Macedonian army was commanded by Philip’s 18-year-old son Alexander.
Demosthenes had been right about Philip’s ruthless character and his imperialist intentions. But the cities
of Greece had exhausted themselves materially in a constant series of conflicts that had been going on
since the time of the Peloponnesian War and they were no match for the energy of Philip or the
professionalism of his troops. Those troops, however, needed to be kept busy now that there was no
further need to campaign against the cities of Greece. Philip accordingly planned an attack on Persia,
which was intended as retribution for Xerxes’ invasion of mainland Greece 150 years before. But he did
not live to carry out his planned expedition. In the summer of 336, Philip was murdered, shortly after his
seventh (and only Macedonian) wife, Cleopatra, gave birth to a son. Philip’s assassin was immediately
executed, perhaps to prevent him from naming the person or persons who had put him up to it, and all
those except Alexander who had a reasonable claim on the throne, including Cleopatra and her infant son,
were quickly eliminated.
Philip was buried in magnificent fashion, as was fitting for a revered king and military leader. The
location of the tomb, at Aigai, near the modern town of Vergina, was not known until the 1970s, when
excavations revealed that a large mound was the site of an extensive royal burial, parts of which had not
been disturbed since antiquity. Archaeologists discovered, along with the remains of several persons,
spectacular frescoes and sumptuous grave goods, elegantly crafted in gold, silver, and ivory. The quality
and refinement of these artifacts attest to the high level of sophistication at the Macedonian court; whether
this sophistication is characteristically Macedonian or is a product of Greek influence is subject to debate
between scholars who have axes to grind. It was only in 2015 that the remains of Philip himself, buried
with his young bride and their infant child, were identified, thanks to evidence of ankylosis of the knee,
which resulted from a severe wound that Philip is known from literary sources to have suffered three
years before his death. The success of these archaeological investigations has prompted the search for
further royal burials in Macedon and the surrounding area. In 2014 the largest tomb yet found in Greece
was revealed under a mound near Amphipolis, a strategically important Greek city that Philip captured in
357 BC. Excavation of the Kasta Tomb, which is not yet complete, has uncovered an undisturbed multi-
chamber burial, surrounded by a circular marble wall five hundred meters in length, with magnificent
sculptures and mosaics, all dating to the last quarter of the fourth century (figure 65). Because of the size
of the tomb and its opulence scholars are eagerly awaiting publication of any details that may provide
evidence indicating whose remains the tomb was intended to contain.