5 – He Was Capable of Brutality
If you only listened to Greek sources, Philip was a complete monster. Demosthenes, the legendary Athenian politician and orator, knew how dangerous the Macedonian king was and worried that Philip was capable of turning Macedon into an international power. Prior to Philip’s reign, disputes amongst the Macedonian aristocracy prevented the country from attaining its military potential. Macedonian kings were so frightened of assassination that they used to have bodyguards outside and inside the royal bedroom. This all changed when Philip became king although he ultimately met the same fate as many of his predecessors.
Theopompus of Chios, an important Greek historian, wrote that Europe had never seen a king like Philip before. As a product of his era, where it was normal for a winning faction to brutalize the conquered, Philip engaged in his fair share of atrocities. When he invaded Illyria, he murdered the majority of the surviving defenders. Sources say that Philip ordered the execution of all adult males while the women and children were sold into slavery.
The crueler aspects of the king’s personality came to the fore during the Siege of Olynthus in 348 BC. First of all, he would not enter into conversation with the city he was trying to siege and then he bribed two of its commanders, Lasthenes and Euthycrates. Their treachery enabled him to take Olynthus and once Philip had captured the city, he turned it over to his army with predictable results. The Macedonian army began killing the city’s inhabitants at will while Philip gave Olynthian women as ‘gifts’ to his army and supporters in other Greek city-states.
After taking the city of Pydna, Philip betrayed the Athenians and sold them into slavery. Non-Macedonians were kicked out of the city, or murdered, and Philip ordered the city to be razed to the ground so he could rebuild it as a Macedonian city. After defeating the Scythians in 339 BC, his men took 20,000 women and children as slaves. The list of his atrocities goes on and should come as no surprise to anyone who has studied military history. Philip was brutal but he needed to be to expand. In many ways, he was a typical military commander and was probably no more tyrannical than most ancient kings.