Macedonia, Philip II., AU 1/4 Stater

Macedonia, Philipp II., 359-336 v.Chr., AU 1/4 Stater

Head of Heracles with lionskin r.

Rs.Club and bow, beneath trident

Historical

Quote: "With King Philip, the Macedonian people take the lead in the history of antiquity (...). It is a young people without history that owes its rise to the great ruler Philip II" (Bengtson 1986: 277).

Philip II. (* c. 382 BC; † 336 BC) was King of Macedonia from 359 to 336 BC and the father of Alexander the Great.

Philip was probably born in 382 BC, the son of Amyntas III and Eurydice I. He spent several years in his youth. In his youth, he spent several years as a hostage in Thebes, where he came into contact with Greek culture for the first time - and in a formative way for himself. After the death of the Macedonian king at the time, Perdiccas III, Philip took over the guardianship of his son Amyntas and defended the country from invading neighbouring peoples on his behalf.

Finally, in 359 BC, he was given the power of government because of his services to the defence of Macedonia.
As King Philip II, he succeeded in conquering and pacifying the countries bordering Macedonia (Thessaly, Thrace, Illyria) by 338 BC.

The Greek poleis recognised the danger posed to them by an expanding Macedonia and joined forces in 340 BC in the so-called Hellenic League against Philip II. The decision between Greeks and Macedonians was made in 338 BC in the Battle of Chaironeia, which Philip won.

The result of the ensuing peace negotiations between the warring parties was the Corinthian League of 337 BC. All Greek poleis except Sparta recognised the Macedonian king as hegemon and were thus able to maintain their autonomy on the basis of a general peace. One of the first decisions of this alliance was to launch a Persian campaign, for which an advance guard of 10,000 men was sent to Asia Minor in 336 BC.

Philip himself is assassinated before the actual war begins in 336 BC.

His sudden death will be "one of the reasons (...) that Philip paled all too soon behind Alexander or else is understood merely as a precursor to him" (Wirth 1985: 169).