Alexander I of Macedon

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Alexander I (Greek: Αλέξανδρος ό Μακεδών) was ruler of Macedon from 498 BC to 454 BC. He was the son of Amyntas I of Macedon.

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 the Ionian Revolt. However, he was forced to submit to Persia during the invasion of Greece by Darius' son Xerxes I, and he acted as a representative of the Persian governor Mardonius during peace negotiations after the Persian defeat at the Battle 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 the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. After the defeat in Plataea the Persian army, under the command of Artabazus 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 Macedonia's independence after the end of the Persian Wars.

Although Macedon was considered a semi-barbaric state by some Greeks (especially those whose colonies near Macedonia were threatened by Macedonian expansion), Alexander claimed descent from Argive Greeks and Heracles. After a court of hellanodikai determined his claim to be true, he was permitted to participate in the Olympic Games, an honor reserved only for Greeks. He modeled his court after Athens and was a patron of the poet Pindar.

In 450 he was succeeded by his son Perdiccas II.

[edit] Quotes

Tell your king (Xerxes), who sent you, how his Greek viceroy of Macedonia has received you hospitably.
- Herod. V, 20, 4 [Loeb]

Men of Athens... In truth I would not tell it to you if I did not care so much for all Hellas; I myself am by ancient descent a Greek, and I would not willingly see Hellas change her freedom for slavery. I tell you, then, that Mardonius and his army cannot get omens to his liking from the sacrifices. Otherwise you would have fought long before this. Now, however, it is his purpose to pay no heed to the sacrifices, and to attack at the first glimmer of dawn, for he fears, as I surmise, that your numbers will become still greater. Therefore, I urge you to prepare, and if (as may be) Mardonius should delay and not attack, wait patiently where you are; for he has but a few days' provisions left. If, however, this war ends as you wish, then must you take thought how to save me too from slavery, who have done so desperate a deed as this for the sake of Hellas in my desire to declare to you Mardonius' intent so that the barbarians may not attack you suddenly before you yet expect them. I who speak am Alexander the Macedonian.
- Herodotus, The Histories, 9.45 [ed. A. D. Godley]