Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/290

Rh 278 PHILIPPUS. patra, the daughter of Attains, one of his generals [Cleopatra, No. 1], led to the most serious dis- turbances in his family. Olympias and Alexander withdrew in great indignation from Macedonia, the young prince taking refuge in Illyria, which seems in consequence to have been involved in war with Philip, while Olympias fled to Kpeirus and incited her brother Alexander to take vengeance on her husband. But this danger Philip averted by pro- mising his daughter Cleopatra in marriage to his brother-in law [Cleopatra, No. 2], and Olympias and her son returned home, still however masking resentment under a show of reconciliation. The breach between Philip and Alexander appears to have been further widened by the suspicion which the latter entertained that his father meant to exclude him fiora the succession. This feeling was strengthened in Alexander's mind by the proposed marriage of his half-brother Arrhidaeus with the daughter of Pixodcxrus, the Carian satrap, to whom accordingly he sent to negotiate for the hand of the lady for himself. Philip discovered the intrigue, and, being highly exasperated, punished those who had been the chief instruments of it with imprison- ment and exile. Meanwhile, his preparations for his Asiatic expedition were not neglected, and early in B. c. 336 he sent forces into Asia, under Par- menion, Amyntas, and Attains, to draw over the Greek cities to his cause. But the great enterprise was reserved for a higher genius and a more vigor- ous hand. In the summer of the last-mentioned year Philip held a grand festival at Aegae, to so- lemnise the nuptials of his daughter with Alex- ander of Epeirus. It was attended by deputies from the chief states of Greece, bringing golden crowns as presents to the Macedonian king, while from the Athenians there came also a decree, de- claring that any conspirator against Philip who might flee for refuge to Athens, should be delivered up. The solemnities of the second day of the fes- tival commenced with a splendid procession, in which an image of Philip was presumptuously borne along amongst those of the twelve Olympian gods. He himself advanced in a white robe be- tween his son and the bridegroom, having given orders to his guards to keep at a distance from him, as he had sufficient protection in the goodwill of the whole of Greece. As he drew near to the theatre, a youth of noble blood, named Pausanias, rushed forward and plunged into his side with fatal effect a Celtic sword, which he had hidden under his dress. The assassin was immediately pursued and slain by some of the royal guards. His motive for the deed is stated by Aristotle {Polit.Y. 10, ed. Bekk.) to have been private resentment against Philip, to whom he had complained in vain of a gross outrage offered to him by Attalus. Olympias and Alexander, however, were suspected of being implicated in the plot, and the suspicion seems only too well-grounded as far as Olympias is concerned. The murder, it is said, had been preceded by omens and warnings. Philip had consulted the Delphic oracle about his projected expedition to Asia, and had received the ambiguous answer, — EcTTeiTTai fxiv 6 ravpos, ex^* t6os, effTiv 6 hvawv. Again, the oracle of Trophonius had desired him to beware of a chariot, in consequence of which he never entered one ; but the sword with which Pau- sanias slew him had the figure of a chariot carved in ivory on its hilt. Lastly, at the banquet which PHILIPPUS. closed the first day's festivities at Aegae, the tra- gedian Neoptolemus recited, at Philip's desire, a piece of lyrical poetry, which was intended to apply to the approaching downfal of the Persian king, and spoke of the vanity of human prosperity and of far-reaching hopes cut short by death. (Diod. xvi. 91, 92 ; Ael. V.H. iii. 45 ; Cic. de Fat. 3 ; Paus. viii. 7.) Philip died in the forty-seventh year of his age and the twenty-fourth of his reign, leaving for his son a great work indeed to do, but also a great help for its accomplishment in the condition of Greece and of Macedonia ; Greece so far subject as to be incapable of impeding his enterprise, — Macedonia with an organized army and a military discipline unknown before, and with a body of nobles bound closely to the throne, cliiefly through the plan in- troduced or extended by Philip, of gathering round the king the sons of the great families, and pro- viding for their education at court, while he em- ployed them in attendance on his person, like the pages in the feudal times. (Ael. V. H. xiv. 49 ; Arr. Anah. iv. 13 ; Curt. viii. 6, 8 ; Val. Max. iii. 3, ext. 1.) Philip had a great number of wives and concu- bines. Besides Olympias and Cleopatra, we may mention, 1. his first wife Audata, an Illyrian prin- cess, and the mother of Cynane ; 2. Phila, sister of Derdas and Machatas, a princess of Elymiotis ; 3. Nicesipolis of Pherae, the mother of Thessalo- nica ; 4. Philinna of Larissa, the mother of Arrhi- daeus ; 5. Meda, daughter of Cithelas, king of Thrace ; 6. Arsinoe, the mother of Ptolemy I., king of Egypt, with whom she was pregnant when she married Lagus. To these numerous connections temperament as Avell as policy seems to have in- clined him. He was strongly addicted, indeed, to sensual enjoyment of every kind, with which (not unlike Louis XL of France, in some of the lighter parts of his character) he combined a turn for humour, not always over nice, and a sort of easy, genial good-nature, which, as it costs nothing and calls for no sacrifice, is often found in connection with the propensity to self indulgence. Yet his passions, however strong, were always kept in sub- jection to his interests and ambitious views, and, in the words of bishop Thirl wall, " it was some- thing great, that one who enjoyed the pleasures of animal existence so keenly, should have encountered so much toil and danger for glory and empire" {^Greece., vol. vi. p. 86). He was fond of science and literature, in the patron-age of which he appears to have been liberal ; and his appreciation of great minds is shown, if not by his presumed intimacy with Plato, at any rate by his undoubted connection with Aristotle. His own physical and mental qualifications for the station which he filled and the career of conquest which he followed, were of the highest order ; — a robust frame and a noble and commanding presence ; " ready eloquence, to which art only applied the cultivation requisite to satisfy the fastidious demands of a rhetorical age ; quick- ness of observation, acuteness of discernment, pre- sence of mind, fertility of invention, and dexterity in the management of men and things" (Thirl wall, vol. V. p. 169). In the pursuit of his political objects he was, as we have seen, unscrupulous, and ever ready to resort to duplicity and corruption. Yet, when we consider the humanity and generous clemency which have gained for him from Cicero {dc Off. L 26) the praise of having been " always