Philip (son of Amyntas)

Also known as: Philip the son of Amyntas · Family: Macedonian · Role: king · First appears: Book 1 · Chapter 6

Philip, king of the Macedonians and son of Amyntas, first appears in the account compelling the Lacedæmonians to stay within their original boundaries. Later, he reduced Greece after its internal decline, restored the Minyæ and Platæans to Bœotia, and helped the Messenians and Macedonians resist the Lacedæmonians. His influence also reached Elis: he bribed prominent citizens, and the city fell into factional conflict. After the Greeks’ defeat at Chæronea, a house was built for him at Olympia, where ivory-and-gold statues of Philip, Alexander (son of Philip), Amyntas, Olympias, and Eurydice were made by Leochares. He also expelled the people of Potidæa, while the Arcadians remained neutral at Chæronea.

Philip’s family included his wife, Eurydice, and children Aridæus, Alexander (son of Philip), Cleopatra, and Thessalonica. The Macedonians also believed that Ptolemy (son of Lagus) was Philip’s son, though putatively the son of Lagus. Philip restored the Orchomenians to their city and brought the Phocian or Sacred War to an end. After the defeat at Chæronea, he moved Linus’s remains to Macedonia following a dream vision; later, according to the account, he sent them back to Thebes after another dream.

Philip died at 46, after which Alexander succeeded him. Megalopolis named a market portico after Philip to gratify him, and Anaximenes wrote about his exploits. Later accounts also say that Philip restored the Minyæ and Platæans to Bœotia and describe the Thebans who fell in battle against him at Chæronea.