6 – He Left Alexander an Incredible Inheritance
The kingdom that Alexander inherited in 336 BC was very different from what Philip II had to deal with when he became king in 359 BC. When the future king was born in 382 BC, Macedonia was relatively weak and his father, King Amyntas III, found it almost impossible to defend the country from attacks and ultimately had to ‘lease’ his own kingdom from the Illyrians. Philip’s brother, Alexander II, became king in 370 BC but was assassinated by Ptolemaeus of Alorus within a few years.
There were several rulers in a short space of time as intrigue and murder enveloped the Macedonian royal court. When King Perdiccas was killed in battle in 360 BC, his young son became Amyntas IV but Philip acted as his regent. Over the next quarter of a century, Philip established Macedonia as the most powerful kingdom in the region as he defeated a number of Greek city-states. He created the League of Corinth in 337 BC and members agreed to never wage war against one another unless they were suppressing a revolution.
Much is made of the fact that Alexander conquered more territory than anyone in human history until Genghis Khan some 1,500 years later. However, Philip had already launched an invasion of Persia in 336 BC and given his expertise in military matters, it is likely that he would also have defeated the Persians. Whether he would have continued all the way to India is another matter entirely.
By the time Alexander became King of Macedonia, he had inherited the world’s most advanced military and logistical system in the world at that time. He even benefitted from his father’s instruction in battlefield matters and while the two were not particularly close, Philip gave him command of part of his army during the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC when Alexander was just 18 years of age. Although he was only 20 years old when his father died, Alexander was ready to step into his father’s shoes.
Upon Philip’s death, there was no question as to what Alexander would do next. He had inherited the mandate to invade Persia that Philip had secured from the major Greek city-states. From there, Alexander used his natural military brilliance to destroy the Persian army and the cocky young commander used the momentum to invade India. While Philip inherited a mess, Alexander had the world at his feet. Yes, Alexander was indeed ‘Great’ but it was the efforts of his father, Philip II of Macedon, that helped him become that way.