Ancient Greece 06 : “Macedonia”
Macedonia was a small kingdom in northern Greece led by the crafty and ambitious King Philip II. He was a savvy fellow, and hired the venerable Aristotle early on to help tutor his son Alexander about literature and philosophy. This way, Philip could focus on the important fun task of relaxing and trying to enjoy ruling the empire he had spent years building and trying to control. Instead, Alexander learned so thoroughly and well that he later became a threat to his father and...more on that later.
Quick aside: when King Philip informs Sparta that
“...if I enter Laconia, I will raze Sparta,”
Sparta’s reply is classic :
“If.”
Philip decides to leave Sparta alone for the time being and focus on other parts, such as Persia. At this point, most of Greece is under his rule.
As with Darius, whose premature death halted a majority of his plans, Philip had a son who was more than eager to carry on the legacy, a small part of which was to conquer Persia. In 336 B.C., Philip is killed by an angry ex-lover, Alexander III takes over - BTW, he’s 20 years old at the time - and starts knocking down countries like...dominos. Persia. India. Egypt, Indus River Valley.
(I’ll write a mini-bio of Alexander soon, similar to these ones)
In 323 BCE he died unexpectedly. His generals began fighting, trying to gain control of the massive realm he had carved out.
Additional Notes
Laconia was the region Sparta was part of. The word laconic comes from this: to speak in a short, concise way, as the Spartans were known to do.
To raze is to completely destroy
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more posts and pieces about Ancient Greece below
