A Companion to Women in the Ancient World by James Sharon L. Dillon Sheila & Sheila Dillon

Author:James, Sharon L., Dillon, Sheila & Sheila Dillon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Published: 2011-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

4 Olympias

Olympias, fifth wife of Philip II, mother of Alexander the Great (III), and grandmother of Alexander IV, played a prominent political role, the first woman in the Hellenic world to do so, during three reigns (Carney 2006). Philip treated her son as his apparent heir by the time Alexander had reached his early teens (c. 344 BCE) and the king continued to do so through the battle of Chaeroneia (summer 338 BCE) and its diplomatic aftermath (his only other son—later known as Philip Arrhidaeus—had mental limitations). Olympias, as the heir's mother, had presumably been the dominant woman at court for some years.

This all changed abruptly in about 337 BCE when Philip married for a seventh time, to a young Macedonian noblewoman named Cleopatra. Philip had taken at least one bride since his marriage to Olympias and Alexander was more or less an adult, so the wedding ostensibly should not have changed the succession. However, the bride's guardian, Attalus, proposed a toast that suggested that Alexander was somehow not legitimate and children born of Philip and Cleopatra would be (Plut. Alex. 9.4–5; Ath. 13.557d; Just. 9.7.5–7). Alexander and Olympias left Macedonia (she returned to Molossia where her brother was now king); a public reconciliation soon followed (Plut. Alex. 9.6, Mor. 70b, 179c; Just. 9.7.6), but Olympias and Alexander apparently remained concerned about his succession. When the satrap of Caria offered his daughter in marriage to Philip Arrhidaeus, Alexander, Olympias, and Alexander's friends took his offer as an indication that Philip now intended the throne for Alexander's half-brother, tried to replace him with Alexander as groom, and, instead, precipitated the collapse of the marriage alliance, the exile of some of Alexander's friends, and the renewed wrath of Philip (Plut. Alex. 10.1–3). Not surprisingly, when a royal bodyguard assassinated Philip in the midst of the luxurious wedding festivities for his daughter (Plut. Alex. 10.4; Diod. 16.93–4; Just. 9.6.4–7.14; Aristotle, Pol. 1311b; P. Oxy. 1798), people suspected that Olympias and Alexander may have been behind the assassination (Plut. Alex. 10.4; Just. 9.8.1–14). Regicide, typically by members of the royal house, was commonplace in Macedonia. Mother and son made plausible suspects, but considerable risk (loss of any chance at the throne) would have been attached to involvement in a conspiracy, so their involvement should not be assumed. Olympias and Alexander did function as a succession unit; she worked for her son's success by diplomatic means, as an advisor and as a proponent of the distinction of her birth and clan and thus those of her son.

Once Alexander was king, Olympias played a more public role than previously. She never worked against her son's interest and sometimes worked in concert with him, but may at times have acted independently, particularly because of his long (334–323 BCE) absence in the East. Olympias almost certainly eliminated Cleopatra and her infant, while Alexander was responsible for the death of Attalus (Just. 9.7.12, 12.6.14; Plut. Alex. 10.4; Paus. 7.7.5; Diod. 17.2.3–6, 5.1–2). Olympias and Alexander (and Olympias' daughter, another

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