Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

Historical Outline 31
Philip did not destroy Athens as the orator Demosthenes had
often predicted. Instead he returned the prisoners whom he had
captured without demanding any ransom. Several months later,
he summoned representatives from all the Greek states to meet in
a council known as the synhedrion. Each member had to swear to
uphold the common peace. It was Philip’s intention to create a federation
rather than to impose direct rule. However, he also set up
military garrisons in the hope of deterring any uprising. Despite the
leniency of his settlement, the Greek cities continued to agitate for
their freedom with all possible energy. It was at the second meeting
of the newly formed council that Philip announced his intention
to conduct an expedition against Persia. Each member state was
required to contribute forces. Before the expedition departed, however,
Philip was murdered at his court in Pella in 336 b.c.e. by an
unknown assassin.
Hitherto a backward and insignificant region situated on the fringes of the Greek
world, under Philip’s leadership, Macedon came to dominate mainland Greece
as no other state had previously done. A speech attributed to Philip’s son Alexander
by the second century C.E. historian Arrian serves as a fitting obituary to
his reign:
Philip found you helpless vagabonds, mostly clothed in sheepskins, pasturing
a few sheep on the mountains and putting up a poor fight against the Illyrians,
Triballians, and neighboring Thrakians. He gave you cloaks to wear instead of
sheepskins and brought you down from the mountains to the plains. . . . He
turned you into city-dwellers and civilized you by means of laws and customs.
(Anabasis of Alexander 7.9)
The discovery in 1977 of a number of magnificent tombs at Vergina
in Macedonia by the Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos
provides clear evidence of Macedon’s technical and artistic accomplishment
under Philip II. A reconstruction of the skull that was
found in one of the tombs led Andronikos to claim that it belongs to
Philip himself, on the grounds that it provides evidence of an injury
that caused him the loss of his right eye. It contained a marble sarcophagus,
gold larnax, and ivory bed.
THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
When Philip died, his son Alexander by his wife Olympias
became king. He was just 20. With his accession, the Greek world