- Alexander I of Macedon
Alexander I ( _el. Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μακεδών) was ruler of
Macedon from 498 BC to 454 BC. He was the son of Amyntas I king of Macedon and Eurydice.According to
Herodotus he was unfriendly to Persia, and had the envoys of Darius I killed when they arrived at the court of his father during theIonian Revolt . However, he was forced to submit to Persia during the invasion ofGreece by Darius' sonXerxes I , and he acted as a representative of the Persian governorMardonius during peace negotiations after the Persian defeat at theBattle of Salamis in 480 BC. Despite his cooperation with Persia, he frequently gave supplies and advice to the Greeks, and warned them of Mardonius' plans before theBattle of Plataea in 479 BC. After the defeat in Plataea the Persian army, under the command ofArtabazus tried to retreat all the way back to Asia Minor. Most of the 43,000 survivors were attacked and killed by the forces of Alexander at the estuary of the Strymon river. Alexander eventually regained Macedons independence after the end of thePersian Wars .Although Macedon was considered a semi-barbaric state by some Greeks (especially those whose colonies near by were threatened by its expansion), Alexander claimed descent from Argive Greeks and
Heracles . After a court ofElean hellanodikai determined his claim to be true, he was permitted to participate in the Olympic Games [Herodotus [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=5.22 5.22] ] [Justin- [http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/texte7.html#2 7.2.14] ] possibly in 504 BC [A History of Macedonia. Volume 2 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8299%28198123%2935%3A3%3C262%3AAHOMV2%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage Review: John Cole] ] an honor reserved only for Greeks. He modeled his court afterAthens and was a patron of the poetsPindar andBacchylides , who both of them dedicated poems to Alexander [Thucydides and Pindar: Historical Narrative and the World of Epinikian Poetry [http://books.google.com/books?id=UM-JMDlso7EC&pg=PA180&dq=Pindar+Alexander+son+of+Amyntas&sig=ZtewR7QQub3XfJAPYxNnSPC-jLU Page 180] By Simon Hornblower ISBN 0199249199] .uccession
References
External links
*cite encyclopedia | last = Smith | first = William | authorlink = William Smith (lexicographer) | title = Alexander I | editor = William Smith | encyclopedia =
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology | volume = 1 | pages = 118 | publisher =Little, Brown and Company | location = Boston | year = 1867 | url = http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;idno=acl3129.0001.001;size=l;frm=frameset;seq=133
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