The Hellenistic dynasty that reigned in Macedonia takes its name from Antigonus, Diadocus of Alexander, who in the distribution that followed the death of the king remained with the government of Macedonia. homeland of origin of Alexander's family and much of his generals
TheGreekattitudebeforeAlexandertheGreat
The Greek attitude towards Alexander was different in Athens and Sparta. Greece did not celebrate the victory of Miletus, nor did any poet sing of Alexander's victories. Undoubtedly, if the lieutenants had wanted to place his navy at his disposal, he would have defeated the Persians by sea. But they didn't want to. Demosthenes and his friends watched so that it did not happen. And they only delivered to Alexander, for his expedition to Asia, 20 ships, agreed in the treaty with the victor, hiding behind the neutrality of Athens. After Alexander defeated the Persians at Ipso, he was only offered a gold crown.
The Spartans, who were never members of the Confederation that Philip founded in Corinth, when Alexander went to Asia they resumed their contacts with the Persian king and after the battle of Ipso they were so threatening that the war between Sparta and Antipater broke out. , Alexander's governor in Macedonia who defeated the Spartans in 331. Since then, no Greek state dared to rise up against Macedonia while Alexander lived.
When he died, they rose up in war together with the Athenians, but Antipater defeated them again and Demosthenes committed suicide.
Years later, when Antipater died, civil war broke out in Macedonia. Queen Olympias took part in the fight and Philippus Arrideo and his mother (Philippus's son and 2nd wife) and a hundred of his supporters were killed. Olympias was defeated and captured by Cassander, son of Antipater, who had her assassinated, as we said, by the relatives of her victims.
In 310, Cassander got rid of Alexander IV and Roxana, who had previously had Alexander's Persian official wife Statira, daughter of Darius III, assassinated. Later, the adversaries opposed Cassander to Alexander Heracles, 16 years old, son of Alexander and a Phrygian noblewoman, but the young man was killed at a banquet.
Only the young Cleopatra remained from the Argeadas dynasty. , daughter of Philip II and Olympias, sister of Alexander, who married her uncle, King Alexander the Molossus, of Epirus, had become a widower. After several proposals she decided to marry Ptolemy, but Antigonus prevented it by having her poisoned. With it, the dynasty of Philip and Alexander died out.
The Antigonid kings
Antigonomonophthalmos (321-301 a.C.)
The mightiest of the Diadochi was Antigonus called the Cyclops or Monophthalmos because he was missing an eye. He was the origin of the Hellenistic dynasty of Macedonia, which will take the name of Antigonidas from him. . From the Satrapy of Phrygia he had extended the territory of his initial possessions and from Asia he governed all his empire:Lycia, Phrygia and Pamfilia, associating his son Demetrius Poliorcetes, Conqueror of cities, to the throne .
Throughout the third century the problems in the Hellenistic states revolved around the expansionist attempts of Antigonus, who were opposed by Seleucus in the East. Cassander in Macedonia and Greece and in Egypt, Ptolemy, focusing the struggle between the years 309-306 around the domain of the Aegean.
After a time of continuous confrontations, during which the Diadocos took the title of kings, they all united against the Antigonid power, originating the so-called Four Years' War (305-301), at the end of which Antigonus was defeated and killed by Seleucus and Lysimachus in 301 at the battle of Ipso in Phrygia, after which the Diadochi divided up Alexander's Empire.
This Battle of Ipso constitutes a decisive milestone in the history of the succession of Alexander, due to a series of facts:
- For the death of Antigonus, who had been the master of the situation for twenty years.
- Because all pretensions to the attempt to once again unify Alexander's fragmented empire disappeared, consecrating its definitive dismemberment.
- The time of the Epigones or successors of the Diadochi begins.
Demetrius I Potiorcetes (307-283BC)
To Antigonus the Cyclops he was succeeded by Demetrius I Poliorcetes (Conqueror of cities) (307-283 BC), king who fought ceaselessly against Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, supported by Ptolemy and who, at the death of his father, still maintained the dominions of Cyprus and Greece, with a large fleet in Corinth. Demetrius restored the League of Corinth in the year 302, whose inscription has been found in Epidaurus, revealing its structure. The purpose of this restoration was to bring down Cassander and he fell after the military disasters of Demetrius.
Beginning in 298, Cassander's death and Ptolemy's help led Demetrius to settle in Macedonia, leaving his son Antigonus Gonatas in command of Greece.
In the year 288, Lysimachus and Pyrrhus occupied Macedonia, alarmed at Demetrius' naval preparations, and divided it up. Athens revolted with the help of Ptolemy, and Demetrius was again reduced to possession of some Greek cities and his fleet. However, he invaded Asia and launched himself against his deadly enemy. Lysimachus, but defeated in Cilicia in the year 286, by Agathocles, son of Lysimachus, was finally surrounded by Seleucus and had to surrender. He spent the last two years of his life captive until his death, in a royal residence on the banks of the Orantes.
Demetrius's defeat mostly benefited Lysimachus, who seized all of Macedonia, against Demetrius's son, Antigonus Gonatas.
Antigonus Gonatas (283-240BC).
Antigonus Gonatas took the title of king in 283, but did not come into possession of the kingdom until 276, after his triumph over the Galatians at Lysimachia. He remained for some time in Thessaly, but at this time all contenders were united against Lysimachus.
Thus, in the summer of the year 281, Seleucus began operations against Lysimachus in Asia Minor and a few weeks later the Battle of Curupedion took place. , west of Sardis, Lysimachus perish- ing on the battlefield.
After this, Seleucus had himself proclaimed king of Macedonia and entrusted his Asian kingdom to his son Antiochus, taking the road to Macedonia, which he did not reach, being assassinated by Ptolemy Keraunos, the Lightning , son of Ptolemy I and queen Eurydice, to whom Seleucus had promised to help him conquer the throne of Egypt, against his half-brother Ptolemy II Philadelphus, near the city of Lysimacheia, having himself proclaimed, in turn, king of Macedonia (winter 281 -280/79).
Cremonideswar
Successively defeated in wanting to reconquer Macedonia by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus and then by his son Alexander of Epirus, he reconquered his throne in the year 272. During his reign the so-called War of Cremonides took place (266-261) which is known by the decree that the Athenian Cremonides, a disciple of Zeno, who encouraged war, made the Athenian assembly vote in the year 268/7. It took place between various Greek cities allied with Egypt against Macedonia. The causes of this war are, in any case, unclear, considering several hypotheses:
a) It could have been due to a desire of Arsinoé II to place a son of his and Lysimachus on the throne.
b) For Rostovtzeff, it could be an economic cause.
c) It could also have been due to a desire of the Ptolemies to oppose Antigonus, a potential ally of Antiochus.
This war ended with the complete victory of Antigonus and the humiliation of Athens, which forever lost its leading role in the political life of Greece. It lost its right to mint currency and also the right to freely elect its magistrates. His government was entrusted to a magistrate of Antigonus. This became the undisputed owner of Greece, with many strongholds in his hands, including Corinth, Athens and the cities of Euboea:Eretria and Chalcis.
Part of this war, or a result of it, was the Battle of Cos , which gave Antigonus a stake in the Aegean domain. Meanwhile, in Syria, the War of Eumenes was taking place. .
But the Macedonian hegemony that was reached after the Cremonides War it was endangered by a dynastic crisis. Antigonus had entrusted the affairs of Corinth to his brother Cratera and at his death, his son, Alexander, proclaimed himself king (circa 253), perhaps supported by the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, beginning at this time the appearance of a new character on the scene:Aratus of Sicyon, who in the year 251 had freed his city from Tyranny and made it join the Achaean League.
Demetrius II (239-229 BC)
Antigonus Gonatas was succeeded by his son Demetrius II (239-229) whose advent in Greece caused the reversal of alliances:The Aetolians allied themselves with the Achaeans, against whom they had allied with Antigonus Gonatas. without the reasons being well known, declaring war between this coalition and Demetrius II, the so-called Demetric War (years 239-235?) while in Epirus, a series of events made the royal family disappear, organizing around the year 333 the country in a Confederation.
Demetrius II had to face a danger from the north:The Illyrians, pushed by the Dardanians and fighting against them, perished in the year 229, opening a crisis in Macedonia, since the crown prince was a child, being named regent (epitropes ) Antigonus III Doson (229-221) cousin of Demetrius II, and later king of Macedonia, until Philip V, son of Demetrius II, took over.
Antigono III Dosón (229-221 a.C.)
Antigonus III Doson had to face an uprising by the Thessalians, who joined the Achaean League and also Argos, which had remained the last Macedonian stronghold in the Peloponnese, making the Achaean League a great state. After continuous struggles of Greeks against Greeks in which Egypt intervened financially supporting Cleomenes of Sparta. Dosón presented and had a unity plan accepted, creating a koinón :The Hellenic league, in the year 224, on the model of the ancient League of Corinth, which regrouped the federal States instead of the cities .
The immediate opponents of this League were Cleomenes of Sparta, the Aetolian League, and Rome. Antigonus Doson, one of the most important kings of the Antigonid Dynasty, again faced the Illyrians from the north, dying shortly after, still young, succeeded on the Macedonian throne by his nephew Philip V, a seventeen-year-old adolescent and a Council of Regency, which had to face a new enemy:Rome, whose presence from that moment would fill the next centuries of the History of the East, until all the Hellenistic kingdoms cease to exist to become provinces of the extensive Roman territory.
PhilipoV (221-179 a.c.)
Son of Demetrius II and Ptia, Philip V, ascended the throne very young, at the death of his uncle Antigonus III Doson. Meanwhile, in Egypt and Syria also the kings, Ptolemy IV and Antiochus III, have just passed twenty years.
Knowing the death of Dosón, the Aetolians sent an army to the Peloponnese, declaring war on the Achaeans, who, defeated, called Philip V, deciding the so-called War of the Allies (year 224), with the purpose of freeing the peoples oppressed by the Aetolians, including Delphi.
Meanwhile, the danger returned to the north, where Demetrius of Faros had taken advantage of the death of Queen Teuta to seize the kingdom from him in the year 225 and allied himself with the Macedonians. Demetrius in the year 220 had tried to seize the Messenian port of Pylos, thus violating the treaty with Rome of 228, which intervened in what was called the First Macedonian War (215-202) which ended with the Peace of Phoenix , which maintained the status quo . To oppose the Syrian-Macedonian alliance against Egypt and at the request of Pergamum. Rome triggered the Second Macedonian War (200-197). The defeat in Cynoscephali (Heads of dogs), in Thessaly, which was inflicted on him by the Roman consul Flaminius, in the spring of the year 197 (June 197 BC), forced Philip V to sign peace.
For her, the king of Macedonia renounced all his possessions outside of Macedonia, agreed to dismantle his fleet and pay a thousand talents to Rome as war compensation, but could keep his kingdom and his army, remaining an ally of Rome .
The Aetolians recovered only Thebes in Phthiotis and the Achaeans obtained Corinth, while Athens was able to keep Delos and some other islands. Rhodes recovered Perea, restoring the freedom of the Greeks according to the declaration of the consul Flamimo in Corinth, in the Isthmian games of the year 196 BC. leaving only one power that had to be dangerous:Sparta, with its king Nabis (207-192).
Later, the Aetolians provoked the war that bears their name:The Aetolian War (192-189) in which Antiochus of Syria intervened, arriving in Greece with his troops, while Philip of Macedonia remained reserved, so Flaminius rebuilt the League of Corinth, which he presided over.
Nabis, once an ally of Flaminius, had now tried to conquer Argos, but, defeated, had to give it up, being assassinated years later by the Achaean general Philopemen, who secured Sparta's accession to the Achaean League. Meanwhile, Philip V of Macedon joined the Romans, reaching an armistice in the winter of 190-189, and Antiochus was definitively defeated in Magnesia , in the valley of the river Hermos (year 189) After her, the Peace of Apamea was signed , with very harsh conditions for Syria.
Years later, after a period of Macedonian restructuring, Philip V carried out a series of economic reforms, which explains the prosperity of Macedonia at this time and that of his son and successor, Perseus, the last king of the Antigonid dynasty. , which definitively lost the throne before the thrust of Rome in the East.
Perseus (179-168 BC).
Son of Filipo V, Perseus asked the Roman Senate, according to Tito Livio, the renewal of the treaties made with his father and the confirmation of his title as king.
Between the years 179 and 174, he extended his influence to Delphi, occupying a place in the restored Amphictonia, while the Achaeans prohibited the Macedonians, as from the year 198, from entering their territories, a prohibition that Perseus asked to be repealed .
The new Roman intervention in Greece at the time of this king has provoked many opinions. The immediate cause seems to be the dynastic marriage policy of Perseus, who married his daughter to Prussias II of Bithynia, himself marrying Laodice, daughter of Seleucus IV.
His strength, derived in part from these alliances, moved Roman politicians to weaken the Antigonid Dynasty, although Perseus avoided any friction with Rome and presented himself to the Greeks as a guarantee of their freedom from her.
Battle of Pydna (168 a.C.)
After the inevitable confrontation between Romans and Macedonians, in a war that was not easy. Perseus was defeated by the Roman consul Emilio Paulo during the Third Macedonian War (171-168) at the battle of Pydna , on the coast of Pieria, the place on the coast where Queen Olympias had died, a battle that only lasted an hour, on June 22, 168.
After her, Macedonia was divided into 4 autonomous districts, possibly with a common Assembly, although the population was subject to remain in each of them, Illyria divided, both subject to tribute, a part of Epirus devastated, the Greek ruling classes purged. Rhodes and Pergamum humiliated and Antiochus IV forced to leave Egypt. But above all, in the economic role, the battle of Pydna meant:
1. For Macedonia:
- The closure of the gold and silver mines, although not the copper and iron mines, as well as the ban on importing salt.
- The dismantling of the military power with the demilitarization of the country, except in the northern enclaves that defended it from the incursions of the barbarians from the north. Also the prohibition of the felling of wood, essential for the construction of boats.
2. For Rome:
- The attainment of immense wealth, described by Livy and Plutarch.
- So many were these riches that went to the Roman people that, from now on, until the time of the first war between Antony and Octavian, the Romans did not have to pay taxes for a long time.
3. For Greece:
- The cities taken by Perseus in Greece were declared free. Athens recovered Lemnos. Delos became an Athenian colony. Epirus was handed over to the looting of the Roman soldiers, who obtained some 150,000 captives, in addition to carrying out a real massacre of its inhabitants, years later, Macedonia, which was not occupied by Rome after the battle of Pydna, but only dismantled its power, became a Roman province.
Hellenistic Macedonia
On the death of Alexander the Great and his relatives, a new dynasty was established in Macedonia, that of the Antigonids, and it became a Monarchy of the Hellenistic type similar to the Eastern ones, but keeping all its social structures together in one.
Of the three great Hellenistic monarchies, Macedonia is the least known, since the greatest formation on this country is had for the time of Philip II and Alexander being, among all the Hellenistic States, the only national , remaining as a traditional state that hardly underwent changes, so the adjective Hellenistic it has only a chronological value.
This national state retained its vigor until the end. It depended on its national army and the mercenaries only served to prevent, as far as possible, intervention in the Macedonian war. In terms of territory, Macedonia proper must be distinguished, with its Thessalian annexes and the area of Greek influence. The greatest care of the Hellenistic sovereigns was to ensure their communications by means of garrisons located at strategic points such as Demetrias, Chalcis, Piraeus and Corinth, and to guarantee the fidelity to Macedonia of the greatest possible number of men, favoring the implantation of philo-Macedonian regimes.
Two classes of owners were distinguished in Macedonia:The aristocracy and the royal family itself, owners of large domains, increased by gifts from the kings of lands in the conquered territories, which did not remain in absolute property, but as revocable donations, and the small owners, who constituted the backbone of the country. These lands were cultivated by free tenants.
Possibly, the king did not have land in Macedonia, but in the conquered districts, such as Chalcidica or Peonia, the land passed to the State, that is, to the king. The Antigonidas considered the lands of the king in a very similar way to the Seduced, with the differences that they did not grant property. The kings, on the other hand, owned the mines and the forests.
Alexander's generals and soldiers brought great wealth to his country, although Macedonia was greatly devastated by the Celts, a devastation that affected only the countryside, although the wars that took place during the reigns of Antigonus Gonatas and his successors did not greatly affect measure to the country.
In the Macedonian territory there were many cities and the Diadochi increased their number. Pella and doubtless also other Macedonian cities were organized autonomously, as City-States. The Antigonids built a few minor cities, but the most important new cities in the country were founded by Cassander:Cassandria in Chalcidice, which replaced Potidaea and Thessalonica in Macedonia (founded by synecismo of 26 communities). Both were Greek cities organized in the Greek manner and the Cassandrians never called themselves Macedonians again.
Demetrius Poliorcetes founded, as his southern capital, the city of Demetrias , in Thessaly, on the shore of the Gulf of Págasas, absorbing the ancient city of Págasas. This is the biggest case of synecismo known:All the cities of Magnesia, from Cape Sepias to Tempe on the Macedonian border, became villages (demos ) of Demetrias. Its period of greatest splendor took place in the 3rd century BC, and its archaeological remains reveal it to be a great commercial and industrial city, with a mixed population of Macedonians and Greeks from Hellas, Cycladic and Sicilian, as well as Asians. Philip V, allied to Prussias I of Bithynia, destroyed Cios and sold its inhabitants into slavery. Prussias rebuilt it, giving it his name Prussias over the sea .
The life of the Antigonid court was simpler than in the other Hellenistic kingdoms and the wealth, although great, as we have already seen when referring to its repercussion in Rome, was less than that of other Hellenistic states. The land tax produced little more than 200 talents a year and the throne, until the last years of Philip V, was occupied by men of great character, whose loyalty to the family was proverbial and family murders are not known, a common fact in the Hellenistic world, although Demetrius Poliorcetes murdered Antipater and his brother Alexander so as not to share the family inheritance with them.
The mintages of Antigonus the Cyclops tried to play a good role in the currency of his time and he kept the Attic pattern and the types of the mintages were continuations of Alexander's coins. It is interesting to note, however, that Antigonus, as well as his immediate successors, did not issue coins bearing his portrait.
An important fact for the economic policy of Hellenistic Macedonia was its relations with Rhodes and Delos , started by Antigonus and maintained by his successors. Its great trading port was Thessalonica, through which wood from the forests and grain grown in Macedonia were exported. Known businessmen include Aristobulus of Thessalonica, the wheat steward of Demetrius II, Admetus of Macedon, who lived in Delos, and Autocles of Chalcis.
The army
The king's were the army and the navy, and at sea, there was a struggle between Ptolemies and Antigonidas to build great warships. It began in 324 with the invention, by or for Demetrius Poliorcetes, of the heptera , galley of 7 oarsmen per oar, whose power, compared to those of the quinquereme, would be expressed by the ratio 7:5. This ship proved its worth in Salamis (Cyprus), in the year 306. The war activities on land had transformed Alexander's use of heavy cavalry and from Isso (year 333) to Sellasia (222), the cavalry was the queen , although by 222 the warrior system and the phalanx, the Macedonian national weapon, changed. came back to the fore. The battles of Salasia, in 222, and Rafia, in 217, were decided by the clash of the national phalanxes, who fought as men fight when national sentiment is at stake. But, for Macedon, it was a misfortune that when facing Rome. the methods of Alexander, whose phalanx had been an active and flexible body, organized in countless battalions, would have been forgotten. But in Cynoscephali, Philip V used a phalanx that had been stiffened by the weight of the now longer spears. The ability of the Roman legion to fight well under any circumstances was decisive. The phalanx, like the dinosaurs, perished due to specialization.
The Society
Antigonus Gonatas' interest in philosophy and history and the circle of learned men with which he surrounded himself are characteristic of his age. Pella it was again the capital of Macedonia, although it made no attempt to rival Alexandria or Antioch .
The Macedonian upper class, if not the nation, became fully Hellenized by the third century. The common dialect was replaced by Attic Greek and the indigenous gods by the Olympians, showing that the country had become one of the Greek circle, more powerful than others, although it did not raise armies like those of the fourth century. Macedonia seemed strange to the Greeks because the country had no religious center, except for Dion in Pieria, and the people were monarchists by conviction. The Antigonid House, thanks to Gonatas, won the love of its people, in such a way that the Dynasty only fell before the overwhelming majority of the foreign enemy.
But, not forgetting the great Macedonian kings, perhaps the greatest thing in the tiny country was the simple Macedonian peasant. free, loyal and efficient, both in war and in peace. Macedonia fell to Rome only because so few Macedonians of the old stock remained. Finally, another Hellenistic institution also had its use in relation to the Antigonid kings. We refer to the cult of sovereigns , which they received, Antigonus I in the city of Skepis, in Troade, in the year 311 and this king and his son Demetrius Poliorcetes. in Athens, where in addition, two tribes received the names of Antigonida and Demetriada.