Philip II - 03 | The War for Amphipolis 

I'm glad you like it! That was my goal to really go through historical events thoroughly rather than some of the pop history channels, which gloss over huge details to get to the juicy bits and really miss the important build up and context towards them.

How much time do you put into studying for one episode? I haven't personally read any book about Philip II but I'm guessing you have gotten the information from multiple sources and not just one book.

Yeah so I get this somewhat often, my main source for Philip II is the book "Philip II of Macedon" and "By the Spear" both by Ian Worthington, who is by in large the main modern historian that studies him (he has even more books written or edited by him on Philip II and the Hellenistic era). Of course these is supplemented with other sources when it's appropriate like Plutarch's Lives, Hellenika, etc. For more specific things I have other books like "Men in Bronze" which I used in talking about the Hoplites of Greece in Episode 4. And "The Macedonian War Machine" which gives great detail on the structure of the Macedonian army under Philip, Alexander and his successors. A big issue with Philip II is that the sources on him are rather lacking and most ancient sources cared more for Alexander and his conquests. Hence, as seen in the episode, some details are just not known because no one thought it important enough to jot down. Nevertheless I do still get things wrong or miss details, either because I didn't find it in my research then, it didn't fit in the video or there is obscurity as to the true historical events and I have to naturally choose one to tell.

Archaia Istoria the best documentary i have seen on the subject in the whole of you tube.

As long as the quality remains excellent I think we're more than willing to wait

Dude u are one of the best that explained the Macedonian history i have ever seen keep going man :D

I like it a lot but when is the next video?

Yes, concur. Great series on Philip. Will there be a #6? Eagerly awaiting it. U do great work Archaia

I'm glad, thanks! What were you watching beforehand anyway?

I was watching a lot of Historia Civilis and Invicta lately, so it wasnt really a suprise to find another history channel. But to find such an unkown and great channel was really unexpected. (+1 Sub)

Same

Thanks! Yeah, hopefully my audio and visual get better as each video comes out. Especially since I'm switching from Premiere Pro to After Effects so I can get better animation and it should be quicker to make each video too. Also glad you noticed the humour, I very much take a page out of Historia Civilis' visual humour.

Wow thanks for that, sounds like you're a real professional. I'm really glad this format seems so popular, I thought that a slower pace more detailed historical teaching would be too boring for most but people seem to like it. Coming from someone who has studied the subject thoroughly, any suggestions for my content or presentation? I'd love to hear some constructive feedback!

THANK YOU Sir. A great improvement could be to show landscapes of important battles. I suggest also to show real "faces" of the historic persons invalved (Philip, "Myrtali" (Olympias) and anyother you may find (statues etc). i am "specialized" in...detecting mistakes (history etc), and I did not find any serious to mention).my "honour" to help Sir.! By the way: The location I was born is very close to ancient "Mieza" (location of Aristotle's Lyceum, where Alexander studied for 3 years under the famous philosopher. AND, my mother (passed-away 2013), she was from the municipality of "Alexander the Great" (Aspro, Pella)..! I am now working in Athens and got "crazy" lately because there is a slavic-mixed people state, they call theirselves "Macedonians" and demand to be recognized with this name ! Unbelievable.Next week, 6 June, watch the demonstrations in Athens and 13 cities in Macedonia province....Thanks again for the appreciation. Thanos Bairlis ( tourtripgreece.gr ) One day, you have to visit MACEDONIA ...!

Athanasios Bairlis HOLD UP DUDE your name is THANOS?!!?

Athanasios Bairlis that's Badass

hahah yeap, many greeks have this name, It comes from Athanasios to Thanasis to Thanos as a syntomography

I believe you’re mistaking hegemony and autonomy for freedom and liberty. Athens, Sparta and Thebes all became hegemons of Greece but didn’t end Greek liberty to the extent that Macedonian hegemony did. The very fact that the Spartans then Thebans and potentially the Pharae did and could have ridden to hegemony is proof of their liberty. If we say compare it to Philip’s, Alexander’s Antipater’s and Cassander’s reigns it’s very different. Philip defeated the coalition of the Greek powers and unified them in the League of Corinth; Alexander razed Thebes to the ground (never before done of a major Greek Polis); Antipater crushed their war for liberation in the Spartan rebellion and Lanmian war; Cassander, Demetrius and following Diadochi and Epigoni used the promise of Greek liberty as a lie to rally the Greek city states to their side. However truefully it was long gone and their overlords weren’t going to allow them to have it. Here in lies the change with Philip and the Macedonian hegemony to all those prior.

I agree that Macedonian hegemony had special circumstances. But was no different from the previous ones. Slavery was slavery. It wasn't a hegemony of a different Nation to another Nation. They all were Greeks fighting for supremacy. All these known ancient Greek powers were looking for supremacy in the whole Greek world and even in South Italy (Sicily and Magna Grecia). This meant the violent sometimes deprival of ancestral liberty (enslavement) that the city-state had. Check what the Athenians did to Mytileneans or Samians. No matter if you were Spartan or Athenian or Theban or Macedonian or Thessalian or neutral you would lose your liberty. You are probably misinterpreting ''Greek freedom'' and ''liberty'' as this is shown numerous times in sources in the form of ''conquest'' or ''subjugation''. Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 1 Ch. 69 Ch 1-4-5 Corinthian speech to Lacedaemonians ‘’For all this, you are responsible. You it was who first allowed them (Athenians) to fortify their city after the Median war, and afterwards to erect the long walls, you who, then and now, are always depriving of freedom not only those whom they have enslaved, but also those who have as yet been your allies. For the true author of the subjugation of a people, is not so much the immediate agent, as the power, which permits it having the means to prevent it, particularly if that power aspires to the glory of being the liberator of Hellas.’’ ...''And yet you know that on the whole the rock on which the barbarian was wrecked was himself, and that if our present enemy Athens has not again and again annihilated us, we owe it more to her blunders than to your protection’’ Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 1 Ch. 98 Ch 2 ''Next they (Athenians) enslaved Scyros the island in the Aegean, containing a Dolopian population, and colonized it themselves.'' Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 1 Ch. 122 Sec. 2-3 Corinthian Ambassadors speech to Lacedaemonians ‘’Let us also reflect that if it was merely a number of disputes of territory between rival neighbors, it might be borne, but here we have an enemy in Athens, that is a match for our whole coalition, and more than a match for any of its members so that unless as a body and as individual nationalities and individual cities we make an unanimous stand against her, she will easily conquer us divided and in detail. That conquest, terrible as it may sound, would, it must be known, have no other end than slavery pure and simple. ‘’ Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 1 Ch. 124 Sec. 1-3 Corinthian Ambassadors speech to Lacedaemonians ‘’Delay not, therefore, to assist Potidaea, a Dorian city besieged by Ionians, which is quite a reversal of the order of things nor to assert the freedom of the rest.’’ We must believe that the tyrant city (Athens) that has been established in Hellas has been established against all alike, with a program of universal empire, part fulfilled, part in contemplation, let us then attack and reduce it, and win future security for ourselves and freedom for the Hellenes who are now enslaved.’’ Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 2 Ch. 61 Sec. 1 Pericles second speech to Athenians supporting the choice of going to war ‘’But if the only choice was between submission with loss of independence, and danger with the hope of preserving that independence,’’ Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 2 Ch. 63 Sec. 1 Pericles second speech to Athenians supporting the choice of going to war ‘’You should remember also that what you are fighting against is not merely slavery as an exchange for independence, but also loss of empire and danger from the animosities incurred in its exercise’’ Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 2 Ch. 71 Sec. 3-4 Plateans envoys speech to Archidamus the Lacedaemonian King ‘’Your fathers rewarded us thus for the courage and patriotism that we displayed at that perilous epoch but you do just the contrary, coming with our bitterest enemies, the Thebans, to enslave us. Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 4. Ch. 86. 1-6 Brasidas Lacedaemonian General speech to Acanthians ‘’And for myself, I have come here not to hurt but to free the Hellenes, witness the solemn oaths by which I have bound my government that the allies that I may bring over shall be independent’’ ‘’Endeavour, therefore, to decide wisely, and strive to begin the work of liberation for the Hellenes.’’ Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 4. Ch. 92. 1-3-4-7 Pagondas the Boeotarch speech to Boeotian army ‘’Boeotians, the idea that we ought not to give battle to the Athenians unless we came up with them in Boeotia, is one which should never have entered into the head of any of us, your generals. It was to annoy Boeotia that they crossed the frontier and built a fort in our country and they are therefore, I imagine, our enemies…’’ ‘’It is your national habit, in your country, or out of it, to oppose the same resistance to a foreign invader and when that invader is Athenian, and lives upon your frontier besides, it is doubly imperative to do so.’’ ‘’As between neighbours generally, freedom means simply a determination to hold ones own and with neighbours like these, who are trying to enslave near and far alike, there is nothing for it but to fight it out to the last. Look at the condition of the Euboeans and of most of the rest of Hellas’’ ‘’…we must march against the enemy, and teach him that he must go and get what he wants by attacking some one who will not resist him, but that men whose glory it is to be always ready to give battle for the liberty of their own country, and never unjustly to enslave that of others, will not let him go without a struggle.’’ Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 5. Ch. 9. 1-9 Brasidas Lacedaemonian General speech to Peloponneseans ‘‘Peloponnesians, the character of the country from which we have come, one which has always owed its freedom to valor, and the fact that you are Dorians and the enemy you are about to fight Ionians, whom you are accustomed to beat, are things that do not need further comment’’ ‘’…and that this day will make you either free men and allies of Lacedaemon, or slaves of Athens even if you escape without personal loss of liberty or life, your bondage will be on harsher terms than before, and you will also hinder the liberation of the rest of the Hellenes. ‘’ Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 5. Ch. 89-91-100-112.2 Athenian envoys speech to Melian commissioners (Athenian envoys) ‘‘For ourselves, we shall not trouble you with specious presences, either of how we have a right to our empire because we overthrew the Mede, or are now attacking you because of wrong that you have done us’’ ‘‘The end of our empire, if end it should, does not frighten us: a rival empire like Lacedaemon, even if Lacedaemon was our real antagonist,…’’ ‘’We will now proceed to show you that we are come here in the interest of our empire…’’ (Melian commissioners) ‘’Well then, if you risk so much to retain your empire, and your subjects to get rid of it, it were surely great baseness and cowardice in us who are still free not to try everything that can be tried, before submitting to your yoke.’’ ‘’But we believe that they would be more likely to face even danger for our sake, and with more confidence than for others, as our nearness to Peloponnese makes it easier for them to act and our common blood insures our fidelity.’’ ‘’Our resolution, Athenians, is the same as it was at first. We will not in a moment deprive of freedom a city that has been inhabited these (700) seven hundred years’’

As about Philip's II win (338BC) he had other Greek city-states on his side that joined him. He wasn't fighting in Chaeronea alone with his Macedonians ''only''. As about the Thebes, no, it wasn't the sole example in classical Greek history of a city-state razed to the ground. But the most important was the reason why it was razed to the ground. Because it was the only one that sided with the Persians. Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 3 Ch. 68 Sec. 1-2-3-5 Destruction of Plataea by the Lacedaemonians ‘’…they (Lacedaemonian judges) brought them (Plataeans) in again one by one and asked each of them the same question, that is to say, whether they had done the Lacedaemonians and allies any service in the war and upon their saying that they had not, took them out and slew them all without exception.’’ ‘’The number of Plataeans thus massacred was not less than (200) two hundred, with (25) twenty-five Athenians who had shared in the siege. The women were taken as slaves. ‘’ ‘’The city the Thebans gave for about a year to some political emigrants from Megara, and to the surviving Plataeans of their own party to inhabit, and afterwards razed it to the ground from the very foundations..’’ ‘’Such was the end of Plataea in the (93) ninety-third year after she became the ally of Athens.’’

Thebes, because they fought against ''Hellas'', was voted by the whole Hellenic council (league) to be destroyed, under Alexander's III arms who later believed he was wrong. The same city was restored by Cassander. Xenophon (Greek Historian 430BC-354BC) Hellenica book 7 ch 1 sec 33-34 And now the Thebans, who were continually planning how they might obtain the leadership of Hellas, hit upon the idea that if they should send to the King of the Persians, they would gain some advantage in him. When the ambassadors arrived there (Persian king), Pelopidas (Theban) enjoyed a great advantage with the Persian. For he was able to say that his people were the only ones among the Hellenes who had fought on the side of the King at Plataea, that they had never afterwards undertaken a campaign against the King, and that the Lacedaemonians had made war upon them for precisely the reason that they had declined to go with Agesilaus against him and had refused to permit Agesilaus to sacrifice to Artemis at Aulis, the very spot where Agamemnon, at the time when he was sailing forth to Asia, had sacrificed before he captured Troy Plutarch (Greek Historian/Biographer 46AD-120AD) On the Fortune of Alexander III (2nd Oration) ch.6 ‘’But then again spiteful fortune stirred up the Thebans against him (Alexander III), and entangled him in the Hellenic war, and in the dire necessity of defending himself against his fellow-countrymen and relations with fire and sword and hideous slaughter’’ Polybius (Greek Historian 200BC-118BC) Book IX,34 Lyciscus Acarnanian envoy speech to Lacedaemonians ‘’Again, you bitterly denounced Alexander III, because, when he believed himself to be wronged, he punished Thebes, but of his having exacted vengeance of the Persians for their outrages on all the Hellenes you made no mention at all, nor of his having released us all in common from heavy miseries, by enslaving the barbarians,…’’ Marcus Junianus Justinus (Roman Historian) Epitome of the the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus Book XI ch.3 ‘’It being debated in a council of war whether the city (Thebes) should be destroyed, the Phocians, Plataeans, Thespians, and Orchomenians, who were the allies of Alexander III and sharers in his victory, dwelt upon the destruction of their own cities and the cruelty of the Thebans, urging against them not only their present, but former, defection to the Persians, to the prejudice of the common liberty of Hellas. “on which account,” they said, “they were an object of general hatred, as was manifest from the fact that all the Hellenes had bound themselves by an oath to demolish Thebes as soon as they (Greeks) had conquered the Persians,” Diodoros of Sicily (Greek Historian 60BC-30BC) Bibliotheca Historica 17.14. ch 2-3 (Alexander III after the siege of Thebes, calls a meeting about the city of Thebes) ‘’...When the discussion was opened, certain men who were hostile to the Thebans began to recommend that they (Thebans) should be visited with the direst penalties, and they pointed out that they had taken the side of the barbarians against the Hellenes. For in the time of Xerxes they had actually joined forces with the Persians and campaigned against Hellas, and alone of the Hellenes (Thebans) were honored as benefactors by the Persian kings, so that the ambassadors of the Thebans were seated on thrones set in front of the kings. ‘’ ‘’They related many other details of similar tenor and so aroused the feelings of the council against the Thebans, and it was finally voted to raze the city, to sell the captives, to outlaw the Theban exiles from all Hellas, and to allow no Hellene to offer shelter to a Theban.’’ Aeschines (Greek Statesman/Orator 389BC-314BC) Against Ctesiphon 3. 115 ‘’…and had written the appropriate inscription (on shields), “The Athenians, from the Medes and Thebans when they fought against Hellas.” Aeschines (Greek Statesman/Orator 389BC-314BC) Against Ctesiphon 3. 132 ‘’But Thebes! Thebes, our neighbor, has in one day been swept from the midst of Hellas, even though justly, for her main policy was wrong, yet possessed by an infatuate blindness and folly that were not of men, but a divine visitation..’’ Polybius (Greek Historian 200BC-118BC) Book IV,31 …We have no good word for the Thebans, because they shrunk from fighting for Hellas and chose from fear to side with the Persians… Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 3 Ch. 62 Sec. 1-2 Theban representantive’s speech to Lacedaemonians ‘’Next, when the barbarian invaded Hellas, they say (Plataeans) that they were the only Boeotians who did not Medise and this is where they most glorify themselves and abuse us. ‘’ Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 3 Ch. 63 Sec. 1-3 Theban representantive’s speech to Lacedaemonians ‘’Let this suffice to excuse us for our Medism. We will now endeavor to show that you have injured the Hellenes more than we, and are more deserving of condign punishment.’’ Thucydides (Greek Historian 460BC-400BC) The Peloponnesian War Book 3 Ch. 56 Sec. 4 Platean representantives speech to Lacedaemonians ‘’…although if they (Thebans) seem useful to you now, we and the rest of the Hellenes gave you much more valuable help at a time of greater need. Now you are the assailants, and others fear you but at the crisis to which we allude, when the barbarian threatened all with slavery, the Thebans were on his side.’’

J. B. Bury 1900 A History of Greece to the death of Alexander the Great The rise of Macedonia sect 2, Philip II of Macedonia, p731 ''If the chances of another issue to the battle of Chaeronea have been exaggerated, the significance of that event has been often misrepresented. The battle of Chaeronea belongs to the same historical series as the battles of Aegospotami and Leuctra. As the hegemony or first place among Greek states had passed successively from Athens to Sparta and to Thebes so now it passed to Macedon. The statement that Greek liberty perished on the plain of Chaeronea is as true as false as that it perished on the field of Leuctra or the strand of the Aegus Potami (Goat’s river). Whenever a Greek state became supreme, that supremacy entailed the depression of some states and the dependency or subjection of others. Athens were reduced by Macedon to a secondary place and Thebes feared still worse but we must not forget what Sparta, in the day of her triumph, did to Athens, or the more evil things which Thebes proposed. There were, however, in the case of Macedonia, special circumstances, which seemed to give her victory a more fatal character than those previous victories, which had initiated new supremacies. For Macedon was regarded in Hellas as an outsider. This was a feeling, which the southern Greeks entertained even in regard to Thessaly when Jason threatened them with a Thessalian hegemony and Macedonia politically and historically as well as geographically was some steps further away than Thessaly. If Thessaly was hardly inside the inner circle of Hellenic politics, Macedonia was distinctly outside it. To Athens and Sparta, to Corinth and Argos and Thebes, the old powers, who, as we might say, had known each other all their lives as foes or friends, and had a common international history, the supremacy of Macedonia seemed the intrusion of an upstart. And in the second place, this supremacy was the triumph of an absolute monarchy over free commonwealths, so that the submission of the Greek states to Macedon’s king might be rhetorically branded as an enslavement to a tyrant in a sense in which subjection to a sovereign Athens or a sovereign Sparta could not be so described.''

TJ Alfonso Thanks, that actually means a lot.

Really glad you like it, had a bit of a delay on the homefront so the next video will take a bit longer to come out.

No thank YOU! there are details that even our schools brush over. Philip is always under the shadow of Alexander despite doing all the foundation works.

Thanks very much, hopefully in the next month I’ll get another episode out. I’m very happy people are enjoying the slower paced series

Oh you think they’re useless now, just you wait

No Philip no Alexander

they never found a males skeleton there, they found amog others a 60 years female skeleton ,probably Olympias

Glad you liked it

Oran5 5 He lived in relative comfort at Philip’s court and only really plays a role when he tried to take the throne when Alexander ascends

Appreciate it

Well not greater but he certainly could have conquered Persia himself.

Wow that sounds awesome! Well I got my information on it from roughly the same source, his other book “Philip II of Macedon”. I couldn’t really tell you anymore then what I said in the video but if you check the front of your book it should have a map of every region of Thrace, a map of all the mines of Macedonia (and it gives a specific place for demastium). Honestly “By the Spear” is very much a general history military book than anything in-depth (as it covers such a broad period). His book on Philip, by the same name, is way more in depth with great notes, references and essays. It also reads really well. So if you’re hurting for information (and if my blue moon videos don’t quite come often enough) then this book will give you a ton of information.

Me and you both

I plan to, just research on the next episodes have been tough but I finally have a script and can record.

@@ArchaiaHistoria so happy to hear that! You've done a lovely job so far. Your videos are easy to follow and very educational. You have allowed me to see what an absolute badass Phillip II was!

It’s a steady climb

Thanks for the feedback! My Greek is really lousy (should be better for a channel based on the Hellenistic Era, eh), but I'm hoping I get more fluent with it and stumble a bit less on the syllables as I go on. I suggest you check out the Athenian democracy video to really see how ridiculous some of these words are! As for the microphone, I largely agree it was a pretty standard one since I didn't want to use my phone but I think I can still do more with it to sound a lot better (like an actual pop filter) and in programs I could better smoothen out my voice. Something I really agree with you on is trying to sound more enthusiastic in my videos since a long 20 minute video on Philip II could probably bring some people to sleep so I really want to try and make it sound more engaging. My biggest issue is that for an episode I can be recording and re-recording for hours just to make it all sound consistent and understandable (I'm a terrible mumbler IRL) and at the same tone. So having the ability and energy to keep it very enthusiastic is a bit difficult but I am trying to get better with each episode! Lastly about music I'm still on the fence if I want it between pauses (like Historia Civilis) but my format borrows a lot from Extra Credits and more in story telling. Otherwise thanks a lot, hopefully I can get as big as them one day hahaha.

M well stated. Animation upgrade would be the next step after the other details are improved upon

Apologies, I butcher Greek with the King’s English haha

I’m working on the script right now, the next few episodes should just be Philip II. Hopefully* these come out much sooner than usual and I can get at least once a month or so.

The 6th and 7th are currently in development as we speak.

great, cant wait to watch, you are doing awesome videos about a not very explored topic that is amazing

@@ArchaiaHistoria The full of joy 😃

Of course! Life just threw me a bit of a curve ball these last few months so I haven’t been largely able to make my next video past recording audio.

Ask and yee shall receive

Archaia Istoria thanks man this is the best series I've ever seen on Phillip or actually the only one I've ever seen LOL which is why it's so great we constantly talk about Alexander and he's great and all but you cannot forget about his father which in his time was probably the most powerful man in Europe

Archaia Istoria when is it coming out?

Nothing To Spiffy Hopefully very soon

It's very well done. I look forward to the next in this series and truly appreciate your work.

Soon*

Glad you enjoy the slower pace. After my next video I’ll try and get two more Philip II videos done.

@@ArchaiaHistoria Hey! Didn't see this! Thats great to hear!! Thanks for such a quick answer!!!

Find out soon*

Luke Diviney I should be out with a new episode next week!

Archaia Istoria awesome! Really looking forward to it. Don’t know if you’re aware or not but your videos closely follow the course I teach for high school in Australia. There’s almost no audio visual material on this period of history so you’re doing us a good service!

lukediv No kidding! I’m Aussie too! Which parts are you from? Also if you have any real dire question feel free to message me on my email

@@ArchaiaHistoria Im a teacher in NSW. No questions but a good discussion/explanation of the peace of philocrates using some visual material would be useful for the students. Its always a tricky part

Luke Diviney Glad to be of help. I’ll be sure to cover that when it comes up sequentially. At the moment I’m covering the causes and early phases of the 3rd sacred war in my upcoming video.

Soon*

And I love you too random citizen