Macedonia (ancient kingdom)

Ancient Macedonia, also known as Macedon, was a kingdom that existed on the outskirts of Archaic and Classical Greece. It eventually became the most powerful state in Hellenistic Greece. The royal Argead family was the first to govern over the kingdom when it was established, and they were succeeded by the Antipatrid and Antigonid dynasties in turn. The ancient Macedonians made their home in what is now the northeastern section of the Greek peninsula, which served as the core of the oldest kingdom. This kingdom had borders with Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, Thrace to the east, and Thessaly to the south.

Before the fourth century B.C., Macedonia was a minor kingdom located on the periphery of the region occupied by the powerful city-states of Athens, Sparta, and Thebes. During this time, Macedonia was temporarily under the Achaemenid Persians' control. Conquest and diplomacy were the primary means by which Macedonia brought mainland Greece and the Thracian kingdom of Odrysia under its control during the reign of the Argead king Philip II (359–336 BC). In the year 338 BC, at the Battle of Chaeronea, Philip II of Macedon conquered the formerly dominant forces of Athens and Thebes with a reorganised army that included phalanxes armed with the sarissa pike. Alexander the Great, son of Philip II, led a confederation of Greek kingdoms to victory over a rebellious city called Thebes, which allowed him to complete his father's goal of dominating all of Greece. This allowed him to accomplish his father's goal. During the second war of conquest that Alexander led, he was successful in overthrowing the Achaemenid Empire and gaining control of territory that extended all the way to the Indus River. His Macedonian Empire was the most powerful in the world for a short time, and it is considered to be the ultimate Hellenistic state. It was also the state that started the transition to a new age of Ancient Greek civilisation. Greek arts and literature thrived in the new regions that had just been conquered, and advancements in philosophy, engineering, and science extended over a significant portion of the ancient globe. The contributions made by Aristotle, Alexander the Great's mentor and the person whose works established the foundation of Western philosophy, were of exceptional significance.

After Alexander's death in 323 BC, the subsequent wars of the Diadochi, and the partitioning of Alexander's short-lived empire, Macedonia remained a Greek cultural and political centre in the Mediterranean. Alexander's empire was short-lived and was divided into several smaller empires. Power battles for control of the area erupted in significant cities like Pella, Pydna, and Amphipolis, among others. Cassander, the usurper, established a number of new towns, one of which being Thessalonica (named after his wife Thessalonike of Macedon). The Macedonian Wars and Rome's rise to prominence as the preeminent power in the Mediterranean both contributed to the beginning of Macedonia's collapse. Following the conclusion of the Third Macedonian War in 168 BC, the Macedonian monarchy was overthrown and Roman client states were established in its stead. A rebirth of the Macedonian monarchy that lasted just a brief time during the Fourth Macedonian War, which took place between 150 and 148 BC, culminated in the creation of the Roman province of Macedonia.

The Macedonian kings, who held absolute power and commanded state resources such as gold and silver, oversaw mining operations to mint currency, finance their armies, and establish a Macedonian navy by the time of Philip II's reign. This was made possible by the mining operations that were facilitated by the Macedonian kings. Macedonian rulers assumed roles as high priests of the kingdom and leading patrons of domestic and international cults of the Hellenistic religion despite the fact that the imperial cult fostered by Alexander was never adopted in Macedonia. This is in contrast to the other diadochi successor states that were established in Alexander's wake. A few localities within the Macedonian commonwealth had a considerable degree of autonomy and even had democratic administrations with people assemblies. On the other hand, the power of Macedonian monarchs was theoretically restrained by the institution of the army.