Philip II of Macedon: Encyclopedia II - Philip II of Macedon - Philip's assassination

Philip II of Macedon - Philip's assassination

The murder happened in October of that year, at Aegae, the ancient capital of the kingdom. The occasion was the marriage between Alexander I, king of Epirus, and Philip's daughter Cleopatra. While the king was entering unprotected in the town's theatre he was killed by Pausanias, one of Philip's seven bodyguards. The assassin immediately tried to escape and reach his associates who were waiting for him with horses at the entrance of Aegae. Unhappily for him, he was being chased by three other bodyguards. The assassin died at their hands.

The reasons for Pausanias' assassination of Phillip are difficult to fully understand, since it was a highly controversial argument already among ancient historians. The only contemporary account in our possession is that of Aristotle, who states rather tersely that Philip was killed because Pausanias had been offended by the followers of Attalus, the king's father-in-law.

Fifty years later, the historian Cleitarchus expanded and embellished the story. Centuries later, this version was to be narrated by Diodorus Siculus and all the historians who used Cleitarchus. In the sixteenth book of Diodorus' history, Pausanias had been a lover of Philip, but became jealous when Philip turned his attention to a younger man, also called Pausanias. His taunting of the new lover caused the youth to throw away his life, which turned his friend, Attalus, against Pausanias. Attalus took his revenge by inviting Pausanias to dinner, getting him drunk, then subjecting him to sexual assault.

When Pausanias complained to Philip the king felt unable to chastise Attalus, as he was about to send him to Asia with Parmenion, to establish a bridgehead for his planned invasion. He had also married Attalus's niece, or daughter, Eurydice. So he tried to mollify Pausanias, and elevated him within the bodyguard. Pausanias' desire for revenge seems to have turned towards the man who had failed to avenge his damaged honour; so he planned to kill Philip, and some time after the alleged rape, while Attalus was already in Asia fighting the Persians, put his plan in action.

Many modern historians have observed that the whole story is highly suspicious. First of all the motive of the crime: the motive for such an extreme murder as regicide hardly seems strong enough. Secondly, most of the ancient historians record the suspicions which fell on the chief beneficiaries of the murder, Alexander and especially his mother Olympias. The latter seems to have been anything but discreet in manifesting her gratitude to Pausanias, if we accept Justin's report: he tells us that the same night of her return from exile she placed a crown on the assassin's corpse and erected a tumulus to his memory, ordering annual sacrifices to the memory of Pausanias. Further suspects may be added when the circumstances of the murder are considered: the marriage during which Philip was killed had been planned so to isolate Olympias and make her lose her last possible ally, the king of Epirus. To this can be added that Cleitarchus' story is suspect because it indicates as indirectly responsible of the crime Attalus. Now Attalus was Alexander's mortal enemy, who had publicly declared his hope that not Alexander would succeed Philip, but the son of his niece Eurydice. It is at least possible to wonder if Alexander and his friends after killing Attalus had also wanted to slur him spreading the tale first hinted by Aristotle.

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