Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The notion that Macedon was some backwater area before the reign of Philip, father of Alexander the Great, is later Greek/Athenian fiction, not reality. Macedon had 3 strong kings before Philip. Archelaos was one of them.
Probably the most notable thing he did was move the capital of from Aigai (Aegae) to Pella. But he also hyped up the *Macedonian* Olympics at Dion, and built straight roads, forts to guard those roads, and improved the Macedonian military. Particularly those later presaged changes Philip would make in his own turn.
Archelaos's unexpected assassination (399 BCE) plunged the country into successor civil wars for almost a decade, until Amyntas III (Philip's father) managed to hold onto the throne. Yet the kingdom remained weakened down until Philip took over.
So if we say there wouldn't have been an Alexander without Philip...there wouldn't have been a Philip without Archelaos.
(Minor slip of the tongue: I accidentally said Xenophon called Pella the largest city in Greece; I meant he called it the largest city in Macedonia. He wrote not long after Archelaos was king, the town grew quickly.)
Prior video mentioned (on Perdikkas II, Archelaos's father):
youtu.be/AY8LaBIJHyk?si=wmA2ykNBV1yZz9lH
Sabine Müller's book on Perdikkas:
frank-timme.de/de/programm/produkt/perdikkas_ii-retter_makedoniens
If you'd like to read more about Archelaos, I'd recommend the chapter on him in E. N. Borza's IN THE SHADOW OF OLYMPUS, 1993 (rev.), Princeton UP. He's also discussed in Carol J. King's ANCIENT MACEDONIA (2017), Routeledge.
The notion that Macedon was some backwater area before the reign of Philip, father of Alexander the Great, is later Greek/Athenian fiction, not reality. Macedon had 3 strong kings before Philip. Archelaos was one of them.
Probably the most notable thing he did was move the capital of from Aigai (Aegae) to Pella. But he also hyped up the *Macedonian* Olympics at Dion, and built straight roads, forts to guard those roads, and improved the Macedonian military. Particularly those later presaged changes Philip would make in his own turn.
Archelaos's unexpected assassination (399 BCE) plunged the country into successor civil wars for almost a decade, until Amyntas III (Philip's father) managed to hold onto the throne. Yet the kingdom remained weakened down until Philip took over.
So if we say there wouldn't have been an Alexander without Philip...there wouldn't have been a Philip without Archelaos.
(Minor slip of the tongue: I accidentally said Xenophon called Pella the largest city in Greece; I meant he called it the largest city in Macedonia. He wrote not long after Archelaos was king, the town grew quickly.)
Prior video mentioned (on Perdikkas II, Archelaos's father):
youtu.be/AY8LaBIJHyk?si=wmA2ykNBV1yZz9lH
Sabine Müller's book on Perdikkas:
frank-timme.de/de/programm/produkt/perdikkas_ii-retter_makedoniens
If you'd like to read more about Archelaos, I'd recommend the chapter on him in E. N. Borza's IN THE SHADOW OF OLYMPUS, 1993 (rev.), Princeton UP. He's also discussed in Carol J. King's ANCIENT MACEDONIA (2017), Routeledge.
