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Description
You think Phillip's Machiavelli now? Oh no. not yet. Soon, for justice, he shall declare the United States of Greece!

Or the League of Corinth, that's a good name too.

Part 1: daniel-gleebits.deviantart.com…

Part 3: daniel-gleebits.deviantart.com…

Famous factual facts:

- As with any changes, there was push-back. Surprisingly there is little evidence of threats of rebellion outside of the pretenders pushed by foreign powers. The Athenian pretender, Argeus, actually made it to the capital city and declared himself king, but no one really listened.

- Macedonian companions were frequently employed as mercenaries throughout the peninsula, but being nobility, they had a reputation for glory-seeking, making their perceived usage somewhat doubtful in coordinated battles. Nonetheless, they were arguably the best trained of the army, at least until Phillip, when the Foot Companions were developed.

- The "bar-bar-bar" line is a reference to the origins of the word "barbarian". According to the Greeks and later the Romans, people of foreign lands were said to sound as though they were speaking gibberish, which they enunciated as "bar-bar-bar", and thus the name barbarians was concocted. This didn't mean only European barbarians, but Egyptians, Persians, and anyone else other than Greeks.
The word became to mean the opposite of "citizen", meant to push an almost nationalistic sense of otherness upon foreigners.

- The sarissa was (and kind of is) a wholly ridiculous seeming weapon. It was so long and unwieldy that it necessitated a new, professional soldier type to use it. In addition to the pointy end, it featured a weighted metal piece on the held end to help balance it, and to act as a second point in case the first broke.
The smaller shield was either strapped to the arm (according to one source) or suspended from the neck (more sources). The main defense was the spear wall, however, giving the Macedonians a huge advantage over enemies with a shorted reach weapon, especially other phalanxes.

- Among the changes made by Phillip were concessions of land and money, and the marriage to his second wife, Audata (called Eurydice after the wedding). She survived Phillip's death and passed on her Illyrian ways to her two daughters, including horseriding and fighting.

- Amphipolis was originally an Athenian colony that had been lost during the Peloponnesian War. They were quite anxious to get it back because of local mining interests (and because it was theirs, int heir opinion), but the people of Amphipolis were not quite so eager for Athenian hegemony again. At least not until Phillip showed up trying to capture it. The Athenians dispatched 3000 mercenaries who were defeated by Phillip, but he used the opportunity to force a peace by acting kindly towards the prisoners and promising not to seize the city.

- A lot of people tend to forget that at this point, China is a thing. It's possible that ancient people of this area may have been aware, although this would undoubtedly come from the Persians, as their empire stretched into the reaches of the Indus River Valley. The Silk Road and its expensive trade items weren't thought to have been founded for another century by the Han Dynasty. Certainly by the time of the Roman Empire there were established trade routes between the west and the east.

- It's not that important to what he did, but I find it kinda cool that Phillip was this large, one-eyed, rugged-looking king. He lost the eye pretty early in his bids for conquest during the siege of the city of Methone. It's possible he was trying to be diplomatic with the Athenians again, but it's also possible that the Third Sacred War was taking up his attention, and so he wished to end the siege and attend to this new opportunity for meddling in Greek affairs.
From the latter event he managed to make himself leader of the Thessalian League, giving him a second army and a foothold in northern Greece.

- But things weren't all roses and fish in barrels for Phillip. A worthy foe in the form of Byzantion (Latin: Byzantium), a far-flung Greek colony, was causing trouble for him with help from the Persians, who had trading interests in the region. Phillip spent some 2 years losing until the Athenians went too far giving their support to the Byzantines.
You may recognise the name, "Byzantine" as that given to the Eastern Roman Empire. This city would be built over by the Roman colony city, Constantinople, and made the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire after the Tetrarch division, and the fall of the west. The city would go on to be conquered by the Osmans (Ottomans) centuries later, although its name of Constantinople wouldn't officially change to Istanbul until the 20th century.
Eastern Rome never referred to itself as the Byzantine Empire, but as the Roman Empire. It was renamed the Byzantine by an historian 100 years after its final fall, and we use the term to distinguish it from the previous fully unified empire.

- The symbol behind Phillip in the last panel is the Vergina Sun, or Argead Star (Argead being Phillip's dynastic/family name). It was the royal symbol of the Argeads during the time of Phillip and Alexander at least, and is used in tomb art.
It was (briefly) used on the flag of the modern Republic of Macedonia, but was replaced in 1995 because the modern day Greeks of the 90's threw a hissy fit about it. Look into it yourself, it's pathetic.

concept and art: ©Daniel-Gleebits

Description
You think Phillip's Machiavelli now? Oh no. not yet. Soon, for justice, he shall declare the United States of Greece!

Or the League of Corinth, that's a good name too.

Part 1: daniel-gleebits.deviantart.com…

Part 3: daniel-gleebits.deviantart.com…

Famous factual facts:

- As with any changes, there was push-back. Surprisingly there is little evidence of threats of rebellion outside of the pretenders pushed by foreign powers. The Athenian pretender, Argeus, actually made it to the capital city and declared himself king, but no one really listened.

- Macedonian companions were frequently employed as mercenaries throughout the peninsula, but being nobility, they had a reputation for glory-seeking, making their perceived usage somewhat doubtful in coordinated battles. Nonetheless, they were arguably the best trained of the army, at least until Phillip, when the Foot Companions were developed.

- The "bar-bar-bar" line is a reference to the origins of the word "barbarian". According to the Greeks and later the Romans, people of foreign lands were said to sound as though they were speaking gibberish, which they enunciated as "bar-bar-bar", and thus the name barbarians was concocted. This didn't mean only European barbarians, but Egyptians, Persians, and anyone else other than Greeks.
The word became to mean the opposite of "citizen", meant to push an almost nationalistic sense of otherness upon foreigners.

- The sarissa was (and kind of is) a wholly ridiculous seeming weapon. It was so long and unwieldy that it necessitated a new, professional soldier type to use it. In addition to the pointy end, it featured a weighted metal piece on the held end to help balance it, and to act as a second point in case the first broke.
The smaller shield was either strapped to the arm (according to one source) or suspended from the neck (more sources). The main defense was the spear wall, however, giving the Macedonians a huge advantage over enemies with a shorted reach weapon, especially other phalanxes.

- Among the changes made by Phillip were concessions of land and money, and the marriage to his second wife, Audata (called Eurydice after the wedding). She survived Phillip's death and passed on her Illyrian ways to her two daughters, including horseriding and fighting.

- Amphipolis was originally an Athenian colony that had been lost during the Peloponnesian War. They were quite anxious to get it back because of local mining interests (and because it was theirs, int heir opinion), but the people of Amphipolis were not quite so eager for Athenian hegemony again. At least not until Phillip showed up trying to capture it. The Athenians dispatched 3000 mercenaries who were defeated by Phillip, but he used the opportunity to force a peace by acting kindly towards the prisoners and promising not to seize the city.

- A lot of people tend to forget that at this point, China is a thing. It's possible that ancient people of this area may have been aware, although this would undoubtedly come from the Persians, as their empire stretched into the reaches of the Indus River Valley. The Silk Road and its expensive trade items weren't thought to have been founded for another century by the Han Dynasty. Certainly by the time of the Roman Empire there were established trade routes between the west and the east.

- It's not that important to what he did, but I find it kinda cool that Phillip was this large, one-eyed, rugged-looking king. He lost the eye pretty early in his bids for conquest during the siege of the city of Methone. It's possible he was trying to be diplomatic with the Athenians again, but it's also possible that the Third Sacred War was taking up his attention, and so he wished to end the siege and attend to this new opportunity for meddling in Greek affairs.
From the latter event he managed to make himself leader of the Thessalian League, giving him a second army and a foothold in northern Greece.

- But things weren't all roses and fish in barrels for Phillip. A worthy foe in the form of Byzantion (Latin: Byzantium), a far-flung Greek colony, was causing trouble for him with help from the Persians, who had trading interests in the region. Phillip spent some 2 years losing until the Athenians went too far giving their support to the Byzantines.
You may recognise the name, "Byzantine" as that given to the Eastern Roman Empire. This city would be built over by the Roman colony city, Constantinople, and made the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire after the Tetrarch division, and the fall of the west. The city would go on to be conquered by the Osmans (Ottomans) centuries later, although its name of Constantinople wouldn't officially change to Istanbul until the 20th century.
Eastern Rome never referred to itself as the Byzantine Empire, but as the Roman Empire. It was renamed the Byzantine by an historian 100 years after its final fall, and we use the term to distinguish it from the previous fully unified empire.

- The symbol behind Phillip in the last panel is the Vergina Sun, or Argead Star (Argead being Phillip's dynastic/family name). It was the royal symbol of the Argeads during the time of Phillip and Alexander at least, and is used in tomb art.
It was (briefly) used on the flag of the modern Republic of Macedonia, but was replaced in 1995 because the modern day Greeks of the 90's threw a hissy fit about it. Look into it yourself, it's pathetic.

concept and art: ©Daniel-Gleebits