Philip Ii And The Rise Of Macedonia

Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Philip II and the Rise of Macedonia Introduction During 590 BCE, there was the rise of the league of neighbors in central Greece (Sarah 48). The league gained political strength since it insisted on the observance of the sacred space of Delphi. In Macedonia, the Macedonian kings were seeing an implementation of the Greek Culture in the Macedonian court(Cargill 77). It is during this time that Philip II was taken in hostage as a teenager by the Thebans and he was taught the Greek military, political and cultural tactics that ensured that made him to become a good leader of Macedonia. Philip II gained a deep understanding of the Delphic Amphictyony in the whole of Greek (Harris 67). In his war, he used various tactics such as the Third Sacred War and bring together Macedonia as one of the states of Greek. The research paper will focus on Philip II and Macedonia. The research question that has been chosen for the paper is what was the role of Philip II in the rise Macedonia. As a strategy to comprehensively address the research question, the paper will be divided to that is the first part will address the background of Philip and Macedonia, the second part will address how he built a strong military in Macedonia and the last part will address the efforts that he made in bringing peace in the Third Sacred War. Background of Philip and Macedonia Macedonia is one of the states in Greek that is found at the top of the Greek peninsula that acts as a shield from the non-Greeks. During the time that Philip was held in hostage at Thebes, Macedonia had a series of drastic changes that too ace in the royal house. After the assassination of Alexander the Great, there was a number of conspiracies where some claimed that Ptolemy was one of the leading suspects in the murder. However, he later ascended to the throne and Eurydice who was one of his supporters gave him the necessary advice and stood by his side. The ascension of Ptolemy made the Greek kingdom to be split into two where a half of the kingdom supported the proper successor of Alexander II who was Pausanias (Sarah 112). Since Athens was experiencing a power struggle with Thebes, Ptolemy got rid of Macedonia that was led by Pausanias. Pelopidas later invaded Ptolemy and he was humiliated in defeat. In 365 Ptolemy lost his power and Perdicas III took over the kingdom. During this time, Athens and Thebes were fighting for the political control of Macedonia and in most of the cases they achieved this by appointing and supporting one king after another to rule Macedonia. Since Macedonia had a number of economic activities such as the building of ships, the two leaders did their best to make sure that they controlled such economic activities so that they would build their kingdoms (Parke 187). The Athens were infuriated by the actions of Peridicas especially after he provided the Thebes with the timber and ignored Athens. The Athenians would later hate the Macedonians and they continued with the fight over Amphipolis. Philip would later come back home in the same year and he was given a territory called Amphaxitis to act as a protector. As a protector, Philip built a strong military and learnt a number of new military tactics that would later help him in his life as a ruler. Philip also built a strong Theban formation so that he would be able to make sure that there is a proper protection of the kingdom. At this time Perdiccas was so undecided on the control of both Thebes and Athens for the control of the economy of Macedonia (Perlman 142). Having stayed with the soldiers for a long period of time, he was able to build a strong fighting force. As a good leader, he was able to create a strong army which had been lacking for a long period of time in Macedonia so that he would be able to fight the neighboring kingdoms which attacked Macedonia. It was one of the greatest challenges that was facing Macedonia and it was the main reason why the other kingdoms easily gained control over the Macedonians since they were not armed (Harris 1220). There was also another threat that faced the Macedonians and they were the Illyrians. The Illyrians also wanted to control Macedonia and they went to war with Perdiccas in 359 where unfortunately most of his men numbering up to 4,000 men were killed and his kingdom was weakened (Sarah 65). The Illyrians saw this a good opportunity to gain control over the Macedonians. Amyntas who was the son of Peridicas was the heir to the kingdom and sensing the weakness, the neighboring kingdoms of Athens backed another different pretender to the throne while the Chalcidice backed up another one (Sarah 67). Philip was put in place as the regent to the young Amyntas. Building of a military force for Macedonia by Philip During this time, Philip realized the danger that was surrounding the kingdom and as one of the military tactics that he used was diplomacy. Since he was not prepared at all to fight any war given that he had just arose to the kingdom, he therefore decided to make peace with the neighboring kingdoms. Philip succeeded in his efforts and he created a temporary peace with the neighboring kingdoms such as Athens over the control of Amphipolis (Cargill 87). The Athens had already sent a younger king Argaeus with a military force to become the king of Macedonia. Unfortunately, the Athenian military force on arriving in Macedonia, they realized that the Macedonians had already decided to put Philip as their king and they had to make their way back to their ships. It is during the time that they were making their way back to the ship that Philip captured them and held them as prisoners. As he held the military, he treated them kindly and it is during it is time that he built a strong military. In most of the works that have been written by the different authors, they describe Philip as a military genius due to his ability to create such a strong Macedonian army within a short period of time by using different military tactics. Besides, Philip built the military during the time that there were no material resources for the Macedonians. He introduced a change in the military statistics and formed a large army that had never been seen before since the reign of Alexander. In the year 358, Philip assembled an army of 10,000 infantry and 600 cavalry and led them to war against the Bardylis in which he defeated them( Harris 123). Phillip also introduced a number of equipment such as the Macedonian Phalanx for the very first time in Macedonia. In 424, Peridicas II had made an allied force with the Spartan general Brasidas who would use his force of 1700 hoplites to defeat the Perdiccas Arrhabaeus who was also in charge of the Greek army of the hoplites( Perlman 56). It is during the Third Sacred War that Philip also portrayed his leadership skills. Some of the authors argue that since Philip was a Greek, he tried as much as he can to identify with the Macedonians by putting aside his Greek nature and adopting that o the Macedonians. Given that he hid his Greek nature, the Macedonians did not easily notice any contradiction and therefore there was no conflict whether he was a Macedonian or not. The Macedonian army which had acquired a number of Theban tactics under the leadership of Philip also claimed a Macedonian identity while at the same time they claimed a Greek identity. The above strategy made sure that Philip as a ruler was tied with both Macedonians and the Greeks and there was not conflict with each other. It is through this argument that most of the scholars argue that it was a Greek who lead Macedonia. Third Sacred War and Diplomatic Tactics by Philip Philip controlled Delph...