Philip II of Macedon spent the better part
of 20 years at war. To put it very simply, he spent one decade
fighting the Greeks, and another decade fighting his so-called barbarian neighbours. Over the course of these two decades, Macedon
went from an obscure backwater to the most powerful state on the Greek peninsula. But at the end of the second decade. Philip suffered a year of humiliating defeats
in the northeast, near a city called Byzantium. The Greeks, whom Philip had strong-armed into
a peace settlement years earlier, saw their opening. The two strongest city-states, Athens and
Thebes, formed an alliance with Byzantium against Macedon. Philip responded by withdrawing from the northeast
and marching south. He would attack the combined armies of Athens
and Thebes directly. The two sides met at the Battle of Chaeronea. The details are fuzzy, and we wouldn't have
time to go into it anyways, but the important thing is that the Philip's son and heir, Alexander,
distinguished himself by breaking through the Theban infantry at the head of a cavalry
charge, which helped Philip win a narrow victory. Athens and Thebes promptly surrendered to
Macedon. This time Philip wasn't interested in some
measly peace treaty. He was interested in domination. Philip installed a puppet government in Thebes. He had them abandon all previous treaties,
and ally themselves exclusively with Macedon. And then, just in case they didn't get the
hint, Philip installed a permanent Macedonian garrison just outside the city. Central Greece was now under Macedonian control. Athens, on the other hand, got off easy. Philip forced them to bend the knee and ally
themselves with Macedon, but that was pretty much it. He didn't interfere with the Athenian government,
and didn't humiliate them by insisting on a military presence. In gratitude, Athens awarded honourary citizenship
to both Philip and his son. This wasn't altruistic on Philip's part. Athens was a maritime power, and Philip had
big plans for their ships. But first, Philip needed to get the rest of
Greece under control. He invited all of the Greek city-states to
a meeting in Corinth. Everybody agreed to attend, except for Sparta. But Sparta was pretty irrelevant at this point,
so Philip felt perfectly safe just ignoring them and proceeding. When the Greeks arrived in Corinth, Philip
dropped a proposal in their laps. He recommended the creation of something called
the Hellenic League, also known as the League of Corinth. The League would be governed by a council,
made up of delegates from each city. This council would be empowered to pass its
own legislation, but its most important job was to figure out how to maintain a standing
army. Here's a key point: Macedon itself would not
be a member of this League, but would require each member of it to make a separate bilateral
alliance with them. Basically this meant that Macedon would get
many of the League's benefits, without being bound by any of its decisions. And there's one more layer on complexity. Philip also wanted the League to have a unified
foreign policy, conducted by somebody called the Hegemon. More importantly, the Hegemon would be responsible
for commanding the League's army during wartime. It shouldn't surprise you to learn that Philip,
as the League's architect, imagined himself in the role. I know that's confusing, so let's take a step
back for a moment, and summarize. Basically, Philip wanted to set up a complex
supranational organization that would allow Greece to govern its own internal affairs,
so long as it supplied the King of Macedon with an army. For all intents and purposes, the League would
transform Greece into a Macedonian puppet state. But this wasn't how Philip sold his proposal
to the Greeks. He sold it as Greek unification. Once united, he argued, they would be strong
enough to lead an army to the east, and liberate the Greek city-states under Persian occupation. Naturally, Philip, as Hegemon, would lead
this army. In the end, all of the Greek city-states,
(except Sparta,) agreed to join the League. Some more enthusiastically than others. The League of Corinth's first act was to formally
name Philip and his descendants Hegemon. Their second act was to declare war on the
Persian Empire. Philip was now officially in control of the
combined strength of the Greek peninsula. He then traveled to Delphi, to visit the famous
Oracle there. He asked her if he would defeat the Persian
King. Her answer was this: "the bull is crowned. All is done. The sacrificer is ready." Philip liked this answer. The Persian King was the bull, and Philip
was the sacrificer. Invigorated, he returned to Macedon, and spent
the rest of the year gathering his forces, preparing for the campaign to come. The next spring, Philip sent an advance force
of 10,000 men across the Dardanelles, to establish a beachhead in Asia. This small army moved south along the coast,
liberating several Greek cities that were under Persian rule. But before Philip could follow with the rest
of the army, he needed to stabilize the home front. The King of Epirus was itching for a war,
and that was a problem. Philip sought peace by offering his daughter's
hand in marriage. The King of Epirus agreed. When their wedding day rolled around, Philip
used the opportunity to exhibit his newfound power. Dignitaries from all over Greece were invited,
and grand festivities were planned. The wedding itself took place on the first
day, and there was partying and drinking late into the night. On the second day there was a parade, where
12 giant statues, depicting each of the major Greek gods rolled down the street to cheering
crowds. A 13th statue, of Philip himself, followed
close behind, and was added to their ranks. After the parade, there were games planned. When Philip arrived at the theatre, he sent
his retinue in first, and waited in the wings to make his grand entrance. As Philip was waiting, one of the his bodyguards
approached. Without warning, the bodyguard stabbed the
King in the chest with a dagger, killing him instantly. The assassin bolted, running for his horse,
which was waiting nearby. Three young Macedonians took off after him. In his flight, the assassin got tangled up
in a vine, and fell to the ground. The Macedonians caught up to him, and ran
him through with a spear. The King was dead, and so was his killer. Philip wasn't the sacrificer. Philip was the bull. This murder remains an enigma to this day. We don't know all of the details. But here's what we do know. Philip's bodyguard-turned-assassin was actually
one of his ex-lovers. The King had callously tossed the young man
aside after a brief affair, and there was some bad blood between the two. This same ex-lover was later the victim of
a horrific sexual crime, committed by Philip's father-in-law. When Philip's ex-lover told the King about
it, the he expressed sympathy, but did nothing. This caused further animosity between the
two. This could be enough to explain Philip's murder. It's possible that the whole thing boiled
down to a personal vendetta. But there are some weird loose ends that don't
quite make sense. After Philip's death, the assassin's mangled
corpse was put on display for the public. Apparently, Olympias, Philip's widow, was
seen approaching the corpse and placing a golden crown on its head. Then, some days later, she had the assassin's
body taken down, and laid to rest in a place of honour not far from the King's tomb. This is some strange behaviour. Maybe she made a deal with the assassin, and
promised to see to his burial after the deed was done. But there's one more thing that doesn't sit
right. The three men who chased down the assassin
in the moments after the murder just happened to be close personal friends with the king's
son. We know that the assassin tripped and fell
and conceivably could have been taken alive, and yet these three men killed him on the
spot. Maybe that was the plan. Maybe the assassin knew about some wider conspiracy. The sad truth is that we don't know. But we do know what happened next. At the age of 20, Philip's son, Alexander
III of Macedon ascended to the throne.
I love this channel.
Dude's channel is beast. Probably the best content out there for this stuff. BazBattles is great too. Makes me want to go play TW
More videos regarding Philip/Alexander the Great that happen after this video
The Battle of Chaeronea 338 BC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0YsoaN__8U
The Battle of Granicus 334 BC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92_6IJ4I9p0
The Battle of Issus 333 BC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W6Zs2IOu70
The Siege of Tyre 332 BC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WkWy47ighY
Alexander the Great: Battle of Gaugamela 331 BC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY3z3yh7a24
Alexander the Great: Battle of the Persian Gate 330 BC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS-4TsurrFY
Credits BazBattles https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx-dJoP9hFCBloY9qodykvw
Yet another succinct and intriguing exposition by Historia Civilis. One hopes this will be a prelude to a full series on the Hellenistic period.
I don't think this Alexander character is going to make it very far. Guess I'll have to wait for the next video to find out!
What happened to this guy? The way he narrates his videos now feels incredibly unnatural. His older videos (while having shite audio quality) never had this problem.
He sounds like text-to-speech program now.
Inb4 Macedonia is Greek
This video lacks large detail concerning Phillip II's expert use of geopolitics to set city states against each other and his use of the amphictyonic league to push his objectives.
I love this channel, but sometimes the host sounds like a robot