Antipater: Encyclopedia II - Antipater - Career under Philip and Alexander

Antipater - Career under Philip and Alexander

Nothing is known of his early career until 342 BC, when he was appointed by Philip to govern Macedon as his regent while the former left the country for three years of hard and successful campaigning against Thracian and Scythians tribes, which extended the limits of Macedonian rule as far as the Hellespont. In the meanwhile in 342 BC he acted so to keep the Athenians at bay: when they tried to assume control of the Euboean towns and expel the pro-Macedonian rulers, Macedonian troops were sent to stop the attempt. In the autumn of the same year Antipater was at Delphi, as representative of Philip in the Amphictyonic League, a religious organization in which Macedon had been admitted just in 346 BC.

After the triumphal Macedonian victory at Chaeronea in 338 BC, Antipater was sent as ambassador to Athens (337–336 BC) with the finality of negotiating a peace treaty and bringing home the bones of the Athenians who had fallen in the battle.

He started as a great friend to both the young Alexander and the boy's mother, Olympias; there were even rumours that he was Alexander's true father. He aided Alexander in the struggle to secure his succession after Philip's death, in 336 BC.

He joined Parmenion in the ineffectual advice to Alexander the Great not to set out on his Asiatic spedition till he had provided by marriage for the succession to the throne; and, on the king's departure, 334 BC, he was left regent in Macedonia and made "general (strategos) of Europe", positions he was to full till 323 BC. Even if he did not participate to the great campaign, even the European front was to prove intially quite agitated, and Antipater did also have the duty to send reinforcements to the king, as he did while the king was at Gordium in the winter of 334–333 BC.

The Persian fleet under Memnon and Pharnabazus was apparently a considerable danger for Antipater, bringing war in the Aegean sea and threatening to bring war in Europe. Luckily for the regent, Memnon died while intent in the siege of Mytilene in the isle of Lesbos and the remaining fleet disintegrated in 333 BC, after Alexander's victory at Issus.

More dangerous enemies were nearer home; tribes in Thrace rebelled in 332 BC, lead by Memnon, the Macedonian governor of the region, followed shortly by the revolt of Agis III, king of Sparta.

The Spartans, who were not members of the League of Corinth and had not participated in Alexander's expedition, saw in the Asian campaign the long attended chance to resume control over the Peloponnese after the disastrous defeats of Leuctra and Mantinea. The Persians generously funded Sparta's ambitions, making possible the formation of an army 20.000 strong. After assuming virtual control of Crete Agis tried to build an anti-Macedonian front. While Athens remained neutral, the Achaeans, Arcadians and Elis became his allies, with the important exception of Megalopolis, the staunchly anti-Spartan capital of Arcadia. Agis started in 331 BC to besiege the city with all his army, generating great allarm in Macedon.

So to not have two enemies contemporarily, Antipater pardoned Memnon and even let him keep his office in Thrace, while great sums of money were sent him by Alexander. This helped to create with Thessalian help and many mercenaries a force double that of Agis, which Antipater in person leaded down the south in 330 BC to confront the Spartans. In the spring of that year the two armies clashed near Megalopolis, and Agis fell with many of his best soldiers, not without inflicting heavy losses to the Macedonians.

Utterly defeated the Spartans went to Antipater to plead for peace; the latter's answer was to treat the peace terms directly with the league of Corinth, but the Spartan emissaries preferred to treat directly with Alexander, who imposed on Sparta's allies a penalty of 120 talents and the entrance of Sparta in the league.

Alexander appears to have been quite jelous of Antipater's victory; in a letter reported by Plutarch, the king writes to his viceroy: "It seems, my friends that while we have been conquering Darius here, there has been a battle of mice in Arcadia".

Antipater was disliked for supporting oligarchs and tyrants in Greece, but he also worked with the league of Corinth built by Philip. His regency was greatly troubled by the ambition of Olympias, with whom his previously close relationship had vastly deteriorated. Whether, however, from jealousy or from the necessity of guarding against the evil consequences of the dissensions between Olympias and Antipater, the latter was ordered to lead into Asia the fresh troops required by the king, 324 BC, while Craterus, under whom the discharged veterans were sent home, was appointed to the regency in Macedon, but Antipater was able to forestall the transference of power when Alexander suddenly died in Babylon (323 BC).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Career under Philip and Alexander", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki