FATE OF THE MAKEDONIA CONCERNED (323-276 BC)

The empire of Alexander III proceeded of his only will and was due to its only person. As its untimely death carry away it the abandonment of the structure and the character as it had given him. The questions concerning the survival of the State, in particular that of the succession and regency, indeed, were discussed and settled by the authorities traditional Macedonians.

The at the same time personal and multinational empire of Alexander III is erased then in front of an already known political entity: the old kingdom of the Macedonians, increased territory conquered by Alexander However, the State becomes soon the stake of the fights between the applicants with the heritage, the ones suction to collect it entire, the others only seeking to cut a share of the skin.

What it would occur of the empire was not without consequences for Makedonia. If the unit were backed up, Makedonia could occupy in this unit a place either power station, or peripheral. If, on the contrary, the empire were to be dismembered, Macedonia could formed a great incorporating State of other countries, or to remain alone, or to burst itself and to share themselves between two States, even more.

The succession of the conqueror divided the army. The Generals and the riders chose the child that Roxane widow of the king, were going to put at the world, provided that he were a boy, and they called in advance it Alexander infantrymen when with them, proclaimed king Arrhidae a son of Philip II half-brother of Alexander III, Arrhidae was the single member of the royal family which was a male adult, but it was also weak, and this choice paradoxical, like the acclamation of the king under the name of Philip, seems to have been for the infantrymen, a means of expressing their nostalgia with regard to Philip II in the spirit of the protests of the troop and the certain notable ones against the dereliction of Alexander towards the Macedonian tradition: the infantrymen, indeed, were recruited in the farming community, classifies preserving "by excellence".

A compromise was found: Arrhidae-Philip III and Alexander IV would share the royalty, and Roxane having given rise to a boy, it was not necessary to reconsider this decision. When with the effective capacity, that none the kings was ready to exert, one did not want to entrust it to only man: Cratéros was thus indicated " protective of the kings ", whereas Perdiccas was already " chilliarque ". The distribution of the spots was not clear: perhaps those of Cratéros would have made of him a regent, Perdiccas keeping the high hand on the apparatus of State; but Cratéros missed of Babylon and did not return

One carried out in addition the appointment of governors to the head of the provinces. Makedonia and Thessalia, just like the monitoring of quoted of the Hellenic league, remained between the hands of Antipatros which had soon to face a coalition of Greek antimacédonians States of which Athens, Etolia and Phocida. The Lamiac war (323-322) continued until the arrival of Cratéros accompanied by the veterans who it was charged to repatriate. Overcome, the South of Greece lost any indépendence in comparison with Makedonia Antipatros abolishes the Hellenic league and made its members of the Subject States on a purely individual basis.

Cratéros missed of Babylon centers empire, Perdiccas was, in fact, holder of the capacity manpower and Olympias offered to him the hand of her daughter,Cléopatra, sister of Alexander III and aunt of the child king. But Antipatros, Lysimakos, Antigonos and Ptolémy being leagued against him, it failed in its attempt to enter in Egypt and fell, victim of a conspiracy. The allies having then solved to entrust to Antipatros the supervision kings (321), this one, instead of settling in Babylon returned to Makedonia with its protected. Thus, contrary to what had decided Alexander The Great, the government of the State moved of Babylon with Pella and Alexander IV was to be bring up like a king Macedonian and not like the absolute monarch of a multinational empire. The regency of old Antipatros lasted only two years. Its death, in 319, started conflicts of succession which bring about the death of the king and the dismemberment of the State: Makedonia became the central part of a kingdom to which were attached, additional Thessalia and some territories.

Indeed, Polyperchon chooses by Antipatros to succeed to him like "épimélète" of the kings, was seen immediately disputed by Cassander wire of Antipatros like by Lysimakos, Antigonos and Ptolémy. From Greece, Cassander attacked Polyperchon which suffered reverses on ground and sea, and was insulated in Péloponnèse. Eurydika wife of Arrhidae-Philip made then proclaimed Cassander regent (317).

Olympias which was still in Epirus, fearing that Eurydika and Cassander did not eliminate his young son, Alexander IV hastened towards Makedonia with a unity épiriote troops and some Macedonians; the Macedonians soldiers of Eurydika having refused to fight against the mother of Alexander The Great, Philip-Arrhidae and Eurydika were captured and carried out. Then Olympias made put dead to a brother of Cassander and a hundred of his friends, but Cassander income of Péloponnèse, submitted it in front of its army, after the siege of Pydna which inflicted the capital punishment to him.

Alexander IV remained only king (316). Cassander will not however be long in revealing its intentions by marrying Thessaloniki half-sister of Alexander The Great and by isolating the young king and his mother. Cassander then saw drawing up against him Antigonos which, after having conquered the greatest Asian part of the old empire of Alexander The Great aspired to become only the maitre about it. Antigonos had military and financial resources with the height of ambitions and, its strategic and political talents were not mean. It obtained from its army to be proclaimed tutor of Alexander IV who signed the judgment of Cassander at the same time for the murder of Olympias and the sequestration of the young king. But Cassander, Lysimakos and Ptolémy were united to contain its claims and, after combats on several front, it had to compose, into 311: a clause of the treaty confirmed Cassander like "strategist" of Europe until the majority of Alexander IV. It then took the initiative while making assassinate the king and his mother (310-309)

With the disappearance of the king, the applicants with the succession of Alexander the Great could give free course to their ambitions. Antigone was first to be made proclaim king by his army, at the same time as his son Démétrios Poliorcète (306). Cassander, Lysimakos, Séleucos and Ptolémy followed its example, to assert the whole of the heritage not as well, following the example, Antigonos as to attach its appetites and to legalize their own shares. So that Cassander made of Macedonia a kingdom which succeeded that of Téménids over the entracte of Alexander the Great. Thessalia remained a distinct kingdom, parts of Ilyria, and PEONIA(actual FYROM) possessions outsides formed.

Antigonos which had not given up its ambitions in Greece where his son Démétrios had even reconstituted the Hellenic League, ran up once again, with the coalition of its adversaries; its forces was crushed at Ipsos, where itself found death (301). Realistic, Cassander abstained from taking part in the sharing of the enormous kingdom of Antigonos.

After the death of Cassander in 297, dynastic tearings opened a serious crisis of being able. Pyrrhos of Epirus benefitted from it to seize two provinces Macedonians, Tymphi and Paravi, and Démétrios Poliorcète to add Makedonia to its possessions on the dimensions of the Eastern Méditerranean and in southernmost Greece (294). this king révait with greater conquests; he was builded a new capital in the gulf of Pagassi, Démétrias showing thus that he was far from regarding Macedonia as the heart of the States. Haughty, extravagant, it had a design of the royalty which appears less Macedonian that Eastern, so that it passed to the eyes of the Macedonians for a foreigner.

Démétrios endeavoured to reinforce its influence in Greece of the South, to contain Pyrrhos and especially to carry out the aspirattions impérailes of Antigonos, his father. He which had raised the Greeks of the South against Cassander while being based on democratic modes, it will apply from now on the only policy favourable with the interest of a sovereign reigning in Makedonia and Thessalia: to take party for the oligarchs against the democrats. Combined initially in Etolians to contain Cassander it was going henceforth to hold them in failure because, masters of Delphus, those obstructed the communications between its States of North and those of the South to conclude this ambitious policy, it set up of the terrestrial and naval forces very significant: 98000 infantrymen, 12000 riders, 500 warships. Its objective was initially to initially tackle the States micrasiatic of Lysimakos but it only succeeds in drawing up against him Lysimakos, Seulécos, Ptolémy and Pyrrhos (288) and left the scene of the history while falling between the hands from Seulécos

Lysimakos and Pyrrhos shared then Macedonia, the second also occupying Thessalia. But this agreement, welded by the same threat, was not to last. Lysimakos drove out Pyrrhos and incorporated all Makedonia and Thessalia in its multinational kingdom, which slackened to the Danube and on most of Asia Minor (285), before being demolishes in its turn and killed by defending its grounds of Asia that Seulécos had invaded (281). This one was on the way to occupy its possessions European including Makedonia, when it was to assassinate by Ptolémy Kéraùnos old son of Ptolémy Ist dispossessed of its rights without losing one moment, last was then made acclaim king of Makédonia by the army of Lysimakos.

It could not enjoy this royalty a long time. Makedonia was invaded by a vagus nerve of Gallic (279) called by the Greeks " Galates ", from where French Celtes, his army was destroyed and itself perishes in the battle. Winners, the Gallic ones are reflected to plunder the countryside whose population took refuge behind the ramparts of the cities. After one period of confusion and anarchy, the royalty was offered to a noble Macedonian, Sosthène. It refused the title, but not to serve the country, and fight successfully the invaders in the capacity as military head supreme provided with the full powers.

But one second vagus nerve of Gallic was thrown then on Makedonia, which it crossed in direction of the South; pushed back of central Greece, it is still on Makedonia that it was folded back by cutting through a path towards Thracia. Sosthene having died, two applicants disputed the royal diadem and a tyrant asserted himself on Cassandréia.

CONSOLIDATION EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR FROM 276 TO 217 BC

Well before Makedonia does not become the prey, after the death of Cassander of anarchy and the Celtic invasions (307-276), the kingdoms resulting from the heritage of Alexander The Great had been constituted in a system of hellenistic powers. Makedonia will end up finding there its place thanks to a son of Démétrios Poliorcète, Antigonos Gonatas which succeeds with liberate and to stabilize the country. As of the death of his father, Antigonos Gonatas tried to seize Makedonia starting from southernmost Greece, but it was pushed back by Sosthène Later, it succeeds in taking foot in Thrace, gaining a victory against the Gallic ones which occupied the country, exterminating one of leusr the strongest tapes.

Prestige that it drew some, opened Makedonia (276) to him whose fate was thus sealed for several decades: it was going to form the central and dominant part of a kingdom including some additional territories, in particular most of Thessalia. Because, since Philip II had been made name "archôn" of Thessalian Confédération, the situation had remained appreciably the same one formally: the Confédération always existed and the kings of Makedonia exerted in his bosom the supreme office, which one should not confuse with the royalty in Makedonia.

Moreover, Antigonids family which will règn successively on Makedonia will try to occupy a certain number of military bases in mériodionale Greece and to keep under their influence of quoted whose modes were favorable for them. Thus, Gonatas and, after him, Démétrios II and Antigonos Dôsôn far from being attracted by remote adventures, will be able to grant their ambitions with their means. In addition, Makedonia will cease being coveted by some king drawing his power from the heritage of Alexander III The purpose of the litigation of Ptolémys with Antigonids will be located in the stratégic surface made up by the South of Aegéan sea and southernmost Greece.

Under Gonatas the country recovers from the evils from which it had suffered for the disturbed périod (297-276). With its successors, it knows a real economic advancement and demogarphic, and, thanks to its material and human resources like with the organization of its army, it maintains its superiority military in comparison with the States of southernmost Greece. In short the kingdom of Makedonia finds the importance of the kingdom of Philip II before his expansion in Thracia, but without a king of this scale. Besides its sovereigns show political qualities by saving the crises of succession and the disorders interior to him.