Phillip The second who was king of Macedon was born on 382 BC and died on the year of 336 BC by way of assassination of former bodyguard and lover, Pausanius. Phillip was a king in every sense of the word. He was accomplished in diplomacy, warfare and strategy. He was the man who put Macedon on the map, from being an almost uncouth barbarian people to making it a nation worthy of respect. Importing refined Greek culture from the south and giving it an impressive and well trained professional army from which to go forth and carve out an empire from foreign lands. This was indeed his ambition, to go forth and conquer the ailing Persian Empire with a confederation of Greek city states at his call.
A man of many talentsIt was Philip’s ingenuity that gave Alexander, his son and heir, the ability to go forth and realise his fathers dream, while at the same time making his own mark upon the world. It was by the help of Philip’s generals that Alexander fought with and upon their shoulders, ascended to glory immemorial. But without Philip’s degree of resourcefulness, ambition and perseverance, Macedon would have remained an overlooked backwater, deemed to be nothing more then more then ignorant rabble.
From father to son.So therefore, with enough justification it could be said that Philip was the Progenitor of Alexander’s Hellenic Empire, having in large part given his son the necessary tutelage and the blueprints from which Alexander needed to work from. Like his son, but perhaps as not as fixated on the notion of adopting another culture entirely. Like his son had with Persian culture.
Philip the second, had to deal with a lot of prejudice, simply from being Macedonian. He had successfully conquered Greece but had several set backs in doing so. Often enough, the city states that would be discontent under foreign rule, especially under rule from a nation they saw as inferior, despite Philip’s best efforts of trying to be kindred to the Greeks.
Suppression and humiliation of the proud city statesIn this case it was Athens and Thebes that joined together and desired to push Macedonian rule out from it’s borders. At the battle of Cheronea, Philip scored a decisive victory with Alexander taking part also. After this, the proud city of Athens was brought to heal. After this, Philip being resourceful as ever, decided that a joint effort was needed to band the Hellenic peoples together and offered a joint crusade in liberating the Greek cities currently under Persian rule. These cities were on the western coast of Anatolia, now called turkey, and being Hegemon of Greece, King, he would have the means in order to create his empire.
But before he could embark on such an adventure, he was struck down and whatever dream he had of a Macedonian Kingdom passed to his son Alexander, who exceeded all expectation. Philip can be described as a resourceful and cunning individual, strong and capable of handling a lot of pressure and quick to respond to trouble. He knew very well how to assert himself and could fight in both the physical and political arena. It was he who gave his son, Alexander, the foundations of which the latter would use to build the biggest Empire in the ancient world, prior to the Roman Empire.
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