Alexander I of Macedon facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Alexander I
Silver obol of Alexander I, struck c. 460–450 BC. Obv.: young male head wearing petasos; rev.: incuse square with four sections.
King of Macedon
Reign	c. 498/497–454 BC
Predecessor	Amyntas I
Successor	Perdiccas II
Born	?
Died	454 BC
Spouse	unknown
Issue more...	Perdiccas II Alcetas
Dynasty	Argead
Father	Amyntas I

Alexander I (Ancient Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος, romanized: Alexandros; died 454 BC), also known as Alexander the Philhellene (Ancient Greek: φιλέλλην; lit. loving of Greece' or 'Hellenic patriot), 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

Coin of Alexander I in the decade following the Second Persian invasion of Greece (struck in 480–470 BC).

Silver tetradrachm of Alexander I, struck at the end of his reign, circa 465–460 BC.

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

According to Herodotus, Alexander married his sister to the Persian general Bubares while a vassal of the Achaemenid Empire as a bribe to cover up his murder of a Persian embassy. However, this story 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. Alexander acted as a representative of the Persian governor Mardonius during peace negotiations after the Persian defeat at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. In later events, Herodotus several times mentions Alexander as a man who was on Xerxes' side and followed his orders.

From the time of Mardonius' conquest of Macedon, Herodotus refers to Alexander as hyparchos, meaning viceroy. Despite his cooperation with Persia, Alexander frequently gave supplies and advice to the Greek city states, and warned them of Mardonius' plans before the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. For example, Alexander warned the Greeks in Tempe to leave before the arrival of Xerxes' troops, and notified them of an alternate route into Thessaly through upper Macedonia. 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.

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".

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 II 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.

See also

• Ancient Macedonians
• List of ancient Macedonians