Incubator escapee wiki

Alexander I of Macedon

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:Infobox royalty Alexander I (Template:Langx; died 454 BC), also known as Alexander the Philhellene (Template:Langx; Template:Lit Template:Efn),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> was kingTemplate:Efn of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia from 498/497 BC until his death in 454 BC. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Perdiccas II.

BiographyEdit

Template:Multiple image Alexander was the only son of Amyntas I and an unknown spouse,Template:Snf whose name was perhaps Eurydice.<ref>Leo van de Pas: Genealogics. 2003</ref> He had a sister named Gygaea (Template:Langx).<ref name="Herodotus, Book 5: Terpsichore, 21">Herodotus, Book 5: Terpsichore, 21</ref>

According to Herodotus, Alexander married Gygaea to the Persian general Bubares while a vassal of the Achaemenid Empire as a bribe to cover up his murder of a Persian embassy.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Even though the marriage of Gygaea seems to be a real event, the story about the murder of the Persian embassy is widely regarded as a fiction invented by Herodotus or, at least, hearsay from his time spent in Macedonia.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> It is more likely that Amyntas arranged the marriage himself around 510, or that Alexander handled it after his father died.Template:Snf

Alexander came to the throne during the era of the kingdom's vassalage to Achaemenid Persia, dating back to the time of his father, Amyntas I, although Macedon retained a broad scope of autonomy.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 492 BC it was made a fully subordinate part of the Persian Empire by Mardonius' campaign.<ref name=":1" /> Alexander acted as a representative of the Persian governor Mardonius during peace negotiations after the Persian defeat at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. In later events, Herodotus several times mentions Alexander as a man who was on Xerxes' side and followed his orders.<ref name=":1" />

From the time of Mardonius' conquest of Macedon, Herodotus refers to Alexander as hyparchos, meaning viceroy.<ref name=":1" /> Despite his cooperation with Persia, Alexander frequently gave supplies and advice to other Greek city states, and warned them of Mardonius' plans before the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. For example, Alexander warned the Greeks in Tempe to leave before the arrival of Xerxes' troops, and notified them of an alternate route into Thessaly through upper Macedonia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After their defeat in Plataea, the Persian army under the command of Artabazus tried to retreat all the way back to Asia Minor. Most of the 43,000 survivors were attacked and killed by the forces of Alexander at the estuary of the Strymon river.Template:Cn Alexander eventually regained Macedonian independence after the end of the Persian Wars.

File:Aristides and Alexander 479 BCE.jpg
Aristides, commander of the Athenians, informed by Alexander I that delaying the encounter with the Persians would help further diminish their already low supplies. Battle of Plataea, 479 BC.

Alexander claimed descent from Argive Greeks and Heracles.<ref>A History of Macedonia. Τom. 2 Review: John Cole</ref> After a court of Elean hellanodikai determined his claim to be true, he was permitted to participate in the Olympic Games<ref>Malcolm Errington, "A History of Macedonia", University of California Press, 1993, p.4: "Ancient allegations that the Macedonians were non-Greeks all had their origin in Athens at the time of the struggle with Philip II. Then as now, political struggle created the prejudice. The orator Aeschines once even found it necessary, in order to counteract the prejudice vigorously fomented by his opponents, to defend Philip on this issue and describe him at a meeting of the Athenian Popular Assembly as being 'Entirely Greek'. Demosthenes' allegations were lent an appearance of credibility by the fact, apparent to every observer, that the life-style of the Macedonians, being determined by specific geographical and historical conditions, was different from that of a Greek city-state. This alien way of life was, however, common to western Greeks of Epiros, Akarnania and Aitolia, as well as to the Macedonians, and their fundamental Greek nationality was never doubted. Only as a consequence of the political disagreement with Macedonia was the issue raised at all."</ref><ref>Herodotus 5.22</ref><ref>Justin-Template:Usurped</ref> possibly in 504 BC, a right reserved only for Greeks. He modelled his court after Athens and was a patron of the poets Pindar and Bacchylides, both of whom dedicated poems to Alexander.<ref>Thucydides and Pindar: Historical Narrative and the World of Epinikian Poetry Page 180 By Simon Hornblower Template:ISBN</ref> The earliest reference to an Athenian proxenos, who lived during the time of the Persian wars (c. 490 BC), is that of Alexander I.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It was around this point that Alexander was given the epithet "philhellene".<ref>Plato, Republic, 5.470e, Xenophon Agesilaus, 7.4 (in Greek)</ref>

IssueEdit

Alexander and his unnamed spouseTemplate:Snf had at least six children:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Family treeEdit

Modern historians disagree on a number of details concerning the genealogy of the Argead dynasty. Robin Lane Fox, for example, refutes Nicholas Hammond's claim that Ptolemy of Aloros was Amyntas II's son, arguing that Ptolemy was neither his son nor an Argead.<ref>Fox, Robin Lane (2011). "399–369 BC". In Fox, Robin Lane (ed.). Brill's Companion to Ancient Macedon: Studies in the Archaeology and History of Macedon, 650 BC – 300 AD. Boston: Brill. pp. 231–232.</ref> Consequently, the chart below does not account for every chronological, genealogical, and dynastic complexity. Instead, it represents one common reconstruction of the early Argeads advanced by historians such as Hammond, Elizabeth D. Carney, and Joseph Roisman.<ref>Hammond, N. G. L.; Griffith, G. T. (1979). A History of Macedonia Volume II: 550–336 B.C. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 176.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Snf

Template:Hidden begin Template:Tree list

Individuals with disputed parentage or Argead ancestry are italicized.

{{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}

Template:Tree list/end Template:Hidden end


See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

NotesEdit

Template:Notelist

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

BibliographyEdit

Template:Sister project

Template:S-start Template:S-hou Template:S-roy Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-end

Template:MacedonKings Template:Achaemenid rulers Template:Ancient Olympic winners Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Alexander_I_of_Macedon&oldid=205796"