Alexander I of Macedon
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Alexander I (Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μακεδών) was ruler of Macedon from 498 BC to 454 BC. He was the son of Amyntas I king of Macedon and Eurydice.
According to Herodotus he was unfriendly to Persia, and had the envoys of Darius I killed when they arrived at the court of his father during the Ionian Revolt. However, he was forced to submit to Persia during the invasion of Greece by Darius' son Xerxes I, and he acted as a representative of the Persian governor Mardonius during peace negotiations after the Persian defeat at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. Despite his cooperation with Persia, he frequently gave supplies and advice to the rest of the Greek city states, and warned them of Mardonius' plans before the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. After the defeat in Plataea the Persian army, under the command of Artabazus tried to retreat all the way back to Asia Minor. Most of the 43,000 survivors were attacked and killed by the forces of Alexander at the estuary of the Strymon river. Alexander eventually regained Macedonian independence after the end of the Persian Wars.
Alexander claimed descent from Argive Greeks and Heracles, although Macedon was considered a "barbaric" state by a minority of Greek tribesmen, whose territories were threatened by its expansion. After a court of Elean hellanodikai determined his claim to be true, he was permitted to participate in the Olympic Games[1][2] possibly in 504 BC[3] an honor reserved only for Greeks. He modeled his court after Athens and was a patron of the poets Pindar and Bacchylides , who both of them dedicated poems to Alexander[4]. The earliest reference to an Athenian proxenos, who lived during the time of the Persian wars (c. 490 BC), is that of Alexander I of Macedon[5].
Succession
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Alexander I
Died: 454 BC |
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| Royal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Amyntas I |
King of Macedon 498 BC - 454 BC |
Succeeded by Alcetas II |
References
- ^ Herodotus 5.22
- ^ Justin-7.2.14
- ^ A History of Macedonia. Volume 2 Review: John Cole
- ^ Thucydides and Pindar: Historical Narrative and the World of Epinikian Poetry Page 180 By Simon Hornblower ISBN 0199249199
- ^ Hospitality By Conrad Lashley, Paul Lynch, Alison J. Morrison Page 25 ISBN 0080450938
External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alexander I of Macedon |
- Smith, William (1867). "Alexander I". in William Smith. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 118. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;idno=acl3129.0001.001;size=l;frm=frameset;seq=133.
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