Philip III of Macedon

Philip III Arrhidaeus was the half-brother of Alexander the Great and nominal king after Alexander’s death. His reign was controlled by generals and royal women during the early wars of the Successors.

Philip III of Macedon also held the offices or ranks of pharaoh and king of Macedonia. Philip III of Macedon belonged to the Argead dynasty and operated within Macedonia. Philip III of Macedon died in Macedonia.

Mary Renault’s Funeral Games makes Philip III the nominal king produced by the settlement after Alexander’s death, while Perdiccas, the Macedonian army and the rival Successors compete to control power in his name. Robert Fabbri’s An Empty Throne and The Three Paradises continue that struggle, showing how Philip’s kingship is used by stronger commanders and royal women as the empire fractures. Diodorus Siculus’s The Library, Books 16-20 preserves one of the principal ancient narratives for the first Successor wars and the fate of Alexander’s royal house. Quintus Curtius Rufus’s The History of Alexander supplies the dynastic background to Philip’s position by tracing Alexander’s campaigns, court and increasingly unstable succession problem.