The case against

Olympias
• Olympias’ relationship with Philip had never
been smooth, but she retained two claims on
Philip’s respect – as mother of Alexander, Philip’s
only competent son, and as princess of
neighbouring Epirus.
• Between 337 and 336 BC the situation changed
dramatically, however. Olympias was replaced
as Philip’s primary wife by his marriage to
Cleopatra in 337 BC. She returned to her home
in Epirus, where she hoped to persuade her
brother, Alexander, King of Epirus, to avenge the
slight against her.
• She should have known better. Alexander of
Epirus owed his kingdom to Philip’s intrigues five
years before. They had grown up together in
the Macedonian court, and gossip suggested
that they had once been lovers.
• To make matters worse for Olympias, Alexander
now had another reason not to annoy Philip. He
was to be married to Philip’s daughter Cleopatra;
Olympias’ daughter and his own niece.
This very neat system of nuptial
arrangements meant that Olympias became
almost irrelevant to Philip’s politics and
private life. Only their son, Alexander, kept
her hopes for influence in Macedonia alive.
When Philip married Cleopatra, however,
even that was threatened. As a princess
from Epirus, Olympias had been accepted as
a Macedonian, and Alexander had been
considered Philip’s legitimate heir since his
birth. Cleopatra was a native Macedonian,
however, and any children borne to Philip by
her would be more legitimate than
Alexander. At the time of Philip’s murder,
Caranus, Cleopatra’s son by Philip was only a
few weeks old.
Olympias was a wild and passionate woman,
and her son’s succession to the throne of
Macedonia was her consuming obsession.
Could she really have caused Philip’s murder
just in order to ensure Alexander became
King of Macedonia?
Pausanias’ native Orestis was a new
addition to Macedonia, conquered
during Philip’s reign. His country
had previously been ruled by
Epirus, Olympias’ native land.
Olympias and Pausanias could claim
historic ties of kinship. If she had
wanted to, during her time in Epirus
after she left Macedonia in disgust,
she could easily have worked on
Pausanias’ natural loyalties.
Historians have puzzled over why
Pausanias waited to murder Philip
at such a public occasion. As a
bodyguard he could have used any
number of chances to commit the
crime in private and escape
undetected
• For Olympias, however, the timing was ideal.
Philip was murdered at the wedding designed to
complete her removal from the Macedonian
political scene, within a week of the birth of
Cleopatra’s son.
• As soon as Philip was dead her son Alexander
could take the throne from his rivals and restore
her to her former position of influence.
Cleopatra, not Olympias, would be made
irrelevant.
• An unattributed source suggests Olympias was
behind Pausanias’ crime.
• “On the same night that she returned to
Macedonia, she placed a golden crown on
Pausanias’ head, though he was still hanging on
his murderer’s stake: a few days later she took
down his body and burnt it over the remains of
her dead husband. She built a mound there for
Pausanias and saw that the people offered
yearly sacrifices at it, having drummed them full
of superstition. Under her maiden name she
dedicated to Apollo the sword with which Philip
had been stabbed: all this was done so openly
that she seemed to be afraid that the crime
might not be agreed to have been her work.”