A moment of glory - Macedonia forged by Philip II - 4

A moment of glory in 356 BC

Three years into his kingship, in 356 BC Philip must have looked back at his achievements with some degree of satisfaction. He now had secured most of Macedonia’s borders and built up a nearly invincible army, money was flowing in from the recently acquired mines of Philippi (more than 1,000 talents a year), his race-horse had won at the Olympic games, and most important of all Olympias bore him a son, Alexander.

Towards the end of 355 BC, Philip decided to besiege Methone in order to complete his control of the entire coastline towards Thessaly. Besides, Methone was located on a strategic communication route to Dion, Macedonia’s major religious sanctuary. He generously gave the people a chance to surrender but when they refused, he besieged the city. Methone had huge walls and in spite of Philip’s equipment and repeated efforts, it took him several months to succeed. But while he was inspecting his own siege craft, an arrow from an enemy catapult hit him in the eye. It seems that an eye injury is a bloody affair and one can easily imagine the commotion among his men. The siege may have been brought to a halt for a while, waiting for the outcome of the king’s wounds. The city was eventually taken in the early summer of 354 BC. Methone’s walls and buildings were razed to the ground so that even today it is difficult to locate.

The result of these moves meant that Macedonia’s coastline was now free of Greek cities, that Chalcidice was bound to Macedonia by a thorough treaty, and that the country reaped large revenues from the Crenides mines – more than enough to cover his military expenses and provide regular pay to his soldiers. Athens, by contrast, had exhausted its finances and was lucky enough to be saved by its archon Eubulus who created a special fund to stimulate the city’s economy.

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