Their participation on the Persian side does not seem to have worsened the poor relations between Macedonia and southern Greece in any way. Following the Greek victory and expulsion of the Persians, Macedon preferred to remain aloof from the rest of Greece and the squabbles and fighting which constantly took place between the Greek city-states and the southern states did the same with Macedon. Alexander I, byname Alexander Philhellene, or Alexander The Wealthy, (died c. 450 bc), 10th king of ancient Macedonia, who succeeded his father, Amyntas I, about 500 bc. More than a decade earlier, Macedonia had become a vassal state of Persia; and in 480 Alexander was obliged to accompany Xerxes I in a campaign through Greece, though he secretly aided the Greek allies. With Xerxes’ apparent acquiescence, Alexander seized the Greek colony of Pydna and advanced his frontiers eastward to the Strymon, taking in Crestonia and Bisaltia, with the rich silver deposits of Mt. Dysorus.

His son Alexander, later known as Alexander the Great, was able to expand Macedonia. In his haste, Darius left much of his family behind, including his mother, wife, infant son and two daughters. Alexander ordered that they be “honored, and addressed as royalty,” Arrian wrote. After the battle, Darius offered Alexander a ransom for his family and alliance, through marriage. Alexander watched his father campaign nearly every year and win victory after victory. Philip remodeled the Macedonian army from citizen-warriors into a professional organization, wrote Ian Worthington, professor of history and archaeology at Macquarie University, in “Philip II of Macedonia” (Yale University Press, 2010).

    {

  • After the battle, Darius offered Alexander a ransom for his family and alliance, through marriage.
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  • Fearing a revolt among the other city-states, Alexander leapt into action, marching his massive army—consisting of 3,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry—southward all the way to the tip of the Greek peninsula.
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  • Places of entertainment and leisure, such as parks and theaters, proliferated.
  • In 338 B.C., Alexander saw the opportunity to prove his military worth and led a cavalry against the Sacred Band of Thebes—a supposedly unbeatable, select army made up entirely of male lovers—during the Battle of Chaeronea.
  • Once Philip II had succeeded in his campaign to unite all the Greek states (minus Sparta) into the Corinthian League, the alliance between father and son soon disintegrated.
  • {

  • Alexander II (r. 370 – 368 BC) invaded Thessaly but failed to hold Larissa, which was captured by Pelopidas of Thebes, who made peace with Macedonia on condition that they surrender noble hostages, including the future king Philip II of Macedon (r. 359 – 336 BC).
  • |}

The next year he retrieved it with a spectacular victory, which forced the Athenians to occupy Thermopylae and bar his path to the south. Under Philip V (reigned 221–179) and his son Perseus (reigned 179–168), Macedonia clashed with Rome and lost. (See Macedonian Wars.) Under Roman control Macedonia at first (168–146) formed four independent republics without common bonds. In 146, however, it became a Roman province with the four sections as administrative units.

Macedonia briefly became the largest empire in the world under the reign of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C. Since the formation of the Republic of Macedonia in 1991, Macedonians and Greeks have sparred over which country gets to claim the history of ancient Macedonia as its own. As of February 2019, the country is officially known as the Republic of North Macedonia. Cassander was one of the diadochoi (“successors”), the Macedonian generals who fought over the empire of Alexander the Great after his death in 323. After Antipater’s death in 319, Cassander refused to acknowledge the new regent, Polyperchon. With the aid of Antigonus I Monophthalmus, ruler of Phrygia, Cassander seized Macedonia and most of Greece, including Athens (319–317).

king of macedonia

The elder son of King Philip V of Macedonia, Perseus commanded troops in his father’s wars against Rome (199) and Aetolia (189). After three years of intriguing against his brother Demetrius, accusing him of coveting the succession, Perseus in 180 persuaded the king to have Demetrius executed. On succeeding to the throne in 179, he extended his influence in Thrace and Illyria but made special efforts to win over the Greek world. To this end he resumed control of the Delphic Amphictyony, established excellent relations with Rhodes, and encouraged revolution in Aetolia and Thessaly.

Alexander’s triumphs also made him a legendary figure and an inspiration for future generations. “Until the internet age, Alexander the Great was probably the most famous human being who ever lived,” Cartledge wrote. “His astounding career of conquest inspired not just Caesar and Augustus but also Mark Antony, Napoleon, Hitler and other would-be world conquerors from the West.” While considering the conquests of Carthage and Rome, Alexander the Great died of malaria in Babylon (now Iraq), on June 13, 323 B.C. In 336, Alexander’s sister wed the Molossian king, an uncle who was also called Alexander.

Although Alexander’s army was outnumbered, he used his flair for military strategy to create formations that defeated the Persians again and caused Darius to flee. In November of 333, Alexander declared himself the king of Persia after capturing Darius and making him a fugitive. As Alexander was nearing the end of his northern campaign, he was delivered the news that Thebes, a Greek city-state, had forced out the Macedonian troops that were garrisoned there.

When Alexander was ousted as joint king by his brother, Demetrius I took up Alexander’s appeal for aid and ousted Antipater, killed Alexander V and established the Antigonid dynasty. The remaining Antipatrids, such as Antipater II Etesias, were unable to re-establish the Antipatrids on the throne. https://www.gclub.co/garden-party-slot/ In 334 B.C., he led the Macedonian army across the narrow straights of the Hellespont (today called the Dardanelles) into northwest Turkey. In one long military campaign that lasted 11 years, he conquered the Persian Empire, making Macedonia the largest, most powerful empire in the world.

Alexander then moved south along the eastern Mediterranean, continuing a strategy designed to deprive the Persians of their naval bases. Many cities surrendered, but some, such as Tyre, which was on an island in modern-day Lebanon, put up a fight and forced Alexander to lay siege. At the time of his death, Philip was contemplating invading the Persian Empire, also known as the Achaemenid Empire, which at its peak stretched from the Balkan peninsula to modern-day Pakistan and had repeatedly attempted to conquer the Greek world. Philip’s dream was passed onto Alexander, partly via his mother Olympias, according to Abernethy. “She fostered in him a burning dynastic ambition and told him it was his destiny to invade Persia.”