PHILIP II, (382-336 B.c.), king of Macedonia, the son of Amyntas II. and the Lyncestian Eurydice, reigned 359-336. At his birth the Macedonian kingdom, including the turbulent peoples of the hill country behind, was very imperfectly consolidated. In 370 Amyntas died, and the troubled reign of Philip's eldest brother, Alexander II., was cut short in 368 by his assassination. His murderer, Ptolemy of Alorus, ruled as regent for the young Perdiccas, Amyntas's second son. In 367 Philip was delivered as a hostage to the Thebans, then the leading power of Greece, where he got to know Epameinondas, whom he greatly admired and whose influence may be traced in Philip's military reforms. When he returned to Macedonia (364) Perdiccas had succeeded in getting rid of Ptolemy; but he fell in 360-359 before an onslaught of the hill tribes instigated by the queen-mother Eurydice, leav ing only an infant son. Pretenders sprang up and the kingdom fell into confusion. Philip seized the throne and drove back his rivals. He now began the great task of his life—the creation of the Macedonian national army. Cavalry, the famous "com panions," he already had; his work was to produce an efficient force of infantry. This new force of his making consisted of the hupaspistai who may have been peltasts on Iphicrates's model, and the phalanx, which in its use for shock tactics on the wing in conjunction with the cavalry shows the influence of Epamei nondas, but was less densely packed, and was armed, unlike Greek troops, with a long pike. The first experiment he made with this new organism was brilliantly successful. The hill tribes were broken by a single battle in 358, and Philip established his au thority inland as far as Lake Ochrida. In the autumn of the same year he took the Athenian colony Amphipolis, which com manded the gold-mines of Mt. Pangaeus. Their possession was all-important for Philip, and he set there a new city, Philippi. Athens was temporarily pacified by assurances that Amphipolis would be handed over to her later on.
He avoided as yet a forward policy, and having taken Pydna and Potidaea soon after Amphipolis, he made them over to the Olynthian confederation (see OLYNTHUS). His marriage with the fierce witch-woman, Olympias, daughter of the Epirote king, falls in this period, and in 356 she bore him his greater son, Alexander. In 353 Philip was ready for strong action. He first attacked Abdera and Maroneia, on the Thracian sea-board, and then took Methone, which belonged to Athens. An overt breach with Athens was now inevitable. In the same summer he invaded Thessaly, where the Aleuadae of Larissa ranged themselves on his side against the tagos Lycophron, "tyrant" of Pherae. Pherae called in the help of the Phocian mercenaries, who had profaned Delphi, and Philip was twice heavily defeated. But next year the Macedonian army won a complete victory over the Pheraeans and Phocians. This battle made Philip tagos of Thessaly, and he annexed Magnesia, which included Pagasae. But on advancing further he found the Athenian expedition which had failed to secure Pagasae holding Thermopylae, and withdrew. From 352 to 346 Philip did not again come south. He was active in com pleting the subjugation of the Balkan hill-country to the west and north, and in reducing the Greek cities of the coast as far as the Hebrus (Maritza). Then, in 349, he opened war upon Olynthus. Athens sent no adequate forces, in spite of the up braidings of Demosthenes (see his Olynthiacs), and in the spring of 347 Olynthus fell. Macedonia and the regions adjoining it having now been securely consolidated, Philip celebrated his "Olympian" games at Dium. In 347 Philip advanced to the con quest of the eastern districts about the Hebrus, and compelled the submission of the Thracian prince Cersobleptes. Meanwhile Athens had made overtures for peace (see the De falsa legatione of Demosthenes), and when Philip, in 346, again moved south, peace was sworn in Thessaly.