The Tomb of Olympias
Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 4:07 pm
Is this of interest to anybody?
A friend recently gave me a copy of an article in Hesperia 1949 in which Charles Edson argues for the identification of Pydna with the modern village of Makriyialos (5 kilometres north-east of Kitros which I believe is the modern identification of Pydna). He discusses two inscriptions found in the village, of which the following are probable reconstructions.
1. “Aeacid is my race, my father Neoptolemus, my name Alcimachus, of those (descended) from Olympias. As a child whose intelligence was equal to that of men, Fate placed me at the age of three a corpse beneath this tomb.” 1st cent BC
2. “As you pass (the memorial) of (Neop)tolemus, (stranger, stay, that) you may see the tomb (of famed) Olympia(s. Hel)enus, (bewailing) the race of impetuous A(eacides), buried (his son in the bosom of) measureless (earth.)”
A third inscription seen at Kitros by Heuzey contained the name Neoptolemus and the apparent phrase “thou liest at the well-walled”.
Edson suggests that that though Cassander would not grant Olympias a burial, the locals may have interred her body, and then either king Demetrius (294-288 BC) or Pyrrhus of Epirus (who ruled that part of Macedonia in 288-285 BC), may have given her a royal tomb.
He argues that a family of the Aeacides descended from Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, and thus claiming kinship with Olympias, were living at Pydna. He thinks there are two possibilities for how they came to be living there.
1. About 229 BC the dynasty in Epirus was overthrown by a popular revolution and the royal family executed. Phthia, the wife of the Macedonian king Demetrius II, was an Aeacid princess, so if any members of the Epirote royal family (eg young children) survived, Demetrius may have settled them in Pydna because of the association with Olympias’s tomb.
2. After the battle of Pydna in 168 BC when the Romans broke the back of Macedonian power, the Macedonian nobles and their children of more than 15 years of age were transported to Italy. The Aeacids of Pydna would have been included amongst these, unless there was a young boy under 15 who continued the family. Alternatively, the Romans offered an amnesty to any of the Macedonians who had fled with king Perseus to Samothrace, so Edson suggests that a Royal Page or a noble may have taken advantage of the Romans’ offer.
A friend recently gave me a copy of an article in Hesperia 1949 in which Charles Edson argues for the identification of Pydna with the modern village of Makriyialos (5 kilometres north-east of Kitros which I believe is the modern identification of Pydna). He discusses two inscriptions found in the village, of which the following are probable reconstructions.
1. “Aeacid is my race, my father Neoptolemus, my name Alcimachus, of those (descended) from Olympias. As a child whose intelligence was equal to that of men, Fate placed me at the age of three a corpse beneath this tomb.” 1st cent BC
2. “As you pass (the memorial) of (Neop)tolemus, (stranger, stay, that) you may see the tomb (of famed) Olympia(s. Hel)enus, (bewailing) the race of impetuous A(eacides), buried (his son in the bosom of) measureless (earth.)”
A third inscription seen at Kitros by Heuzey contained the name Neoptolemus and the apparent phrase “thou liest at the well-walled”.
Edson suggests that that though Cassander would not grant Olympias a burial, the locals may have interred her body, and then either king Demetrius (294-288 BC) or Pyrrhus of Epirus (who ruled that part of Macedonia in 288-285 BC), may have given her a royal tomb.
He argues that a family of the Aeacides descended from Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, and thus claiming kinship with Olympias, were living at Pydna. He thinks there are two possibilities for how they came to be living there.
1. About 229 BC the dynasty in Epirus was overthrown by a popular revolution and the royal family executed. Phthia, the wife of the Macedonian king Demetrius II, was an Aeacid princess, so if any members of the Epirote royal family (eg young children) survived, Demetrius may have settled them in Pydna because of the association with Olympias’s tomb.
2. After the battle of Pydna in 168 BC when the Romans broke the back of Macedonian power, the Macedonian nobles and their children of more than 15 years of age were transported to Italy. The Aeacids of Pydna would have been included amongst these, unless there was a young boy under 15 who continued the family. Alternatively, the Romans offered an amnesty to any of the Macedonians who had fled with king Perseus to Samothrace, so Edson suggests that a Royal Page or a noble may have taken advantage of the Romans’ offer.