WEBVTT 1 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:24.359 Hello, and welcome to Western SIEV. I wanted to give those of you 2 00:00:24.559 --> 00:00:30.039 even subscribed on the Patreon feed or in the Western Sieve two point zero feed 3 00:00:30.079 --> 00:00:34.719 a quick sneak peek of the kind of stuff that I'm doing now for those 4 00:00:34.759 --> 00:00:39.640 who are able and willing to patronize the show. As always, it's the 5 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:44.200 show's patrons that really allow this thing to keep going for as long as it 6 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:47.600 has and to reach the end of the story, which I don't know will 7 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:50.880 be a couple of decades from now. I'm guessing at the rate that I'm 8 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:55.600 currently progressing. But as you may have noticed on the show, episodes have 9 00:00:55.640 --> 00:00:59.640 gotten a little bit longer, and that's required me to hide more books, 10 00:00:59.679 --> 00:01:02.280 more ora to all that stuff. And yeah, the ads offset a little 11 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:03.560 bit of that. But if you don't like the ads, and if you'd 12 00:01:03.640 --> 00:01:07.359 like to throw a couple of coins in my direction, just check out the 13 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:11.760 links in the show notes, because you can get a free day seven trial 14 00:01:11.799 --> 00:01:15.120 of Western CI two point zero, or you can check out the Patreon page 15 00:01:15.159 --> 00:01:21.120 for a myriad different options that are available there. You can really support the 16 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:25.120 show with only twelve dollars a year. For twelve dollars a year. It 17 00:01:25.159 --> 00:01:29.200 really helps me out and you get the end free versions. But I wanted 18 00:01:29.239 --> 00:01:33.799 to show you a little bit about some of the news shows that I've been 19 00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:37.200 putting out on the Western SIF two point o page. You know, when 20 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:42.879 I did the original show years and years ago, I didn't really talk about 21 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:49.400 Philip of Macedonia, which was a mistake, and even when I got to 22 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:53.280 Alexander the Grade, I think I covered his battles and everything in maybe two 23 00:01:53.319 --> 00:01:57.959 episodes, maybe one. You know, here, I've got an episode devoted 24 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.159 to each of the major battles ESUS called a Melo, so on and so 25 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:05.439 forth, as well as is various other travails. But this episode is one 26 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:08.800 that I really enjoyed putting together. And this is about Philip of Macedonia and 27 00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:15.680 covers the beginnings of Macedonian kingdom and society and culture and all those sorts of 28 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:19.599 things that really do matter, but that I didn't talk about it all the 29 00:02:19.639 --> 00:02:23.039 first time, and that's kind of the wonder of this second kick at the 30 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:25.560 Cats. I guess, as you would say, so I hope you enjoy 31 00:02:25.639 --> 00:02:30.759 it. This is just one episode, and there's I think thirty some episodes 32 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:36.800 available on the Western sit of two point zero podcast feed right now and usually 33 00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:40.319 put another hour and a half two hours worth of content out every month. 34 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:46.599 So enjoy the listen of Macedonia and if you're interested and so inclined, to 35 00:02:46.759 --> 00:03:10.639 give us a little support and check out the links. Macedonia lay at the 36 00:03:10.719 --> 00:03:17.159 fringe of the Greek world. Opinions in Greece were divided over whether the Macedonians 37 00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:27.319 were Greeks or Barbarians. Macedonians Greek, their names were Greek, and whenever 38 00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:31.400 they wrote something down, which wasn't always, it was in Greek. Of 39 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:37.919 course, there were different dialects of Greek. In the Macedonian court spoke a 40 00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:42.599 different dialect than what you would have heard in the countryside and Upper Macedonia, 41 00:03:42.759 --> 00:03:47.960 by the way, but it would have been understandable. Ethnically, however, 42 00:03:49.479 --> 00:03:57.120 Macedonia was much more mixed than Greece. But culturally, I mean Mount Olympus 43 00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:04.080 lay at Macedonia's southern border, so the Macedonians worshiped the same Greek pantheon as 44 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:14.199 you'd find an Athens or Sparta. The real difference was politics. Politically, 45 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:20.079 Macedonia was in the minority, monarchy was rare, in the fifth and fourth 46 00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:26.160 centuries in Greece. It survived in Sparta, which was sort of the bizarre 47 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:31.720 odd man out using that dual monarchy, but by and large every other Polish 48 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:40.000 and ancient and classical Greece had some form of representative government. Granted, what 49 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:45.199 this looked like varied in terms of place and time, but in general we 50 00:04:45.279 --> 00:04:53.519 can say that the Greeks did not like kings. Greek city states were inherently 51 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:00.879 unstable as we know, and warlike as we also know. Certainly, what 52 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:05.639 set the Greeks apart from say, the Persians and Egyptians was not that they 53 00:05:05.720 --> 00:05:13.759 fought, but how they fought. The Greeks fought using hop lights and phailnxes. 54 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:18.399 This manner of fighting, it's worth noting, was for the moment exclusively 55 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:24.839 Greek, and our sources report that the Greeks were very proud of their hoplights. 56 00:05:26.439 --> 00:05:31.000 Macedonia was different, as we'll see in a moment. Philip of Macedonia 57 00:05:31.079 --> 00:05:36.000 is going to borrow the idea of the classical Greek philanx and modify it to 58 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:43.560 suit his needs. But he's going to do this in order to improve the 59 00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:49.000 fighting capability of his men, not out of a desire to be Greek. 60 00:05:50.360 --> 00:05:59.000 In Greece, the ruling class was effectively the hoplight class, but in Macedonia 61 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:04.800 the rulers were the Argaeed monarchs and below them the Landid aristocracy, which didn't 62 00:06:04.839 --> 00:06:12.480 fight in phalanxes. The landed aristocracy in Macedonia fought in the cavalry, and 63 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:15.199 that's going to be one of the big differences that we'll talk about, especially 64 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:24.639 as we get to Alexander. So one major advantage that the Macedonians have over 65 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:30.839 the Greeks is their relatively stable political system. I say relatively stable because there's 66 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:33.040 going to be a lot of intrigue and there's gonna be a lot of murder. 67 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:41.360 But as we saw in the Peloponnesian War, Greek city states tended to 68 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:45.959 go to war quite often when it was not in their interest to do so. 69 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:55.000 Athens could have effectively won the Peloponnesian War multiple times, but the war 70 00:06:55.160 --> 00:07:01.519 party within Athens never allowed it to because it insists did on Sparta's total destruction, 71 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:06.639 which was probably never going to happen. In Macedonia. On the other 72 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:11.680 hand, the king gets to make the decision, and while that might sound 73 00:07:11.720 --> 00:07:17.720 less responsive than the Greek representative government. Remember that monarchies work really well, 74 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:23.360 especially in the pre modern world, if you have a stable monarch, stable 75 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:30.160 from a political standpoint, at least city states, though they'd never really developed 76 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:34.160 in Macedonia. There were urban communities, but they were subject to the king 77 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:40.319 like anywhere else and to the Athenians. Getting back to the idea of greekness 78 00:07:40.360 --> 00:07:45.680 again for a second, as we're going to see this difference in political structure 79 00:07:46.399 --> 00:07:53.639 is going to matter a lot more than linguistic similarities to the Athenians. It 80 00:07:53.720 --> 00:07:59.360 was the monarchy that made Macedonia backward more than anything else, though they certainly 81 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:07.199 had other planes. Now for one another complaint speaking, Macedonia fought alongside Persia 82 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:13.720 during xerxes War of Conquest. But don't get me wrong. There was Macedonian 83 00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:18.360 cavalry at Plataea, but it fought with the Persian would be conquerors, not 84 00:08:18.519 --> 00:08:24.360 with the Greeks. Of course, so did Thebes for that matter. During 85 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:31.840 the Peloponnesian Wars, Macedonia became essentially just another theater of war. Macedonian monarchs 86 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:37.720 took part in the conflict and switched sides frequently whenever it was in their self 87 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:43.799 interest to do so. Certainly, Macedonian kings, especially by the fifth and 88 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:52.639 fourth centuries, fans and big patrons of Greek arts. Pindar was just one 89 00:08:52.679 --> 00:08:56.960 of many well known Greek poets to visit the Macedonian court, where he was 90 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:03.120 treated lavishly. Macedonian kings created their own version of the Olympic Games, which 91 00:09:03.159 --> 00:09:09.600 some competitors traveled to all the way from Greece. Euripides, the playwright, 92 00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:15.840 spent a good amount of time at the Macedonian court and even wrote one play, 93 00:09:16.120 --> 00:09:20.159 Archie Laois while he was there. Euripides, interestingly enough, died in 94 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:28.960 Macedon in four oh six BC. Athens politely requested on several occasions that has 95 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:37.159 remains to be sent home, but the Macedonians never complied. So now let's 96 00:09:37.159 --> 00:09:43.799 turn to the meat of our story. Centuries before there was a Philip or 97 00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:48.320 an Alexander, the principal characters in our story. For the next dozen or 98 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:54.000 so episodes, there was a kingdom to the north of Greece called Macedonia. 99 00:09:54.320 --> 00:10:01.039 In the city states of Greece, aristocratic families constantly jostled for possi Macedonia. 100 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:07.639 By contrast, throughout the classical period, and this is so important to understand 101 00:10:07.720 --> 00:10:11.639 the story was ruled by one family, and one family only, the Argaydes. 102 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:18.799 The Argayades claimed their descent from an aristocratic clan from the state or city 103 00:10:18.840 --> 00:10:26.559 state of Argos down in the Peloponnese. According to legend, representatives from Argos 104 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:31.279 traveled north to found a new kingdom, Macedonia, sometime during the Greek Dark 105 00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:39.720 Ages, probably seventh century BC. This family, by consequence, claimed descent 106 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:45.759 through hercules. As we have seen and will see, such illusions of grandeur 107 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:50.120 when it came to the founding person, usually a man for different cities in 108 00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:56.720 the classical world was common Macedonians or no exception. But what matters in all 109 00:10:56.759 --> 00:11:05.120 of this is that the argaid right to rule was never challenged in Macedonia. 110 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:09.600 Philip and his son Alexander you may have heard of him, would be able 111 00:11:09.639 --> 00:11:16.919 to launch distant campaigns without any real possibility of domestic trouble at home. Well, 112 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:22.960 okay, at least challenges from outside the family. That is, there 113 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:28.320 does not seem to have been a tradition amongst the ancient Arguides for the oldest 114 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:33.519 son to automatically inherit the throne Certainly, if the king had an adult son 115 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:39.240 when he died, there seems to have been a strong preference for that young 116 00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:43.600 man to rule. But it wasn't a given. Brothers or even distant cousins 117 00:11:43.679 --> 00:11:50.480 might challenge for the throne. And it didn't help matters that your Guyids were 118 00:11:50.559 --> 00:11:58.480 quite well prolific. They practiced polygamy, and so as a result they tended 119 00:11:58.519 --> 00:12:05.320 to be any number of little challengers to the throne running about. The first 120 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:11.679 several centuries of Argaid rule in Macedonia remain shrouded in mystery. We know the 121 00:12:11.799 --> 00:12:16.919 names of many of these kings. There are a few Alexanders in there for 122 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:22.799 those keeping score at home, but we know little about their rule. By 123 00:12:22.840 --> 00:12:28.559 and large, most Macedonian kings were concerned with dealing with the Illyrians, a 124 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:33.120 native tribe which inhabited much of what I suppose you would say is modern day 125 00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:39.759 Bulgaria. The Illyrians, not the distant Greeks, were the primary foe of 126 00:12:39.799 --> 00:12:46.480 the early Macedonians. Now, I should say the term Illyrian was given to 127 00:12:46.519 --> 00:12:52.440 the various tribal people living northwest of Macedonia by the Greeks, but this is 128 00:12:52.440 --> 00:13:00.919 a catchall term that encompassed a large number of tribal peoples. We know that 129 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:05.480 they united around the end of the fourth century BC because in four ninety six 130 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:11.200 the new Macedonian a king, Aminitis the third, was forced to flee his 131 00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:18.159 kingdom to escape in a Leyrian invasion. At the same time, the other 132 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:24.600 neighbor we need to know about his Thessaly. In three ninety six, Aminitis 133 00:13:24.600 --> 00:13:31.399 fled to Thessaly. This was the large flat portion of northern Greece that Xerxes 134 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:37.559 marched through and was often part of a Persian satrapi. But in three ninety 135 00:13:37.559 --> 00:13:46.200 six his Thessalian allies helped Amyitis return to power. I Meanitis, like all 136 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:52.080 our gayd kings, practice polygamy. We, by the way, have no 137 00:13:52.159 --> 00:13:54.639 evidence that this was the case for the Macedonians at large, or even for 138 00:13:54.679 --> 00:14:01.120 the Macedonian aristocracy. Thus, it seems to have been something of a royal 139 00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:09.720 prerogative, something that the Argaydes alone practiced regardless. One of amy Nitis's wives 140 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:15.720 gave birth to the Philip who will become Philip the Second in our story, 141 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:22.600 Philip of Macedonia. Philip would be famous if not for his son Alexander. 142 00:14:24.559 --> 00:14:31.639 Philip was born either in three eighty two or three eighty three BC. Ancient 143 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:39.559 historians tended not to bother giving someone's birth date unless it corresponded with an important 144 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:46.080 event or natural phenomenon. In fact, it's worth noting right now that dates 145 00:14:46.120 --> 00:14:50.879 in the ancient world are a bit hazy. The Greeks reckoned time in a 146 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:56.240 variety of ways, and none of them corresponded to our system of twelve solar 147 00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:01.600 months, which didn't get invented until Caesar implemented it in forty six BC. 148 00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:09.720 So when an ancient historian gives us a date, it might have occurred very 149 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:15.519 late the year before or roughly at the time indicated. We don't have any 150 00:15:15.639 --> 00:15:22.519 details about Philip's birth or childhood. Again, it was extremely uncommon for ancient 151 00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:28.200 historians to care about such things. Alexander, as we will see, is 152 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:33.639 going to be the exception to the rule. Then again, Alexander the Great, 153 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:41.759 my friends, is the exception to a lot of rules. Childbirth was 154 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:46.720 a harrowing process in the ancient world, but Philip's mother was, let's just 155 00:15:46.759 --> 00:15:52.879 say, remarkable in this regard. Not only did she give birth to three 156 00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:58.720 other children, a daughter named Rooni and two sons, named Alexander and Perdicas, 157 00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:06.840 but mother and all four children would outlive her husband. I Meanitis. 158 00:16:07.159 --> 00:16:14.240 Imanias's wife was also far more forceful than most ancient women we have information about. 159 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:21.399 It's widely believed that she was Illyrian ethnically, and this might explain her 160 00:16:21.399 --> 00:16:30.000 personality because Illyrian women were normally more politically involved than their Macedonian counterparts, certainly 161 00:16:30.039 --> 00:16:37.480 more than their Greek counterparts, who considered such ideas tantum out to insanity. 162 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:44.039 Imy Nitis died in three seventy BC, having lived a fairly long time. 163 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:49.000 Alexander the second, the eldest son, succeeded to the throne. Philip was 164 00:16:49.279 --> 00:16:56.639 about twelve at the time. As you might remember, in three seventy one 165 00:16:56.679 --> 00:17:03.879 BC, the city state of Thebes ind a crippling defeat on Sparta, and 166 00:17:03.960 --> 00:17:08.359 as a result of this, Thebes began to intervene more forcefully in Thessaly. 167 00:17:10.920 --> 00:17:15.920 When a Thebe in general imposed a piece on Macedonia and the warring cities of 168 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:21.680 Thessaly, young Philip found himself one of the thirty hostages sent to Thebes in 169 00:17:21.799 --> 00:17:29.440 order to secure his older brother's cooperation. Philip would spend three years in Thebes. 170 00:17:30.519 --> 00:17:36.440 He lived in the home of a well connected aristocrat. He wasn't free 171 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:40.400 to come and go as he pleased, but it was a pretty easy arrangement 172 00:17:41.079 --> 00:17:48.079 for generations. Now, the Argaides had embraced, especially Athenian Greek culture, 173 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:52.880 so Philip already knew most of the Greek works of Greek literature and drama. 174 00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:59.440 Certainly he knew Homer and all the great plays and all that. He was 175 00:17:59.480 --> 00:18:03.240 also well versed in the art of hunting, which doubled his training for war 176 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:07.759 and would have endeared him to the Males and his host family. Some ancient 177 00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:14.559 sources claim that Philip learned a great deal in Thebes and that those three years 178 00:18:14.759 --> 00:18:19.359 had a profound influence on him. None of those sources go into any detail, 179 00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:26.799 and frankly, any conclusion that Thebes quote unquote changed Philip is conjecture. 180 00:18:29.599 --> 00:18:34.319 What I can say is that in Thebes Philip would have experienced life among the 181 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:40.799 elite and elading Greek city state. If anything, he might have experienced the 182 00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:45.680 ups and downs of political life within a polis. One party might have power 183 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:51.599 for one year and not the next. That would have been very different from 184 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:57.720 life and relatively stable Macedonia. Philip might also have learned how factional the Greeks 185 00:18:57.759 --> 00:19:03.839 were, something that he could and would use to his advantage later on, 186 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:14.079 but again it's all very much conjecture. In late three sixty eight or early 187 00:19:14.440 --> 00:19:21.200 three sixty seven BC, King Alexander the Second of Macedonia was stabbed to death 188 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:26.960 during a ritual dance. Although one man was executed for the crime, it 189 00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:34.039 is almost certain that more when one person was involved. Paradocus, the second 190 00:19:34.079 --> 00:19:38.160 born son, was not yet old enough to take over in his own right, 191 00:19:40.519 --> 00:19:48.039 so a man named Ptolemay of Aloras was appointed regent. Interestingly, he 192 00:19:48.200 --> 00:19:53.319 was another of Amanitus his sons by a different wife, and historians believe it 193 00:19:53.440 --> 00:20:00.119 highly likely he was involved in the murder of the previous king. Still, 194 00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:06.240 the upshot from all this is that Philip now found himself a little closer to 195 00:20:06.359 --> 00:20:12.200 the throne. During this period, Macedonia remained relatively weak, and Thebes intervened 196 00:20:12.200 --> 00:20:18.400 in Macedonian state policy on several occasions. Old Ptolemay didn't last very long. 197 00:20:19.400 --> 00:20:25.200 In three sixty five, he was murdered, either by a Parodocus himself or 198 00:20:25.240 --> 00:20:30.240 someone acting on his behalf. Thus, Philip's second brother became king in his 199 00:20:30.279 --> 00:20:37.279 own right, but for Macedonia in general. But change and brother meant nothing. 200 00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:44.039 Paradocas followed the same policies as his brother and reached a treaty of friendship 201 00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:48.480 with Thebes. It was as a result of this treaty that Philip came home. 202 00:20:49.359 --> 00:20:55.400 He would never again find himself in the hands of enemies or any foreign 203 00:20:55.400 --> 00:21:00.880 power. At some point after returning, Philip was given charge of a region 204 00:21:00.920 --> 00:21:07.559 by his brother. Scholars speculate that this was to the east, facing the 205 00:21:07.559 --> 00:21:14.759 Thracians and other Greeks. Whether Paradacas did this because he genuinely trusted his brother 206 00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:18.759 or because he wanted him somewhere that he could keep an eye on him, 207 00:21:19.400 --> 00:21:26.079 we do not know. Paradacas had an infant son at this point, so 208 00:21:26.200 --> 00:21:30.480 he might have viewed his brother as a potential rival. Either way, Philip 209 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:36.200 would have found himself in a very active theater of war all of a sudden. 210 00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:41.559 This was after the Peloponnesian War and during a period of Athenian resurgence. 211 00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:48.799 Athens was trying hard to get Amphipolis back under his control, and Charles ads 212 00:21:49.480 --> 00:21:55.640 the region. Just how the modern day Istanbul remained a crucial stopping point on 213 00:21:55.720 --> 00:22:00.799 the weight of the Black Sea. Paradicas at first backed Amphipolis, then he 214 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:07.640 switched sides, then he switched sides again. Frankly, it seems like he 215 00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:15.119 lost every time he switched, so for the other combatants it might have made 216 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:21.920 more a sense not to have Parodicas on your side during the war, but 217 00:22:21.960 --> 00:22:26.880 this was at Macedonia's only problem at the time. In three sixty a large 218 00:22:27.079 --> 00:22:33.720 army of Illyrians invaded, Parodicas summoned a massive force of his own, and 219 00:22:33.799 --> 00:22:37.839 the two sides met either at the tail end of three sixty or at the 220 00:22:37.960 --> 00:22:42.960 very beginning of three fifty nine. We do not have any major details of 221 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:48.880 the battle. What we do know is that the Macedonians were crushed, losing 222 00:22:48.920 --> 00:22:56.400 four thousand men. One of those was Parodiccas. He is the first known 223 00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:03.119 Macedonian king to have been killed in battle against to foreign foe. Parodacus's son 224 00:23:03.640 --> 00:23:08.799 was far too young to rule on his own, so Philip was proclaimed king. 225 00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:17.440 Hindsight makes Philip the obvious choice to succeed his brother, but keep in 226 00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:22.200 mind he was twenty two or maybe twenty one at the time and totally unproven. 227 00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:29.960 There is no direct evidence that he had participated in any major military campaigns 228 00:23:30.839 --> 00:23:37.720 or had any military experience. What we can surmise is that the majority of 229 00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:45.079 Macedonian nobles agreed to his rule. This might have been pragmatic. The Illyrians 230 00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:51.039 were encamped in Upper Macedonia. Other tribes were chomping at the borders. This 231 00:23:51.240 --> 00:23:56.000 was not a time for an internal squabble. Luckily, Pardacus's defeat and death 232 00:23:56.559 --> 00:24:02.839 seems to have taken place in early winter, and no one campaigned in the 233 00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:08.039 dead of winter, so that bought Philip a little breathing space. The Illyrians 234 00:24:08.079 --> 00:24:14.680 wanted to go home and enjoy the spoils of their victory. Theirs was a 235 00:24:14.720 --> 00:24:21.920 predatory war for financial enrichment. They weren't trying to annex Macedonia. Still, 236 00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:26.440 there were various step brothers and cousins about plotting a return and looking for allies. 237 00:24:27.640 --> 00:24:33.759 Philip would have some time to prepare himself, but Macedonia still looked like 238 00:24:33.799 --> 00:24:41.240 a kingdom on the verge of tearing itself apart. Macedonian cavalry had always been 239 00:24:41.319 --> 00:24:47.200 well regarded throughout the Balkans and into Greece, but their infantry was another matter, 240 00:24:47.880 --> 00:24:52.200 and this was another problem facing Philip. Frankly, at the time, 241 00:24:53.079 --> 00:25:00.279 Macedonian infantrymen weren't considered any better than any other unskilled rabb that happened to be 242 00:25:00.440 --> 00:25:07.559 just wandering around. A few Macedonian kings had tried to write the ship, 243 00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:12.359 but none had lived long enough to make it happen. It is worth noting 244 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:21.200 at this stage just how financially poor Macedonia was. The land was not rich 245 00:25:21.240 --> 00:25:26.599 in precious metals. Though there was iron, the Macedonian kings still had to 246 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:30.960 mint coins and bronze, never silver. They couldn't even think about gold. 247 00:25:32.279 --> 00:25:37.839 Even Philip's brothers had enjoyed a treasury far poorer than those of the neighboring Illyrians. 248 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:45.119 But on the other side of the coin Macedonia remained a land of opportunity. 249 00:25:45.319 --> 00:25:51.279 Lower Macedonia, the part closer to de Gres, had plentiful farmlands and 250 00:25:51.400 --> 00:25:57.079 the perfect climate for growing cereal grains. Upper Macedonia was less effective for farming, 251 00:25:57.680 --> 00:26:06.759 but possessed excellent pasture lands. Plus Macedonia had plenty of timber. Compare 252 00:26:06.839 --> 00:26:11.039 this to Grease, which had little good farmland and was almost completely devoid of 253 00:26:11.079 --> 00:26:15.400 good trees by this stage, and you can see how in the right hands, 254 00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:22.960 Macedonia might be able to quickly move up the ladder. Plus, another 255 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:27.599 benefit was that in Macedonia, the king technically owned all the natural resources, 256 00:26:29.799 --> 00:26:34.160 so Philip had the materials he needed to revitalize his state. He just needed 257 00:26:34.200 --> 00:26:41.200 to survive in order to do it, which was no small matter. But 258 00:26:41.319 --> 00:26:44.920 at the time, no one knew what the future held. For the moment, 259 00:26:44.920 --> 00:26:51.000 it seemed like Philip had merely taken control over an impoverished kingdom surrounded by 260 00:26:51.160 --> 00:26:55.640 enemies, and that he would probably die young like his brothers, and the 261 00:26:55.640 --> 00:27:00.000 throne would just pass on to the next nobody. At the time, Macedonia 262 00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:04.799 was known less as a kingdom than as a resource rich tract of land open 263 00:27:04.880 --> 00:27:11.519 to pillage. From the word go, Philip was determined to change things. 264 00:27:12.559 --> 00:27:17.759 He had time, not much, but some, and he was determined to 265 00:27:17.880 --> 00:27:23.200 use it. Most scholars agree that the armies which would bring Greece under his 266 00:27:23.279 --> 00:27:30.119 control and then march forth to conquer the Persian Empire under his son, began 267 00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:37.839 to coalesce. Even in these early months. Philip introduced new tactics and equipment. 268 00:27:38.119 --> 00:27:44.920 Macedon lacked a hop light class. Hop lights were effective spearmen in their 269 00:27:44.920 --> 00:27:49.319 own right, and Philip recognized he simply did not have the time to train 270 00:27:49.400 --> 00:27:56.599 them right now, so instead he issued them a new weapon. A sarissa 271 00:27:59.559 --> 00:28:06.039 assa is a pike about sixteen to eighteen feet long and designed to be held 272 00:28:06.079 --> 00:28:11.240 with both hands. It had an iron tip and an iron counterweight on the 273 00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:17.440 butt, which made it relatively easy for one man to control. By contrast, 274 00:28:18.279 --> 00:28:25.480 most hoplights used a spear around twelve to fourteen feet long. The sarissa 275 00:28:25.640 --> 00:28:30.759 was cumbersome by comparison, and useless if you were fighting alone. It was 276 00:28:30.839 --> 00:28:37.920 designed for groups of pikemen to fight in concert. The sarissa was also too 277 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:44.279 heavy for the cumbersome hopland shield, which Philip replaced by a smaller two foot 278 00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:51.160 diameter one. At this early stage, infantrymen in Philip's army wore no armor, 279 00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:56.240 so the man in the front row only really had his eighteen foot long 280 00:28:56.319 --> 00:29:00.799 pike to keep the enemy at bay, but he and if the enemy got 281 00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:07.279 passed his pike. The first five rows of a Macedonian FAILINGX projected their pikes 282 00:29:07.279 --> 00:29:12.640 out in front, making a direct assault on a mass of sarissa wielding soldiers. 283 00:29:14.359 --> 00:29:21.200 Tantamount to suicide. Later on, Macedonian failingxes were eight rows deep, 284 00:29:21.480 --> 00:29:25.920 and may have been from the start, with the first five rows all actively 285 00:29:25.960 --> 00:29:32.279 participating in combat. I once saw it described as a porcupine of death, 286 00:29:32.759 --> 00:29:37.359 and I think that's apt to a large extent. One Roman commander and these 287 00:29:37.400 --> 00:29:44.319 were hard guys to scare in the second century BC described the approach of such 288 00:29:44.319 --> 00:29:51.880 a failing as the most terrifying thing he ever saw. There was nothing subtle 289 00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:56.720 about Philip's new formation. It was designed to smash into the enemy head on, 290 00:29:57.319 --> 00:30:03.400 not conduct elaborate maneu verse on the battlefield. In this formation, the 291 00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:08.880 individual soldier did not need great skill with his weapon. Really, all you 292 00:30:08.920 --> 00:30:14.799 had to do was hold your place and thrust your sarissa. So long as 293 00:30:14.839 --> 00:30:18.599 gaps did not develop in the line, odds are you would be safe. 294 00:30:18.680 --> 00:30:22.680 It was easy for Philip to train his men to stay information, keep their 295 00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:26.440 ranks and files, and for the front row to jab with their weapons. 296 00:30:27.799 --> 00:30:32.519 It took only a few months to drill for such a failings to be proven 297 00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:40.920 proficient. The pikemen of Phillip's later years and of Alexander's trained far beyond this 298 00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:45.720 simple beginning. They're going to be able to execute complex maneuvers. But we're 299 00:30:45.720 --> 00:30:52.680 getting ahead of ourselves. For centuries, historians have debated where Philip came up 300 00:30:52.720 --> 00:30:59.880 with this idea. He may well have invented the sarissa. The Thracians sometimes 301 00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:03.279 used long spears, but in that case the weapon was not held with two 302 00:31:03.319 --> 00:31:10.839 hands, so Philip's idea does seem to be something novel. Philip would have 303 00:31:10.880 --> 00:31:17.039 seen the Hoplights practice in Thebes, where the Sacred Band was the elite unit 304 00:31:17.039 --> 00:31:22.279 of the day, but again hop Lights and the Macedonian philings men were not 305 00:31:22.319 --> 00:31:27.200 the same. It is likely that Philip borrowed some of what he had seen 306 00:31:27.640 --> 00:31:33.400 from the enemies around him and adapted them to his new weapon. Regardless, 307 00:31:33.960 --> 00:31:41.559 when the Macedonian Phils finally debuted, it effectively made the classical Greek Philings obsolete 308 00:31:42.079 --> 00:31:52.880 overnight. Greece just didn't know that yet. Alongside the Philings, Macedonia still 309 00:31:52.920 --> 00:31:59.079 had excellent cavalry. There were some other specialists as well, such as javelin 310 00:31:59.119 --> 00:32:04.319 throwers and chers. But again it's worth noting that around three fifty nine, 311 00:32:05.680 --> 00:32:09.839 no one had any idea that Philip's ideas were going to work. He was 312 00:32:09.920 --> 00:32:22.000 still totally unproven as a commander. His first test was around Amphipolis. Athans 313 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:25.920 still wanted its colony back. Philip was determined that they not get it. 314 00:32:28.240 --> 00:32:34.359 In three fifty nine BC, an Athenian expedition landed at Methone, a city 315 00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:38.839 on the Macedonian coast. They had mercenaries and around three thousand hop lights. 316 00:32:40.279 --> 00:32:46.000 It was a substantial force, but Athens immediately divided it into two, marching 317 00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:52.759 out with around half hoping to catch Philip. By surprise, he was not. 318 00:32:53.079 --> 00:32:58.240 Philip pounced on the diminished army and won what must have been little more 319 00:32:58.279 --> 00:33:02.519 than a skirmish. He won. Philip knew he could not follow up on 320 00:33:02.559 --> 00:33:07.519 that victory yet, so he allowed the Athenians to escape. They made one 321 00:33:07.640 --> 00:33:13.680 failed effort to take Amphipolis, and then they sailed home. With his confidence 322 00:33:13.720 --> 00:33:19.079 growing, Philip decided to try and kick the Illyrians out of or Macedonia. 323 00:33:19.480 --> 00:33:23.079 He mustered an army of around ten thousand infantry and six hundred cavalry, and 324 00:33:23.319 --> 00:33:29.200 early in three fifty eight he marched north. At first, the Illyrians tried 325 00:33:29.240 --> 00:33:32.279 to negotiate, but Philip wasn't having it. He wanted his country back, 326 00:33:34.240 --> 00:33:37.240 so the Illyrians mustered their own army of around ten thousand infantry in five hundred 327 00:33:37.240 --> 00:33:43.920 cavalry. The Illyrians, of course, were confident after routing Paradocus, so 328 00:33:44.039 --> 00:33:46.880 little did they know what lay ahead of them. The two armies met in 329 00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:53.000 fairly open country, great for phalanx warfare. The Illyrians hung back, still, 330 00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:59.960 hoping the relatively untested Macedonians would get nervous break and run. Philip trusted 331 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.359 in his training and advanced. He ordered his cavalry to advance around the flanks. 332 00:34:05.240 --> 00:34:09.159 There's no mention of the Illyrian cavalry, so most historians assume they dismounted 333 00:34:09.159 --> 00:34:14.559 and fought with the infantry. It was a long battle. Both sides pushed 334 00:34:14.599 --> 00:34:19.679 back and forth throughout the day. Whichever side held out the longest was going 335 00:34:19.760 --> 00:34:27.519 to win. The Illyrians cracked first. Casualty rates in classical warfare were not 336 00:34:27.599 --> 00:34:35.320 high unless one side broke and ran. The Illyrians did so most historians calculate 337 00:34:35.360 --> 00:34:42.559 their losses around seventy percent. In other words, seven thousand men. The 338 00:34:42.599 --> 00:34:46.599 Illyrians, now with little choice, begged for peace, and so with one 339 00:34:46.880 --> 00:34:52.719 victorious battle, Philip recaptured all of Upper Macedonia. In the end of a 340 00:34:52.800 --> 00:35:00.000 minute of stunning first year on the throne, but Philip remained in a precarious 341 00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:04.800 situation. Sure for the moment his army was feared, but that might not 342 00:35:04.920 --> 00:35:09.880 last forever. The Illyrians were chastened, but would recover. So Philip made 343 00:35:09.880 --> 00:35:17.119 his first marriage alliance, marrying a data an Illyrian princess as her dowry. 344 00:35:17.239 --> 00:35:22.880 Philip received significant land grants in Illyria itself and of course the promise of peace. 345 00:35:23.280 --> 00:35:27.960 Not long after, Philip took a second wife, remember the polygamy thing. 346 00:35:28.599 --> 00:35:34.320 Her name was Elimia. She was from Upper Macedonia. Philip was the 347 00:35:34.320 --> 00:35:38.360 first king in a long time to insist on total royal control over all of 348 00:35:38.440 --> 00:35:46.639 Upper Macedonia. The aristocracy there was quote unquote invited to court as companions of 349 00:35:46.639 --> 00:35:52.599 the king, weakening their local ties. There doesn't seem to have been any 350 00:35:52.800 --> 00:36:00.400 major opposition to Philip's policy of effectively annexing Upper Macedonian, placing it first under 351 00:36:00.440 --> 00:36:07.800 our guayid control. And he cemented his control by forcing peasants to abandon pastoralism 352 00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:10.719 and moved to cities and towns they could be farmers would be much easier to 353 00:36:10.760 --> 00:36:16.880 control. To speed this process along, Philip brought in settlers from Lower Macedonia. 354 00:36:19.320 --> 00:36:22.599 None of this was instant or inevitable, but it weren't. As much 355 00:36:22.639 --> 00:36:27.800 as we remember Alexander as a great general, we have to always admire Philip 356 00:36:27.840 --> 00:36:31.760 as a great diplomat. Now, don't get me wrong, Philip was a 357 00:36:31.760 --> 00:36:37.840 great general too that in the classical world, diplomacy and force were intertwined. 358 00:36:38.199 --> 00:36:45.480 Philip wanted to make Macedonia more secure by dominating his neighbors. He wasn't interested 359 00:36:45.519 --> 00:36:50.880 in being friends with them, and three fifty eight BC his next target was 360 00:36:50.920 --> 00:36:55.119 Thessaly. Vassily, at the time was essentially divided into two political organizations. 361 00:36:55.960 --> 00:37:00.800 One was centered around the city of Faraye and controlled coastline. The other was 362 00:37:00.880 --> 00:37:06.159 landlocked and more interested in the growing power of Thebes than anything Philip was up 363 00:37:06.159 --> 00:37:10.840 to. Hence, Thessaly was politically divided in three fifty eight, just as 364 00:37:10.920 --> 00:37:15.159 Macedon had been during Philip's youth, and Philip was determined to take advantage of 365 00:37:15.159 --> 00:37:22.280 the situation. He did this first through just more marriages. He married a 366 00:37:22.400 --> 00:37:25.039 noble from Fara Eye for his third wife, and one from the interior of 367 00:37:25.079 --> 00:37:30.639 Thessaly for his fourth. These two marriages gave Philip connections with the aristocracy of 368 00:37:30.679 --> 00:37:37.480 Thessaly. For the moment, this did nothing other than make an attack from 369 00:37:37.480 --> 00:37:43.639 Thessaly less likely, not out of the question, just less likely. Before 370 00:37:43.719 --> 00:37:47.800 the end of three fifty seven, Philip had taken another wife, Olympius. 371 00:37:50.159 --> 00:37:54.039 While just one of Philip's wives at this point, she would become the most 372 00:37:54.079 --> 00:38:00.239 important wife later on, as she is the mother of Alexander the Right. 373 00:38:00.400 --> 00:38:05.960 She was a fierce personality, to say the least, during the wars of 374 00:38:05.960 --> 00:38:10.400 the successors. She is going to lead her own armies. According to legend, 375 00:38:10.920 --> 00:38:15.320 Philip fell in love with Olympius at first sight, before he even married 376 00:38:15.320 --> 00:38:19.519 any of his other wives, though this could just be a post factos story 377 00:38:20.079 --> 00:38:24.960 end to prop up her importance in the Alexander narrative. As with many things 378 00:38:24.960 --> 00:38:31.079 associated with Alexander, it can be hard to divorce fact from fiction. For 379 00:38:31.199 --> 00:38:37.559 example, Olympius is alleged to have given birth to Alexander on the exact same 380 00:38:37.679 --> 00:38:42.400 day in three fifty six BC that the Great Temple of Artemists in Ephesus, 381 00:38:42.920 --> 00:38:47.679 one of the wonders of the ancient world, burned to the ground. Well, 382 00:38:47.719 --> 00:38:53.320 it might be amusing to think that the goddess was so distracted by Alexander's 383 00:38:53.360 --> 00:39:00.360 death then she let her own temple burn down. Historians today think it unlikely 384 00:39:00.760 --> 00:39:07.159 both events happened on the same day. Turning to Philip's court for a moment, 385 00:39:07.800 --> 00:39:12.960 historians get only a few glimpses of life there, and these tend to 386 00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:17.119 be negative because they're all written by Greeks. Certainly, Philip was absent from 387 00:39:17.159 --> 00:39:22.800 court more than he was there. He went on campaign every year, but 388 00:39:22.920 --> 00:39:28.840 he did have substantial palaces at both Pella and Virginia. Each palace had significant 389 00:39:28.880 --> 00:39:34.800 quarters for Philip's wives, and there were few slaves in Macedonia, but plenty 390 00:39:34.800 --> 00:39:37.920 of living space for servants. One thing I do want to note at this 391 00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:43.960 point is that at court, Philip was always attended by what we're called royal 392 00:39:44.079 --> 00:39:51.639 pages. These were the teenage sons of powerful Macedonian nobles. Philip increased their 393 00:39:51.719 --> 00:39:54.840 number dramatically during his reign to give himself yet more leverage over these aristocrats. 394 00:39:55.760 --> 00:40:02.280 Alexander's friends would come almost exclusively from this group. But for now, I 395 00:40:02.360 --> 00:40:06.920 want to leave the narrative there in three fifty seven and pick it back up 396 00:40:06.960 --> 00:40:12.199 as Philip works to flex Macedonia's military might, with some mixed results.