Alexander I (; died 454 BC), also known as Alexander the Philhellene (; ), was king 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.

Biography

Alexander was the only son of Amyntas I and an unknown spouse, whose name was perhaps Eurydice. He had a sister named Gygaea ().

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. 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. It is more likely that Amyntas arranged the marriage himself around 510, or that Alexander handled it after his father died.

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. In 492 BC it was made a fully subordinate part of the Persian Empire by Mardonius' campaign. 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. Alexander eventually regained Macedonian independence after the end of the Persian Wars.

thumb|[[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. After a court of Elean hellanodikai determined his claim to be true, he was permitted to participate in the Olympic Games 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. The earliest reference to an Athenian proxenos, who lived during the time of the Persian wars (c. 490 BC), is that of Alexander I. It was around this point that Alexander was given the epithet "philhellene".

Herodotus and Plutarch report another story about Alexander's assistance to the Greeks. On the eve of the decisive Battle of Plataea (479 BC), the Macedonian king secretly made his way to the Athenian positions at night and informed them of the enemy's plans. In his speech, Alexander indicated the patriotic motives of his actions: "Athenians, I lay up these words of mine as a trust to you, charging you to keep them secret and tell them to no one except only to Pausanias, lest ye bring me to ruin: for I should not utter them if I did not care greatly for the general safety of Hellas, seeing that I am a Hellene myself by original descent and I should not wish to see Hellas enslaved instead of free."

Issue

Alexander and his unnamed spouse had at least six children:

  • Perdiccas II, succeeded Alexander I.
  • Menelaus, father of Amyntas II
  • Philip
  • Amyntas, whose son Arrhidaeus was the father of Amyntas III.
  • Alcetas
  • Stratonice, married by her brother Perdiccas II to Seuthes I of Thrace.

Family tree

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. 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.

  • 15px (1) Amyntas I ()
  • 15px (2) Alexander I ()
  • 15px (3) Perdiccas II ()
  • 15px (4) Archelaus ()
  • 15px (5) Orestes ()
  • 15px Argaeus II ()
  • Pausanias
  • unnamed daughter15px Derdas of Elimea
  • unnamed daughter15px Amyntas II
  • 15px (6) Aeropus II ()
  • 15px (8) Pausanias ()
  • unnamed son
  • Menelaus
  • 15px (7) Amyntas II ()
  • 15px (11) Ptolemy of Aloros ()
  • Amyntas
  • Arrhidaeus
  • 15px (9) Amyntas III ()
  • From whom Philip II and Alexander III is descended.
  • Philip
  • Amyntas
  • Agerrus
  • Alcetas
  • Alexander
  • Agelaus
  • Arepyros
  • Stratonice 15px Seuthes I
  • Gygaea 15px Bubares
  • Amyntas

See also

  • Ancient Macedonians
  • List of ancient Macedonians

References

Notes

References

Bibliography