Archelaus I of Macedon

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Archelaus I of Macedon

Archelaus I was king of Macedon

Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
from 413 to 399 BC, following the death of Perdiccas II

Perdiccas II of Macedon

Perdiccas II was King of Macedonia from about 454 BC to about 413 BC.He was the son of Alexander I of Macedon....
. The son of Perdiccas by a slave woman, Archelaus obtained the throne by murdering his uncle, his cousin, and his half-brother, the legitimate heir, but proved a capable and beneficent ruler, known for the sweeping changes he made in state administration, the military, and commerce.

Almost immediately after he took power, Archelaus was faced with a situation which allowed him to completely reverse Macedon's relationship with Athens

Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, which had been a major threat for the past half century.

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Archelaus I was king of Macedon

Macedon

Perdiccas II of Macedon

Athens

Syracuse, Italy

Syracuse is a historic city in southern Italy, the Capital of the province of Syracuse. The city is noted for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture and association to Archimedes, playing an important role in ancient times as one of the top powers of the Mediterranean world; it is over 2,700 years old....
in late 413 during which most of their ships were destroyed. This left the Athenians in desperate need of a huge amount of timber to build new ships and Archelaus in a position to set the price. Archelaus generously supplied the Athenians with the timber they needed. In recognition of this, the Athenians honored Archelaus and his children with the titles of proxenos
Proxenos

In Classical Greece a Proxenos was a citizen of a particular city state who felt friendship towards another city, and voluntarily took up some of the roles fulfilled in modern states by Consul s - i.e....
and euergetes of the people.

Archelaus went on to institute many internal reforms. He issued an abundance of good quality coinage. He built strongholds, cut straight roads (important for movement of the military), and improved the organization of the military, particularly the cavalry and hoplite infantry.

Archelaus was also known as a man of culture and extended cultural and artistic contacts with southern Greece. In his new palace at Pella

Pella

Pella was the Capital of the Ancient Greece Monarchy of Macedon. A common folk etymology is traditionally given for the name Pella, ascribing it to a form akin to the Doric Greek Apella, originally meaning a ceremonial location where decisions were made....
(where he moved the capital from the old capital at Aigai

Vergina

Vergina is a small town in northern Greece, located in the prefecture of Imathia Prefecture, Central Macedonia. The town became internationally famous in 1977, when the Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos unearthed what he claimed was the burial site of the kings of Macedon, including the tomb of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander...
), he hosted great poets, tragedians, including Agathon

Agathon

Agathon was an Athens tragic poet. He is best known for his appearance in Plato's Symposium , which describes the Symposium given to celebrate his obtaining a prize for his first tragedy at the Lenaia in ....
and Euripides

Euripides

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedy of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias....
, (who perhaps wrote his tragedies Archelaus and The Bacchae
The Bacchae

The Bacchae is an Classical Greece tragedy by the Classical Athens playwright Euripides. It premiered posthumously at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BCE as part of a tetralogy that also included Iphigeneia at Aulis, and which Euripides' son or nephew probably directed....
while in Macedon), musicians, and painters, including Zeuxis (the most celebrated painter of his time). Archelaus reorganized the Olympia, a religious festival with musical and athletic competitions honoring Olympian Zeus

Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
and the Muses at Dion, the Olympia

Olympia, Greece

Olympia , a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi....
of Macedon. The greatest athletes and artists of Greece came to Macedon to participate in this event.In addition, Archelaus competed and won in Tethrippon in both Olympic and Pythian Games

Pythian Games

The Pythian Games were one of the four Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece, a forerunner of the modern Olympic Games, held every four years at the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi....
.

According to Aelian, Archelaus was killed in 399 B.C. during a hunt, by one of the royal pages. By the time that he died, Archelaus had succeeded in converting Macedon into a significantly stronger power. Thucydides

Thucydides

Thucydides was a Greeks history and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century B.C. war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 B.C....
credited Archelaus with doing more for his kingdom than all of his predecessors together.

Archelaus I of Macedon

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