Philips sources.

Discuss Philip's achievements and Macedonia pre-Alexander

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spitamenes
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Philips sources.

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The only time I've ever read anything that has to do with Philip of Macedon has come from our sources on Alexander. Is there any other source not involving Alexander that would have information on Philip? Something contemporary to Philips time or within a few hundred years of his death?
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Re: Philips sources.

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spitamenes wrote:The only time I've ever read anything that has to do with Philip of Macedon has come from our sources on Alexander. Is there any other source not involving Alexander that would have information on Philip? Something contemporary to Philips time or within a few hundred years of his death?
The two main sources are Diodorus Book 16, and Justin Book 9.

Then there are many odds and ends in Plutarch - in Moralia, and in various other lives, such as those of Demosthenes and Phokion. There are bits in Pausanias, and in other non-historian writers.

One also needs to read Demosthenes' speeches, and those of Aeschines, and Isocrates as well.

There's actually quite a lot, although not as much as there is about Alexander.

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system1988
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Re: Philips sources.

Post by system1988 »

marcus wrote:
spitamenes wrote:The only time I've ever read anything that has to do with Philip of Macedon has come from our sources on Alexander. Is there any other source not involving Alexander that would have information on Philip? Something contemporary to Philips time or within a few hundred years of his death?
The two main sources are Diodorus Book 16, and Justin Book 9.

Then there are many odds and ends in Plutarch - in Moralia, and in various other lives, such as those of Demosthenes and Phokion. There are bits in Pausanias, and in other non-historian writers.

One also needs to read Demosthenes' speeches, and those of Aeschines, and Isocrates as well.

There's actually quite a lot, although not as much as there is about Alexander.

ATB

One direct source of information about Phillip is the history of his coins.

Unfortunately due to a serious errand of mine I will be gone for some days. I will be back though hopefully in 3 weeks when I hope to join this post again if active still.
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Re: Philips sources.

Post by marcus »

system1988 wrote:One direct source of information about Phillip is the history of his coins.

Unfortunately due to a serious errand of mine I will be gone for some days. I will be back though hopefully in 3 weeks when I hope to join this post again if active still.
That is very true. We very often forget to look at things such as numismatics.

I did assume that Spitamenes was referring to literary sources - but it would be wrong for me to pretend that I even considered the numismatics when I wrote my response! :oops:

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Re: Philips sources.

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System1988,
Id definately like to hear what you have to say on the topic. When your back and have time, please share what you can! Thanks

Marcus,
I must admit, you were correct in assuming I was talking about literary sources. It never occured to me to ask about other forms of information. I'm not very familiar with how coins can give us the amount of information that some claim they can, but Id love to hear about it. I'm sure if you know what your looking for, you can learn a lot.
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Re: Philips sources.

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spitamenes wrote:System1988,
Id definately like to hear what you have to say on the topic. When your back and have time, please share what you can! Thanks

Well, I am back and I can spare some time. As i observed on the thread "Hephaestion Relief", you are, all of you, exceptionally skilled at finding literal sources. I don't know if it is natural talent that drives you or something of of an elite search system (apart from Perseus or other methods you have already posted).

As far as the field of numismatics in concerned, it is not a field of my expertise. I am always glad to discover coins in my excavations (just like all archaeologists...) due to the fact that they are an excellent way of determining the chronology. The coins however are something much more than that, and something even more complex that includes , among other things, war, metal sources, commerce, politics, power, art,... I suddenly feel as if I am teaching so I must stop this blabbering! :oops:

So, getting back on Philip, the story behind his coins is the same story behind his great genius. I am not about to tell you anything knew, at least not something out of the routine bibliography. There are 2 major innovations in his state matters that Philip introduced: The bimetalism (meaning the introduction of gold in commerece trade appart from silver) and (due to his great power coming from Pageum mines) the reduction of gold price by silver standards, meaning that while in Athens 1 gram of gold was worth 13,3 grams silver, after Philip the same analogy was reformed to 1 gram of gold being worth 10 grams of silver. Ever since that new legislation this system was established in the whole ancient Greece world. That system was deviced by Philip in order to confront the Athenian golden coins as well as the famous Persian ones (Darics). A confrontattion he won.

I would like to add one more thing: The golden staters and the silver 4 drachmae of Philip that were introduced to Europe through the Balcans, were gradually copied and adopted by the Celtic tribes across Danube, and these same immitations influenced later on the coins used by the Gauls and Britons (UK) during the 1st century BC.

Concerning the art factor, we have at least 2 innovations: For the first time in the history of the Macedonian Kingdom the head of Zeus was chosen as a coin depiction and it is believed that the rider holding a branch of palm tree represents Philip himself.

Philip's numasmatic history is complex and still has many researchers on the tip of their toes but shows a gret dynamic and a vast amount of determination for a change of the previous regime.

Philip was also Great! :wink:

Best regards

Pauline

PS

I am not going to answer any special questions directed to the essence of this text beacuse I am not an expert on numismatics. I am just tranfering information from my bibliography. However I am always happy to answer any sculpture related questions since this is my field of expertise!
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