ABSTRACT
We who live in modern constitutional democracies are constantly aware of the limitations and circumscription of the powers exercised by political officials and institutions. It would be gratifying to us and fully in accord with our traditional thought-processes to be able to make a list of those powers and prerogatives which a Macedonian king possessed and did not possess. Such an attempt is futile, however. Macedonians and Greeks of the third century BC did not think exactly as we do. Such evidence as exists clearly suggests that the potential power of the king of Macedonia was absolute, but his actual power was fluid and depended upon the political realities of the moment. The conclusion of Ernst Badian is apt: “the king... had precisely what rights and powers [he] could get away with.”63
