Philip II of Macedon spent the better part of 20 years at war.
To put it very simply, he spent one decade fighting the Greeks, and another decade fighting
his so-called barbarian neighbours.
Over the course of these two decades, Macedon went from an obscure backwater to the most
powerful state on the Greek peninsula.
But at the end of the second decade.
Philip suffered a year of humiliating defeats in the northeast, near a city called Byzantium.
The Greeks, whom Philip had strong-armed into a peace settlement years earlier, saw their
opening.
The two strongest city-states, Athens and Thebes, formed an alliance with Byzantium
against Macedon.
Philip responded by withdrawing from the northeast and marching south.
He would attack the combined armies of Athens and Thebes directly.
The two sides met at the Battle of Chaeronea.
The details are fuzzy, and we wouldn't have time to go into it anyways, but the important
thing is that the Philip's son and heir, Alexander, distinguished himself by breaking through
the Theban infantry at the head of a cavalry charge, which helped Philip win a narrow victory.
Athens and Thebes promptly surrendered to Macedon.
This time Philip wasn't interested in some measly peace treaty.
He was interested in domination.
Philip installed a puppet government in Thebes.
He had them abandon all previous treaties, and ally themselves exclusively with Macedon.
And then, just in case they didn't get the hint, Philip installed a permanent Macedonian
garrison just outside the city.
Central Greece was now under Macedonian control.
Athens, on the other hand, got off easy.
Philip forced them to bend the knee and ally themselves with Macedon, but that was pretty
much it.
He didn't interfere with the Athenian government, and didn't humiliate them by insisting on
a military presence.
In gratitude, Athens awarded honourary citizenship to both Philip and his son.
This wasn't altruistic on Philip's part.
Athens was a maritime power, and Philip had big plans for their ships.
But first, Philip needed to get the rest of Greece under control.
He invited all of the Greek city-states to a meeting in Corinth.
Everybody agreed to attend, except for Sparta.
But Sparta was pretty irrelevant at this point, so Philip felt perfectly safe just ignoring
them and proceeding.
When the Greeks arrived in Corinth, Philip dropped a proposal in their laps.
He recommended the creation of something called the Hellenic League, also known as the League
of Corinth.
The League would be governed by a council, made up of delegates from each city.
This council would be empowered to pass its own legislation, but its most important job
was to figure out how to maintain a standing army.
Here's a key point: Macedon itself would not be a member of this League, but would require
each member of it to make a separate bilateral alliance with them.
Basically this meant that Macedon would get many of the League's benefits, without being
bound by any of its decisions.
And there's one more layer on complexity.
Philip also wanted the League to have a unified foreign policy, conducted by somebody called
the Hegemon.
More importantly, the Hegemon would be responsible for commanding the League's army during wartime.
It shouldn't surprise you to learn that Philip, as the League's architect, imagined himself
in the role.
I know that's confusing, so let's take a step back for a moment, and summarize.
Basically, Philip wanted to set up a complex supranational organization that would allow
Greece to govern its own internal affairs, so long as it supplied the King of Macedon
with an army.
For all intents and purposes, the League would transform Greece into a Macedonian puppet
state.
But this wasn't how Philip sold his proposal to the Greeks.
He sold it as Greek unification.
Once united, he argued, they would be strong enough to lead an army to the east, and liberate
the Greek city-states under Persian occupation.
Naturally, Philip, as Hegemon, would lead this army.
In the end, all of the Greek city-states, (except Sparta,) agreed to join the League.
Some more enthusiastically than others.
The League of Corinth's first act was to formally name Philip and his descendants Hegemon.
Their second act was to declare war on the Persian Empire.
Philip was now officially in control of the combined strength of the Greek peninsula.
He then traveled to Delphi, to visit the famous Oracle there.
He asked her if he would defeat the Persian King.
Her answer was this: "the bull is crowned.
All is done.
The sacrificer is ready."
Philip liked this answer.
The Persian King was the bull, and Philip was the sacrificer.
Invigorated, he returned to Macedon, and spent the rest of the year gathering his forces,
preparing for the campaign to come.
The next spring, Philip sent an advance force of 10,000 men across the Dardanelles, to establish
a beachhead in Asia.
This small army moved south along the coast, liberating several Greek cities that were
under Persian rule.
But before Philip could follow with the rest of the army, he needed to stabilize the home
front.
The King of Epirus was itching for a war, and that was a problem.
Philip sought peace by offering his daughter's hand in marriage.
The King of Epirus agreed.
When their wedding day rolled around, Philip used the opportunity to exhibit his newfound
power.
Dignitaries from all over Greece were invited, and grand festivities were planned.
The wedding itself took place on the first day, and there was partying and drinking late
into the night.
On the second day there was a parade, where 12 giant statues, depicting each of the major
Greek gods rolled down the street to cheering crowds.
A 13th statue, of Philip himself, followed close behind, and was added to their ranks.
After the parade, there were games planned.
When Philip arrived at the theatre, he sent his retinue in first, and waited in the wings
to make his grand entrance.
As Philip was waiting, one of the his bodyguards approached.
Without warning, the bodyguard stabbed the King in the chest with a dagger, killing him
instantly.
The assassin bolted, running for his horse, which was waiting nearby.
Three young Macedonians took off after him.
In his flight, the assassin got tangled up in a vine, and fell to the ground.
The Macedonians caught up to him, and ran him through with a spear.
The King was dead, and so was his killer.
Philip wasn't the sacrificer.
Philip was the bull.
This murder remains an enigma to this day.
We don't know all of the details.
But here's what we do know.
Philip's bodyguard-turned-assassin was actually one of his ex-lovers.
The King had callously tossed the young man aside after a brief affair, and there was
some bad blood between the two.
This same ex-lover was later the victim of a horrific sexual crime, committed by Philip's
father-in-law.
When Philip's ex-lover told the King about it, the he expressed sympathy, but did nothing.
This caused further animosity between the two.
This could be enough to explain Philip's murder.
It's possible that the whole thing boiled down to a personal vendetta.
But there are some weird loose ends that don't quite make sense.
After Philip's death, the assassin's mangled corpse was put on display for the public.
Apparently, Olympias, Philip's widow, was seen approaching the corpse and placing a
golden crown on its head.
Then, some days later, she had the assassin's body taken down, and laid to rest in a place
of honour not far from the King's tomb.
This is some strange behaviour.
Maybe she made a deal with the assassin, and promised to see to his burial after the deed
was done.
But there's one more thing that doesn't sit right.
The three men who chased down the assassin in the moments after the murder just happened
to be close personal friends with the king's son.
We know that the assassin tripped and fell and conceivably could have been taken alive,
and yet these three men killed him on the spot.
Maybe that was the plan.
Maybe the assassin knew about some wider conspiracy.
The sad truth is that we don't know.
But we do know what happened next.
At the age of 20, Philip's son, Alexander III of Macedon ascended to the throne.