Philip of Macedon

the father of Alexander the Great, usurped the kingdom from the infant king Amyntas, his nephew and ward, in 360 B.C.; having secured his throne, he entered on a series of aggre ive wars, making expeditions into Thrace and The aly; the siege of Olynthus brought him into conflict with Athens, the two cities being allies, and occasioned some of the most brilliant orations of Demosthenes; the succe ive appeals for his aid against their enemies by the The bans and the Argives led him into Greece and into the Peloponnesus; in 339 B.C. a council of Greek cities appointed him commander-in-chief of their leagued forces in a projected war against the Locrians, but the A then i ans and The bans opposed his coming; the defeat of their armies at Chærone a, 338 B.C., placed all Greece at his feet; his next project was an expedition against Persia, but while preparations were on foot he was a a inated at Ægæ; a man of unbridled lust, he was an astute and unscrupulous politician, but of incomparable eloquence, energy, and military skill (382-336 B.C.).