Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Phillip II of Macedon

Starting point is 00:00:00 Alexander the Great was one of the most famous people of the ancient world. He defeated a vastly larger Persian Empire and conquered everything from Egypt to India. Yet what Alexander achieved wouldn't have been possible without his father. In fact, if Alexander hadn't accomplished what he did, his father probably would have been the one given the title, Great. Learn more about Philip II of Macedon and how he changed the world of ancient Greece and laid the foundations for his son on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong?

Starting point is 00:00:47 ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. Before I start the discussion of Philip the second, I want to talk about the statistical topic of regression to the mean. Regression to the mean implies that eventually over time, things will go back to average. If you have a run of good luck or bad luck, it will eventually come to an end. The concept of regression to the mean also applies to people, in particular between generations.

Starting point is 00:01:33 Consider for a moment anyone who is really talented, an athlete, an actor, a singer, or a scientist. How many times do someone who is supremely talented have a child who surpasses them? in that talent. There are a few cases, but they're few and far between. Bobby Bonds was a very good baseball player, and his son, Barry, surpassed him. Henry Fonda was a great actor, and his daughter Jane won two Academy Awards for acting, more than the father. However, these are the exception, not the rule.

Starting point is 00:02:05 Albert Einstein's son, Hans Albert, was a fine engineer, but he was not his father. Bob Dylan's son, Jacob is a singer-songwriter, but he never reached his dad's level. and likewise, Colin Hanks hasn't quite reached the same level as Tom Hanks. Historically, the same has played out with rulers and kings. A great king is almost always replaced by a very mediocre son who cannot live up to his father's accomplishments. And this is what makes the story of Philip and Alexander so remarkable. In a previous episode, I covered Alexander the Great's life, at least as much as I could, given the time constraints of this podcast. At a young age, in a very short period of time, Alexander conquered more than anyone else in history

Starting point is 00:02:52 before him. However, Alexander's accomplishments, as impressive as they were, were only possible because of what his father did before him. Macedonia was on the periphery of the Greek world. They were considered yokels by the rest of the Greeks. The Greek world at the time was divided into mostly autonomous city states. They might control the land surrounding their city, but for the most part, they fought with each other and sometimes banded together to expel foreign invaders. At no point had anyone proven powerful enough to conquer all of Greece and bring the entire region under the control of a single ruler. Philip was born in 382 BC in Pella, the capital of the Kingdom of Macedonia. Macedonia was located in what is today northern Greece,

Starting point is 00:03:40 the country of North Macedonia, and a bit of southern Bulgaria. He was the youngest son of King Amantus III and Queen Eurydice the first, but he was not the heir apparent. At the age of six, he was sent to the Greek city of Thebes as a royal hostage. Royal hostages were not uncommon during this period. It was sort of an insurance policy against going to war. While in Thebes, he was tutored by the great Greek general Epaminondas. It was Epaminondas who defeated the Spartans and turned Thebes into the most powerful Greek city state for a short period of time. This instruction turned out to be invaluable in his education. He returned to Macedonia in 364 BC at the age of 18.

Starting point is 00:04:22 While he was away, his older brother Perticus ascended to the throne. However, in 359 BC, Perticus died in battle with the Illyrians to the west, and the throne passed to his infant son and Philip's nephew, Amantus the 4th. Philip was selected to be the young king's regent, but he just took the throne for himself with very little opposition. Philip became the leader of a kingdom that was a mess. The Illyrians from the west, the Paonians and Thracians from the northeast, and the Athenians from the south were all making incursions into his kingdom.

Starting point is 00:04:53 Now that he had become king, he began to show his true brilliance. Macedonia had many enemies, and he had to get things under control in order for it to survive. He first bought off the Pannonians and the Thracians to give himself some breathing room. He then went on to attack Illyria, which was along the Adriatic coast. in what is today Croatia. He defeated the Illyrians at the Battle of Aragon Valley in 358 BC, where he inflicted heavy losses on them. The victory secured the western and southern flanks of Macedonia. One of the reasons for a success on the battlefield was because of the changes he made to the Macedonian army. Prior to Philip, almost all Greek armies fought in a phalanx formation

Starting point is 00:05:35 using spears as their main weapon. A phalanx was a tight group of soldiers known as Hopalites, all equipped with shields and spears. Each spear, known as a dory, was about two to three meters long, or about six feet seven inches to nine feet ten inches. Phillips' innovation was to use spears that were six meters long, or twice as long as the traditional Greek dory. This ultra-long spear was known as a serissa. The idea behind it was really simple.

Starting point is 00:06:06 If you have a longer spear than your enemy, then you can reach out and touch them before you. they can reach you. The formation of Hopalites with Sarissa's was known simply as the Macedonian phalanx. He also implemented other reforms in the army, including allowing common soldiers to advance up the ranks based on Merritt. And he was also one of the first generals in the ancient world to use torsion canopults in siege warfare. A torsion canopult is an ancient artillery weapon that uses twisted ropes or sinew to store and release energy for launching projectiles. They could throw objects much further than tension-based canopults like the ballista,

Starting point is 00:06:43 which used flexing of wood arms to store energy for launching projectiles. In 357 BC, he married Olympias, his fourth wife. She was the daughter of Neoptolemus I, the first, the king of a pyrus. The next year, she gave birth to a son named Alexander. Because Macedonian kings took multiple wives, and Philip would ultimately take seven, there was no clear-cut path of succession. Having multiple wives allowed Philip to use marriage as a bargaining chip with neighboring kingdoms. Over the next several years, he began a series of military conquest to both protect his borders and expand his kingdom.

Starting point is 00:07:21 He conquered the cities of Podidaya, Amphipolis, and Crenadus, which he later changed to Philippi. He also took the city of Methany, which was the last vestige of Athenian control in the region. In the battle to take, Methany, he lost his right eye in charge. combat. At the same time, one of his generals went to Illyria and defeated the Illyrians again. Beginning in 354 BC, he became involved in what was known as the Third Sacred War in Thessaly, the region just south of Macedonia. The war got its name because it was over control over the sacred town and temple of Delphi. The result was a victory over the forces of Fosius, which was located still further south of Macedon, and Philip being declared the Archon

Starting point is 00:08:02 of the Thessalian League. During all these battles in the periphery of Macedonia, Philip never directly conflicted with the Athenians, but both sides knew that such a conflict was a matter of if, not when. From 352 to 346 BC, Philip ignored the south and focused his attention on the regions in the Balkans to the north and west, and along the northeast coast. In 348, he took the city of Olympus,

Starting point is 00:08:30 which he subsequently raised to the ground. By 346 BC, he had established firm control over the Macedonian surroundings, and he turned his attention to the Peloponnese Peninsula. He was going to invade the southern part of the peninsula known as Laconia, which was occupied by the Spartans. He famously sent a message to the Spartans that said, quote, If I invade Laconia, I shall turn you out. The Spartans sent a one-word reply that was even more famous. It read, if. In 342, B.E.E. In 342, B, B.C., Philip attacked the Skithians to the north, and in 340 BC began to fight the Persians over in Asia, or what is today Turkey.

Starting point is 00:09:11 His biggest victory, however, took place in the year 338 BC, when he defeated an alliance of Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Carini. This battle was one of the most decisive in the ancient world, and destroyed the Athenian and Theban forces. After Carania, there was no longer any major resistance to Philip in Greece. In the aftermath of the battle, he created the League of Corinth and established himself as the head. The League of Corinth was ostensibly a defensive alliance against the Persians, but it was a way to unify all of Southern Greece, save for the Spartans, under one ruler. At this point, Philip of Macedon had done something that no one else had ever done.

Starting point is 00:09:55 He had unified all of the Greek city-states, except for Sparta, under a single ruler. Having unified Greece, not willingly on their part, I might add, he was now prepared to try and take on the biggest existential threat to all of Greece, the Persian Empire. Persia had tried to conquer Greece several times before and had failed. The Greeks defeated them through a combination of luck and heroic battles. The Persian Empire was much larger than everything Philip had conquered combined. It would be like a minnow trying to swallow a whale.

Starting point is 00:10:30 It would be impossible to even consider doing without a unified Greece. However, despite all the work, Philip did lay the foundation for the conquest of Persia, he never did it. In October of 336 BC, Philip was celebrating the marriage of his daughter, Cleopatra, to King Alexander I of Apiris. Cleopatra was the daughter of Olympias and the sister of Alexander, and Olympias was the sister of King Alexander, which meant that he was actually marrying his niece.

Starting point is 00:11:02 During the wedding celebration, he entered a theater to meet many of the Greek diplomats and dignitaries in attendance, and he entered without his bodyguards to appear approachable. At that moment, one of his personal bodyguards, Powsinius of Arrestes, lunged at Philip and stabbed him in the ribs. Pausinius tried to flee, but was killed by Philip's other bodyguards. Over 2,000 years later, the assassination of Philip the same, second is still debated amongst historians. Some think that his wife Olympius may have been behind the plot in an attempt to secure the throne for her son. Others think that Alexander himself may have been responsible for his father's death. And other authors, years after the event occurred,

Starting point is 00:11:44 claim that Pausinius may have attacked Philip because of a love affair gone wrong. What isn't debatable is that Alexander inherited a kingdom with a unified Greece. He was given a weapon that was primed and ready to be pointed at Persia. Without taking away any of Alexander's accomplishments, which were indeed remarkable, Philip kind of did the hard part. Philip had to unify an extremely fractured Greece through a series of battles that took place over 23 years

Starting point is 00:12:14 to even think about taking on the Persians. Without Philip, there would not have been in Alexander the Great, and that is true both biologically and geopolitically. There is an interesting footnote to the story of Philip II. In 1977, an excavation was conducted at the ancient city of Igui, the traditional capital of Macedonia, located near the modern city of Virginia. There they found the tomb of Philip II. It has many well-preserved artifacts, and is a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage Site today. Could Philip II have conquered Persia like his son eventually did? We'll never know. Ultimately, Philip was one of the

Starting point is 00:12:56 the greatest generals in the ancient world. And the only reason we don't call him the great is because he was overshadowed by his own son. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiever. I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon, including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day. And also, Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server.

Starting point is 00:13:40 Links to everything are in the show notes.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Phillip II of Macedon

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