upsweep of his centrally-parted hair (
anastole); the figure on the left wielding a double-edged axe (associated with
Hephaistos) is perhaps
Hephaestion, one of Alexander's loyal companions. Alexander perhaps undercut his own rule by demonstrating signs of
megalomania. His attempt in 327BC to have his men prostrate before him in
Bactra in an act of
proskynesis borrowed from the Persian kings was rejected as religious blasphemy by his Macedonian and Greek subjects after his court historian
Callisthenes refused to perform this ritual. When Alexander had Parmenion murdered at
Ecbatana (near modern
Hamadan,
Iran) in 330BC, this was "symptomatic of the growing gulf between the king's interests and those of his country and people", according to Errington. His murder of
Cleitus the Black in 328BC is described as "vengeful and reckless" by Dawn L. Gilley and Ian Worthington. Continuing the polygamous habits of his father, Alexander encouraged his men to marry native women in Asia, leading by example when he wed
Roxana, a Sogdian princess of Bactria. He then married
Stateira II, eldest daughter of DariusIII, and
Parysatis II, youngest daughter of
Artaxerxes III, at the
Susa weddings in 324BC. Meanwhile, in Greece, the
Spartan king Agis III attempted to lead a rebellion of the Greeks against Macedonia. He was defeated in 331BC at the
Battle of Megalopolis by Antipater, who was serving as regent of Macedonia and deputy
hegemon of the League of Corinth in Alexander's stead. Before Antipater embarked on his campaign in the
Peloponnese, Memnon, the governor of Thrace, was dissuaded from rebellion by use of diplomacy. Antipater deferred the punishment of Sparta to the League of Corinth headed by Alexander, who ultimately pardoned the Spartans on the condition that they submit fifty nobles as hostages. Antipater's hegemony was somewhat unpopular in Greece due to his practice (perhaps by order of Alexander) of exiling malcontents and garrisoning cities with Macedonian troops, yet in 330BC, Alexander declared that the
tyrannies installed in Greece were to be abolished and Greek freedom was to be restored. c.301BC, after the
Battle of Ipsus Other '' of
Philip III Arrhidaeus () bearing images of
Athena (left) and
Nike (right) When
Alexander the Great died at
Babylon in 323BC, his mother Olympias immediately accused Antipater and his faction of poisoning him, although there is no evidence to confirm this. With no official
heir apparent, the Macedonian military command split, with one side proclaiming Alexander's half-brother PhilipIII Arrhidaeus () as king and the other siding with the infant son of Alexander and Roxana,
AlexanderIV (). Except for the Euboeans and Boeotians, the Greeks also immediately rose up in a rebellion against Antipater known as the
Lamian War (323–322BC). When Antipater was defeated at the 323BC
Battle of Thermopylae, he fled to
Lamia where he was besieged by the Athenian commander
Leosthenes. A Macedonian army led by
Leonnatus rescued Antipater by lifting the siege. Antipater defeated the rebellion, yet his death in 319BC left a power vacuum wherein the two proclaimed kings of Macedonia became pawns in
a power struggle between the
diadochi, the former generals of Alexander's army. A
council of the army convened in Babylon immediately after Alexander's death, naming PhilipIII as king and the
chiliarch Perdiccas as his regent. Antipater,
Antigonus Monophthalmus,
Craterus, and Ptolemy formed a coalition against Perdiccas in a civil war initiated by Ptolemy's
seizure of the hearse of Alexander the Great. Perdiccas was assassinated in 321BC by his own officers during a failed campaign in Egypt against Ptolemy, where his march along the
Nile River resulted in the drowning of 2,000 of his men. Although
Eumenes of Cardia managed to kill Craterus in battle, this had little to no effect on the outcome of the 321BC
Partition of Triparadisus in
Syria where the victorious coalition settled the issue of a new regency and territorial rights. Antipater was appointed as regent over the two kings. Before Antipater died in 319BC, he named the staunch Argead loyalist
Polyperchon as his successor, passing over his own son
Cassander and ignoring the right of the king to choose a new regent (since PhilipIII was considered mentally unstable), in effect bypassing the council of the army as well. Forming an alliance with Ptolemy, Antigonus, and
Lysimachus, Cassander had his officer
Nicanor capture the
Munichia fortress of Athens' port town
Piraeus in defiance of Polyperchon's decree that Greek cities should be free of Macedonian garrisons, sparking the
Second War of the Diadochi (319–315BC). Given a string of military failures by Polyperchon, in 317BC, PhilipIII, by way of his politically engaged wife
Eurydice II of Macedon, officially replaced him as regent with Cassander. A joint force of Epirotes, Aetolians, and Polyperchon's troops invaded Macedonia and forced the surrender of PhilipIII and Eurydice's army, allowing Olympias to execute the king and force his queen to commit suicide. Olympias then had Nicanor and dozens of other Macedonian nobles killed, but by the spring of 316BC, Cassander had defeated her forces, captured her, and placed her on trial for murder before sentencing her to death. Cassander married Philip II's daughter
Thessalonike and briefly extended Macedonian control into Illyria as far as
Epidamnos (modern
Durrës, Albania). By 313BC, it was retaken by the Illyrian king
Glaucias of Taulantii. By 316BC, Antigonus had taken the territory of Eumenes and managed to eject
Seleucus Nicator from his Babylonian satrapy, leading Cassander, Ptolemy, and Lysimachus to issue a joint ultimatum to Antigonus in 315BC for him to surrender various territories in Asia. The conflict that followed lasted until the winter of 312/311BC, when a new peace settlement recognized Cassander as general of Europe, Antigonus as "first in Asia", Ptolemy as general of Egypt, and Lysimachus as general of Thrace. Cassander had AlexanderIV and Roxana put to death in the winter of 311/310BC, and between 306 and 305BC the
diadochi were declared kings of their respective territories.
Hellenistic era {{multiple image|right||perrow=2|total_width=300| The beginning of
Hellenistic Greece was defined by the struggle between the
Antipatrid dynasty, led first by
Cassander (), son of Antipater, and the
Antigonid dynasty, led by the Macedonian general
Antigonus I Monophthalmus () and his son, the future king
DemetriusI (). Cassander besieged Athens in 303BC, but was forced to retreat to Macedonia when Demetrius invaded
Boeotia to his rear, attempting to sever his path of retreat. While Antigonus and Demetrius attempted to recreate PhilipII's
Hellenic league with themselves as dual hegemons, a revived coalition of Cassander,
Ptolemy I Soter () of Egypt's
Ptolemaic dynasty,
Seleucus I Nicator () of the
Seleucid Empire, and Lysimachus (),
King of Thrace, defeated the Antigonids at the
Battle of Ipsus in 301BC, killing Antigonus and forcing Demetrius into flight. Cassander died in 297 BC, and his sickly son
PhilipIV died the same year, succeeded by Cassander's other sons
Alexander V of Macedon () and
Antipater II of Macedon (), with their mother
Thessalonike of Macedon acting as regent. In exchange for defeating the forces of AntipaterII and forcing him to flee to the court of Lysimachus in Thrace, Pyrrhus was awarded the westernmost portions of the Macedonian kingdom. Demetrius had his nephew AlexanderV assassinated and was then proclaimed king of Macedonia, but his subjects protested against his aloof, Eastern-style
autocracy. War broke out between Pyrrhus and Demetrius in 290BC when
Lanassa, wife of Pyrrhus, daughter of
Agathocles of Syracuse, left him for Demetrius and offered him her
dowry of
Corcyra. By 286BC, Lysimachus had expelled Pyrrhus and his forces from Macedonia. In 282BC, a new war erupted between SeleucusI and Lysimachus; the latter was killed in the
Battle of Corupedion, allowing SeleucusI to take control of Thrace and Macedonia. In two dramatic reversals of fortune, SeleucusI was assassinated in 281BC by his officer
Ptolemy Keraunos, son of PtolemyI and grandson of Antipater, who was then proclaimed king of Macedonia before being killed in battle in 279BC by
Celtic invaders in the
Gallic invasion of Greece. The Macedonian army proclaimed the general
Sosthenes of Macedon as king, although he apparently refused the title. After defeating the
Gallic ruler
Bolgios and driving out the raiding party of
Brennus, Sosthenes died and left a chaotic situation in Macedonia. The Gallic invaders ravaged Macedonia until
Antigonus Gonatas, son of Demetrius, defeated them in Thrace at the 277BC
Battle of Lysimachia and was then proclaimed king
Antigonus II of Macedon (). In 280 BC, Pyrrhus embarked on a campaign in
Magna Graecia (i.e.
southern Italy) against the
Roman Republic known as the
Pyrrhic War, followed by his
invasion of Sicily. Ptolemy Keraunos secured his position on the Macedonian throne by giving Pyrrhus five thousand soldiers and twenty
war elephants for this endeavor. -era military arms and armor from a tomb in ancient
Mieza (modern-day Lefkadia),
Imathia,
Central Macedonia,
Greece, 2nd centuryBC Pyrrhus lost much of his support among the Macedonians in 273BC when his unruly Gallic mercenaries plundered the royal cemetery of Aigai. Pyrrhus pursued AntigonusII in the Peloponnese, yet AntigonusII was ultimately able to recapture Macedonia. Pyrrhus was killed while besieging
Argos in 272BC, allowing AntigonusII to reclaim the rest of Greece. He then restored the Argead dynastic graves at Aigai and annexed the
Kingdom of Paeonia. The
Aetolian League hampered AntigonusII's control over
central Greece, and the formation of the
Achaean League in 251BC pushed Macedonian forces out of much of the Peloponnese and at times incorporated Athens and Sparta. While the Seleucid Empire aligned with Antigonid Macedonia against Ptolemaic Egypt during the
Syrian Wars, the Ptolemaic navy heavily disrupted AntigonusII's efforts to control mainland Greece. With the aid of the Ptolemaic navy, the Athenian statesman
Chremonides led a revolt against Macedonian authority known as the
Chremonidean War (267–261BC). By 265BC, Athens was surrounded and besieged by AntigonusII's forces, and a Ptolemaic fleet was defeated in the
Battle of Cos. Athens finally surrendered in 261BC. After Macedonia formed an alliance with the Seleucid ruler
Antiochus II, a peace settlement between AntigonusII and
Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt was finally struck in 255BC. of
Apollo at
Corinth, built c.540BC, with the
Acrocorinth (i.e. the
acropolis of Corinth that once held a
Macedonian garrison) Although Alexander died in 246BC and Antigonus was able to score a naval victory against the Ptolemies
at Andros, the Macedonians lost the
Acrocorinth to the forces of Aratus in 243BC, followed by the induction of Corinth into the Achaean League. AntigonusII made peace with the Achaean League in 240BC, ceding the territories that he had lost in Greece. AntigonusII died in 239BC and was succeeded by his son
Demetrius II of Macedon (). Seeking an alliance with Macedonia to defend against the Aetolians, the
queen mother and regent of Epirus,
Olympias II, offered her daughter
Phthia of Macedon to DemetriusII in marriage. Demetrius II accepted her proposal, but he damaged relations with the Seleucids by divorcing
Stratonice of Macedon. Although the Aetolians formed an alliance with the Achaean League as a result, DemetriusII was able to invade Boeotia and capture it from the Aetolians by 236BC. The Achaean League managed to capture
Megalopolis in 235BC, and by the end of DemetriusII's reign most of the Peloponnese except Argos was taken from the Macedonians. DemetriusII also lost an ally
in Epirus when the
monarchy was toppled in a
republican revolution. DemetriusII enlisted the aid of the
Illyrian king
Agron to defend
Acarnania against Aetolia, and in 229BC, they managed to defeat the combined navies of the Aetolian and Achaean Leagues at the
Battle of Paxos. Although his young son
Philip immediately inherited the throne, his regent
Antigonus III Doson (), nephew of AntigonusII, was proclaimed king by the army, with Philip as his heir, following a string of military victories against the Illyrians in the north and the Aetolians in Thessaly. '' minted during the reign of
Antigonus III Doson (), possibly at
Amphipolis, bearing the portrait image of
Poseidon on the
obverse and on the reverse a scene depicting
Apollo sitting on the
prow of a ship Aratus sent an embassy to Antigonus III in 226BC seeking an unexpected alliance now that the reformist king
Cleomenes III of Sparta was threatening the rest of Greece in the
Cleomenean War (229–222BC). In exchange for military aid, AntigonusIII demanded the return of Corinth to Macedonian control, which Aratus finally agreed to in 225BC. In 224BC, AntigonusIII's forces took
Arcadia from Sparta. After forming a Hellenic league in the same vein as PhilipII's League of Corinth, he managed to defeat Sparta at the
Battle of Sellasia in 222BC. Sparta was occupied by a foreign power for the first time in its history, restoring Macedonia's position as the leading power in Greece. Antigonus died a year later, perhaps from
tuberculosis, leaving behind a strong
Hellenistic kingdom for his successor PhilipV.
Philip V of Macedon () faced immediate challenges to his authority by the Illyrian
Dardani and Aetolian League. PhilipV and his allies were successful against the Aetolians and their allies in the
Social War (220–217 BC), yet he made peace with the Aetolians once he heard of incursions by the Dardani in the north and the
Carthaginian victory over
the Romans at the
Battle of Lake Trasimene in 217BC.
Demetrius of Pharos is alleged to have convinced PhilipV to first
secure Illyria in advance of an invasion of the
Italian peninsula. In 216BC, PhilipV sent a hundred
light warships into the
Adriatic Sea to attack Illyria, a move that prompted
Scerdilaidas of the
Ardiaean Kingdom to appeal to the Romans for aid. Rome responded by sending ten heavy
quinqueremes from
Roman Sicily to patrol the Illyrian coasts, causing PhilipV to reverse course and order his fleet to retreat, averting open conflict for the time being.
Conflict with Rome (), with Macedonian
dependent states (dark yellow), the
Seleucid Empire (bright yellow),
Roman protectorates (dark green), the
Kingdom of Pergamon (light green), independent states (light purple), and possessions of the
Ptolemaic Empire (violet purple) In 215 BC, at the height of the
Second Punic War with the
Carthaginian Empire,
Roman authorities intercepted a ship off the
Calabrian coast holding a Macedonian envoy and a Carthaginian ambassador in possession of a treaty composed by
Hannibal declaring an alliance with PhilipV.
The treaty stipulated that
Carthage had the sole right to negotiate the terms of Rome's hypothetical surrender and promised mutual aid if a resurgent Rome should seek revenge against either Macedonia or Carthage. Although the Macedonians were perhaps only interested in safeguarding their newly conquered territories in Illyria, the Romans were nevertheless able to thwart whatever grand ambitions PhilipV had for the Adriatic region during the
First Macedonian War (214–205BC). In 214BC, Rome positioned a
naval fleet at
Oricus, which was assaulted along with
Apollonia by Macedonian forces. When the Macedonians captured
Lissus in 212BC, the
Roman Senate responded by inciting the Aetolian League, Sparta,
Elis,
Messenia, and
Attalus I () of
Pergamon to wage war against PhilipV, keeping him occupied and away from Italy. The Aetolian League concluded a
peace agreement with PhilipV in 206BC, and the
Roman Republic negotiated the
Treaty of Phoenice in 205BC, ending the war and allowing the Macedonians to retain some captured settlements in Illyria. Although the Romans rejected an Aetolian request in 202BC for Rome to declare war on Macedonia once again, the Roman Senate gave serious consideration to the similar offer made by Pergamon and its ally
Rhodes in 201BC. These states were concerned about PhilipV's alliance with
Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid Empire, which invaded the war-weary and financially exhausted Ptolemaic Empire in the
Fifth Syrian War (202–195BC) as PhilipV captured Ptolemaic settlements in the Aegean Sea. Although Rome's envoys played a critical role in convincing Athens to join the anti-Macedonian alliance with Pergamon and Rhodes in 200BC, the
comitia centuriata (people's assembly) rejected the Roman Senate's proposal for a declaration of war on Macedonia. Meanwhile, PhilipV conquered territories in the
Hellespont and
Bosporus as well as Ptolemaic
Samos, which led Rhodes to
form an alliance with Pergamon,
Byzantium,
Cyzicus, and
Chios against Macedonia. Despite PhilipV's nominal alliance with the Seleucid king, he lost the naval
Battle of Chios in 201BC and was blockaded at
Bargylia by the Rhodian and Pergamene navies. of
Philip V of Macedon (), with the king's portrait on the
obverse and
Athena Alkidemos brandishing a thunderbolt on the reverse While Philip V was busy fighting Rome's Greek allies, Rome viewed this as an opportunity to punish this former ally of Hannibal with a war that they hoped would supply a victory and require few resources. The Roman Senate demanded that PhilipV cease hostilities against neighbouring Greek powers and defer to an international arbitration committee for settling grievances. When the
comitia centuriata finally voted in approval of the Roman Senate's declaration of war in 200BC and handed their
ultimatum to PhilipV, demanding that a
tribunal assess the damages owed to Rhodes and Pergamon, the Macedonian king rejected it. This marked the beginning of the
Second Macedonian War (200–197BC), with
Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus spearheading
military operations in Apollonia. of
Pergamon, a
Roman copy of a
Hellenistic Greek original, from the
Villa of the Papyri in
Herculaneum The Macedonians successfully defended their territory for roughly two years, but the
Roman consul Titus Quinctius Flamininus managed to expel PhilipV from Macedonia in 198BC, forcing his men to take refuge in Thessaly. When the Achaean League switched their loyalties from Macedonia to Rome, the Macedonian king sued for peace, but the terms offered were considered too stringent, and so the war continued. Rome then ratified a treaty that forced Macedonia to relinquish control of much of its Greek possessions outside of Macedonia proper, if only to act as a buffer against Illyrian and Thracian incursions into Greece. Although some Greeks suspected Roman intentions of supplanting Macedonia as the new hegemonic power in Greece, Flaminius announced at the
Isthmian Games of 196BC that Rome intended to preserve Greek
liberty by leaving behind no garrisons and by not exacting
tribute of any kind. His promise was delayed by negotiations with the Spartan king
Nabis, who had meanwhile captured Argos, yet Roman forces evacuated Greece in 194BC. Encouraged by the Aetolian League and their calls to liberate Greece from the Romans, the
Seleucid king AntiochusIII landed with his army at
Demetrias, Thessaly, in 192BC, and was elected
strategos by the Aetolians. Macedonia, the Achaean League, and other Greek city-states maintained their alliance with Rome. The Romans
defeated the Seleucids in the 191BC
Battle of Thermopylae as well as the
Battle of Magnesia in 190BC, forcing the Seleucids to pay a
war indemnity, dismantle most of its navy, and abandon its claims to any territories north or west of the
Taurus Mountains in the 188BC
Treaty of Apamea. With Rome's acceptance, PhilipV was able to capture some cities in central Greece in 191–189BC that had been allied to AntiochusIII, while Rhodes and
Eumenes II () of Pergamon gained territories in Asia Minor. Failing to please all sides in various territorial disputes, the Roman Senate decided in 184/183BC to force PhilipV to abandon
Aenus and
Maronea, since these had been declared free cities in the Treaty of Apamea. This assuaged the fear of EumenesII that Macedonia could pose a threat to his lands in the Hellespont.
Perseus of Macedon () succeeded PhilipV and executed
his brother Demetrius, who had been favoured by the Romans but was charged by Perseus with
high treason. Perseus then attempted to form marriage alliances with
Prusias II of Bithynia and
Seleucus IV Philopator of the Seleucid Empire, along with renewed relations with Rhodes that greatly unsettled EumenesII. Although EumenesII attempted to undermine these diplomatic relationships, Perseus fostered an alliance with the
Boeotian League, extended his authority into Illyria
and Thrace, and in 174BC, won the role of managing the Temple of Apollo at Delphi as a member of the
Amphictyonic Council. Eumenes II came to Rome in 172 BC and delivered a speech to
the Senate denouncing the alleged crimes and transgressions of Perseus. This convinced the Roman Senate to declare the
Third Macedonian War (171–168BC). Although Perseus's forces were victorious against the Romans at the
Battle of Callinicus in 171BC, the Macedonian army was defeated at the
Battle of Pydna in June 168BC. Perseus fled to
Samothrace but surrendered shortly afterwards, was brought to
Rome for the
triumph of
Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus, and was placed under
house arrest at
Alba Fucens, where he died in 166BC. The Romans abolished the Macedonian monarchy by installing four separate allied
republics in its stead, their capitals located at
Amphipolis,
Thessalonica,
Pella, and
Pelagonia. The Romans imposed severe laws inhibiting many social and economic interactions between the inhabitants of these republics, including the banning of marriages between them and the (temporary) prohibition on gold and silver mining. Despite this, Andriscus was defeated in 148BC at the
second Battle of Pydna by
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, whose forces occupied the kingdom. This was followed in 146BC by the Roman
destruction of Carthage and victory over the Achaean League at the
Battle of Corinth, ushering in the era of
Roman Greece and the gradual establishment of the
Roman province of Macedonia. ==Institutions==