352 BC: Defeated in a revolt against Artaxerxes III Ochus, the Persian prince Artabazos –satrap of N-W Ionia– obtains refuge at Philip’s court in Pella with his family, including princess Barsine (born c. 358); they stay on until 344/3. In the same period, Philip takes Olympias’ younger brother (born 362) also named Alexander, to Pella. They will be lovers for a time. In 342 Philip puts this Alexander on the Molossian throne, so as to reinforce Makedon’s regional control.
351 BC: Philip’s warring in Thessaly has concluded with another marriage: this one to Nikesipolis. She will later bear him a daughter, called Thessalonike to mark his victory there. The birth year is unclear (probably around 345) but the mother dies three weeks after childbirth. Olympias takes little Thessalonike in her care. The children grow up in Olympias’ household, initially educated together. Alexander also has special tutors from Molossia, appointed by Olympias. They call him “little Achilles.” He shows himself capable of impressing Persian ambassadors by his conversation as they await an audience with Philip in Pella.
343 BC: When Alexander is about 13, Philip takes over his education and sends him to Mieza. A special school has been built there for Aristotle to teach the king’s son and other noble youths. Here, Alexander forges lifelong bonds; above all, with Hefaistion. In Pella, the girls receive home education which includes literacy. Olympias and later Kleopatra can maintain their delicate/secret correspondence with personalities in Makedon and Greece because they write and read the letters themselves. Probably the girls also attain some level of religious initiation, like the one received at that age by Olympias — who still has sacred snakes at home.
In contrast, Audata gives her daughter warrior education and training: aged 15–18, Cynnane accompanies Philip on campaigns in the north. The historian Polyainos says that with her own hands she kills an Illyrian queen called Kaeria on the battlefield.
338 BC: After conquering Thrace, Philip also takes Meda, daughter of the routed king, for wife (no children). Around that time he marries Cynnane to his nephew Amyntas whom he keeps in reserve as secondary heir, if Alexander should die. A few months later, Philip himself marries 18-year old Eurydike, niece and ward of the powerful Makedonian noble Attalos, seemingly both for politics and for love. At the wedding banquet, and provoked by Attalos, Alexander quarrels with Philip. Then –while Kleopatra stays with her father– Alexander and his mother withdraw in protest from the court in Pella: she to Molossia, he to Illyria.
[They had clashed with Philip earlier over the ‘Pixodaro affair’. The Karian satrap offered (when Philip’s intentions to invade Ionia were already evident, and the Achaemenid empire was in chaos after the demise of Artaxerxes III Ochus) to marry his daughter to Arridaios. Alexander sent his own secret ambassador –the actor Thessalos– to Pixodaro, offering himself as groom. This sabotaged the marriage plan. Philip received a warning from general Parmenion who used his son Filotas as the messenger. Filotas was present at Philip’s reaction: Alexander got a fierce scolding, and several of his counsellors/friends like Ptolemy, Nearchos and Harpalos were exiled by Philip.]
While Alexander is alienated from his father and supported by the Illyrians, he might be promoted as a rival to the throne of Makedon – an old tradition in the Argead house. So after some months Philip persuades him to return to court, with the promise of recognition as sole heir.
337 BC: By the time he reappears at Pella, Attalos has left for Asia Minor as commander of the expeditionary force against Ionia: this way, one source of friction is sidelined. Philip aims his other diplomatic offensive at the Molossian king Alexander, then aged 26, inviting him to marry Kleopatra. This would preclude a rupture between the two monarchies even if Olympias remained obstinately hostile. However, she too accepts an appeasement with the clear recognition of her status as first ranking queen. The proof is that, in this period, Philip has the Athenian sculptor Leochares at work in the sacred precinct of Olympia. There he builds the Philippeion, a memorial of marble, ivory and gold which contains statues of the core Royal Family: Philip’s parents Amyntas and Eurydike; Philip himself; and Olympias and Alexander.
336 BC: for Kleopatra, Philip prepares a brilliant state wedding (which he had not done for Cynnane, thereby showing that Olympias and Kleopatra outrank Audata and Cynnane) in the old capital of Aigai. Many guests, everybody who ranks anywhere, are assembled from the whole of the Greek world. In October, the marriage is duly contracted and celebrated by a formal symposium. The following day, processions and games are held at the theatre. Philip makes his entrance between the two Alexanders, his son and son-in-law. The new concord is on official display, and to mark his confidence Philip walks at a distance from his bodyguard.
There, in full view of the audience, he is fatally stabbed by young Pausanias, who had been assaulted/raped on Attalos’ orders while Philip had refused to give him redress. The murderer has someone with horses waiting for him outside the theater. However, he is pursued and killed on the spot by Perdikkas, Leonnatos and others. Alexander, immediately acclaimed by Antipater and Parmenion, is proclaimed king. As usual, rivals are eliminated. They include, on Alexander’s orders, Attalos and Amyntas, Cynnane’s husband. And, on Olympias’ orders, Eurydike and her baby.
Alexander the Molossian takes Kleopatra back to Dodona where she bears him two children: Kadmeia (335) and in 334 Neoptolemos II (r. 317-312 and 302–297).
335 BC: For the first and only time, Alexander allows a (half-)sister to remarry, offering Cynnane to his staunch ally king Langaros; but on the way to Makedon he dies. She exiles herself to a fringe region of Makedon with her daughter Adea (born c. 336) whom she trains as a warrior.
334 BC: While Alexander the Great invades Persia, Kleopatra’s husband goes to war in Italy, leaving her in Dodona as regent. As food shortages are frequent and Makedon cares for its client kingdoms –Alexander can pay from his booty–, grain shipments are organized by Kleopatra c. 332 from North African Cyrene. A surplus is sent on by her to Corinth. Two bigger shipments are sent to Olympias in Makedon. All the other clients registered on Cyrene’s marble plaque are state-cities; Kleopatra and Olympias are the only persons mentioned by name. There are other providers of grain shipments, too: many owe Alexander, after his triumph over Persia at Issos on the 5th of November 333.
332 BC, November: Alexander sends Olympias and Kleopatra, but nót his half-sisters, a great amount of golden ‘darik’ coins: booty from Gaza.
331 BC: In the winter of 331/0, the Molossian Alexander dies in an ambush in Italy. His corpse, hacked in two, will later be returned to Kleopatra by the wife of a captive Italian, to ransom him. The Oracle of Dodona had warned Alexander against “death in Pandosia”. He skirted a so-named region in Molossia, but was killed in the Italian Pandosia. Athens sends a formal embassy with condolences to queen Kleopatra in Dodona. By now (330 BC) she is not only acting head of state, but also the only female ‘Theorodoch’ in the Epirote Alliance. (Professor Carney explains: “Involvement of royal women in international religious activities should be understood as diplomatic activity as well, in terms of philia whereby women were expected to both convey benefits and receive them in dealing with other monarchs.”) Olympias too holds religious office. In 333 she makes offerings the goddess Hygieia in Athens, beseeching protection for Alexander’s health. Also, she presents splendid public dedications to the shrine of Delphi in 327/6.
329 BC: Olympias tires of her seldom successful opposition to governor Antipater. (Alexander still has to rely on him to send reinforcements, and to keep down rebellion in mainland Greece.) She retires to Molossia, which she calls “my kingdom” in diplomatic correspondence with Athens. For several years c. 329–325 she shares with Kleopatra the regency in Dodona. But when Antipater’s power wanes (dependence on him lessens, as Alexander’s imperial might grows in Persia), to undermine him further they decide the royal family needs a visible head in Pella. As a result:
325/4 BC, winter: Kleopatra goes to Makedon, where she leads a more joyful life than in Dodona. She
also funds a tomb for court musicians. Plutarch, in his Moralia, criticises Alexander for being too soft on his sister: “When he heard that she had had intercourse with a handsome young man, Alexander did not burst out in rage, but remarked that she ought to be allowed to get some enjoyment.”
324 BC: Alexander sends shockwaves through Greece with his Exiles’ Decree, proclaimed in August 324 at the Olympic Games, where 20,000 exiles have gathered for the occasion. The decree is designed to keep the Greek city-states busy with internal problems, and to boost Alexander’s own partisans in each city as a counter against rebellion. It threatens disaster to rulers like Dionysios of Herakleia Pontos. Herakleian exiles, who found favour at Alexander’s court in Persia, want to return to depose him. Alexander will not go back on his decree, so Dionysios recurs to Kleopatra. She sponsors him for past or future services, writes to Alexander from Pella and obtains a deferment. (As in other cases, this will mean a voiding of the decree after Alexander’s death. The exiles in Persia will appeal in vain to Perdikkas.) Dionysios is saved, remains king to his death, and for additional insurance marries the Persian princess Amastris in 322.
323 BC: On Alexanders death in June, Kleopatra and Olympias conclude that in view of their enmity with Antipater and the need to protect the heirs of the royal house, they urgently need a Makedonian general-with-army for husband. Leonnatos, somatofylax now appointed satrap of the Hellespont region, is nearest at hand. Kinsman through grandmother Eurydike, he clearly wants to imitate (and succeed) Alexander, increasing his physical resemblance to him in hairstyle and adopting a luxurious Persian lifestyle. Kleopatra offers Leonnatos their marriage in Pella, and he accepts. This allows him to disregard Perdikkas’ orders that he should help Eumenes to conquer Cappadocia. Telling Eumenes he is off to marry Kleopatra, he goes to Makedon instead. Officially he comes to help Antipater against the Lamian uprising, but he plans to proclaim himself regent/king, with Kleopatra as queen. However, he dies in battle in 322 before they can marry.
322 BC: Kleopatra and Olympias need an alternative solution. They write to Perdikkas offering her hand. He tells her to come to Sardès, where he is encamped for his campaign to put Eumenes in control of Cappadocia. She doubts and demands guarantees. He appoints her satrap of Lydia and gives her an effective military command:
“She was placed over the Makedonian garrison in the capital Sardès.” But meanwhile, Antipater has also sent his daughter Nikaia as a bride to Perdikkas, whose brother Alketas disputes Eumenes as to which of the two offered brides is politically most convenient. In the end, events will dictate that Perdikkas marries neither. (Note that Olympias does not use Thessalonike, who remains with her, as an alternative marriage pawn, putting Kleopatra’s needs first. Also she fears that, once they are married, a Makedonian general/husband for Thessalonike could be uncontrollable for her aims.)
321 BC: At the same time, evidently to outflank both Olympias/Kleopatra and Antipater, half-sister Cynnane embarks on a not political but military ‘solution’ to the succession. She raises an army, evades Antipater’s efforts to stop her, and reaches Asia Minor with her daughter. She offers this daughter, Adea, as a bride to the half-wit Arridaios, now co-king together with Alexander’s baby son. When Alketas has Cynnane killed, the angry reaction of the troops to this murder forces Perdikkas to accept the marriage of Adea to Arridaios, in Pisidia. Meanwhile, Antigonos falls out with Perdikkas and flees to Antipater and Krateros. Using his knowledge of the secret dealings of Olympias/Kleopatra, he convinces them that the planned marriage of Perdikkas with Alexander’s sister is a “casus belli”. Antipater and Krateros muster their armies.
321 BC: Even so, Kleopatra travels to Sardès, knowingly risking her life, as the murder of Cynnane reminds her shortly after her arrival. Perdikkas is already off to Egypt, but she clearly still believes he will come out on top in the Successor Wars. She stays in Sardès and comes in open conflict with Antipater’s plans –the Nikaia marriage– by publicly accepting the betrothal gifts of Perdikkas. They arrive with the message (brought by Eumenes, so Arrian says) that he will repudiate Nikaia for her. Eumenes appears at Sardès with his cavalry, offering to protect Kleopatra against Antipater. Being a Greek from Kardia, non-Makedonian, Eumenes cannot hope to become king through a marriage with Kleopatra, but he can aspire to be Regent. And certainly he shares a common hatred of Antipater with Olympias and Kleopatra. However, she declines his protection and tells him to leave, fearing that the Makedonians would blame her for any battles between the forces of Eumenes and Antipater. (Also she calculates that Eumenes would lose.)
320 BC: Antipater arrives and scolds Kleopatra for her philia with Eumenes and Perdikkas. She counter-attacks launching charges of her own. Antipater decides not to kill her, probably because of the recent uproar over Cynnane’s murder; or maybe because he thinks of marrying her later to Kassander. Then he is off to the Triparadeisos settlement, since Perdikkas has been killed in Egypt. Kleopatra remains in Sardès to avoid Antipater, ánd because, this way, she stays close to her obvious marriage market. She may now be thinking of Antigonos winning the wars. Or, if other contenders (Lysimachos, Ptolemy or Seleukos) win, they too will inevitably come to Asia Minor. Her agreement with Antigonos may be that she is safe as long as she does not marry (=legitimise) any of his rivals. He cannot marry her, nor his son Demetrios: that would unite all other rivals against them.
319 BC: Antipater dies, leaving as Regent not his son Kassander but general Polyperchon. The two go to war in the Pelopponese. Polyperchon allies himself with Eumenes, who remains in Asia Minor. They convince Olympias to leave Molossia and take over control in Makedon. Kleopatra (fearing a trap? Or kept in the dark by Antigonos?) stays in Sardès.
317 BC: Olympias briefly gains total power in Makedon. This is the “War of the Women” against Adea, who has allied herself with Kassander, but does not wait for his return from southern Greece. She attacks Olympias on her way to Pella, in the frontier valley of Euía. As the two armies draw up for the clash, Adea appears in full battle gear to lead her troops. Olympias appears in religious dress (the contemporary author Duris says: “as a Maenad”, i.e. as an initiate/priestess of the Great Goddess). When the Makedonian soldiers see Alexander’s mother, they go over to her to a man. Olympias triumphs and has Adea and Arridaios executed, along with Kassander’s brother Nikanor and many followers. She also destroys, in 317 BC, the tomb of Iollas. But she has no general to make good use of her troops. Kassander arrives and besieges her in Pydna. Her ally Polyperchon sells out to Kassander, murdering Herakles and Barsine in the process. Kassander, victorious in Makedon, has Olympias killed in 316. At the same time, he forces Thessalonike to marry him. (Six years later he will have the child-king Alexander IV and his mother Roxane murdered in secret.) Also in 316, Eumenes is finally defeated and killed by Antigonos.
316-308 BC: The years pass by, Kleopatra is losing her child-bearing age, thus her value for transmitting the royal heritage by marriage. Reuniting Alexander’s dominions under one king and queen (=Kleopatra) becomes a utopia. In fact, Alexander’s relics can be eliminated with impunity: his mother, wives and children are assassinated. The murder in 310 BC of the child-king Alexander, Kleopatra’s nephew, makes her fear that Antigonos may eliminate her too. The relation to Alexander is a cornerstone of Ptolemy’s propaganda, but Antigonos has no such restraints. Finally she “quarrels” with him, as Diodoros says, implying a previous agreement that has broken down. Then Antigonos goes far away, to fight Seleukos in Babylon. But Ptolemy comes near, and near to victory in mainland Greece: he holds ‘Freedom Games’ in Corinth. Therefore, in 308 BC, Kleopatra finally bolts from Sardès – to her death.
Diodoros writes in XX.37.2–6:
“Kleopatra started from Sardès in order to cross over to Ptolemy.”… “The governor of Sardès, who had orders from Antigonos to watch Kleopatra, prevented her departure; but later, as commanded by the prince, he treacherously brought about her death through the agency of certain women. But Antigonos, not
wishing the murder to be laid at his door, punished some of the women for having plotted against her, and took care that she got a royal funeral.”
If Antigonos thought that punishing the ‘culpable’ women would avoid his blame for Kleopatra’s murder, it means they were secret traitors, not known as his agents. And anyway, although he had ordered her death, he kept up public respect for Alexander’s sister. In Kleopatra’s honour, he organized the most lavish and cynical funeral ceremonies Sardès had ever seen.
But honours she certainly deserved: her efforts to save the Argead dynasty, knowingly putting her own life on the line, prove she was – like her mother– a brave woman. Her political moves, trying at the same time to preserve Alexander’s legacy but also to avoid provoking a civil war in Makedon, were doomed from the start. But that was because of external reasons, not because Kleopatra lacked in courage or intelligence.
As stated before, the scope of this book does not call for a complete description of the extraordinary –and polemical– woman that was Olympias. So I warmly recommend the brilliant biography of Alexander’s mother published in 2006 by professor Elizabeth Carney. But an earlier book of hers, Women and Monarchy in Macedonia (2000), includes some abridged biographical sketches, which allow me to sum up how professor Carney evaluates the character and career of Olympias:
“The sources portray Olympias as fond of religion in general, and Dionysiac and other mystery cults in particular (Plut. Al. 2; Ath. XII.560 & XIV.659). She was indeed active in religious matters and particularly devoted to Dionysiac cults. In this she resembled other women of the Macedonian royal family (who seem often to take prominent roles in religious activities), women of the Hellenic and Hellenized world in general (who often played important roles in family and even civic cults, and who were said to be especially fond of Dionysiac and other mystery cults) and, of course, her own son.”
All Alexander's Women Page 11