Philip II of Macedon a greater man than Alexander?

bigsnake49

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It certainly makes a great story. Two extraordinary men indeed.

I so wish I could travel again. Aigai would definitely be on my list.
 
by Arrian, the speach at the Opis

[7.9.1] "Macedonians, my speech will not be aimed at stopping your urge to return home; as far as I am concerned you may go where you like. But I want you to realize on departing what I have done for you, and what you have done for me.[7.9.2] Let me begin, as is right, with my father Philip. He found you wandering about without resources, many of you clothed in sheepskins and pasturing small flocks in the mountains, defending them with difficulty against the Illyrians, Triballians and neighboring Thracians. He gave you cloaks to wear instead of sheepskins, brought you down from the mountains to the plains, and made you a match in war for the neighboring barbarians, owing your safety to your own bravery and no longer to reliance on your mountain strongholds. He made you city dwellers and civilized you with good laws and customs.

[7.9.3] Those barbarians who used to harrass you and plunder your property, he made you their leaders instead of their slaves and subjects. He annexed much of Thrace to Macedonia, seized the most favorable coastal towns and opened up the country to commerce, and enabled you to exploit your mines undisturbed.[7.9.4] He made you governors of the Thessalians, before whom you used to die of fright, humbled the Phocians and so opened a broad and easy path into Greece in place of a narrow and difficult one. The Athenians and Thebans, who were permanently poised to attack Macedonia, he so humbled (and I was now helping him in this tasknote) that instead of you paying tribute to the Athenians and being under the sway of the Thebans, they now in turn had to seek their safety from us.[7.9.5] He marched into the Peloponnese and settled matters there too. He was appointed commander-in-chief of all Greece for the campaign against the Persians, but preferred to assign the credit to all the Macedonians rather than just to himself.note[7.9.6] Such were the achievements of my father on your behalf; as you can see for yourselves, they are great, and yet small in comparison with my own. I inherited from my father a few gold and silver cups, and less than 60 talents in the treasury; Philip had debts amounting to 500 talents, and I raised a loan of a further 800. I started from a country that could barely sustain you and immediately opened up the Hellespont for you, although the Persians then held the mastery of the sea.


But

Are you not aware that if Heracles, my ancestor, had gone no further than Tiryns or Argos--or even than the Peloponnese or Thebes--he could never have won the glory which changed him from a man into a god, actual or apparent? Even Dionysus, who is a god indeed, in a sense beyond what is applicable to Heracles, faced not a few laborious tasks; yet we have done more: we have passed beyond Nysa and we have taken the rock of Aornos which Heracles himself could not take. Come, then; add the rest of Asia to what you already possess-
 
Fascinating read of the conversation with the head archaeologist of the Aigai, the ceremonial capital of the Macedonian kingdom. She's been at it for 40 years and according to her there is enough there for three or four lifetimes. This does not include the excavations at nearby Pella, the administrative capital of Macedon.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/philip-macedonia-even-greater-alexander-the-great-180974878

Why haven't any papers on samples/finds come out yet? I heard supposedly there are a few thousand or so samples all over Europe that are shelved. For whatever reason. Maybe need permits or something idk.
 

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