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Hello,

I want to know if anyone knows how Philip and Alexander were addressed with regard to their royal status. Did one say Your Highness, Your Majesty, Your royalty, or some kind of designation that addressed their status as King and Ruler. I would like to know how Olympias would have addressed her husband with reference to his being king and her being queen. In a piece of dialogue as a point of emphasis, how would Olympias have spoken to her husband as though he is the king and ruler when in an argument discussing young Alexander. Would she have said, as in Anna and King of Siam, Yes, your Majesty, No, your Majesty. or what? Thanks to anyone who can help me with this important means of communication about kings and queens in Macedon. She would have deferred to him in some fashion, I am sure, but I am wondering with what expression...Likewise, when addressing Alexander, what kind of greeting to signify his status was given...anyone know? thanks again.

Curiously, I was thinking about this myself the other day ie were Philip or Alexander every refered to as King Philip or King Alexander. As a formal method of address in letters, inscriptions etc I am unsure. Someone will doubtless be able to correct me, but i'm inclined to think that 'Philip King of the Macedonians' would have been more usual than 'King Philip'. In speech, however, I think the answer is no. Noblemen and women from the Pages up would have addressed them as 'Philip' or 'Alexander', but the intonation would have made the name into a title, unless the speaker was a personal friend. As for servants etc, there may have been some Macedonian quivalent perhaps of 'My Lord' but I don't know.

As for 'Your Majesty', 'Your Highness', I think the answer is no. 'Majesty' is derived from Latin via French and I believe came into English usage in the Middle Ages. It is a Roman legal term referring to the dignity of the state, and as such possibly alien to the Greek way of thought. 'Highness' is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and its use might date to medieval codes of etiquette and gradation of titles.

Alexias wrote:Curiously, I was thinking about this myself the other day ie were Philip or Alexander every refered to as King Philip or King Alexander. As a formal method of address in letters, inscriptions etc I am unsure. Someone will doubtless be able to correct me, but i'm inclined to think that 'Philip King of the Macedonians' would have been more usual than 'King Philip'. In speech, however, I think the answer is no. Noblemen and women from the Pages up would have addressed them as 'Philip' or 'Alexander', but the intonation would have made the name into a title, unless the speaker was a personal friend. As for servants etc, there may have been some Macedonian quivalent perhaps of 'My Lord' but I don't know.

As for 'Your Majesty', 'Your Highness', I think the answer is no. 'Majesty' is derived from Latin via French and I believe came into English usage in the Middle Ages. It is a Roman legal term referring to the dignity of the state, and as such possibly alien to the Greek way of thought. 'Highness' is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and its use might date to medieval codes of etiquette and gradation of titles.

Agreed. In fact, although the word was in English usage earlier, Henry VIII was the first English monarch to be "majestic". Before that it was "your grace" (because kings were kings "by the grace of God"), "my lord" or "sire".

"Alexander" or "Philip" would have been enough - there was no doubt as to who was king, after all!

ATB

Thanks, I appreciate your thoughts.