Hegemon: Philip of Macedonia

The Peace of Philokrates Erodes

by Thomas K. Sundell

Three factions arose in Athenai. The first, led by Philokrates, Aischines, and Eubolos supported the peace but were cautious in their view of King Philippos' ambitions. The second, led by Demosthenes, Hyperides, and Hegesippos, was determined to oppose the peace, the king, and anyone who they viewed as sympathetic to the king. The third, less a faction than a grouping of various people, wanted to think well of the king and were thankful he had not pressed his advantages against Athenai, for the city might well have been condemned for its support of Phokis. Isokrates, a member of this loose group, went so far as to write Philippos urging that he take up the crusade against Persia, leading all Hellas to free the Anatolian Hellenes.

For the next four years, relations between Philippos and Athenai slid deeper into animosity. Whatever positive feeling was felt in Athenai at the peace was picked apart by the relentless negative campaign led by Demosthenes.

At the same time, Philippos' relations with his ally Thebai also declined. The king experienced great diplomatic success in the Peloponnesos in further isolating Sparte. Thebai resented this very success with Argos, Flis, Arkadia, and Messenia, for Thebai's citizens viewed themselves as the champions of the anti-Spartan coalition in the PeloponneSOS.

Philippos was not idle during these years. The year after the peace saw him campaigning in the northwest against the Ardiaoi, an Illuric tribal confederacy (345 BC). The war was fierce but successful in spoiling the rise of another Illuric confederacy to replace the Dardanians. The Makedones gained much plunder, although the king suffered a severe wound to his lower right leg.

In that year, a problem arose in Larissa, a chief city in Thessalos. Conflict there had led to control of the city by Simos using mercenaries. This noble of the Aleuadai clan began abusing his position. Philippos intervened with his army (summer, 344 BC). He expelled the Aleuadai clan. He then reformed other Thessaliote cities ruled by tyrants for example, in Pherai he established a tenman board of governors to replace the tyrant Aristomedes.

He went on to restructure the Thessaliote koinon by reviving the role of tetrarch to rule the traditional four tetrades (Hestiaiotis, Thessaliotis, Pelasgiotis, and Phthiotis), which reduced the power of the individual cities. Also as a result of these actions, Phthtiotis Akhaia entered into direct alliance with Philippos, rather than through Thessalos. The small states of Aitolia and Dolope also entered into alliance with the king.

At the same time (mid-summer, 344 BC), Demosthenes proposed an embassy to the Peloponnesos to resist the anti-Spartan efforts of Philippos. The Athenian assembly agreed. In response, Philippos sends envoys to Athenai and to the Peloponnesian states offering to modify the existing peace and have differences arbitrated.

While Philippos sought a common peace, Demosthenes and the Athenian war faction intended to counter the Makedones. In the assembly, they proposed amendments to the peace unacceptable to the king, such as the return of Amphipolis to Athenian control. Hegesippos, a colleague of Demosthenes, was appointed head of the embassy to Philippos to negotiate amendments, and he assured the embassys failure.

From the viewpoint of Demosthenes and his friends, the king of the Makedones was in reality at war with Athenai and every move he made was calculated to curtail the freedoms of the city-states and, specifically, to harm Athenai. To assure the continued vitality and independence of Athenai, Demosthenes believed any means was valid to discredit the king.

The Thebans remained suspicious of the king for the way he brought the Third Sacred War to an end. Rumors swept Boiotia that Philippos intended to fortify Elateia to block Theban access to Phokis. To soothe Thebai, Philippos required the Phokians to begin paying their reparations (spring, 343 BC).

Undeclared War

In Athenai, Hyperides impeached Philokrates, and the politician fled the city rather than face prosecution. Given the mood of the city, to stay seemed his death warrant. A separate prosecution was initiated against Aischines (fall, 343 BC). Aischines stood his ground and was able to show that his accuser, Demosthenes, was as much a part of the peace process as any of the ten envoys. Aischines was acquitted, but only by a margin of 30 votes.

At this time, Athenai sent more settlers to the Khersonesos and appointed a mercenary general, Diopeithes of Sunium, with a force to protect the colonists. He interpreted his instructions as giving him latitude to launch spoiling attacks along the Thrakios coast to oppose the Makedones. His forcing tribute from the coast cities, pirate activities, and ransoming of Makedones, including an envoy from Philippos, breached the peace. The city of Kardia, threatened by Diopeithes, requested and received a Makedones garrison.

On the island of Euboia, off the Attikan, Boiotian and Lokrian coastline, three of the four major cities were in the hands of proMakedones (fall, 343 BC). In Eretria the proMakedones faction persuaded the people to exile the anti-Makedones leaders. At Oreos, the pro-Athenian leader was imprisoned. The ruler of Khalkis, Kallias, sought Philippos' help in establishing a Euboian League, strong enough to withstand the ambitions of Thebai and Athenai. Of course, Kallias would be the commander.

Philippos turned Kallias down. So Kallias reversed the argument and tried it on Thebai next. Failing there, he tried Athenai where he gained a sympathetic audience, since only the city of Karystos on Euboia remained allied to Athenai.

Philippos appointed Parmenion to watch over his Hellenic interests, and posted the general with a small army in Malis on the Pagasai Gulf, opposite Euboia. Parmenion or his deputies intervened in Euboia two or three times (summer, autumn 342 BC) in support of pro-Makedones in Eretria and Oreos. But they did not act against Khalkis or Karystos.

Philippos, meanwhile, was campaigning again in Thrakios. While the king campaigned, the general Antipatros was regent in Pella, the Makedones' capital.

The king had arranged that, in his absence, Aristoteles begin teaching his crown prince, Alexandros, and other sons of the nobility. The philosopher had returned to Makedonis following several years in Mytilene an Hellenic city on the island of Lesbos. There Aristoteles had married Pythias, niece of Hermias, who ruled a principality on the Anatolian coast opposite Mytilene. Possibly Aristoteles acted for Philippos in negotiations with Hermias to become an ally for future actions against Persia. In any event, the plans came to naught, for the Persians secured Herinias through a ruse and executed him.

Intervention in Epeiros

Knowing that Alexandros of Epeiros was coming of age, his uncle Arybbas moved to secure his rule of the Molossi by reverting to an Athenian alliance. Philippos immediately marched for Epeiros before winter closed the passes between the kingdoms. He marched up the Haliakmon valley, crossed the Pindos mountains, and entered Epeiros at the Ioannina plain, then proceeded to the Molossi capital of Dodona. Arybbas went into exile without fighting, since the representatives of the Molossi koinon would not authorize war with the Makedones.

Alexandros of Epeiros was made king of the Molossi at age 20 (late summer or early fall, 342 BC). The young king remained a staunch ally of Philippos and, later, his succesor, Alexandros. Arybbas and his sons became citizens of Athenai, and the former king could argue that Philippos deprived him and his son, Aiakides, of their rightful lands.

Philippos did not stop with placing Alexandros on the Molossi throne. The Hellenic cities of Kassopeia controlled the Molossi trade, just as Amphipolis, Pydna, and Methone once controlled the Makedones' trade. The king attacked four cities of Kassopeia - Bukhetion, Pandosia, Elatria, and Bitia - forcing them into the Molossi koinon and established a Molossi city, Kassope. He then advanced on the city of Ambrakia, but recoiled as Korinthos, Athenai, and other city-states warned of war (fall, 342 BC). Colonists of Korinthos had founded Ambrakia originally. Athenai went so far as to send out a relief expedition to reinforce Akarnania, just across the Ambrakian Gulf

Philippos negotiated an alliance with Aitolia, promising them that he would work to recover the major port city of Naupaktos for them from the Akhaians, allies of Arlienai.

Given the international furor, Demosthenes, Hegesippos, and Polyeuktos visited the Peloponnesian states to stir up antiMakedones feeling. After all, the four Kassopeian cities had originally been colonies of Elis. While the Peloponnesian states did not rescind their alliances with Philippos, several states also entered into alliance with Athenai.

Sparte continued to stand apart from the Athenian-Makedones rivalry, as if to deny the curtailment of her power. In this period, they dispatched one of their kings, Archidamos, with troops to Italia to assist the city of Tarentum against the Lucanians.

Hegemon: Philip of Macedonia

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