Macedonian (Argead) Period
Philip III Arrhidaeus
Macedonian Dynasty · 332-305 BCE
Open full-size illustration →Source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Background
Philip III Arrhidaeus was pharaoh in name only, a disabled half-brother of Alexander the Great used as a figurehead by rival generals, and both the origin of his disability and the manner of his death are tied to the same woman: Alexander's mother, Olympias. Background from: UCL Digital Egypt.
Reign dates: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Full profile
A puppet king of a fractured empire
Following the sudden death of Alexander the Great in Babylon in 323 BCE, a massive power vacuum engulfed the empire. To maintain a facade of unity among Alexander's competing generals, his disabled half-brother Philip III Arrhidaeus was recognized as nominal co-king. While his cartouches were carved into temple walls in traditional pharaonic style—such as at Karnak and Luxor—he never set foot in Egypt. His brief, powerless reign ended when he was executed in Macedonia in 317 BCE.
Executed by the mother who may have caused his condition
Plutarch claimed that Philip's mental impairment was not congenital but the result of drugs administered in childhood by Olympias, Alexander's mother, who allegedly wanted to remove any rival claimant to her own son's succession, a specific accusation modern historians treat with real skepticism given Olympias's later reputation as a convenient villain in hostile sources. What is better documented is his end: after his wife Eurydice pushed him to name her ally Cassander as regent, Olympias seized power in Macedon in 317 BCE, had the couple captured at Amphipolis, and had Philip executed outright while sending Eurydice a sword, a noose, and hemlock with instructions to choose her own method of suicide.
Sources for this profile
- Shaw, I. (Ed.). (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press.
- Dodson, A., & Hilton, D. (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson.
- University College London. Kings of Ptolemaic Egypt.
- UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology. Chronology. UCLA.
The complete, APA-formatted reference list is on the Academic Sources & Bibliography page.