ABSTRACT
Olympias, the young princess from a remote mountain kingdom, became the wife of Philip II (r. 359-336) of Macedon, probably in the fall of 357. Olympias would need to find her own way through the intrigues, shifting alliances, and power plays of a court that was at once cosmopolitan and yet profoundly provincial. The complexities of a polygamous marriage to a king who was rapidly becoming the most powerful man in the Greek world made this task even more difficult. Nonetheless, Olympias became the most important woman in the Macedonian court since, about midway through his reign, Philip began to treat her son Alexander as his heir. However, shortly after Philip’s great victory of Chaeroneia in 338 established his domination of the entire Greek peninsula and as he planned a Graeco-Macedonian invasion of the Persian Empire, a series of events relevant to Alexander’s relationship with Philip threatened to jeopardize the succession of her son and thus Olympias’ position. Despite the fact that Philip arranged a public reconciliation with his son (and almost certainly with Olympias as well), his murder triggered charges that mother and son were involved in his assassination. Notwithstanding continuing suspicions about their role in Philip’s death, Alexander succeeded his father, and Olympias became the most influential woman in the Greek world and would remain so until her death. While Philip’s initial preference for her son may have had little to do with Olympias or her actions (Philip’s only other son had mental limitations), Alexander’s successful negotiation of the threats to his position as heir may have owed much to his mother’s efforts on his behalf. Certainly it is during this troubled period that the sources first report her taking an active role in events, as her son’s advocate.
