Meet history's brave female warriors. Olympias was born in the northern kingdom of Molossia in the region of Epirus around the late s B. Molossia, in what is today northwestern Greece, was a remote place, bounded by mountains on many sides. It was greener, cooler, and more watered than central and southern Greece, and famous for its oracle of Zeus at Dodona.
Most of the southern and central Greek peninsula was divided into city-states, some of them democracies and others more aristocratic governments. In the north, Molossia and Macedonia retained hereditary monarchies.
In both governmental forms, women ordinarily played no role, apart from religion. Archaeologists discovered the remains of Troy, lost for centuries. The Molossians faced a threat from the Illyrians, a people from the north. A marriage alliance with another kingdom could help better protect the state. Olympias and her uncle Arybbas traveled to the distant island of Samothrace off the coast of Macedonia , apparently to arrange her engagement to Philip II, king of Macedonia.
Philip, then about age 23, became king in Philip defeated them, drove off several claimants to the throne, but many enemies still threatened. By B. Philip had only one other son later known as Philip III Arrhidaeus by another wife, and it became apparent that he was mentally disabled.
Since kings could have many sons and no formal rules for succession seem to have existed, mothers tended to become succession advocates for their sons, and Olympias became that for hers. According to the first-century A. Alexander, by all accounts, went on to confirm it and took a highly dangerous journey across the Libyan desert during his invasion of Egypt. He visited the oracle of Ammon-Zeus at the remote oasis of Siwa, where a priest confirmed his divine parentage.
Olympias was not the only Molossian at the Macedonian court: Several relatives, including her brother the future Alexander I of Molossia soon arrived. This Molossian Alexander remained at court for a number of years. Olympias remained close to her Molossian roots the rest of her life. Since Philip was frequently absent on campaign, Olympias took on a greater role in raising her son, who probably knew his mother better than his father.
Philip treated Alexander like his heir. A little later, in , Philip chose Alexander, then age 18, to play a decisive role in the great Macedonian victory at Chaeronea. Did boys and girls receive the same education in ancient Greece? It was another marriage alliance, this time an internal one.
At the wedding, the wine flowed freely for Philip and his guests. The uncle and guardian of the bride, a Macedonian general named Attalus, asked those assembled to join him in a toast that the new marriage might bring to birth a legitimate successor.
Alexander sprang up enraged, demanded to know if Attalus was calling him a bastard, and threw a cup at him. Philip attempted to draw his sword on his own son and failed because he was so drunk he tripped, and Alexander mocked him. After this drunken brawl, Olympias and Alexander went back to Molossia.
Exactly what the drunken Attalus meant by his insult is unclear: He could have been charging Olympias with adultery or insinuating that Alexander, the son of a foreign woman, was therefore not legitimate. He simply could have meant that any child born of this new marriage to his niece would be more legitimate than Alexander.
How Alexander the Great's fear of losing power helped erode his empire. Philip did mend fences, and Alexander and his mother returned to Macedonia. At this moment of apparent reconciliation, Philip was suddenly assassinated by a young Macedonian noble and former lover, Pausanias. Some believed Alexander was in on the plot, to avenge the earlier insult and to ensure that he, rather than his father, led the upcoming invasion. Some believe this tomb belonged to Philip, Alexander the Great's father.
Many others would have liked to see Philip dead, likely hoping that the invasion and Macedonian dominance of the Greek peninsula would not endure. It will never be known if Pausanias had help, and if so, whose.
Alexander quickly eliminated all Macedonian threats and defeated all Greek attempts to overthrow Macedonian dominance. In Alexander led a combined Greek and Macedonian force to Asia, leaving the general Antipater behind in apparent control of the Greek peninsula. Tales of Olympias and Alexander took on new life in a legend known as the Alexander romance, whose plots bewitched its medieval audience. Based on a second-century A. Greek text, versions spread through European and Middle Eastern cultures.
In this version, Olympias left is not impregnated by Zeus. She is tricked and seduced by an Egyptian pharaoh and sorcerer, Nectanebo right. Tradition says that she offered advice to her son while he was away and warned him of threats. Chief among those was Antipater. For centuries, the Oracle at Delphi attracted the powerful who sought answers from the gods. Antipater, meanwhile, was also complaining to Alexander, with equal vehemence, about Olympias.
Each seems to have thought that the other was overstepping their position. Ancient authors describe Olympias as difficult and assertive and insist that Alexander tolerated his mother but did not let her affect policy. At least not at first; toward the end of his reign it was different. By quarrels with Antipater forced Olympias to retreat to Molossia. Olympias was a grandmother now: Her daughter Cleopatra had borne a son and daughter. Cleopatra served as guardian and probably as regent for her young son, possibly sharing power with Olympias.
Seizing the moment, Olympias and Cleopatra formed a faction against Antipater. Plutarch claimed that they divided rule between them, with Olympias taking Epirus, and Cleopatra Macedonia, but the true details of this arrangement remain unclear. According to Plutarch, Alexander congratulated his mother on having made the better choice since the Macedonians would never endure being ruled by a woman.
Not long after, Alexander ordered Antipater to turn his position over and meet him in Babylon. Historians doubt that Alexander was murdered, but as with the death of Philip, little can be certain.
Clues to the lost tomb of Alexander have been uncovered in Egypt. The death of her son left Olympias in a precarious position. Alexander left behind no obvious heir. Roxanne gave birth to a boy, Alexander IV, but succession would be anything but smooth. They broke into competing factions, each one controlling a different region. Antipater managed to hold on to Macedonia, and Olympias kept a safe distance in Molossia. It is true, Philip appointed Olympias' brother Alexander not to be confused with her more famous son as king of Molossis , but this does not mean that Olympias was behind the arrangement.
After all, the Molossian throne was rightfully Alexander's. In August , Philip defeated the Greeks; next year, he reorganized the conquered territories in the Corinthian League. At the same time, he married to a woman named Cleopatra, a relative of a Macedonian aristocrat named Attalus. This caused great tensions between the king, Olympias and the crown prince.
Olympias went into voluntary exile, staying at the Molossian court of her brother Alexander. Her son Alexander and his friends e. Olympias was further isolated when Philip married Olympias' own daughter Cleopatra to Alexander of Molossis : she could no longer count on her brother's support. However, Philip was killed during the wedding in October Many suspected Olympias and her son Alexander.
The fact that after her return to Macedonia she ordered Philip's wife Cleopatra and her child to be murdered, did not improve her reputation. However, her son was now king, and her position was safe. During Alexander's campaigns, she kept in touch with him. Our sources mention their correspondence. She probably confirmed the claim, made by her son during his visit to Egypt, that Alexander was the son not of Philip, but of the god Zeus Ammon.
It is even possible that she made this claim before Philip's death and, consequently, before Alexander's visit to Siwa : the events of offered ample opportunity. Although the relations with Alexander were cordial, he kept her far away from politics. Macedonia was ruled by Antipater , one of Philip's most reliable commanders and diplomats and the man who had helped Alexander become king.
It seems that he and Olympias were not on speaking terms, and the queen-mother must have been glad that she could go back to Molossis in her brother had died during a campaign in southern Italy, and she served as regent for her cousin Aeacidas. On 11 June , Alexander died in Babylon , and the age of the successors or Diadochi began. His wife Roxane was pregnant of a son, who was born a few months later and was called Alexander. He and Alexander's brother Philip Arridaeus , who was mentally unfit to rule, were subject to the regency of Perdiccas , Alexander's vizier.
He tried to strengthen his position by a marriage with Antipater's daughter Nicaea. However, Olympias offered him the hand of her daughter Cleopatra, a full sister of Alexander the Great and the former wife of Alexander of Molossis. Perdiccas accepted this marriage, Antipater felt insulted, and the result was a civil war in which Antipater was victorious.
He was the new regent of the royal family. However, he died almost immediately His successor as regent was an old general named Polyperchon. However, Antipater's son Cassander, who had taken Philip Arridaeus captive, forced him out of Macedonia.
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