Ancient Greek History - A tenuous peace between Athens and Macedon - 51

so just to recap what has happened in the last several years Athens and macedone had been at War since 356 BC the initial cause of the war was Philip's capture of several Athenian colonies shortly after this the third sacred War began after the fian capture of the Temple of Apollo in Deli Athens allied with fosis against other members of The aonic League during the course of the war the salans were defeated by the fans th then requested Philip's assistance Philip agreed which brought Macedon into the sacred War which is probably just the excuse he had been looking for if we look at the expansion of Macedon during this time period it's almost directly related to the Greek city states disputes amongst each other it was Philip's diplomatic and Military genius that exploited this situation in fact there is no doubt that in the absence of fighting Philip was using diplomacy to keep all the major states of Greece div Ed so that Greece did not form a grand alliance against him given all the previous grievances going back many centuries that was not a difficult task to accomplish we might look at Greece during this time period as the worst version of Game of Thrones except Philip was about five steps ahead of everyone else in any event in 352 BC the Cal cidian League led by althos sought to Ally themselves with Athens in order to put a check on Philip's growing influence fluence this was a breach of their previous alliance with Macedon Philip attacked the league in 349 BC and by 348 BC had achieved total Victory as punishment the macedonians raised althos the wholesale destruction of althos terrified the Athenians who realized they might be next if Philip was able to move his army South the key to the Athenian strategy to contain Philip was to occupy the pass at thermop and so the Athenians and Spartans combined forces to block theropo to prevent Philip from moving south but in a bizarre move fosis eventually banned the Athenians and Spartans from defending thermopolymerization it and for good reason because Philip was still acting suspiciously the macedonians still sent units into the pass at thermop which meant Philip could threaten Central and Southern Greece anytime he pleased with a break in the fighting Philip decided to shore up the territorian cities he had seized in the North in 345 BC he invaded Alyria diodorus writes quote in Macedonia Philip had inherited from his father a quarrel with the alyans and found no means of re reconciling the disagreement he therefore invaded ayria with a large Force devastated the countryside captured many towns and returned to Macedonia Laden with booty end quote Justin writes he also tried to increase the population of Macedon this provided more security and also boosted the economy quote on his return to his kingdom as Shepherds Drive their flocks sometimes into winter sometimes Into Summer pastures so he transplanted people in cities here and there according to his whim as places appeared to him to be peopled or left desolate some people he planted upon the frontiers of his kingdom to oppose his enemies others he settled at the extremities of it some whom he had taken prisoners in war he distributed among certain cities to fill up the number of inhabitants and thus out of various tribes and Nations he formed one Kingdom and people end quote still his kingdom was not without issues in 344 BC thy began to resent macedon's influence to put thessy firmly back in his grip Philip marched his army into the region outing any leader or group that opposed him in addition to reducing Athens power he also wanted to constrain the Spartans through diplomacy he succeeded in detaching almost all of the city states in the ppenis from Sparta they acted as a buffer against any future Spartan aggression as a result in 344 BC damanes traveled to the ppines his goal was to detach as many cities as he could from macedon's growing influence but his efforts were largely unsuccessful many of these cities were still suspicious of Athens and saw Philip as the lesser of two evils once again using diplomacy Philip tried to counter the influence of demosthenes by sending his own order to Athens in 344 BC he wanted to defend Macedon against the attacks of the Athenian war party he also wanted to amend the peace treaty which for the moment only involved Athens and macedone

now he wanted all the Greek city states to join in on the fun in response to this demosthenes delivered his second philippic in 343 BC it was a vehement attack against Phillip and his supporters in Athens here is the first part quote in the first place Athenians if anyone views with confidence the present power of Phillip in the extent of his dominions if anyone imagines that all this presents no danger to our city and that you are not the object of his preparations I must express my astonishment and beg you all alike to listen to a brief statement of the considerations that have led me to form the opposite conclusion and to regard Phillip as our enemy end quote damanes slowly but surely turned the opinion in Athens against Philip and his Athenian supporters even philocrates who the peace treaty was named after saw that his policy was mostly unpopular facing prosecution and a potti potential death sentence he voluntarily went into Exile in 343 BC between 342 and 340 BC Philip campaigned in thce was a massive area that was full of ferocious tribes that were a constant threat to Macedonia although Philip had considerable influence over Western thce he now wanted to move deep into the interior and reduce Eastern thce Philip's motives were not all about expansion he was also concerned that thce had recently become too friendly with Athens diodorus writes quote cerso bpes who was the King of the Thracians had been following a policy of reducing the Greek cities bordering on Philip's territory with the aim of putting a stop to the Barbarian attacks Philip moved against them with a large Force he overcame the thians in several battles and imposed on the conquered barbarians the payment of a tax to the macedonians and by founding strong cities at key places made it impossible for the Thracians to commit any outrages in the future end quote the king of thce was eventually compelled to surrender the total victory in thce brought Macedon an imense amount of wealth and as usual Philip spent most of his energy consolidating his control over thce through garrisons and governors also he never shied away from including foreign elements into his army he eagerly Incorporated thran units into his growing Army the total capture of thce would also provide a nice buffer against any future threat from the Persians whom Philip had a permanent distrust of it was around this time that Philip became involved with the cians since his army was already an Eastern thce he made several opportunistic raids into these wild and mostly unknown lands Justin writes quote he made an expedition to cyia to get plunder so that he might make up for the expenses of one war by the profits of another the king of the cians at the time was atius who being distressed by a war with the istrian sought aid from Philip on the understanding that he would adopt him as his successor on the throne of cyia end quote how could Philip rejects such an offer taking land without a fight is always the preferred method but in a turn of events the king of the istrian died and the cians no longer needed Phillip Aus then dispatched a message to Phillip saying he no longer desired his Assistance or an heir as he already had a son Philip understood this to some degree but requested the king pay for some of the expenses of his soldiers that he had already dispatched to assist Aus Justin writes quote Aus alluding to the rigor of their climate and the barrenness of their soil which far from enriching the cians with wealth scarcely afforded them sustenance replied that he had no treasury to satisfy so great a king and that he thought it more honorable to refuse altogether than to do so little end quote Philip felt Aus was mocking him and decided to return the favor he dispatched a message to Aus indicating he wanted to build a statue of Hercules Aus replied that he had no problem ripping it down once the macedonians had departed his territory Justin writes quote with feelings thus irritated on both sides a battle was fought though the cians were Superior in Courage and numbers they were defeated by the subtlety of Phillip 20,000 young men and women were taken and a vast number of cattle but no gold or silver this was the first proof of the poverty of cyia 20,000 fine Mayers were sent into Macedonia to raise a breed end quote soon the peace completely broke down with Athens and we will get to that in the next video