Justin: HISTORIARVM PHILIPPICARVM T. POMPEII TROGI LIBRI XLIV IN EPITOMEN REDACTI

I. Macedonia ante a nomine Emathionis regis, cuius prima virtutis experimenta in illis locis exstant, Emathia cognominata est. Huius sicuti incrementa modica, ita termini perangusti fuere. Populus Pelasgi, regio Bottia dicebatur.

1. Macedonia, formerly from the name of King Emathion—whose first proofs of valor are extant in those places—was surnamed Emathia. Just as its increments were modest, so its boundaries were very narrow. The people were called Pelasgi, the region Bottia.

Sed postea virtute regum et gentis industria subactis primo finitimis, mox populis nationibusque, imperium usque extremos Orientis terminos prolatum. In regione Paeonia, quae nunc portio est Macedoniae, regnasse fertur Pelegonus, pater Asperopaei, cuius Troiano bello inter clarissimos vindices urbis nomen accipimus. Ex alio latere in Europa regnum Europus nomine tenuit.

But afterward, by the virtue of the kings and the industry of the nation, the neighbors first being subdued, then peoples and nations, the dominion was extended to the farthest boundaries of the Orient. In the region Paeonia, which is now a portion of Macedonia, Pelegonus is said to have reigned, the father of Asperopaeus, whose name in the Trojan War we receive among the most illustrious defenders of the city. On another side, in Europe, a kingdom was held by one by the name Europus.

Sed et Caranus cum magna multitudine Graecorum sedes in Macedonia responso oraculi iussus quaerere, cum Emathiam venisset, urben Edessam non sentientibus oppidanis propter imbrium et nebulae magnitudinem gregem caprarum imbrem fugientium secutus occupavit; revocatusque in memoriam oraculi, quo iussus erat ducibus capris imperium quaerere, regni sedem statuit; religionesque postea observavit, quocumque agmen moveret, ante signa easdem capras habere, coeptorum duces habiturus, quas regni habuerat auctores. Urbem Edessam ob memoriam muneris Aegaeas, populum Aegeadas vocavit. Pulso deinde Mida (nam is quoque portionem Macedoniae tenuit) aliisque regibus pulsis in locum omnium solus successit primusque adunatis gentibus variorum populorum veluti unum corpus Macedoniae fecit, crescentique regno valida incrementorum fundamenta constituit.

But also Caranus, with a great multitude of Greeks, ordered by the response of the oracle to seek settlements in Macedonia, when he had come into Emathia, the townsmen not noticing because of the magnitude of the rains and mist, followed a flock of goats fleeing the downpour and seized the city of Edessa; and, recalled to the memory of the oracle, by which he had been ordered to seek dominion with goats as guides, he established the seat of the kingdom; and afterwards he observed religious observances, that wherever he moved the column, before the standards he should have those same goats, intending to have as leaders of undertakings those whom he had had as authors of the kingdom. He called the city Edessa, in memory of the boon, “Aegae,” and the people “Aegeadae.” Then, with Midas driven out (for he too held a portion of Macedonia) and the other kings expelled, he alone succeeded in the place of all and, the nations of various peoples being united, made Macedonia as if one body, and for the growing kingdom he established strong foundations of increase.

II. Post hunc Perdicca regnavit, cuius et vita inlustris et mortis postrema, veluti ex oraculo, praecepta memorabilia fuere. Siquidem senex moriens Argeo filio monstravit locum, quo condi vellet; ibique non sua tantum, sed et succedentium sibi in regnum ossa poni iussit, praefatus quoad ibi conditae posterorum reliquiae forent, regnum in familia mansurum; creduntque hac superstitione extinctam in Alexandro stirpem, quia locum sepulturae mutaverit. Argeus moderate et cum amore popularium administrato regno successorem filium Philippum reliquit, qui inmatura morte raptus Aeropum, parvulum admodum, instituit heredem.

2. After this, Perdiccas reigned, whose life was illustrious and whose final end in death, as if from an oracle, was memorable in its precepts. Indeed, as an old man dying, he showed to his son Argaeus the place where he wished to be interred; and there he ordered that not only his own bones but also those of those succeeding him into the kingdom be placed, declaring that, so long as the remains of descendants were laid there, the kingship would remain in the family; and they believe that by this superstition the stock was extinguished in Alexander, because he had changed the place of burial. Argaeus, the realm having been administered with moderation and with the love of the populace, left as successor his son Philip, who, snatched away by an untimely death, instituted Aeropus, a very small child, as heir.

Sed Macedonibus adsidua certamina cum Thracibus et Illyriis fuere, quorum armis veluti cotidiano exercitio indurati gloria bellicae laudis finitimos terrebant. Igitur Illyrii infantiam regis pupilli contemnentes bello Macedonas adgrediuntur. Qui proelio pulsi rege suo in cunis prolato et pone aciem posito acrius certamen repetivere, tamquam ideo victi antea fuissent, quod bellantibus sibi regis sui auspicia defuissent, futuri vel propterea victores, quod ex superstitione animum vincendi ceperant; simul et misaratio eos infantis tenebat, quem, si victi forent, captivum de rege facturi videbantur.

But for the Macedonians there were continual combats with the Thracians and Illyrians, by whose arms, as if by daily exercise, they were hardened, and with the glory of martial praise they terrified their neighbors. Therefore the Illyrians, despising the infancy of the king who was a ward, set upon the Macedonians in war. These, driven in battle, with their king brought forth in his cradle and placed behind the battle line, renewed the fight more fiercely, as though they had previously been beaten for this reason, that, while fighting, the auspices of their own king had been lacking to them—destined even for that very reason to be victors, because from superstition they had taken a spirit of conquering; and at the same time pity for the infant held them, whom, if they were defeated, they seemed about to make, out of a king, a captive.

Conserto itaque proelio magna caede Illyrios fudere, ostenderuntque hostibus suis priore bello regem Macedonibus , non virtutem defuisse. Huic Amyntas succedit et propria virtute et Alexandri filii egregia indole insigniter clarus; cui Alexandro tanta omnium virtutum natura ornamenta exstitere ut etiam Olympio certamine vario ludicrorum genere contenderit. III Cum interim Darius, rex Persarum, turpi ab Scythia fuga submotus, ne ubique deformis militiae damnis haberetur, mittit cum parte copiarum Magabasum ad subigenda Thraciam ceteraque eius tractus regna, quibus pro ignobili momento erat accessura Macedonia.

Therefore, with battle joined, they routed the Illyrians with great slaughter, and they showed to their enemies that in the earlier war it had been a king that was lacking to the Macedonians , not valor. To him Amyntas succeeded, conspicuously renowned both for his own virtue and for the outstanding nature of his son Alexander; and to this Alexander there existed by nature such adornments of all virtues that he even contended in the Olympic contest in various kinds of games. 3 Meanwhile Darius, king of the Persians, driven off from Scythia by a shameful flight, lest he be held everywhere as disfigured by the losses of his soldiery, sends Magabazus with part of the forces to subdue Thrace and the other kingdoms of that tract, to which, for an ignoble moment, Macedonia was about to be added.

Qui bervi tempore exsecuto regis imperio legatis ab Amyntam, regem Macedoniae, missis obsides in pignus futurae pacis dari sibi postulabat. Sed legati benigne excepti inter epulas ebrietate crescente rogant Amyntam, ut apparatui epularum adiciat ius familiaritatis adhibitis in convivium suum filiis et uxoribus; id apud Persas haberi pignus et foedus hospitii. Quae ut venerunt [Persis] petulantius contractantibus filius Amyntae Alexander rogat patrem, respectu aetatis ac gravitatis suae abiret convivio, pollicitus se hospitium temperaturum iocos.

He, in a brief time, having executed the king’s command, with legates sent to Amyntas, king of Macedonia, was demanding that hostages be given to him as a pledge of future peace. But the legates, kindly received, during the banquet, as drunkenness increased, ask Amyntas to add to the apparatus of the banquet the right of familiarity, by admitting into their banquet his sons and wives; that among the Persians this is held as a pledge and covenant of hospitality. When they came, with [the Persians] handling them rather petulantly, Alexander, the son of Amyntas, asks his father, out of regard for his age and dignity, to withdraw from the banquet, promising that he would temper the entertainment and the jests.

Quo digresso mulieres quoque paululum e convivio evocat, cultius exornaturus gratioresque reducturus. In quarum locum matronali habitu exornatos iuvenes opponit, eosque petulantiam legatorum ferro, quod sub veste gerebant, conpescere iubet. Atque ita interfectis omnibus ignarus rei Magabasus, cum legati non redirent, mittit eo cum exercitus parte Bubarem, ut in bellum facile et mediocre, dedignatus ipse ire, ne dehonestaretur proelio tam foedae gentis.

When he had withdrawn, he also summons the women for a little while out of the banquet, intending to adorn them more splendidly and to bring them back more agreeable. In whose place he sets youths arrayed in matronal attire, and he orders them to repress the petulance of the envoys with the iron which they were bearing beneath their garment. And thus, when all had been slain, Magabasus, ignorant of the affair, since the envoys did not return, sends Bubares thither with a part of the army, as into an easy and mediocre war, having disdained to go himself, lest he be dishonored by a battle with so foul a nation.

Sed Bubares ante bellum amore filiae Amyntae captus omisso bellio nuptias facit depositisque hostilibus animis in adfinitatis iura succedit.

But Bubares, before the war, captured by love for Amyntas’s daughter, with the war set aside, makes nuptials; and, hostile spirits having been laid down, he enters into the rights of affinity.

IV. Post discessum a Macedonia Bubaris Amyntas rex decedit, cuius filio et successori Alexandro cognatio Bubaris non Darii tantum temporibus pacem praestitit, verum etiam Xerxen adeo conciliavit, ut, cum Graeciam veluti tempestas quaedam occupasset, inter Olympum Haemumque montes totius regionis eum imperio donaverit. Sed nec virtute minus quam Persarum liberalitate regnum ampliavit. Per ordinem deinde successionis regnum Macedoniae ad Amyntam, fratris eius Menelai filium, pervenit.

4. After Bubares’ departure from Macedonia, King Amyntas dies; to his son and successor Alexander, the kinship with Bubares afforded peace not only in the times of Darius, but also so conciliated Xerxes that, when he had occupied Greece like a kind of tempest, he bestowed upon him the rule of the whole region between Mount Olympus and Mount Haemus. But he enlarged the kingdom no less by valor than by the liberality of the Persians. Then, in the due order of succession, the kingdom of Macedonia came to Amyntas, the son of his brother Menelaus.

Hic quoque insignis industria et omnibus imperatoriis virtutibus instructus fuit, qui ex Eurydice tres filios sustulit, Alexandrum, Perdiccam et Philippum, Alexandri Magni Macedonis patrem, et filiam Euryonen, ex Gygaea autem Archelaum, Arridaeum, Menelaum. Cum Illyriis deinde et cum Olynthiis gravia bella gessit. Insidiis etiam Euridices uxoris, quae nuptias generi pacta occidendum virum regnumque adultero tradendum susceperat, occupatus fuisset, ni filia paelicatum matris et sceleris consilia prodidisset.

He too was distinguished by industry and equipped with all the virtues of command, who by Eurydice reared three sons, Alexander, Perdiccas, and Philip, the father of Alexander the Great the Macedonian, and a daughter Euryone; by Gygaea, moreover, (he reared) Archelaus, Arrhidaeus, (and) Menelaus. Then he waged grievous wars with the Illyrians and with the Olynthians. He would also have been ensnared by the plots of his wife Eurydice—who, having bargained the marriage so as to make him her son‑in‑law, had undertaken that her husband be killed and the kingdom handed over to her adulterer—if the daughter had not betrayed her mother’s concubinage and the counsels of the crime.

Functus itaque tot periculis senex decessit, regno maximo ex filiis Alexandro tradito.

And so, the old man, having undergone so many perils, died, the kingdom delivered to Alexander, the eldest of his sons.

V. Igitur Alexander inter prima initia regni bellum ab Illyriiis pacta mercede et Philippo fratre dato obside redemit. Interiecto quoque tempore per eundem obsidem cum Thebanis gratiam pacis reconciliat. Quae res Philippo maxima incrementa egregiae indolis dedit, siquidem Thebis triennio obses habitus prima pueritiae rudimenta in urbe severitatis antiquae et in domo Epaminondae, summi et philosophi et imperatoris, deposuit.

5. Therefore Alexander, among the first beginnings of his reign, bought off the war from the Illyrians by an agreed-upon price and with his brother Philip given as a hostage. With time also interposed, through that same hostage he reconciled the favor of peace with the Thebans. This matter gave to Philip the greatest increments of an excellent inborn disposition, since at Thebes for three years, kept as a hostage, he laid the first rudiments of boyhood in a city of ancient severity and in the house of Epaminondas, a man supreme both as philosopher and as general.

Nec multo post Alexander insidiis Euridices matris appetitus occumbit, cui Amyntas in scelere deprehensae propter communes liberos, ignarus eisdem quandoque exitiosam fore, pepercerat. Frater quoque eius Perdicca pari insidiarum fraude decipitur. Indignum prorsus libidinis causa liberos a matre vita privatos, quam scelerum suorum suppliciis liberorum contemplatio vindicaverat.

And not long after, Alexander, attacked by the insidious plots of his mother Eurydice, succumbed; her Amyntas, apprehended in crime, had spared on account of their common children, ignorant that she would someday prove ruinous to those same. His brother Perdiccas likewise is deceived by an equal fraud of ambushes. Utterly unworthy, that for the sake of lust the children were deprived of life by their mother—whom the contemplation of her children had rescued from the punishments of her crimes.

Perdiccae hoc indignior caedes videbatur, quod ei apud matrem misericordiam ne parvulus quidem filius conciliaverat. Itaque Philippus diu non regem, sed tutorem pupilli egit. At ubi graviora bella imminebant serumque auxilium in exspectatione infantis erat, conpulsus a populo regnum suscepit.

This murder seemed the more disgraceful in the case of Perdiccas, because not even his very small son had won mercy for him with his mother. Therefore Philip for a long time acted not as king, but as tutor of the ward. But when more serious wars were looming and help was too late while they waited upon the infant, compelled by the people he assumed the kingdom.

VI. Ut est ingressus imperium, magna de illo spes omnibus fuit et propter ipsius ingenium, quod magnum spondebat virum, et propter vetera Macedoniae fata, quae cecinerant, uno ex Amyntae filiis regnante florentissimum fore Macedoniae statum, cui spei scelus matris hunc residuum fecerat. Principio rerum cum hinc caedes fratrum indigne peremptorum, inde hostium multitudo, hinc insidiarum metus, inde inopia continui belli et exhasti regni inmaturam aetatem tironis urgerent: bella, quae velut conspiratione quadam ad opprimendam Macedoniam multarum gentium ex diversis locis uno tempore confluebant, quoniam omnibus par esse non poterat, dispensanda ratus alia interposita pactione conponit, alia redimit facillimis quibusque adgressis, quorum victoria et militum trepidos animos firmaret et contemptum sibi hostium demeret. Primum illi cum Atheniensibus certamen fuit; quibus per insidias victis metu belli gravioris, cum interficere omnes posset, incolumes sine pretio dimisit.

6. As he entered upon the rule, great hope was held for him by all, both because of his own ingenium, which promised a great man, and because of the ancient fates of Macedonia, which had chanted that, with one of Amyntas’s sons reigning, the state of Macedonia would be most flourishing—an expectation for which the crime of his mother had made him the sole survivor. At the outset of affairs, since on this side the slaughter of his brothers unjustly done, on that the multitude of enemies; here the fear of ambushes, there the want caused by continuous war and an exhausted kingdom, were pressing upon the unripe age of a tyro: the wars, which, as if by a certain conspiracy to crush Macedonia, were converging at one time from different places of many nations—since he could not be equal to them all—he judged must be apportioned; some he settles by an interposed pact, others he buys off, addressing himself first to the very easiest, the victory over whom would both strengthen the soldiers’ trembling spirits and remove the enemies’ contempt for him. His first contest was with the Athenians; having defeated them by stratagem, out of fear of a more grievous war, although he could have killed them all, he sent them away unharmed without price.

Post hos bello in Illyrios translato multa milia hostium caedit; hinc Thessaliam non praedae cupiditate, sed quod exercitui suo robur Thessalorum equitum adiungere gestiebat, nihil minus quam bellum metuentem inprovisus expugnat, unumque corpus equitum pedestriumque copiarum invicti exercitus fecit; urbem nobilissimam Larissam capit. Quibus rebus feliciter provenientibus Olympiadam, Neoptolemi, regis Molossorum, filiam, uxorem ducit, conciliante nuptias fratre patrueli, auctore virginis, Arryba, rege Molossorum, qui sororem Olympiadis Troada in matrimonio habebat; quae causa illi exitii malorumque omnium fuit. Nam dum regni incrementa adfinitate Philippi adquisiturum sperat, proprio regno ab eodem privatus in exilio con senuit.

After these, the war having been transferred to the Illyrians, he cuts down many thousands of the enemy; from there he unexpectedly storms Thessaly—not from a lust of prey, but because he was eager to join to his army the strength of the Thessalian horse—which was least expecting war, and he made one body of the cavalry and infantry forces, an unbeaten army; he takes the most noble city Larissa. With these matters turning out felicitously, he leads to wife Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus, king of the Molossians, the marriage being arranged by his paternal cousin, Arrybas, king of the Molossians—at the maiden’s own instigation—who had Troas, sister of Olympias, in marriage; which was the cause for him of ruin and of all his evils. For while he hoped that by affinity with Philip he would acquire increments of his realm, deprived of his own kingdom by that same man, he grew old in exile.

His ita gestis Philippus iam non contentus submovere bella ultro etiam quietos lacessit. Cum Mothonam urbem oppugnaret, in praetereuntem de muris sagitta iacta dextrum oculum regis effodit. Quo vulnere nec segnior in bellum nec iracundior adversus hostes factus est, 16 adeo ut interiectis diebus pacem deprecantibus dederit, nec moderatus tantum, verum etiam mitis adversus victos fuerit.

With these things thus accomplished, Philip, now not content to remove wars, even moreover provokes the quiet. When he was besieging the city of Methone, an arrow cast from the walls at him as he was passing by gouged out the king’s right eye. By this wound he became neither the slower in war nor the more irate against his enemies, 16 to such a degree that, after some days had intervened, he granted peace to those who begged for it, and he was not only moderate but even mild toward the vanquished.