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Greek King Philip II of Macedon 359-336 B.C.
Bronze 19mm (6.12 grams) Struck 359-336 B.C. in the Kingdom of Macedonia
Commemorating his Olympic Games Victory
Head of Apollo right, hair bound with tainia.
Nude athlete on horse prancing right, ΦIΛIΠΠΟΥ above.
* Numismatic Note: Authentic ancient Greek coin of King Philip II of Macedonia,
father of Alexander the Great. Intriguing coin referring to his Olympic victory.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
History Behind the Coin
Horse racing was an Olympic event of great prestige and intense competition. It
was a great honor for Philip II of Macedon to gain entry to the games, since
they were open only to Greeks. Prior to that time, the Macedonians were
considered by other Greeks as barbarians. It was an even greater honor for
Philip’s horses to win the prize. In 356 BC his entry won the single horse
event, and in 348 the two horse chariot event. Both of these victories were
proudly announced (should we say propagandized) by placing references to them on
the reverses of his coins struck in gold, silver and bronze. Plutarch tells us
that this was indeed his intention: “[Philip] …had victories of his chariots
at Olympia stamped on his coins.”
 In
Greek and
Roman mythology,
Apollo,
is one of the most important and diverse of the
Olympian deities. The ideal of the
kouros (a
beardless youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the
sun; truth and prophecy;
archery;
medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son
of
Zeus and
Leto, and has a
twin sister, the chaste huntress
Artemis.
Apollo is known in Greek-influenced
Etruscan mythology as Apulu. Apollo was worshiped in both
ancient Greek and
Roman religion, as well as in the modern
Greco-Roman
Neopaganism.
As the patron of
Delphi (Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an
oracular god – the prophetic deity of the
Delphic Oracle.
Medicine and healing were associated with Apollo, whether through the god
himself or mediated through his son
Asclepius,
yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly
plague as well as one who had the ability to cure. Amongst the god’s
custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over
colonists, and as the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of
the
Muses (Apollon
Musagetes) and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god
of music and
poetry.
Hermes created
the
lyre for him,
and the instrument became a common
attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called
paeans.
In Hellenistic times, especially during the third century BCE, as Apollo
Helios he became identified among Greeks with
Helios,
god of
the sun, and his sister Artemis similarly equated with
Selene,
goddess
of the moon.
In Latin texts, on the other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to
find any conflation of Apollo with
Sol among the
Augustan poets of the first century, not even in the conjurations of
Aeneas and
Latinus in
Aeneid XII
(161-215).
Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological
texts until the third century CE.
Philip II of Macedon, (Greek:
Φίλιππος Β’ ο Μακεδών – φίλος=friend + ίππος=
horse
– transliterated
 Philippos 382 – 336 BC, was an ancient
Greek
king (basileus)
of
Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336. He was the father of
Alexander the Great and
Philip III.
Born in
Pella, Philip was
the youngest son of the king
Amyntas III and
Eurydice I. In his youth, (c. 368-365 BC) Philip was held as a hostage in
Thebes, which was the leading city of
Greece during
the
Theban hegemony. While a captive there, Philip received a military and
diplomatic education from
Epaminondas, became
eromenos of
Pelopidas,
and lived with
Pammenes, who was an enthusiastic advocate of the
Sacred Band of Thebes. In 364 BC, Philip returned to Macedon. The deaths of
Philip’s elder brothers,
King Alexander II and
Perdiccas III, allowed him to take the throne in 359 BC. Originally
appointed
regent
for his infant nephew
Amyntas IV, who was the son of Perdiccas III, Philip managed to take the
kingdom for himself that same year.
Philip’s military skills and expansionist vision of
Macedonian greatness brought him early success. He had however first to
re-establish a situation which had been greatly worsened by the defeat against
the
Illyrians
in which King Perdiccas himself had died. The
Paionians and the
Thracians
had sacked and invaded the eastern regions of the country, while the
Athenians had
landed, at
Methoni on the coast, a contingent under a Macedonian pretender called
Argeus. Using
diplomacy, Philip pushed back Paionians and Thracians promising tributes, and
crushed the 3,000 Athenian
hoplites
(359). Momentarily free from his opponents, he concentrated on strengthening his
internal position and, above all, his army. His most important innovation was
doubtless the introduction of the
phalanx infantry corps, armed with the famous
sarissa, an
exceedingly long spear, at the time the most important army corps in Macedonia.
Philip had married
Audata,
great-granddaughter of the Illyrian king of
Dardania,
Bardyllis. However, this did not prevent him from marching against them in
358 and crushing them in a ferocious battle in which some 7,000 Illyrians died
(357). By this move, Philip established his authority inland as far as
Lake Ohrid
and the favour of the
Epirotes.
He also used the
Social War as an opportunity for expansion. He agreed with the Athenians,
who had been so far unable to conquer
Amphipolis,
which commanded the
gold
mines of
Mount Pangaion, to lease it to them after its conquest, in exchange for
Pydna (lost by
Macedon in 363). However, after conquering Amphipolis, he kept both the cities
(357). As Athens declared war against him, he allied with the
Chalkidian League of
Olynthus.
He subsequently conquered
Potidaea,
this time keeping his word and ceding it to the League in 356. One year before
Philip had married the
Epirote princess
Olympias,
who was the daughter of the king of the
Molossians.
In 356 BC, Philip also conquered the town of
Crenides
and changed its name to
Philippi:
he established a powerful garrison there to control its mines, which granted him
much of the gold later used for his campaigns. In the meantime, his general
Parmenion
defeated the Illyrians again. Also in 356
Alexander was born, and Philip’s race horse won in the
Olympic Games. In 355-354 he besieged
Methone, the last city on the
Thermaic Gulf controlled by Athens. During the siege, Philip lost an eye.
Despite the arrival of two Athenians fleets, the city fell in 354. Philip also
attacked
Abdera and Maronea, on the
Thracian
seaboard (354-353).
Map of the territory of Philip II of Macedon
Involved in the
Third Sacred War which had broken out in Greece, in the summer of 353 he
invaded
Thessaly, defeating 7,000
Phocians under
the brother of Onomarchus. The latter however defeated Philip in the two
succeeding battles. Philip returned to Thessaly the next summer, this time with
an army of 20,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry including all Thessalian troops. In
the
Battle of Crocus Field 6,000 Phocians fell, while 3,000 were taken as
prisoners and later drowned. This battle granted Philip an immense prestige, as
well the free acquisition of
Pherae. Philip
was also tagus of Thessaly, and he claimed as his own
Magnesia,
with the important harbour of
Pagasae.
Philip did not attempt to advance into
Central Greece because the Athenians, unable to arrive in time to defend
Pagasae, had occupied
Thermopylae.
Hostilities with Athens did not yet take place, but Athens
was threatened by the Macedonian party which Philip’s gold created in
Euboea. From
352 to 346 BC, Philip did not again come south. He was active in completing the
subjugation of the
Balkan
hill-country to the west and north, and in reducing the Greek cities of the
coast as far as the
Hebrus. To
the chief of these coastal cities, Olynthus, Philip continued to profess
friendship until its neighboring cities were in his hands.
In 349 BC, Philip started the siege of Olynthus, which, apart
from its strategic position, housed his relatives
Arrhidaeus and Menelaus, pretenders to the Macedonian throne. Olynthus had
at first allied itself with Philip, but later shifted its allegiance to Athens.
The latter, however, did nothing to help the city, its expeditions held back by
a revolt in Euboea (probably paid by Philip’s gold). The
Macedonian king finally took Olynthus in 348 BC and razed the city to the
ground. The same fate was inflicted on other cities of the Chalcidian peninsula.
Macedon and the regions adjoining it having now been securely consolidated,
Philip celebrated his
Olympic Games at
Dium. In 347 BC, Philip advanced to the conquest of the eastern districts
about Hebrus, and compelled the submission of the
Thracian prince
Cersobleptes. In 346 BC, he intervened effectively in the war between Thebes
and the Phocians, but his wars with Athens continued intermittently. However,
Athens had made overtures for peace, and when Philip again moved south, peace
was sworn in Thessaly. With key Greek city-states in submission, Philip turned
to
Sparta; he
sent them a message, “You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I
bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and
raze your city.” Their
laconic reply: “If”. Philip and Alexander would both leave them alone.
Later, the Macedonian arms were carried across Epirus to the
Adriatic Sea. In 342 BC, Philip led a great military expedition north
against the
Scythians, conquering the Thracian fortified settlement Eumolpia to give it
his name, Philippopolis (modern
Plovdiv).
In 340 BC, Philip started the siege of
Perinthus. Philip began another siege in 339 of the city of
Byzantium.
After unsuccessful sieges of both cities, Philip’s influence all over Greece was
compromised. However, he successfully reasserted his authority in the
Aegean
by defeating an alliance of Thebans and Athenians at the
Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, while in the same year, Philip destroyed
Amfissa
because the residents had illegally cultivated part of the Crisaian plain which
belonged to
Delphi.
Philip created and led the
League of Corinth in 337 BC. Members of the League agreed never to wage war
against each other, unless it was to suppress
revolution.
Philip was elected as leader (hegemon)
of the army of invasion against the
Persian Empire. In 336 BC, when the invasion of Persia was in its very early
stage, Philip was assassinated, and was succeeded on the throne of Macedon by
his son
Alexander III.
Assassination
The murder occurred during October of 336 BC, at
Aegae, the
ancient capital of the kingdom of Macedon. The court had gathered there for the
celebration of the marriage between
Alexander I of Epirus and Philip’s daughter, by his fourth wife
Olympias,
Cleopatra. While the king was entering unprotected into the town’s theater
(highlighting his approachability to the Greek diplomats present), he was killed
by
Pausanias of Orestis, one of his seven bodyguards. The assassin immediately
tried to escape and reach his associates who were waiting for him with horses at
the entrance of Aegae. He was pursued by three of Philip’s bodyguards and died
by their hands.
The reasons for Pausanias’ assassination of Phillip are
difficult to fully expound, since there was controversy already among ancient
historians. The only contemporary account in our possession is that of
Aristotle,
who states rather tersely that Philip was killed because Pausanias had been
offended by the followers of
Attalus, the king’s father-in-law.
Fifty years later, the historian
Cleitarchus expanded and embellished the story. Centuries later, this
version was to be narrated by
Diodorus Siculus and all the historians who used Cleitarchus. In the
sixteenth book of Diodorus’ history, Pausanias had been a lover of Philip, but
became jealous when Philip turned his attention to a younger man, also called
Pausanias. His taunting of the new lover caused the youth to throw away his
life, which turned his friend, Attalus, against Pausanias. Attalus took his
revenge by inviting Pausanias to dinner, getting him drunk, then subjecting him
to sexual assault.
When Pausanias complained to Philip the king felt unable to
chastise Attalus, as he was about to send him to Asia with Parmenion, to
establish a bridgehead for his planned invasion. He also married Attalus’s
niece, or daughter,
Eurydice. Rather than offend Attalus, Phillip attempted to mollify Pausanius
by elevating him within the bodyguard. Pausanias’ desire for revenge seems to
have turned towards the man who had failed to avenge his damaged honour; so he
planned to kill Philip, and some time after the alleged rape, while Attalus was
already in Asia fighting the Persians, put his plan in action. Other historians
(e.g.,
Justin 9.7) suggested that Alexander and/or his mother
Olympias
were at least privy to the intrigue, if not themselves instigators. The latter
seems to have been anything but discreet in manifesting her gratitude to
Pausanias, if we accept Justin’s report: he tells us that the same night of her
return from exile she placed a crown on the assassin’s corpse and erected a
tumulus to his memory, ordering annual sacrifices to the memory of Pausanias.
The entrance to the “Great Tumulus” Museum at
Vergina.
Many modern historians have observed that all the accounts
are improbable. In the case of Pausanias, the stated motive of the crime hardly
seems adequate. On the other hand, the implication of Alexander and Olympias
seems specious: to act as they did would have required brazen effrontery in the
face of a military machine personally loyal to Philip. What appears to be
recorded in this are the natural suspicions that fell on the chief beneficiaries
of the murder; their actions after the murder, however sympathetic they might
appear (if actual), cannot prove their guilt in the deed itself. Further
convoluting the case is the possible role of propaganda in the surviving
accounts: Attalus was executed in Alexander’s consolidation of power after the
murder; one might wonder if his enrollment among the conspirators was not for
the effect of introducing political expediency in an otherwise messy purge
(Attalus had publicly declared his hope that Alexander would not succeed Philip,
but rather that a son of his own niece Eurydice, recently married to Philip and
brutally murdered by Olympias after Philip’s death, would gain the throne of
Macedon).
Marriages
The dates of Philip’s multiple marriages and the names of
some of his wives are contested. Below is the order of marriages offered by
Athenaeus, 13.557b-e:
-
Audata, the
daughter of
Illyrian
King
Bardyllis. Mother of
Cynane.
-
Phila, the sister of
Derdas and
Machatas of
Elimiotis.
-
Nicesipolis of
Pherae,
Thessaly,
mother of
Thessalonica.
-
Olympias
of
Epirus, mother of
Alexander the Great and
Cleopatra
-
Philinna of
Larissa,
mother of Arrhidaeus later called
Philip III of Macedon.
-
Meda of Odessa, daughter of the king Cothelas, of
Thrace.
-
Cleopatra, daughter of Hippostratus and niece of general
Attalus of Macedonia. Philip renamed her
Cleopatra Eurydice of Macedon.
Archaeological
findings
On November 8, 1977, Greek archaeologist
Manolis Andronikos found, among other royal tombs, an unopened tomb at
Vergina in
the Greek prefecture of
Imathia. The finds from this tomb were later included in the traveling
exhibit The Search for Alexander displayed at four cities in the
United States from 1980 to 1982. Initially identified as belonging to Philip
II, Eugene Borza and others have suggested that the tomb actually belonged to
Philip’s son,
Philip Arrhidaeus. Disputations often relied on contradictions between “the
body” or “skeleton” of Philip II and reliable historical accounts of his life
(and injuries).
The initial ‘proof’ that the tomb may belong to Philip II was
indicated by the greeves (leg armor to protect the tibia (‘shin’) bone), one of
which indicated that the owner had a leg injury which distorted the natural
alignment of the tibia (Philip II was recorded as having broken his tibia).
What is now viewed as final proof that the tomb indeed did
belong to Philip II and that the surviving bone fragments are in fact the body
of Philip II comes from forensic reconstruction of the scull of Philip II by the
wax casting and reconstruction of the scull which shows the damage to the right
eye caused by the penetration of an object (historically recorded to be an
arrow). See John Prag and Richard Neave’s report in Making Faces: Using Forensic
and Archaeological Evidence, published for the Trustees of the British Museum by
the British Museum Press, London: 1997.
Cult
The
heroon at
Vergina in
Greek Macedonia (the ancient city of Aigai – Αἶγαι), is thought to have been
dedicated to the worship of the family of Alexander the Great and may have
housed the cult statue of Philip. It is probable that he was regarded as a hero
or deified on his death. Though the Macedonians did not consider Philip a god,
he did receive other forms of recognition by the Greeks, such as at
Eresos (altar
to Zeus Philippeios),
Ephesos (his statue was placed in the
temple of Artemis), and at Olympia, where the
Philippeion was built. Moreover, Isocrates wrote to Philip that if he
defeated Persia, there was nothing left for him to do to but become a god
while
Demades
proposed that Philip be regarded as the thirteenth god. However, there is no
clear evidence that Philip was raised to divine status like that of his son
Alexander.
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