Perdiccas (King)

Perdiccas ( Greek  Περδίκκας ) was, according to the tradition of the Greek historian Herodotus, a descendant of the Temenos of Argos and the founder of the Macedonian royal house of the Argeads and the Macedonian Empire. He ruled from around 650 BC. BC to 620 BC Chr.

Life and legend

The statement of Herodotus that Perdikkas created the Macedonian kingdom, agrees that of Thucydides , the front I. Archelaos eight kings counts, according to Herodotus listed seven monarchs without Perdiccas II. Only under Archelaus was Karanos made the empire builders and together with his two Subordinate to the successors of Koin and Tyrimmas to Perdiccas in the royal rule. The starting point for Perdiccas was the area of ​​the later residence of Aigai , from where he began to conquer the plain around the Gulf of Salonika.

According to an unhistorical founding legend told by Herodotus, Perdiccas and his two brothers Gauanes and Aeropos are said to have fled Argos to Illyria . From there the three brothers went to Lebaia to the court of the king of Macedon. He put them in his service as shepherds. The king was very poor, so the king's wife prepared food for everyone. She noticed that the bread she baked for Perdickas was twice as big as any other. When she reported this to her husband, he asked the brothers to leave his court. Before leaving, they went to the king's house and asked for their wages. The king replied that a ray of sunshine falling through the smoke outlet onto the clay floor was their reward. Perdiccas cut a ray-shaped piece from the ground with a knife. Then they left the country. The king wanted to have them killed by horsemen who had followed them; but after they had crossed a river, it suddenly swelled so that their pursuers had to lag behind. Perdiccas and his brothers now settled near the gardens of Midas and from here conquered all of Macedonia.

According to the ancient historian Marcus Iunianus Iustinus , who drew on Trogus from the history of Pompey , Perdiccas had instructed his son Argaius to bury him at Aigai after his death . And it was said that as long as the kings were buried in this place, the office of the king would remain in the family. Since Alexander the Great was buried elsewhere, power had passed to another ruling house.

After Perdiccas, his son Argaius ascended the throne of Macedonia.

literature

• Fritz Geyer : Perdikkas 1. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIX, 1, Stuttgart 1937, Sp. 590.
• Hermann Steuding : Gauanes . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,2, Leipzig 1890, column 1605 ( digitized version ).

swell

• Herodotus , Historien , 5, 22; 8, 137-138;
• Hieronymus , Chronicon (The Merton manuscript) , folio 79 recto - folio 83 recto
• Junianus Justinus , 7, 2

Web links

• Chronicon (The Merton manuscript) , folio 79 recto

Remarks

1. ↑ Herodotus, Historien 8, 137, 1.
2. ^ Thucydides, Peloponnesian War 2, 100, 2.
3. ↑ Herodotus, Historien 8, 139.
4. ^ Fritz Geyer: Perdikkas 1. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIX, 1, Stuttgart 1937, Sp. 590.
5. ↑ Herodotus, Historien 8, 137-138.
6. ↑ Marcus Iunianus Iustinus, Epitoma historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi 7, 2, 1 ff.

predecessor	Office	successor
Tyrimmas	King of Macedonia approx. 650 – approx. 620 BC Chr.	Argaios