Philip of Macedon unifies Greece | World History | Khan Academy
The 5th century in Greece started off with the Persian invasion and ended with the Peloponnesian War. Now we're entering into the 4th century in Greece. As we entered the 4th century, Thebes is the dominant city-state. However, as we get into the mid-4th century, and especially the end of it, we will see that all of Greece gets dominated and then unified by the Makedonians or Macedonians.
In particular, the first unifier here was Philip of Macedon. This is a bust of him, and he's known for coming to power in 359 BCE. His father was king of Macedon, but then his older brothers died. It’s actually his nephew who is heir to the throne. He becomes regent for his infant nephew, which means he has the power temporarily. But then he actually takes full control and becomes king of Macedon, or Makaton as it's often pronounced, in 359 BCE.
What he then goes off about doing is taking over most of the Greek city-states. Eventually, he's able to unify most of the Greek city-states. You can see on this map here, which I got from Wikipedia, this is a little bit of information about the map. You can see how he expanded his empire over time. Remember, 359 BCE he becomes king of Macedon. In 352, he's moving into Sicily, then in the late 340s, he's going into Thrace and Molossia.
Molossia is interesting; the king of Molossia he actually ends up marrying. He ends up marrying the king of Molossia's daughter, Olympias, who ends up being Alexander the Great's mother. She’s a pretty interesting character. We will see a little bit more about her. She was part of this cult that worships snakes; it's believed that she slept with snakes.
He continues to conquer and eventually he's able to subjugate most of the city-states of Greece, except for Sparta. This takes us to 337 BCE, right over here, where he is able to establish the League of Corinth. It was only called the League of Corinth after the fact, but he gathers the leaders of the significant city-states together in Corinth. That's why it’s called the League of Corinth. They swear their oath essentially to Philip, king of Macedon, whom they call the hegemon.
What's really important about that is he is able to unify the Greek city-states outside of Sparta. In doing so, he sets things up for his son, the famous Alexander the Great, to continue to unify Greece. Alexander the Great is actually able to subjugate Sparta, but then more famously, he goes off to conquer the entire Persian Empire and then beyond in his short life. We will have at least another video on that.
To get a feel for what happened at the League of Corinth in 337 BCE, I will share this oath that the various city-states had to commit to. It says, “I swear by Zeus, Helios, Poseidon, and all the gods and goddesses, I will abide by the common peace. I will neither break the agreement with Philip nor take up arms on land or sea, harming any of those abiding by the oath. Nor shall I take any city, fortress, or harbor by craft or contrivance with intent of war against the participants of the war. Nor shall I depose the kingship of Philip or his descendants nor the constitutions existing in each state when they swore the oath of peace. Nor shall I do anything contrary to these agreements, nor shall I allow anyone else, as far as possible. But if anyone does commit any breach of the treaty, I shall go and support as called by those who need, and I shall fight the transgressors of the common peace as decided by the council and called on by the hegemon, who is Philip of Macedon.”
Now, unfortunately for Philip, this happens in 337, where for the most part he's the first to unify the Greek city-states outside of Sparta, but he's only able to live about a year after that. A year later, we're now in 336 BCE, and he's in the old capital of the Macedonian kingdom, which is very close to Pella, celebrating the wedding of his daughter to his brother-in-law. His daughter, who is Alexander's sister, is being married to Olympias' brother. So, he's marrying his daughter to her uncle.
It is during that wedding that Philip of Macedon is killed by Pausanias, who is his bodyguard. There's a lot of really interesting stories. He's killed at the wedding in 336 BCE, and there are many accounts that say that Pausanias was Philip's lover. He was on some level jealous, and he was also upset because another relative of Philip was affronted, and Philip didn't go to defend him.
There are some narratives that this was arranged somehow by Olympias, Philip's wife and the mother of Alexander, to put Alexander on the throne. There are some motivations there as well, because shortly before the assassination, he took a second wife, which was his more favored wife as opposed to Olympias. There's a lot of really interesting accounts, and I encourage you to read up on it.
The interesting thing is, after he gets assassinated, there's a bit of a scramble for power, but it leaves Alexander the Great, or eventually Alexander the Third, to officially become the hegemon. In his short life, he is only 20 years old when he becomes king. As we'll see in the next few videos, he takes over all of the Persian Empire and beyond, subjugating Persia. He further unifies the Greeks and takes on the mighty Persian Empire.