Death of Philip

[Raymond]

Hello all, I was wondering, who do you feel was behind King Philip's death? I mean, historically Pausanias is held responsible. However, Pausanias acted as the pawn in the overall plot. Who truly was behind the murder of Philip?

[yiannis]

I guess we'll never know for sure but many believe that it was Olympias. As Agatha says: "who has a motive?"
Olympias and (maybe yes, maybe no) Alexander surelly had one. The Persians also had a motive since Philip had already invaded their land. The Athenians also because they saw in Philip a threat against their democracy. Hell! Everyone had a motive!Regards,
Yiannis

[ruthaki]

Olympias has been accused as being part of a 'plot' which likely included Athenians and allegedly was backed by Persian money. It's pretty well speculation and anybody's guess. Olympias was very angry with Philip, that is known, because of his marriage to a younger Macedonian woman and a lot of accusations were thrown around about her by her enemies. Pausanius was chosen as the messenger of death (the actual murderer) because he'd supposedly been humiliated by Philip.

[susa]

Just like in Agatha Christie's books, no, Yiannis?Blame the butler!;)

[Yiannis K]

Yes Susa
But in our story, in the end, everybody dies!
Philip, Darius, Demosthenes, Alexander ...

[jan]

That is what makes novels, the mystery of it all. Most likely, it was the wife... Olympias seems to be the chief suspect, but I read where Aristotle tried to absolve her as the suspect. It just makes it all the more interesting to contemplate what some mother's won't do for their sons. Had he (Philip) not been killed, how long would it have taken for Alexander to gain the crown? The motive seems to implicate Olympias, but historians try to absolve her.Since she was able to kill his wife so easily, why not suspect her?

[ruthaki]

If you've ever seen the size of that theatre at Aigai and the layout of the land around it, you have to wonder how the assassination could have happened, in view of the audience etc and if the bodyguards were really on duty. And how Pausanius ever managed to get out of the theatre before being caught. I sat there awhile and contemplated this scenario. It's really quite an amazing thing to think about when you are right there at the scene of the crime.