The Antigonid dynasty ruled the kingdom of Macedonia continuously from the demise of the dynasty of Cassander in 294 BC until the Roman conquest in 168 BC, with the exception of a brief period of tumult (288 BC – 277 BC). This was the time of most heated competition among the three main successor states of Alexander the Great’s empire for the control of the eastern Mediterranean. Headed by its able kings, Macedonia played an integral part in it, which in turn led to a series of wars with the only remaining western superpower, Rome.
The founder of the dynasty was Antigonus I Monophtalmus, the oldest of Alexander’s Diadochi. Though ruling over large parts of Asia and Greece, he was never in control of Macedonia itself. He died at the battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, proving unable to reunite the crumbling empire of Alexander. Antigonus’s realms, with the exception of Greece, were divided among the victors. His son, Demetrius I Poliorcetes (294 BC – 288 BC), was the first in the Antigonid line of kings to make himself master of Macedonia. After Cassander and his son Philip IV had died in quick succession, the kingdom had been divided between the latter’s two brothers, Alexander and Antipater. Suspicions soon arose, however, and Alexander called two kings for help – Pyrrhus from Epirus and Demetrius from Greece. Demetrius was first to arrive and, aspiring to take Macedonia for himself, assassinated Alexander and was consequently proclaimed king by the Macedonians. By that time, Pyrrhus had also showed up. His army being inferior to that of Demetrius, however, he chose to withdraw and settle for a peace treaty. Once firmly in power, Demetrius ceded his possessions in Cilicia and Cyprus, concentrating on subduing the remainder of the Greeks. Henceforth he controlled all of Hellas except the Aetolian League and Sparta. Next Demetrius proceeded to build a strong navy and an army, which in the end numbered about 98,000, in order to re-conquer the territories once belonging to his father. He beat off another invasion of Pyrrhus in 289 BC, but this only served to unite his enemies. Lysimachus of Thrace, Seleucus of Asia, Ptolemy of Egypt and Pyrrhus of Epirus made a coalition against the king of Macedonia. Pyrrhus once more invaded from the west, Lysimachus came from the north, and Ptolemy sent his Egyptian fleet in the Aegean. At this point, the Macedonians mutinied. Demetrius had introduced his extravagant Oriental court to Pella, and this was not at all to the taste of the Macedonians, who still enjoyed sufficient freedom. Demetrius installed his son Antigonus Gonatas as governor in Greece and set off on his Asian march. Initially, he had some success, but most of his troops deserting him in Cilicia, he was captured by Seleucus in 286 BC and held captive until his death three years later.
In the meantime, Pyrrhus and Lysimachus had divided Macedonia. Antigonus Gonatas still held on in Greece, but he had to cede Thessally, which remained loyal to Demetrius, to Pyrrhus in exchange for undisputed control of Hellas. Upon the death of his father in 283 BC, Antigonus assumed the royal title, but it would be some years before he could actually have something to show for it. Presently, Pyrrhus was forced to retreat to his homeland, leaving Lysimachus in charge of the situation. The king of Thrace, in turn, died fighting Seleucus in early 281 BC. But Seleucus could not enjoy his triumph long enough, for he was killed later that same year by Ptolemy Ceraunus, who now became king of Macedonia. He ruled only two years and was vanquished by the northern Celtic barbarians, called Galatians. These had penetrated from the north in 280 BC and ravaged the countryside; Ceraunus died a year later aimlessly trying to oppose them. Luckily, the Galatians did not possess any siege weaponry and hence the cities at least were saved. But when they decided to raid Greece, even the coalition of Antigonus Gonatas and warriors from free Greek towns could not stop them at Thermopilae. The sacred oracle of Apollo at Delphi was mercilessly pillaged, but the barbarians later suffered from unexpected early colds and died out in their majority. Pyrrhus was away fighting the Romans and Carthaginians in the distant west, so Antigonus decided to seize the opportunity and make himself master of the situation. He decided to capture Lysimachia, the capital of Thrace and on the way there completely defeated another group of Galatians. In the eyes of the population, this gave him sufficient credit to become king of both Macedonia and Thrace in 277 BC.
Alas, Antigonus was not to enjoy an easy rain, for trouble constantly arose from the west. Having been finally beaten by the Romans in Italy, Pyrrhus returned to Epirus in 274 BC and invaded Macedonia. The battle between the two kings took place in a narrow passage. The Macedonian phalanx stood firm, but the Celts at the a-rearguard lost ground and fell to the enemy along with the elephants. As a result of this victory, the Epirote took over almost all of the country. Antigonus held out only in a few seaport towns, but he did not despair. And he had every right to do so. For Pyrrhus soon turned his attention elsewhere and marched on Sparta. The descendants of Lycurgus fought bravely, and, receiving help from Crete and the Macedonian king, withstood the siege. Pyrrhus then turned his attention to Argos, making a sneaky night entrance. The Argives discovered him and called Antigonus, encamped nearby, for help. In the confusing night fight that followed, the Epirotes were crumbled together in the narrow streets and suffered heavy losses. Pyrrhus himself, “the eagle”, as his countrymen proudly called him, was slain and his head was brought to Antigonus. Far from rejoicing at this sight, the Macedonian king organised an official burial for his great adversary and even spared his son Hellenus, also present at the battle. Gonatas was once again ousted from his kingdom about 263 BC by Alexander II of Epirus, son and heir of Pyrrhus. Antigonus had lost almost all territories; this time the situation was saved by his son, the crown prince Demetrius. At the battle of Derdia about 260 BC, the young man greatly distinguished himself, demolishing the Epirotes and thereby saving Macedonia.
Once more in full control of the kingdom, Antigonus II Gonatas could concentrate on the foreign issues. At the time, the mighty Egyptian navy was the undisputed master of the Aegean, which did severe damage to Macedonia and Asia alike. That is why, having concluded an alliance with Antiochus I of Asia as early as 278 BC, Antigonus now started constructing a fleet capable of challenging the Ptolemaic one. This was an initiative which required vast funding, but the king probably received money from his wealthy Asian ally. And the results did not take long to show up. In a long war that lasted with small interruptions for more than fifteen years, Antigonus defeated his enemy twice, in 258 BC and 246 BC, thereby gaining the upper hand. The outcome was greater commercial freedom in the eastern Mediterranean and control of the Aegean, which enabled to energetic king to turn his attention to the affairs of Greece.
According to Plutarch, Antigonus’s wish to take the Acro-Corinthus was “close to frantic love”. The importance of the city was obvious – it occupied a strategic location, which blocked the land entrance into the Pelopponesus and also controlled both seas. It is no wonder Philip V later called the Acro-Corinthus “the fetters of Greece”. In order to capture it, Antigonus devised a cunning plan. He poisoned the tyrant ruling there and then married his son, Demetrius, to the dead man’s widow. Thus succeeding, Gonatas rejoiced wildly and feasted at the city. His joy, however, was short lived, for Aratus, the gifted strategus of the Achaean League took it from him by surprise in 243 BC. In a sneaky night attack, Aratus’s men quietly climbed the walls but were soon observed by the guards, who blew up the trumpets. Chaos and fear were everywhere to the effect that Archelaus, the Macedonian governor, was ambushed and lost most of his men. Thereupon, Aratus stormed and seized the citadel.
The last years of Gonatas’s reign were relatively quiet. The king invited artists, poets and scientists to his court at Pella and improved the public buildings in his capital. This break from the constant warfare was more than welcome for the weary country, which urgently needed to rest. The Macedonian population had decreased dramatically during the last years, owing to Alexander’s conquests, which opened new lands for those eager to colonise them, and the Celtic invasion. Antigonus II Gonatas died in 239 BC after a reign of 44 years. He was succeeded by his son, Demetrius II Aetolicus (239 BC – 229 BC).
At that time, more and more troubles came from Greece. Aratus had managed to unite the hitherto warring Achaean and Aetolian Leagues and now wanted to chase the Macedonians out of Athens. Demetrius sent south his general Bithys to oppose him. And in 237 BC, near Phylacia, the Macedonians won a great victory. Rumours spread that Aratus himself was either captured or killed, so that Demetrius sent a special ship, which was to bring the strategus to him in fetters. The rumours proved falls, but nevertheless the king occupied Boeotia the same year. He was further successful in strengthening his position in the Pelopponesus and turning the Illyrians against the Aetolians. But the Greeks struck back. They waited for their chance, and it finally came in 231 BC. That year, Epirus, which constituted a republican federation within the kingdom, rose in successful revolt and joined the Achaeans and Aetolians. Still, Demetrius could have dealt even with a coalition as mighty as this, had not his position been further weakened by attacks from the north. In 230 BC, a huge army of Dardanians invaded Macedonia. Demetrius offered battle, but the outcome was disastrous, and he was badly wounded. His designs being shattered to pieces everywhere, the desperate king died a few months thereafter, in 229 BC, leaving his son Philip but a little child.
Because the successor of the kingdom was underage, Antigonus III Doson (229 BC – 221 BC), cousin of the deceased king, was made regent. His first order of business was to deal with the Dardanians. After successfully pushing them back, the regent pacified a group of Macedonians, who thought he had treacherously usurped the throne. Thereupon, Antigonus married the widow of Demetrius II, adopted the young Philip V, and was proclaimed king and god in 227 BC. But apart from this extravagance, Antigonus was an excellent king. He checked the growing power of the Egyptian king Ptolemy III Euergetes in the Aegean, before focusing on the never-ending quarrels of Hellas. Since the death of Demetrius, the situation had changed considerably in favour of the Macedonians. Aratus suffered several defeats from the gifted Spartan king-reformer Cleomenes, and was finally obliged to call the court at Pella for help. This was all that Antigonus needed. He agreed to help on the condition that the Acro-Corinthus be given to him, and, on receiving a favourable answer, instituted the Hellenic League in 224 BC, which included all of Greece, except Aetolia and, at least for now, Sparta. Having completed this, Antigonus passed the Gerania mountain range in 223 BC with a great army. Perceiving himself no match in open battle for the Macedonian king, Cleomenes fortified himself to the southwest of Corinth. Antigonus could neither force him into fighting nor move around his defence lines. He was saved from this embarrassing situation by the Argives, who offered to rebel against the Spartans if they were to be helped. The king immediately dispatched Aratus with 1500 men, but Argos did not even wait for them to appear in order to open hostilities. Cleomenes wanted to keep the town and hurried there, but in this way lost Corinth to the Macedonians. He was fighting with great success against the Argives, but seeing Antigonus descend from the hills with his numerous cavalry, he had to retreat and lose the town. Antigonus further seized Tegea and pillaged Orchomenus and Mantinea. The last town he consequently rebuilt, bestowing it the name of Antigonia. In turn, Cleomenes destroyed Megalopolis.
In this way, the campaign had been given a boost, but Cleomenes was a worthy opponent and was not easy to beat. During the winter of 223 BC, when the Macedonian army had settled in their headquarters, and Antigonus was wintering with his close friends at Argos, the Spartan raided the countryside, reaching the very walls of the city. The Argives bitterly whined and accused Antigonus of cowardice, but the king was wise enough not to risk going into battle with few troops. The decisive battle took place at Sellasia in 222 BC. The Macedonian phalanx, with its specific syntagma formation, proved irresistible against the Spartan lines. Plutarch also gives an alternative version, whereby because of treachery, Cleomenes did not notice the absence of the Illyrian mercenaries, who later hit his rear. Whatever the reason, the Spartan force was crushed, and Cleomenes fled to Ptolemy’s protection. Antigonus entered Sparta without any opposition and spared the city. He sacrificed to the gods and left on the third day after receiving intelligence that the Illyrians had invaded Macedonia from the north. He had to hurry, for the king was suffering from a severe case of tuberculosis. Nevertheless Antigonus found enough will to reach the northern mountains quickly and offer battle, in which thousands of barbarians were killed. Plutarch gives two accounts of his death. According to the first one, Antigonus’s lungs were torn to pieces by his constant shouting in the midst of the melee. According to the second, after the fighting was over, Antigonus cried out ‘Oh, what a glorious day!’, vomited plenty of blood and died from the resulting fever.
The throne was passed to the youthful Philip V (220 BC – 179 BC), the son of Demetrius II. He was in all aspects an unusual king. While possessing a number of good qualities – he was an erudite, a good warrior and general, and an insightful person – at times he was exceedingly cruel and overly proud and cold-hearted. Although only 18 years of age, Philip had acquired some experience in politics after being sent to Greece by Antigonus in 221 BC in order to supervise local affairs. And he had to show he was no worse a ruler than his stepfather. For the Aetolians, on receiving news that Antigonus was dead, immediately went to war with the Achaeans. Aratus suffered defeat and was once more obliged to call in the Macedonians. The Aetolians fought bravely and, even though Philip was victorious, an honourable peace armistice was signed between the two factions in 217 BC. This was the time of the Second Punic War, and Hannibal was marching on Italy. The Carthaginian general opened negotiations with the Macedonians, and an alliance was supposedly signed. Even before going into open hostilities with the Romans, though, Philip decided to attack Apolonia, but returned upon false rumour that a Roman fleet was approaching. The First Macedonian War (214 BC – 205 BC) began a year later, and everybody expected a Macedonian landing in Italy. Nothing of the sort happened. Philip had too few ships and was afraid of meeting the mighty Roman navy in the Adriatic. Instead, he proceeded to attack the Roman possessions in Epirus. This time, the Romans broke out of their passiveness, attacked unexpectedly and captured the town of Oricon. They further organised a coalition of small countries against Macedonia to keep her busy, which included Pergamum, Aetolia and the Dardanians. Philip was continuously attacked from all sides and soon grew weary. Finally, he signed a peace treaty, which recognised the previous status quo, in the winter of 206/205.
The king had concluded this peace in order to concentrate on the eastern affairs. The Egyptian king Ptolemy IV Philometor died in 205 BC, and Antiochus III Megas of Asia and Philip now made an alliance against Egypt, whereby Philip was to receive the Ciclades and Ionia and Antiochus – Cyprus and Egypt. In the spring of 201 BC Philip set sail for Thrace, capturing Lysimachia and Perintus. King Prusius of Bithynia was his ally, so he passed safely into Asia. Chalcedon surrendered, but Kios stood firm. It was mercilessly destroyed and its population was murdered. Upon this atrocity, Pergamum, Rhodes and Byzantium declared war on Macedonia and called Rome for help. A Roman mission was dispatched to the king but won nothing. In the meantime, Philip had fought two naval battles, losing the first near Samos but winning the second further south. He then seized Miletus and moved into Caria. But supplies running scarce and a Roman attack imminent, the Macedonian king returned to Europe in the winter of 201 BC. The Romans had meantime created yet another anti-Macedonian coalition and declared war on Philip in 200 BC; an army of two legions landed at Appolonia soon after. During this year, they limited themselves to a brief intrusion, as a result of which the Macedonian colony of Antipatria was captured. The Roman navy had greater success. Carrying out an unexpected attack on Euboea, it captured and destroyed the king’s supplies. Enraged at this, Philip decided to strike back by seizing Athens, but this intention led to nothing.
During the next 199 BC, the main Roman army invaded from the west. The king opposed it, but in the battle that followed suffered defeat, the sarissas proving inefficient in the mountainous terrain. At the news of the outcome of this battle, the Aetolians, hitherto neutral, declared war on Macedonia an attacked from the south, while the Dardanians invaded from the north and the Pergamese navy approached from the east. The situation was critical. Philip chose to withdraw to the interior of the country, which he did with such skill that the enemy lost his tracks. Fearing lest they might be ambushed in the unknown and hostile lands, the Romans chose to return to their base camp at Appolonia. This enabled Philip to completely defeat the Aetolians, while the Dardanians were easily pushed back by one of the king’s generals. The attack of the fleet was also futile.
Their hopes running high at the relative success of the previous campaign, the Macedonians took to the offensive in 198 BC, marching south to the river Viosa close to Athens. This astute move blocked the Roman army, now led by a new commander under the name of Titus Flamininus. He was, however, successful in tempting a few noble Epirotes to betray their Macedonian overlords, secretly leading the Roman army about the enemy. Philip suffered defeat and could no longer hold his good position; his withdrawal to the Tempe pass, the gateway to Macedonia proper, led to the immediate loss of Thessally. He did not despair, though. After strengthening the garrison at Corinth to 6000 men, the king gathered an army of 26,000 troops and decided to try his good fortune in one last, decisive battle. This collision happened at Cynoscephalae in 197 BC. The battlefield was dominated by a steep hill, which the right wing of the Macedonian phalanx, headed by Philip himself, was successful in occupying before the advent of the enemy a-vanguard. The left wing was slower, and in order to spare it from the attack of the legions, the king charged the Roman lines. The Macedonian phalanx moved on victoriously, defeating the enemy left wing; this might have led to the entire Roman army fleeing the field, had not the Aetolian cavalry fought on. The legions then destroyed the delayed Macedonian left wing and then attacked the enhanced right in the rear, which proved decisive. The fight was utterly lost and, losing as much as half of his army, Philip hurried north, burning his royal documentation on the way. He had to sue for peace, regardless of the conditions. And they were harsh. He lost not only his possessions in Greece (including Thessally), Asia Minor, the Aegean and Thrace, but also had to pay a contribution of 1000 talents. He was denied the right to assemble an army of more than 5000 troops and 5 war ships, as well as possess any war elephants. Macedonia had to become an ally of Rome and could not go to war with any country friendly to the Romans. Philip agreed with all this – he had no choice – in order to defeat the meddling Dardanians.
During the latter part of his reign, Philip was busy reorganising his realms, now confined to Macedonia proper. In order to put an end to the ceaseless attack of the Dardanians, he devastated the lands adjacent to his northern border, turning them into a lifeless desert. He settled loyal Thracian colonists in the sparsely populated regions of the kingdom. Philip also regulated finances and built new towns. Owing to these highly effective initiatives and the consequent peaceful years, the power of Macedonia at least doubled. This wasn’t the case with Philip’s private life, however. His son Perseus constantly blackmailed the crown prince Demetrius, who had lived as a hostage in Rome. The king appeared to believe these machinations and had Demetrius put to death. He was later to regret this deed, but he did not live long enough to punish Perseus. Philip V died at Demetrias in 179 BC, at the age of 59.
The successor of Philip and, as it turned out, last king of Macedonia, was Perseus (179 BC – 168 BC). He took on his father’s plans to wage war on Rome. In the years preceding the Third Macedonian War, the king tried to win allies. The sentiments in all of Greece were now pro-Macedonian, and yet the king failed to win many supporters. When the war finally started in the autumn of 172 BC, he could have easily occupied Hellas with his troops, but Perseus decided to adopt a defensive strategy. In his first battle against the Romans he was victorious but did not follow up on his good fortune. Had Philip not died, the outcome of this war could have been very different, especially bearing in mind the dissolute morals of the Roman army and the incompetence of its leaders. As it were, the Romans changed several commanders, before finally discovering the right one – Lucius Aemilius Paul. He advanced to the north and on September 4th, 168 BC, forced a decisive battle near Pidna. The Macedonian phalanx was disturbed by the uneven terrain, while the Macedonian cavalry offered little resistance. As a result, 20, 000 Macedonian troops were killed in the fighting and 11,000 fell captive to the enemy. Initially, Perseus decided to flee, but seeing there was nowhere to hide, the king surrendered to the victors and was led as a captive on the triumph of Paul. The Romans decided to destroy the kingdom of Alexander by dividing it into four vassal republican federations. Macedonia was once more united as a Roman province in 146 BC. |
