Philip II and Alexander the Great: Father and Son ... - Historia Antigua

56 FATHER, SON, AND COURT
I shall begin with a caveat, that I am in no way trying to suggest
that the Macedonian rulers were not hard drinkers, but rather that
there was a ritual and integrative function to their symposia, which
was deliberately overlooked by the Greek sources. There are scores of
anecdotes on the drunken behavior of both Philip and Alexander. 3
One has only to think, for example, of Philip’s drink-fueled attempt
(prevented only by an opportune stumble) to draw his sword against
Alexander in response to the latter’s hurling of a drinking-cup at Attalus.
4 The most obvious, perhaps, example of Alexander’s drunkenness
did not end so well, for it culminated in the murder of his childhood
friend Cleitus, who had saved his life at the battle of the Granicus
River. 5 These, of course, are extreme examples, memorable for the
violent acts fuelled by the overconsumption of alcohol perpetrated (or
nearly perpetrated) against family members and close friends.
Even when the royal symposia of both Philip and Alexander occur
under less emotionally charged circumstances, however, the Greek
sources portray them as drunken revelries, notable for their excess. To
take but one example, Philip’s (alleged) drunken reveling after his
defeat of the Greeks at Chaeronea appears to have become a topos. Its
earliest extant appearance occurs in the contemporary Philippica of
Theopompus of Chios ( apud Ath. 10.435b–c = FGrH 115 F 236):
When they [the Athenian ambassadors] had departed, he summoned
some of his companions, and told them to call in the
pipes-playing girls and Aristonicus the cithara-player and
Dorion the pipes-player and the others who customarily drank
with him. Philip used to associate everywhere with people of
this sort, and he was well-furnished with much equipment for
symposia and parties. Because he was fond of drinking and
unrestrained in his character, he kept around him many buffoons,
both musicians and joke-tellers. And after drinking all
night and becoming very drunk and violent, he dismissed all
the others and, when it was already near daybreak, he went on
a revel ( kōmos) to the Athenian ambassadors.
Theopompus’ portrayal of Philip in this episode as a drunken lout,
adding insult to injury to his defeated opponents, 6 is in keeping with
his characterization of him throughout the Philippica as a habitual
drinker and host of intemperate parties. The tendentiousness of Theopompus’
portrayal of Philip was noted even in antiquity, for Polybius
severely chastises him for his excessive virulence toward Philip, not
least because he depicted Philip as “so passionate in the drinking of
unmixed wine, that even in the day he often appeared in front of his
friends manifestly drunk.” 7