ABSTRACT
The forty years following the death of Archelaus constitute a period of great instability for the Macedonian monarchy and kingdom. Archelaus earned ample praise from Thucydides for having strengthened his kingdom's defences and military capability, and at the time of the king's untimely death Macedonia was secure and on the rise as a regional power. By the time Amyntas turned to the southern Greeks for aid late in 383 or early in 382 the Olynthians had taken control of the "greater" power of Macedonia. The one surviving son of Amyntas III and Eurydice, Philip, was now about age twenty-three. In 360–359 both Argaeus, presumably the same who had ruled during Amyntas III's exile, and Pausanias, who had challenged Ptolemy of Aloros, reappeared as contenders. Relations between Macedonia and Athens followed a similar course when Perdiccas III eliminated Ptolemy and took the throne for himself.
