Olympias

by Elizabeth Carney

  8 Olympias the Molossian

  entertaining not related to family events was sexually segregated; respectable women did not attend symposia (drinking parties). In Macedonia, literary evidence offers no reason to think that Olympias or other women of her status attended symposia,23 but Plutarch ( Pyrrh. 5.5) tells a tale about the younger generation of Olympias’ family that has a brother and sister dining, drinking and plotting together. Olympias and her daughter Cleopatra, wife of Alexander I of Molossia, corresponded with various important political figures of their day.24 Particularly because of the frequent need for confi-dentiality in this correspondance,25 it is likely that they were literate.26

  Literate or not, female Aeacids would have known Homer and very likely Pindar and Euripides.27 The evidence is slender, but it seems reasonable to conclude that Olympias grew up in a world which had less narrow expectations for women than did the Athenians or even the Macedonians.

  Let us now turn to what Olympias’ homeland was like in other respects.

  Around the time of Olympias’ birth, Molossia was an inland kingdom in northwestern Greece, part of the region known as Epirus. Southern Greece had long been organized in terms of urban centers called poleis, but northern Greece in the fourth century BCE, with the exception of some coastal regions, was not urbanized. In many areas, the older governmental form, monarchy, not the polis, dominated populations that were still tribally organized. In this period, many southern Greeks considered the general population of Epirus and Macedonia barbarians, although some ruling dynasties (including the Aeacids) had managed, via heroic genealogies, to acquire a degree of recognition for their own Hellenic identities.28

  Molossia—and, indeed, most of Epirus, with the exception of coastal regions—was a very different physical world from that of southern Greece.29

  Molossia was initially an inland, mountainous kingdom, largely cut off from the coast, not easily reached from southern Greece, although comparatively accessible by means of several mountain passes (during the summer) from the western parts of Macedonia.30 The climate was continental, not Mediterranean. Rainfall and snow were abundant; swift-flowing streams remained lively and difficult to ford even during the summer, when streams in southern Greece dried up. In Olympias’ day, forests dominated by oaks probably covered most of her homeland. Granted the mountainous terrain and harsh winters, cereal agriculture was not successful but herding was.

  Today Epirus is one of the poorest parts of Greece. In antiquity the situation was probably relatively similar.31 Despite this, individual members of the Aeacid clan, judging by the actions of various members in the fourth century, commanded sufficient wealth32 to enable them to engage in activities similar to those of others in Greek elites.33 Molossia was a green and pleasant place to grow up, but it was remote from the rest of the Greek world, a primitive backwater and not always a safe place, especially for members of the royal family. The seat of the royal family, let alone the location of its palace, is uncertain, though it seems reasonable to conclude that by Olympias’ day, the Aeacids must have spent considerable time at Dodona.34

  Olympias the Molossian 9

  Ancient sources pay scant attention to Molossian history. Apart from inscriptions, most of our knowledge of Molossian events comes from a few critical passages in ancient authors35 and passing mention in narratives more interested in southern Greek and Macedonian affairs. Sources often contradict each other about the identities and relationships between various members of the royal clan.36 As a consequence, any Aeacid family tree is based on conjecture and should be treated with caution. For similar reasons, the chronology of Molossian events is often unclear. With such scrappy sources, one can only sketch in a picture of the political world in which Olympias grew up, only surmise what her experience and expectations were as she arrived in Macedonia, the latest bride of its much married king.

  Consequently, we know only a little of Molossian events and Olympias’

  family’s history. As we have already noted, Phthia, wife of the Molossian king Admetus, supposedly persuaded her husband to save Themistocles, helped him escape his enemies, and allowed him to flee to Macedonia and from there to the Persian Empire.37 During the Peloponnesian War, Molossian armies, commanded by the regent Sabulinthus, fought on the Spartan side early in the war (Thuc. 2.80. 6). The young king, Tharyps,38 for whom the regent acted, was sent to Athens for education (Just. 17.3.11) and was apparently given Athenian citizenship (Tod GHI 2.173, l. 4–5). Upon his return to Molossia, Tharyps sponsored some degree of Hellenization in his kingdom (Just. 17.3.12–13; Plut. Pyrrh. 1.3).39 His son, Alcetas, was at some point exiled. Dionysius of Syracuse ( c. 385) attempted to restore Alcetas with Illyrian aid; the Illyrians inflicted a massive defeat on the Molossians but were ultimately driven out with Spartan aid (Diod. 15.13.1–3). In 377, Alcetas was a signatory of the second Athenian confederacy and his son, Neoptolemus, also signed for the alliance (Tod GHI 2.123, l.109, 110).

  Alcetas’ son Neoptolemus at first reigned alone,40 but, in the end, shared rule with his brother Arybbas.41 Neoptolemus had three children: Alexander (in terms of Molossian history he is Alexander I), Olympias, and her sister Troas (Just. 7.6.10–11, 8.6.5; Plut. Alex. 2.1; Diod. 16.72.1). The name or ethnicity of the mother/mothers of Neoptolemus’ children is unknown, though scholars often assume that the mother of Olympias and her siblings was a Chaonian princess (see above). At some point prior to the marriage of Olympias (Just. 7.6.11; Plut. Alex. 2; 1–2), Neoptolemus died42 and Arybbas ruled alone, marrying Troas, by whom he had a son, Aeacides, and acting as guardian for his brother’s other two children. Arybbas had an older son as well, another Alcetas (Paus. 1.11.5). Shortly before Olympias’ marriage to Philip, Arybbas had, by guerrilla tactics, repelled an incursion by Illyrian tribes (Frontin. 2.5.19). Such is our sketchy knowledge of the historical past of Olympias’ dynasty.

  The Aeacids were kings, but governmental structure and custom limited the power of fourth-century Molossian monarchs.43 The kings functioned primarily as war leaders, although they conducted religious ceremonies as well. Molossians chose annual chief magistrates and representatives for each

  10 Olympias the Molossian

  Molossian tribe. Over time other offices developed.44 After sacrificing to Zeus Areius, kings exchanged annual oaths with their people, the kings promising to rule according to nomos (custom or law) and the people to maintain the monarchy by nomos (Plut. Pyrrh. 5.2). This annual practice gives the impres-sion that this was a kind of constitutional monarchy, although actual events suggest a less tidy reality.45 The nature of the terrain, governmental structure, and political events imply that royal control of the tribes was limited. During the first half of the fourth century, Molossia was an expansionist state. For instance, around the time of Olympias’ birth, Molossia finally acquired control of some coastal territory.46 Much later in her life, Molossia became part of a more complex structure, the Epirote League or Alliance, but the Aeacids, though they became the war leaders of the alliance, were not Epirote kings (see Chapter 3).

  Olympias became the wife of Philip, a man famous for his many wives.

  It would be helpful in terms of understanding her career to know whether she had grown up in a household where the kings had multiple wives.

  However, if Molossian kings practiced polygyny before the day of Pyrrhus (Plut. Pyrrh. 9.1, 10.5), Olympias great-nephew, we do not know it.47 Some aspects of Aeacid history hint that kings prior to Pyrrhus may have practiced polygyny. Brothers, or branches of descent from royal brothers, frequently contended for the throne.48 Struggles between men with the same father but different mothers were often a consequence of the polygamy of royal males.49

  Warring Aeacid brothers could have been only half-siblings.50 Nonetheless, even if there could be certainty that these were indeed half-brothers in conflict, it would prove only that kings married more than once, not that they married more than one woman at the same time. Olympias grew up in a contentious and comparatively unsta
ble court, but it may not have been one where the kings had many wives simultaneously.

  Would Olympias have expected to marry a ruler from so comparatively far away, from a kingdom on the other side of the Pindus Mountains? It is difficult to say much about Aeacid marriage policy since, prior to the reign of Olympias’ uncle Arybbas, we know the name of only one Molossian royal wife and the ethnicity of none. Most likely it was comparatively localized and brides were taken from and offered to other Epirote tribes and neighboring peoples like the Thessalians and the various peoples of Upper Macedonia (western, mountainous Macedonia). It may even be that close-kin marriages within the dynasty, like that of Arybbas and his niece, Olympias’ sister Troas, were common.

  As the career of Olympias’ father demonstrates, her family did not maintain a set pattern for succession to the throne and they were even less consistent in terms of keeping a ruler on the throne, once he had assumed power. True, those who write about ancient Molossia tend to assume that the Aeacids practiced primogeniture.51 Judging by events, however, there is no evidence for regular succession by older sons. Pausanias (1.11.5), for instance, reports that Arybbas’ son Aeacides, who became king after his

  Olympias the Molossian 11

  father, was not Arybbas’ eldest son and that Aeacides’ eldest son, Alcetas, became king only after the death of his younger brother. When the Epirotes became dissatisfied with Alcetas, they killed him and his children and brought in Pyrrhus, the son of his younger brother. Granted, however, the inevitable limits of ancient life expectancy, the oldest surviving son clearly had a working if not a theoretical edge. Whatever the initial basis for selection, considerable second-guessing seems to have occurred. The Molossians frequently expelled their kings, sometimes recalled them, and occasionally compelled them to shared rule with another member of the dynasty. The judgment of the previous king (Paus. 1.11.5), military victory or defeat (Plut. Pyrrh. 5.7), popular opinion (Paus. 1.11.5), and military assistance by foreign powers (Plut. Pyrrh. 5.1), all played a part on one occasion or another. Until after the death of Olympias, however, though Aeacid kings were hardly in a strong or stable position and dynastic infighting happened more often than not, its severity had limits: there is no certain instance of the murder of one Aeacid by another until Pyrrhus murdered Neoptolemus (Plut. Pyrrh. 5.6–7). Prior to Pyrrhus, Aeacids victorious in dynastic contention made do by forcing their rivals to share rule or by expelling them.52

  Indeed, before we turn to the circumstances and significance of Olympias’

  marriage, it is helpful to consider both the similarities53 and differences between the Molossian world in which she grew up and the Macedonian court she joined when she married. Both were northern monarchies, less urban, more tribal, more dependent on pastoral transhumance than cereal agriculture.54 The dynasties claimed descent from major Greek heroes but the people they ruled were not yet widely considered Greek. Both kingdoms dealt constantly with incursions from Illyrian tribes; their efforts made them buffer states,55 saving those further south from similar experiences, but limiting their own ability to develop. The intervention of major Greek powers also contributed to this situation. The kingdoms remained warlike societies with unstable monarchies.

  On the other hand, major differences existed. Macedonia was a country richer in population and mineral resources and had much better access to the sea and its markets. Its coastline bordered a major grain route; Molossia’s did not. Molossian monarchy originated away from the sea, in the mountains and only gradually reached the coast. Macedonian monarchy actually began on the coastal plain and gradually asserted control over mountainous regions. Centralization and Hellenization moved more rapidly in Macedonia.

  Though both dynasties changed allegiances with major southern Greek powers from time to time, out of weakness, the Aeacids had something of a tradition of alliance with the Athenians and the Argeads did not. Internal dynastic conflict in Macedonia had a much more violent and bloody history than in Molossia. Despite this, ordinary Macedonians manifested a much greater degree of dynastic loyalty to the Argeads than Molossians and Epirotes did to the Aeacids. It comes as no surprise that the Epirotes ultimately abolished the monarchy while the Macedonians, after the end of the

  12 Olympias the Molossian

  Argead dynasty, comparatively quickly embraced a new royal dynasty and stayed loyal to it until the Romans took their independence from them. In Macedonia, monarchy and nationalism were one, but in Molossia and Epirus they were not. Macedonian kings had virtually no structural checks on their power whereas the power of Molossian kings was distinctly more limited.

  The degree of difference between the two monarchies grew greater as the fourth century progressed.56 One can only wonder whether Olympias found the wider role apparently available to royal women in Molossian monarchy more appealing than the greater absolutism of Macedonian monarchy. The later period of her life (see Chapter 4) might suggest that, in effect, she tried to combine these two traditions to her own advantage, and that this attempt was, ultimately, unsuccessful.

  It would be interesting to know how old Olympias was when she first encountered the intrigues and complexities of Philip’s court, but her age at the time of her marriage and the dates of her betrothal and wedding to Philip are unknown. The only comparative certainty is that Alexander was born in the summer of 356. That granted, the wedding must have taken place by late summer, early fall of 357, although it could have happened earlier.

  Plutarch’s account ( Alex. 2.1) of the betrothal of Philip and Olympias implies that some time passed between betrothal and marriage: Plutarch says Philip was still a meirakion (youth, a person around twenty) and Olympias an orphan child. Philip would have turned twenty around 362, so one could imagine that years passed between betrothal and wedding, but a number of factors suggest that was not the case. Philip did not rule in his own right until 359 and a betrothal to a foreign princess while his brother still ruled would seem unlikely. Although he certainly did marry several times at the beginning of his reign and so could have taken yet another bride very quickly, the political situation with the Illyrians, the probable context for the marriage (see below) makes it likely that both marriage and betrothal happened in 357. Athenian girls tended to marry between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, but female members of the Argead dynasty tended to marry later, and Aeacid habits may have been similar.57 If one takes Plutarch’s statement seriously but assumes his diction is either vague or exaggerated, then it seems reasonable to conclude that Olympias was no more than eighteen at the time of her marriage in 357 and certainly could have been a bit younger. So she was probably born between 375 and 371.

  The circumstances of Olympias’ first encounter with Philip were probably distinctly less romantic than Plutarch would have it. As we have noted, he asserts that the two young people met as initiates of the cult at Samothrace, that Philip fell in love with her and arranged the betrothal. The love-story part of Plutarch’s account is quite unlikely to be true.58 Members of Greek elites, let alone kings, married for political reasons, to mates whose wealth and family connections would be beneficial. Philip was particularly famous for using his marriages to seal or establish alliances (see Chapter 2). Even ordinary Greeks did not marry for romantic love; the prime purpose of

  Olympias the Molossian 13

  marriage was the procreation of children, and virtually all marriages were arranged.59

  Moreover, the location of this first encounter implies considerable fore-thought on the part of all parties. Samothrace was an extremely isolated island and its cult comparatively unknown at the time, especially to mountain people of northwestern Greece. Elite women like the Molossian Andromacha (see above) certainly did travel to major shrines for religious purposes. That a king’s daughter would be escorted by her guardian would be unsurprising.

  But it is implausible to believe that Olympias and Arybbas simply happened on Philip at the initiation to a cult with which no Molossian was likely familiar.60 They
were not there by accident.

  Since the marriage alliance benefited both rulers,61 either king might have initiated negotiations for the union. Philip’s tendency to marry in connection to political alliances hints that he could have been the initiator. Virtually everyone agrees that this marriage alliance was intended to create a unified Molossian/Macedonian front against the Illyrian menace. Philip came to the throne when his brother fell in a massacre the Illyrians had inflicted on the Macedonians and Arybbas had barely driven the Illyrians out of his kingdom.62 Despite his brother’s disastrous end and other early troubles, Philip had succeeded in winning a major victory against Illyrian forces. His success was the primary context for the alliance.63 Arybbas probably hoped that Philip’s aid would enable him to expand his own kingdom (Just. 7.6.12).

  Philip may well have seen the possibility for other benefits to be derived from the alliance,64 most notably the potential to exploit and ultimately dominate the neighboring kingdom. Philip’s was the mind of a conqueror: he had a knack for finding and exploiting open-ended situations. That being so, it is hard to mark the point when potential becomes plan.65

  Although the marriage alliance brought advantages to both kings, it is likely that, whichever initiated the alliance, it was Philip who dominated it.

  At the time, the two kings must have looked quite similar to southern Greeks, and Arybbas may even have had greater prestige among Greeks. But the fact that the engagement happened at Samothrace almost certainly signifies that arrangements were made to please Philip, not Arybbas. The trip from inland Molossia to Samothrace, whether by land or sea, was neither easy nor short.

  Until around the time of the reign of Philip, Samothrace had been a poor and remote sanctuary with only local significance. Philip was responsible for the first stone building at the site66 and it continued to be patronized by the Argead and later dynasties. The alliance was arranged on his ground, not neutral ground and certainly not Arybbas’.67 Secrecy was probably not a factor in the choice of meeting place.68 Betrothals were formal and public affairs and the presence of two kings at Samothrace was, if anything, more likely to attract attention than their presence at one of the better-known panhellenic shrines. The betrothal may have occurred in the very public context of an annual festival held there in mid-June.69 The cult permitted initiation at times other than the festival, but a connection between the