When Two Women Fought for the Throne of Alexander the Great

The death of Alexander the Great sparked a war for his throne among several contenders, with perhaps the most unlikely among them being two women, his mother Olympias and his niece Eurydice.

Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus I, King of Epirus, and wife of King Philip II of Macedon and mother of Alexander the Great, and Eurydice, wife of King Philip III of Macedon and granddaughter of King Philip II, were exceptions. The two women fought in battle for the throne of one man, that man being the one who had conquered the biggest part of the known world.

The death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE left a power vacuum like no one had ever seen before. The vast lands that the fearless general had conquered with his blood were there for the taking. There was no designated heir to the throne, but the great conqueror’s dying wish was that the most able of his generals should sit take over.

Naturally, many claimed to be the the strongest and most able to succeed Alexander. It was inevitable that his generals—the Diadochi or Successors—would quarrel with one another over which of them should lead. As a result, all hell broke loose both in the Macedonian palace and in Babylon.

The soldiers wanted Philip III Arrhidaeus, Alexander’s half-brother, and threatened mutiny if the Successors disagreed. However, Philip III was deemed to be half-witted and considered unfit to be king. As for Alexander IV, the son of Alexander and Roxane, he was born a few months after his father’s death. Eventually, Antigonus was established as “general emperor” in the Asian countries.

Turmoil in the Macedonian palace

The situation in the Macedonian palace was similarly chaotic after the great conqueror’s death. Starting his massive campaign to conquer Asia, Alexander had left Antipater as head of state with the title of “general over Europe.” The general’s duties were heavy: he had to maintain the cohesion of the state and the imposition of Macedonian hegemony on the Greek cities and avoid any attacks from neighboring states.

However, in addition to these, he also had to deal with the machinations of the royal court, in which Alexander’s mother, Olympias, was essentially at the forefront.

Olympias felt bitterness and humiliation for not being assigned royal power by her son. She expected her son to give her the seal of power. It didn’t take long before the mutual accusations between Olympias and Antipater started. Friction between the two was continuous and a head-on collision was inevitable.

Antipater was not ready to accept Olympias’ involvement in the governance of the state and to become her subordinate, but neither could she be limited to a passive role for what she believed was happening or would happen in Macedonia. Her wish to exercise power was uncontrollable and she had created her own court within the court, constantly interfering in the governance of the state, as both Plutarch and Arrian write.

The news of the friction between his mother and his general had reached Alexander in Babylon and he intervened as soon as he was convinced that their relations had reached an impasse. He wrote a letter forbidding his mother from interfering in state affairs.

After that, Olympias realized that not only was her stay in Pella pointless, but she also saw that her prestige was fading. So she left Macedonia and settled in the Molossian kingdom of Epirus, where her brother Alexander I reigned. After all, her marriage to Philip II had been a diplomatic move on his behalf in order to form an alliance with her father, the Molossian king Neoptolemus I.

Philip and Olympias also had a daughter, Cleopatra, who later married her uncle, Alexander I of Epirus, to further diplomatic ties between Macedonia and Epirus. When Alexander I was killed in a campaign in Italy, Cleopatra assumed the regency as guardian of her minor son and heir to the throne, Neoptolemus II. In reality, however, it was her mother Olympias  who acted as regent.

When Alexander the Great died, his trusted general Antigonus was established as “general emperor” in the Asian countries alongside Antipater in the European ones, which included Epirus. Thus, Olympias found herself under the rule of her sworn enemy, Antipater.

Eurydice of Macedon

Eurydice, often referred to as Adea—her birth name—was the Queen consort of Macedon, wife of Philip III, daughter of Amyntas IV and Cynane, and granddaughter of Philip II. Born c. 337 BCE, she was a niece of Alexander the Great. Alexander had killed her father, though, because he was involved in the assassination of his own father, Philip II.

Because of this, Eurydice was brought up by her mother. Cynane was a strong woman who was trained by her own mother, Audata, in “the arts of war” in the Illyrian tradition. She even followed her father in the war against the Illyrians where she distinguished herself.

Cynane instilled her warlike spirit in her daughter and took her with her on a daring expedition to Asia to meet Alexander the Great’s troops after his death, with the hope of marrying Eurydice to Philip III. Cynane managed to sway the troops to follow her instead of General Alcetas. However, either he or General Perdiccas murdered her.

Yet the troops treated Eurydice with respect as one of the surviving members of the royal house and convinced the imperial regent, Perdiccas, not only to spare her life, but to give her in marriage to King Philip III Arrhidaeus, Alexander the Great’s half-brother and rightful successor to the throne of Macedon.

Philip III Arrhidaeus, son of King Philip II and Philina of Larissa, had had serious psychiatric problems since childhood. After Alexander’s death, he was proclaimed king by the Macedonian army under the name Philip III of Macedon. But he was king only in name. In reality it was general Perdiccas who ruled. After Perdiccas’ unsuccessful invasion of Egypt, he was killed by his soldiers who mutinied.

In the meantime, Philip III Arrhidaeus had married Eurydice and returned to Macedonia. The wife of the weak and sick king, however, was the one who effectively ruled Macedonia. Her descent from Philip II and her marriage to Philip III along with her strong ties to the Macedonian army,  helped her gain influence and she succeeded in becoming a sort of de facto regent.

Antipater warns Macedonians about Olympias

When Antipater was in his deathbed in 319 BCE, he chose an infantry officer named Polyperchon as his successor as regent instead of his son Cassander. At the time, Olympias was in Epirus. The death of Antipater and the assumption of power by the general Polysperchon essentially changed the existing political situation. Polysperchon invited Olympias to return to Pella.

Olympias gladly accepted. The fact that she would take on the guardianship of her young grandson Alexander, son of Alexander the Great and the Persian princess Roxane and official heir to the Macedonian throne, would fulfill her ambition to be in a position of power.

Before she returned to Pella, however, she needed some support. She persuaded the co-king of the Molossians, Aeacus, promising him that if he helped her return to Macedonia,  she would engage Alexander to his daughter Deidameia. Aeacus was tempted, imagining his daughter as the future queen of Macedonia. He accepted and with his army of Molossians he accompanied Olympias to Macedonia.

Antipater was well aware of Olympias’ ambition. Before he died, he did not fail to advise the Macedonians, as if he was giving them a prophecy. According to Diodorus Siculus, he warned:  “Never allow a woman to sit on the throne.” It was a clear allusion to Olympias and the last shot he fired against her. A prophecy that was soon fulfilled by Olympias’ future actions.

According to unverified ancient sources, Olympias was a fanatical follower of a snake-worshiping Dionysian sect. Furthermore, she maintained that Alexander was divine—the result of a coupling between herself and Zeus. Olympias was one of Philip’s seven wives and her relationship with him was indifferent at best. At the time he was assassinated, she was separated from him and she was suspected of being behind the conspiracy. She was one of only three, however, who gave him a male heir.

Two women leaders meet in the battlefield

When Eurydice was informed that Olympias was heading towards Pella, she asked for help from Cassander, who was at that time in Tegea. He did not respond to her request, apparently calculating that a fight between members of the royal family would diminish its power and would be to his advantage, as his ambition was to conquer Macedonia.

Eurydice realized that she had to rely on her own military forces and left Pella to face Olympias. The two armies met in the city of Evia, which was located south of today’s Lake Ohrid. The two armies lined up for battle, which ultimately did not happen. It was, according to Duris of Samos, “the first war that took place between women.”

Duris of Samos, historian, philosopher and later tyrant of Samos, writes: “Duris of Samos says that the first war between two women was that of Olympias and Eurydice, in which the former advanced somewhat like a vanguard with drums, while Eurydice with Macedonian equipment, having been trained in warfare by Cynne the Illyrian.”

But, when the opposing armies approached, the Macedonians of Eurydice were ashamed to fight Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great. They abandoned Eurydice and advanced en masse to Olympias’ camp. It is possible that there had been some prior agreement. Thus, Olympias won without a battle being fought

Diodorus Siculus writes: “The armies were arrayed against each other, but the Macedonians were ashamed of the prestige of Olympias, remembered the benefits of Alexander and changed camp. Immediately afterwards, King Philip was captured with his courtiers, while Eurydice, who was leaving for Amphipolis was arrested. In this way Olympias captured the kings and took the throne without a fight, but she could not accept happiness like a human being”

Olympias the merciless

Olympias treated her opponents harshly. She imprisoned Arrhidaeus and Eurydice in a special prison in Amphipolis, which had a small opening for them to communicate with each other and from which they were provided with the basics for their maintenance. This lasted for days. Eurydice constantly protested, shouting that the kingdom belonged to her, which made the Macedonians feel uncomfortable.

Olympias finally ordered their execution. Arrhidaeus was killed by Thracian guards, the Macedonians refusing to carry out such a shameful act, but for Eurydice she reserved a harsher punishment: “She sent her a sword, a noose and a hemlock and told her to use any of these she wanted to commit suicide, without respect in the least the former office of the victim, nor to pity her for the common fate of men,” Diodorus writes.

Eurydice died with courage, bravery and dignity. After cursing Olympias to die with the same “gifts” that she sent to her, and cleaning the wounds of her husband’s body, she hanged herself, not with the noose that Olympias sent her, but with her belt. Olympias’ cruelty was not limited to the death of the royal family, though. She killed Nicaron, Cassander’s brother, and a hundred of his most prominent friends. Her brutality made many of the Macedonians hate her.

The end of Olympias

Cassander captured Olympias after the capture of the city of Pydna. He did not allow Olympias to appear before the common assembly of the Macedonians to apologize. He was afraid that the Macedonians, seeing the mother of Alexander the Great and wife of their king Philip II, would reflect on the good old times of their kingdom and acquit her.

“So, he sent two hundred of the most suitable soldiers, with the order to kill her as quickly as possible. The soldiers entered the palace by force, but as soon as they saw Olympias they were ashamed of her position and left without doing anything. However, the relatives of the slain, wanting to do Cassander a favor and avenge their dead, slaughtered the queen who did not utter the slightest request like a cowardly or weak woman,” Diodorus Siculus writes.

Praising the last moments of her life, Justinus writes: “She did not bend either to the spears or to the wounds, she did not utter a single cry as a woman she was, but accepted death with manly courage, without tarnishing the glory of her ancient origin. Could anyone recognize Alexander the Great in his dying mother. And when she breathed her last breath, she straightened her hair and covered her feet with her tunic, so as not to give an ugly sight to her murderers.”

However, according to another version, her death occurred after stoning (Pausanias, Boeotia. 7, 2):8: “Cassander also destroyed the entire family of Alexander, because he certainly handed Olympias over to the Macedonians who were angry against her to kill her by stoning. This was the end of Olympias, who died at the age of 63 or 64. In the war between Olympias and Eurydice, both women lost.”

According to Diodorus Siculus: “She had reached the highest office of her time, she was the daughter of the king of Epirus Neoptolemus, sister of Alexander who prevailed in Italy, as well as the wife of Philip II, who became the most powerful of his predecessor monarchs in Europe, and mother of Alexander, who performed the most and greatest feats.”